Back in the Saddle

Well, I'm back in Mongolia, and getting back into the groove, sort of. By order of the PCMO, I'm working half days. I was disappointed at first but once I actually got back, I realized it was a good idea. Though I'm doing much better now, at first I would go home from a half day at work and my ankle would be swollen and sore, which made doing the exercises difficult. It's not as bad now, and I'm out of the walking boot and into a fabulous pair of blue suede, fake fur trimmed boots (as some of you read on facebook). My range of motion is much improved. I go back to Thailand Friday (Dec. 17) for a check up with the surgeon. I'll be in Bangkok by myself on my birthday. I intend to see the new Harry Potter movie and eat really good Mexican food at this restaurant I found last time in Bangkok. I'll also see the physiotherapist and maybe squeeze in a couple physical therapy appointments. I intend to be back at site on Dec. 24. When the Peace Corps medevacs you, they only issue an open-ended plane ticket (because they don't know what the doctor will say). So, I will bend the Peace Corps to my will (cross your fingers) and be back at site Dec. 24. My sitemates have big plans for Christmas which include an actual turkey for Christmas dinner. The turkey is ungodly expensive, and you buy it live. We are arranging to have someone kill it for us. I guess we'll have to pluck it and dress it. Not sure any of us have done that before--another Mongolian adventure! And we'll have a Christmas tree. lights, and decorations. It promises to be a great Christmas. At school, I'm teaching English to petroleum mining students (28 males, 1 female) and 16 teachers from the school. My petroleum class meets once a week and my teachers' class meets 3 times a week. So far, I haven't introduced any petroleum-related language to my students. I am just trying to teach the basics. I want to talk with one of the petroleum teachers who speaks pretty good English to come up with some vocabulary that would be useful for the students on the job site. For homework for the teachers, I'm giving them 10 words a week on flashcards that relate to the subjects they teach. I think they like it, but I'm having difficulty coming up with a good way to review them with each teacher and/or use them in class. One of the problems is that the majority of my class is at the beginning level so the activities I can do in class are limited by the level of the students. It's going pretty well though. I am not yet team-teaching with the English teachers. I hope to get that going next semester. Like everywhere else it is the holiday season in Mongolia. There are Santa Claus's and Christmas decorations around but I don't think they're much related to Christian Christmas. I think Mongolians just like the decorations. As far as I can tell, they sort of roll Christmas into the New Year (Shin Jil--"New Year" in Mongolian) celebrations. And, boy, do they celebrate Shin Jil!! There's a student party and a teacher party at every school, including mine. The teachers pitch in what I think is a lot of money (25,000 Tugruks each) for their party. I think there is a separate party for our branch (3 branches in the school--technical, technological, and other--something I can't remember), but I'm not sure about that yet. The three English teachers and I are going to sing a Happy New Year song of my choice at our party. I don't know what I'm going to choose, but there's an ABBA new year song that I've never heard but is very popular here. Mongolians love singing. My petroleum class asked to learn an English Christmas song, so I taught them "Jingle Bell Rock." It is also winter in Mongolia. It wasn't so bad when it was -10 degrees celsius. Last Friday was the first day I really noticed that it was flippin' cold--it was -22 degrees celsius. Today is more of the same--a high of -22 degrees celsius and a low of -30 degrees celsius. Note that that's celsius, not fahrenheit. It snows every now and then but of course the snow on the ground never goes away, unless the wind blows a patch away. The roads remind me of that show on the Discovery Channel, "Ice Road Truckers." And snow removal in Mongolia is the responsibility of the people who own the buildings. For example, each school is responsible for clearing the stretch of public road nearest it. So, every now and then, you'll see a group of school students shoveling a public road. I'm going to take a picture of it next time I see it. It's quite amazing. It's so cold that my eyes tear up because of the wind, but then your tears freeze on your eyelashes. So when I get to school, I have to brush away the tiny icicles on my eyelashes. I'm going to post a picture of a snowball fight in front of my school, but I'm having technological issues. I'll have to post it later. I'll write again soon. I have more interesting cultural experiences to share, and I'm sure I'll have more as Shin Jil heats up.

WOO HOO!

Hey! The surgeon cleared me to return to Mongolia! Now PC HQ in Washington has to clear me, then PC Thailand can get me a return airplane ticket. Hopefully, I'll be flying back to UB on Friday. I am so excited. This has been quite the emotional roller coaster for me. There were some dark moments when I thought I was not going to be able to return to Mongolia. Having Carolyn here, my fellow Mongolia PCV, was helpful. It's easy to lose sight of Mongolia when you're in Thailand by yourself. I tried to maintain my perspective too. Every day on my way to physical therapy, I have to walk past the dialysis center. So, every day I got a reminder that it could be worse. That was a good reality check. I am pretty certain that I can eliminate "leg model" from the list of possible careers after the Peace Corps. The scar on my leg is about 5 inches long. It doesn't look great now but it looks much better than it did. The first time I saw it, I had visions of Frankenstein. I've started using vitamin E oil on the wound, so that should help with the scar. Also, not using your calf muscle for 4 weeks really reduces the muscle mass in your leg. You can definitely see the difference between the two legs. I've lost the symmetry, probably for life so they tell me. Anyhoo...sometimes it's good to eliminate options when you're looking a smorgasbord in the face. Ha! Well, on that light-hearted note, I'm outtie. My next post will be from Mongolia!!

Progress!

Hi all! So, last Thursday I got the walking boot but not much more change at that time because I also had a surface skin infection on part of the incision from surgery. That set my physical therapy back a week. They couldn't start stretching exercises until the infection healed. Good news--the infection has healed, and I started new PT today! I am so excited. The doctor thinks I am still on track to make it back to Mongolia within 45 days. He says I should be walking with the boot and no crutches by the end of next week. I'm a little doubtful of that, and so is the physiotherapist. But I am going to give it the ol' college try. I now have daily PT appointments and I have stretching exercises to do on my own 4 times a day. I have 2 weeks til the 45 day mark. I am now alone in Bangkok. My mom went home Oct. 14 (the day I got the boot), and my fellow Mongolia PCV who was here went back to Mongolia yesterday. There was also another PCV from Ukraine here (gall bladder surgery) and we were hanging out with her too. But she went back to the Ukraine on Tuesday this week. I think it's actually probably better that I'm by myself for the last 2 weeks. I really need to work hard on my pt and walking. So I'll be going to my pt appointments, going back to the hotel to do my stretching exercises, and practicing walking around the long halls in the hospital. I was a little down this week when I couldn't get started on the stretching exercises, but now I'm excited and focused. The pt is really kind of interesting. The therapist puts a heating pad on my calf and tendon to warm it up, then she stretches it gently by hand. There are also some stretching exercises I do on my own. On Tuesday, the surgeon says I can get the incision wet (yay! showers!), and then at pt they will also put my leg in a warm whirlpool to loosen the tendon. The tendon is very tight right now. They also use electro-therapy on my leg. They attach these electrode things that send an intermittent 5-second shock which makes my calf muscle contract. It kind of feels like little needles stabbing you but it doesn't really hurt. This is supposed to get the muscle used to being used again. My calf muscle has turned to mush since I haven't used it in 4 weeks. It's kind of amazing. Today at pt I walked with the crutches and no boot,putting 25 % weight on my repaired leg. How do you figure out 25% weight, you ask. I stand on two scales with one foot on each scale. First, I put all my weight on my good foot to see how much I weigh. Then I figure 25% of my total weight, and I shift my weight to my bad foot so that I hit the 25% of my total weight on the right scale. I didn't know how I was going to figure that out. In a few more days, hopefully I'll move up to 50% weight. Well, this entry is probably way more information about my leg and physical therapy than you all want to know. It's still hot and humid and raining frequently here (the height of the rainy season). I was able to do a few things when Mom and my fellow PCVs were here but I'm through trying to sightsee now that I've been given the go ahead on the pt and walking. Hopefully, I'll be writing an entry from Mongolia in the near future. Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers! Keep 'em coming.

Surgery Day plus 11

Hi all! I had my 10-day follow-up appointment with the doctor yesterday. They took off the giant cast, took out the stitches, and put on a lighter, sleeker cast. It turns out the giant cast was yards of cotton wrapped around my foot. The nurse tore it off by layers so that it looked like the cast blew up. I wasn't sure she was ever going to find my foot in that mound. I am glad to have a lighter cast on, but a little disappointed I didn't go straight to the boot. I have 10 more days of non-weight bearing. I meet with the doctor again, and then I get the boot. Once I have the boot I can start walking on my foot a little boot. I'm still going to pt everyday, but I meet with the physiotherapist doctor tomorrow to find out my progress and whether I need to go everyday. It may be that I can do pt on my own. I'm a little torn about pt. If it's stuff I can do on my own, then that means I'm that much closer to being able to going back to Mongolia. On the other hand, I'm stuck in a non-crutch friendly city with my main source of entertainment is going to pt and getting starbucks afterwards. Having mom here has been great. I would really be stuck if she weren't here. Another PCV from Mongolia who broke a bone in her foot playing volleyball is here now. PC Mongolia is going to start banning PCVs from playing volleyball. I hate it for her, but at least I have someone to hang out with. She has a walking boot and crutches and is more mobile than me, though. Mom and I did manage to go to a flower show at the Swissotel. We rented a wheelchair from the hospital and took a taxi. The flowers were gorgeous and they had some vendors there, so we got in a little shopping. I think we're going to try to go to a mall that has a whole section of traditional Thai crafts. We'll see how that goes. It is nice to get out of the hotel for an afternoon. Well, that's about all the news. I'll write again after my next appointment.

Surgery Day plus 4

Hi all! Surgery went well. The doctor said the tendon was 95% torn, so practically a total rupture. That however does not change his opinion that I will probably be able to return to Mongolia within 45 days. The hospital was really great. I had a fabulous private room with a flat screen tv that had a bunch of channels in English. The food was really good. I picked my meals from a menu, and I could choose from western, asian, or vegetarian. They also have halal meals because they have lots of muslim patients. I can totally see why this hospital is a medical tourist destination. My whole stay at the hospital which included 3 nights and the surgery only cost about $6500. I highly recommend Bumrungrad if you have medical needs that your insurance won't pay for. I was discharged Monday afternoon. I started PT the day after surgery, and I've been going everyday. I have a giant cast on my foot that weighs about 5 pounds and is really uncomfortable. I haven't been out except to go to PT. And the hospital ferries me back and forth in a wheel chair. However, today at PT they told me I should walk with crutches as much as I can, so tomorrow I'm going to walk over (across the street). I don't have too much pain now. Mostly just discomfort. My mom arrives tonight. I am so glad she's coming. It'll be nice to get out of the hotel room even if it's just to sit at Starbucks for a little while. (and yes there's a starbucks at the hospital as well as a McDonalds). I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers.

surgery

Just a quick note before I'm admitted to the hospital. I have surgery tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7 AM. They're admitting me tonight to make sure I get a good night's sleep before surgery. I'm at the Bumrungrad International Hospital. It is a first class hospital. My hotel is across the street from the hospital, and the hospital staff wheels me over here in a wheelchair. And when I need to go back to the hospital, the hotel staff gets a hospital staffer to bring me over in a wheelchair. You would never get that kind of service in the States. The doctor thinks I'll be able to make it back to Mongolia within the 45 days, though I may have to return with a walking boot on my foot. I'm optimistic, and can't wait to get this done and back to Mongolia. My mom is going to come to Bangkok in a few days and stay for a couple of weeks, so I won't be without some help. Maybe we'll actually get to see some things too. We'll see--maybe a bus tour. Thanks for all your well wishes.

A Short Hiatus from Mongolia

Hi all! Sorry for not posting. I've been settling in quite nicely at my site. My job is going well. The people I work with are really great. Which makes it all the more disappointing that I have to leave my site for a while. Last Saturday I was playing volleyball with teachers from my school in a tournament when I ruptured my right achilles tendon. I have an 80% tear, so I am going to need surgery. On Sunday, PC flew me to Ulaanbaatar. Yesterday I had an MRI done (which is how I know it's an 80% tear). I'm still in UB but I've been approved to go to Thailand to have surgery done there. With recovery time, I will probably be there for 5 weeks. PC has a policy that you have 45 days to recover, and if you don't, then your service is over and they send you home. I am going to be the best patient ever, so I can make it back to Mongolia. I really want to finish my service. I love what I'm doing here. You know, I was the only non-Mongolian at the volleyball tournament. There were 8 teams of teachers and staff from schools around the city. Everyone was talking about me and asking my teammates about me (none of my teammates speak English). So, I was thinking to myself, Wow, I better be really good today, because all eyes are on me. It was our first game in the tournament about half way through, and I had to hop off the court and be taken away in an ambulance (though the ambulance was really a jeep with a light on top). I was so embarrassed. Such is life. I have received really good care. My sitemates and my counterparts met me at the hospital and helped me through. One of my sitemates, Geoff, speaks really good Mongolian. He translated for me, which was really helpful. When he arrived, I was looking up the word "tendon" in my dictionary, trying to talk to the doctor. There happened to be an American surgeon in my city at the time. He was doing a training trip with a surgical team from the University of Utah. He and the other surgeons from the hospital were all out in the countryside on Saturday. My counterparts doggedly tracked him down at his hotel and brought him to my apartment Saturday evening. His name is Dr. Price. He's a general surgeon. He brought with him his interpreter who is a doctor from UB, and the chief of surgery from the hospital in my city. The chief of surgery is an orthopedic surgeon. So they all looked at my leg and confirmed what I knew from the moment it happened--I tore the achilles tendon and would need surgery. They then went to a pharmacy and brought back supplies to put a plaster splint on my leg. The Mongolian chief of surgery did it in my apartment. It was kind of funny because while the doctors were gone to the pharmacy, the teachers from my volleyball team arrived. When the doctors came back, there were like 12 Mongolians in my apartment. They all watched the doctor put the plaster splint on my leg. Some of the teachers who came to see me come to my English class for teachers (I was teaching the teachers English 3 times a week), and they were very sad that we wouldn't have English lessons anymore. That made me feel good about the work I'm doing but really sad that I have to take this break. So, I'm trying to be optimistic. Everyone send good, healing thoughts my way. And if anyone's up for a vacation, I'll be in sunny Thailand by myself for 5 weeks.

I'm a PCV!

Hi all! It's official--I am a PCV and no longer a trainee. We swore in on Friday. Right now I'm sitting outside on the porch of a cafe that has free wireless, enjoying a beautiful sunny day. As my training sitemate Eric would say, it's a real bluebird of a day. Swearing in was quite the event. There were several official speeches and then the M21s put on performances. There were 4 people who gave short speeches in Mongolian. Other people did traditional Mongolian dances and sang Mongolian songs. I didn't do any of that. It was beyond my talents. But it was fun to watch. So, I passed my language test with a novice high. After our Mongolian teacher told us how we were the worst site, our site had the highest scores as a group. 50% of us scored intermediate low. Our teachers were very proud. Last Sunday I found out where my permanent site is. Because of PC rules, I can't publicly post the name of the town, but I am in an aimag center (like a state capital) in the very far north east of Mongolia. The aimag borders Russia and China. It is steppe land, famous for it's gazelle population. It was a total surprise, but I am very happy. There are 2 other M21s in the same town as me, and 5 M20s. And two of my training sitemates, Jason and Pico, are in soums (small towns) in the north. If there were roads, it would only take them 3 or 4 hours to get to my town, but because there are no roads, it'll take 6 or 7 hours. My town is pretty big, about 30,000, so there is good shopping. And because we're on the Russian border, we can get real cheese, which I am extraordinarily excited about. All the organic milk in Mongolia, and they haven't mastered the art of cheesemaking! I will be teaching at 2-year vocational college. The students "major" in things like mining, shoemaking, tailoring, cosmetology, etc. It looks like I will be doing a lot of teacher training. There are 3 English teachers besides me who are my counterparts. I'll solo teach a couple English classes and team teach with the other English teachers. I will also be teaching English to the other faculty members. There are 50 total faculty members. There are also a couple Korean volunteers who teach something with computers at my college. I should have plenty to do. I leave UB tomorrow. We are driving to my site in a college vehicle. I'm going with my supervisor and 2 teachers from the college. If all goes well, it'll be a 14-hour drive. My supervisor doesn't speak much English, so I'm hoping the teachers speak more. I'm going to exhaust my Mongolian repertoire in the first 15 minutes. Well, my battery is running low, so I need to wrap it up. My next post will be from the far east!

Training is almost over!

Hello all! So, training is almost over. We leave our training sites on Sunday and all come together again for a couple more days of training and then we go to UB for swearing in. We find out Sunday where our permanent sites are going to be. Everyone is quite anxious and ready to start their permanent assignments. I know I am. We have Mongolian language tests and our final evaluations on Friday. I'm not sure how I'm going to do on the language test. I think I know enough to live by myself but not carry on any deep conversations. I can shop by myself and navigate transportation, so I think I'll be ok. If you fail the language test, the PC pays for a tutor for you at your site. If you pass the language test (and they're looking for us to be at high novice level), then a tutor is still a good idea but PC won't pay for it. So there is a certain advantage to not passing. Of course, I will do my best! Last weekend we had a community appreciation event and a host family celebration. For the community appreciation event, we painted lines on the concrete volleyball court outside the elementary school. We also painted a bench and some tires that are stuck in the ground as an obstacle course. We had an American bbq for our host family celebration. We had German potato salad, baked beans, a green salad (with broccoli and actual lettuce!), and hamburgers. The families thought it was great! I went to UB with a few other trainees and our language teachers on Saturday to shop for the bbq. We had a great time in UB. We ate dinner there and had pizza and french fries. It was a real treat! It was kind of expensive though, on a PC budget. Well, I've got to go. I'm helping with dinner tonight. We're having tsuivan, which is a common Mongolian dish which has--surprise, surprise--cabbage, mutton, and carrots. Hopefully for my next post, I'll be at my permanent site! P.S. The picture is me with my host family (minus my host sister, Bolormaa). We took this picture for the PC certificate I gave to my family.

Naadam

Naadam, Mongolia's national holiday, was July 11-13. Most towns have their own celebration and there is one huge 3-day celebration in Ulaanbaatar. There are competitions in the three national sports--wrestling, horse racing, and archery. There is also a fourth sport, shagai, that is becoming more important at Naadam. Shagai is a game played with sheep ankle bones. There are several different versions but they usually involve some combination of flicking a bone into another bone and/or rolling the bones. I've played shagai with my host family. I am not a very accurate flicker, so I'm not very good at it. In my town, there was a one day celebration. It was kind of like a town fair. There were vendors set up selling drinks and khooshur (fried meat pies). Different groups (like the school, the hospital, political parties) have tents set up and offer airag (fermented mare's milk--the traditional alcohol) and food. There was wrestling, and they had a stage set up for singing and dancing. Mongolians are all about the singing and dancing. In fact, as part of our cultural training we are learning a couple Mongolian songs so we can sing along at parties. There was also horse racing but it was out in the khodoo (countryside) so I didn't get to see it. Most people dress up in their best traditional clothing, so it's very colorful. I tasted airag, fermented mare's milk. It tastes like watered down, bubbly sour cream. I thought it was ok, but some of sitemates really hated it. Airag is supposed to be "good" for your stomach, which I think means it cleans you out. I didn't have any trouble because I didn't drink that much, but a couple of my sitemates spent quite a bit of the next day in the outhouse. The wrestling is fascinating. When the wrestlers first come out in the arena (a field) they do this eagle dance, waving their arms and then they slap their thighs and butt. They are showing their power, or something like that. I took a video of some of the wrestlers coming out. I'm trying to attach it, but it's taking over an hour to upload. The winner also does a little eagle dance after the match. There are some wrestlers who clearly wrestle frequently, but they also take competitors from the crowd. There is a military base in my town, so there were a few military guys who took up the challenge. There are very few rules in Mongolian wrestling. You just have to get the other guy to hit the ground with some part of his body between his knees and shoulders. And apparently, you can do that anyway you can. The wrestling outfits originated many years ago when a woman entered the wrestling matches and beat a bunch of men. After that, all competitors have to wear the speedo-like bottoms and the sleeves that reveal the chest. No women allowed. I went to Ulaanbaatar with my host family for the 3rd day of Naadam. We went to Sukhbaatar Square (which is the center of the city and where the parliament building is) and there was a parade of people wearing traditional Mongolian costumes. Each region/tribe has their own style. It was very interesting. The couple in the top left picture are Kazakh. I didn't get to see any archery. I guess I'll have to try and catch that next year. We only have a couple weeks left in training. I'll find out where my permanent site is about August 16. We have a big graduation ceremony in UB where we meet our site counterparts (our supervisors and people we work with at site). A lot of trainees are having traditional clothes made for them for our swearing in ceremony. My host mom is a seamstress, so I'm having her make me a jacket that will be really cool. I'll be sure to post pictures when it's done.

Storm

Hi all! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. PC is keeping us busy! Remember in my post about Mongolian weather that I told you about the really cool storms here? Well, a couple weeks ago we had this big thunder storm that had the coolest lightning. It took me about 15 tries, but I finally got a picture of the lightning. The lightning did not really go down toward the earth much. It looks like the Greek gods are having a war and throwing thunder bolts at each other. I took this picture from an upstairs window in my house.

Mongolian Food Part 2

Well, I had my first taste of marmot. My host dad, Tuyakho, loves to hunt marmot with his buddies. He goes frequently to the countryside. This time he and his buddies brought the marmot home to cook and eat. They cooked it the traditional way by stuffing it with hot rocks and then blow torching off the hair. I did not see the first part, the stuffing of the hot rocks. But I did see the blow torching off the hair. They did all this in our backyard. For those of you who don't know, a marmot is a large rodent. It looks like an oversized guinea pig. The one they had yesterday was small, I'm told. It was about the size of a cat (at least when bloated with hot rocks and being blow torched). After all the hair is blow torched, they cut it open and remove meat and rocks. It looked like to me that there were just chunks of meat on the inside, but I can't be sure of that. I got a chunk just removed from the inside. It wasn't too bad, but it was tough. I think it tasted like gamey old shoe leather. And of course, the Mongolians ate the fat with it. I did not. Tuyakho's friends asked me to come out in the yard and join them in the eating and drinking vodka. I took a sip of the vodka that was offered me (it is rude to refuse) and one bite of the marmot. That was enough for me. I was also given one of the hot rocks that cooked the marmot. It is supposed to be good for the body. You pass it back and forth between your hands til it cools down. Then you put it in a plastic bag and put the rock in your pants next to your stomach. I guess it cures what ails you (which of course could be the marmot, ironically!). I felt a little silly with a rock in my pants, but when in Mongolia... I washed my hands about 4 times after that. The rock is greasy and smells like you might imagine a wild, torched rodent would smell like. It was a little difficult to get the smell off my hands. I also did not break out in plague boils. Marmots carry the black plague--yes, that black plague from the Dark Ages. I heard that 4 or 5 people a year die from the plague after having eaten an infected marmot. My host dad eats it all the time, so I took the risk and lived to tell the tale. I'm going to try to post my pictures now. You've got to see these, especially you, Sarah!

Mongolian Food

Hi all! So, I'm sure everyone is wondering about the food in Mongolia. The traditional Mongolian diet consists of meat, fat, and starches. The meat is usually mutton. Eating at home with my host family, we have had all mutton except for the chicken we've had twice that they bought especially for me. The meals are almost always some variation on mutton, fat, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, rice and noodles. It's usually a soup or a kind of stir fry. Mongolians believe that meat, fat, and hot food and drink is good for you. There is no trimming of the fat off meat. Last week, I saw a pile of mutton that my host mom had chopped up for dinner, and I thought to myself, "that meat looks really lean." Of course, she then took another slab of meat that was mostly fat and chopped it up too. I made it clear from day one that I don't like the fat (appropriately called ookh in Mongolian). My host mom tries to avoid putting fat in my bowl, and they let me pick out the large chunks of fat and put it in their bowls. My host dad thinks I have gotten sick because I drank cold water (which I buy at the delguur or store next to our house) and don't eat enough fat. Apparently, cold beverages make the stomach turn. It is difficult to eat hot soup and hot tea when it's in the 90s outside! Mongolians have no rules about not combining starches. There is almost always two starches in a meal--potatoes and rice or potatoes and noodles. And there is bread at every meal too. Except for the chunks of fat, the soups and stir fries are good. They taste quite good. Mongolians also use a lot of oil. I sometimes get scrambled eggs for breakfast which are pretty much dripping in oil. When oil is put in the pan, it's usually about 3-4 tablespoons worth. I bet my family goes through 1 32-oz. bottle of oil a week. When I first got here, my host mom would give me a huge bowl of food, the same size bowl as my host dad, and she and my host sister would get the small bowls. It only took a few meals of me not being able to finish the bowl of food when I was able to communicate to my host mom that I only wanted the small bowl. All of my sitemates are having the same experience of being overfed. My host mom says I eat very small meals (jaakhan, jaakhan, she says). I don't know how the Mongolians are not all really fat and walking-heart-attacks. The noodles in meals are usually handmade from flour and water. Sometimes we'll have store bought spaghetti noodles, but usually it's these flour and water noodles. They mix water with flour til it makes a dough and they roll it out (which I learned there is a way to do it so that your dough is a perfect circle). Then there are lots of options. Sometimes the large round, rolled out dough is laid on top of the soup and steamed, and then cut up into pieces after it has cooked. Sometimes it's cut into strips like linguini. Sometimes it's cut into small round circles to make bansh, which are small meat dumplings which are put in soup. And then there are larger round circles which are used to make buuz, which are large meat dumplings. Buuz are like one of two national dishes. They're quite good (if you know what's in them; it's quite the adventure if you don't know what the stuffing is). I had fish buuz last weekend when we visited my host dad's ger by the river out in the countryside. It was really good. There is a trick to pinching buuz and bansh, which I have not been able to master. I was quite the source of entertainment when I tried to pinch bansh. My host dad said I am unable to pinch buuz because I am unmarried. Apparently, Mongolian women cannot do anything competently until they are married. It may be a long while yet before I can competently pinch buuz. Not everything is fatty. We sometimes have kasha (cream of wheat) or buckwheat (cooked in milk) for breakfast. I am grateful for the fiber and the meatless meals every now and then. My host dad has a very traditional Mongolian palate. He always wants meat and fat. We joke about it frequently. He also does not like really sharp flavors. I brought home a bottle of prepared yellow mustard (for egg salad), and Tuya wouldn't even taste it. He said he had some in Russia and it's "hot." The other night Tuya was in UB for the evening so Tsetsgee made us a vegetarian meal with tofu, fake soy meat, cabbage, carrots, onions, and red and green peppers. It was quite tasty. One of our required tasks is that we have to cook an American meal for our host family. I don't really know what to make that doesn't have any sharp flavors. Tuya doesn't like chicken either. I guess I'll figure something out. The food is really pretty good. There's just not that much variety. The Peace Corps said they would provide us with multi-vitamins if we asked for them. All of us at my site asked for multi-vitamins. I'm taking them daily. Well, I bought a cold coke at the delguur next door, so I think I'll go have a glass!

Mongolian weather and washing clothes

Hi all! I was out of commission for a couple of days with my first bout of upset stomach and all that goes with that. I will spare you the lurid details but suffice it to say that I made quite a few trips to the outhouse and didn't eat for about 24 hours. Fortunately, the medicines in the Peace Corps-issued medical kit got me back on track. So, a few people have asked me about the weather here. It is quite beautiful but erratic. There's a saying in Kentucky that if you don't like the weather, wait a day. In Mongolia, the saying should be if you don't like the weather in Mongolia, wait a couple of hours. In the first town we were in for orientation, the day would start out warm and sunny at about 6:00 AM (and, yes, I was up at 6:00 AM or earlier thanks to jet lag and no curtains on the large windows) and then by 8:30 AM when it was time to go to class it was cold and rainy. We had several days of 50-ish and rainy. Other PCVs told us that it has been known to snow in June. Since moving in with my host family, I have not seen much rain at all. Actually, I have seen rain on the mountains, but it hasn't rained in town much. Watching a storm in the mountains is really cool. It will get cloudy and dark over the mountains but remain sort of sunny in town. You can see the rain falling from the clouds like streaks on a window. Occasionally, there will be a strike of lightning but high in the clouds and just a flash across the sky. The clouds make these awesome shadow patterns on the mountains. And it is usually very windy so you can see the storm move across the mountains. I took some pictures of a mountain storm one day. I hope to post some pictures at some point, but that's a little difficult to do in an internet cafe. I'll try to get some posted this weekend maybe. It has been quite pleasant, in the high 70s and low 80s. Today is the first really hot day. You can really feel the intensity of the sun in the Land of Blue Sky. It's probably in the low 90s. However, the air is dry. You don't start sweating the second you step outside like in Kentucky or Virginia. And there's usually a brisk breeze to cool you off every now and then. Sometimes that cool breeze turns into a dust storm. The first weekend I was here my host sister was going to help me do my laundry. We filled 2 large buckets, or tumpuns, with water and set them in the sun to warm. In the mean time the wind really kicked up and dust was blowing in circles all over the yard, or hashaa. My sister told me we could not do my laundry then because it was now too windy and the water and my clothes would get dirty from the dust. So, lesson number one in hand-washing your clothes: it can't be too windy. My host mom helped me to do my laundry the next weekend, and I did it indoors. Lesson number two in hand-washing your clothes: don't wait til you have 2 weeks worth of laundry (or wear fewer clothes, one or the other). It took me 2 hours to hand wash all my laundry. I only used one tumpun this time, but two may have been better. You divide your clothes into darks and whites, just like at home, and you save your dirtiest clothes for last. I did the whites first. You pour some detergent into some warm water. We poured some water straight from the house hold supply of water (which is a large tin old-fashioned milk jug) and warmed some water in this tea pot/pitcher that sits on a hot plate. You put all your whites in the tumpun with the water (and it's not a lot of water maybe 2 or 3 inches deep, maybe) and you scrub them with a large bar of soap. Once you've soaped and scrubbed, then you wring them out and set them aside. My host mom did not explain the whole process before I started; she was showing me as I did it. So I was a little concerned that there wasn't going to be a rinsing stage. There was a lot of soap in my clothes, especially my athletic socks, which you could squeeze and suds would ooze out. When you're done scrubbing the whole load, then you dump the dirty water (and it is dirty) into another pail and put some clean water in the tumpun to rinse the clothes (thank goodness!). You rinse the clothes and wring them til there is not a drop of water left. Now, I know why the PC told me not to bring any clothes you don't want ruined. This laundering method is very hard on your clothes. Then you hang the clothes on the clothes line in the back yard, and start all over again with the darks. This is very rough on the hands. I rubbed some skin off the first knuckle of a finger. My host mom told me I should have used the palms and base of my thumbs to scrub and not grip the clothes with my fingers to scrub--Lesson number three. You wouldn't believe how dirty the water is when you get through. It makes me wonder if machines actually get your clothes clean. I threw that water down the outhouse hole. (I'm learning which water you save and use for something else, and which water you throw out--the water from washing your hair in the tumpun is saved to mop the floors). On the upside, it only takes about an hour or so for your clothes to dry outside. I guess I'll be doing this once a week, and hopefully I'll get better at it. Well, I've been online for a long time now. I'll write again soon.

A Drive to the Countryside

Hi all! I had a great experience yesterday. My host family was not at home when I got home from class yesterday about 5:30. (There were however a host of other people; when Tsetsegee (my host mom) is gone (and sometimes when she's here), her sisters run the internet cafe and take care of me.) About 10 minutes after I got home, Tsetsegee and Bolormaa (my host sister) came rushing in from Ulaanbaatar (UB) and tell me we're going to the countryside in a few minutes when Tuya (my host dad) gets back. They had bought Bolormaa's plane ticket to go to the US, and she was leaving the next day (today). For dinner, they brought me a couple of pirogies from a shop in UB, which were awesome (shredded beef!--my first non-mutton meat meal since being with my host family). A few minutes later we piled into Tuya's extended cab truck, we picked up some other guy (I have no idea who he was--that happens a lot; I go where they tell me, I do what they tell me, and usually don't know what's going on--Mongolian is a difficult language!), and we were off. We drove about 35 minutes east til we reached this incredible shiny, silver, metal, giant statue of Chingis Khan on a horse. It sat on top of a round, white, greek-looking building. It had to be 15-20 stories high. It was incredible. We drove past Chingis and turned onto a dirt road and drove another 20 minutes through the most beautiful countryside. There was a winding river in a valley with a forest on one side and green mountains hovering over the river. We drove past herds of yak, horses, cattle, sheep, and goats. I don't think I've ever seen a yak before. It is a huge, hairy beast. Just incredible. We eventually left the dirt road and went over grass. Growing up in the mountains of Virginia, I've been four-wheelin', but it can't hold a candle to Mongolian highways (yes, the paved ones) and its dirt roads. To say it was bouncy is an understatement. More about Mongolian roads and driving in a minute. We got to this ger camp that was about 500 yards above the river, snaking through the valley. It was stunning! There were some people camping down by the river, and there were several tourist camps with either little cabins or gers grouped together. I went into my first ger. It was quite large with a single size bed, a couch, a cabinet/kitchen area, a wardrobe, another little table, several stools (used for sitting and as tables), and of course the stove in the middle of the ger. We had milk tea (of course), and I was offered some cookies (which are sort of deep fried donuts but not as good as donuts) and some white lumpy and liquidy stuff. At first, I just took one of the cookies. Earlier that day, I had tried this white milk product stuff that tasted like sour milk. It was not good, and I was afraid of my reaction if this milk product had a similar taste. But I was forced to try it. It is very difficult to say no to food here. I think it's considered rude to refuse. The bowl of cookies and the bowl of white stuff was moved to right in front of me (perhaps they assumed I hadn't taken any because I couldn't reach it; or perhaps they wanted to see the amerikaas' reaction) . So, I tried it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was creamy and buttery tasting. It was not soured, thank god. You just have to give everything a try I guess. Unfortunately, because we flew out of the house, I didn't think to bring my camera. I'll ask if we can go back. Bolormaa told me that you can take an elevator to the top of Chingis' head. Can't wait! Now a brief note about Mongolian roads and driving. The other day I was looking out the window and saw a car swerving all over the road. I thought, "That guy must be drunk." Then I noticed that all the cars were swerving in a similar fashion. Mongolians do not drive straight. They avoid the pot holes, which are huge and could do serious damage to the car. So everybody is swerving all over the road. They even swerve into on-coming traffic. It looks like you're going to collide, and then at the last second, one of the cars gets out of the way. I guess the drunk drivers are the ones who drive straight through the pot holes! Ha! The roads are also crazy-bumpy. I made prodigious use of the "oh-s**t" handle on the roof of the car by the door yesterday. And we brought Dolguun, my host brother, back with us. So, 4 of us in the back of the extended cab. Quite the adventure. Well, I've been on-line for quite a while, and I've got Mongolian language homework to do yet. Talk to you all later! Bayartai!

Mongolian Chores

So, the Peace Corps has given us a list of activities that we have to do with our host family and by ourselves before the end of our training. I'm well on the way. Most of the activities are chores that we need to learn before we live on our own. So far I have fetched water from the community well, washed my hair in a tumpun (a big bucket), observed a Mongolian meal being prepared, and cooked a Mongolian meal. There is a community well about a 10-minute walk from my house. You have to pay for it, but I think it's only about 1 tugrik per liter, which is not very much (1300 tugriks = $1). I filled up 2 large jugs, about 60 liters. The jugs are in this metal wheeled thing, so fortunately I didn't have to carry it myself. Because there's no running water, there's no shower or bathtub, so you bathe in a tumpun. Actually, I almost prefer this form of bathing to the freezing cold showers we took at the dorm when we first arrived here. For the meal, I helped to make bansh, which are small meat dumplings boiled in milktea. The filling is mutton, onions, salt, pepper. I wasn't very good at folding the dumplings up. I was quite the source of entertainment for my host mom. I did much better at rolling out the dough. We have milktea at every meal which is salted, watered down milk with no actual tea in it. It's pretty good. This morning we had buckwheat cooked in milktea. Yay fiber! Well, I'll write more when I do some more things on my list. Our training starts in earnest this week with full days of language and technical training. I should be pretty busy from here on out.

I'm in Mongolia!

Hey All! I made it safely, and I'm now with my host family in a sub-district of Ulaanbaatar. Because of PC security policy I can't post the name of the town. But it's a large town of about 25,000 with all of the modern conveniences available in Mongolia. My host family is great! My dad, Tuyaho (not sure how to spell that), owns a small coal mine and has a summer business making windows. My mom, Tsetsegee, runs an internet cafe out of a large room in the back of the house. It's great! I live in a 2-story house with my own room. We have satellite tv but no running water. There is an outhouse that makes me a little nervous because it's just a hole in the ground. It's beautiful here. There are green mountains with some trees. Trees are a rarity in Mongolia. My sister, Bolormaa, is 21 and speaks English. She is going to the US next week. My brother, Dolguun, is 14 but I haven't met him yet because he is in the countryside riding horses. We started our 4-hour language lessons today. Pronounciation is difficult. Tuyaho is a good teacher. He makes sure I get the pronounciation down. The food is pretty good. It is a lot of meat and starches. I need to do some more walking or I'm going to gain weight. The school where our training is is only a 5-minute walk from my house. 2 other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) are my neighbors. Well, I need to go do a bit of studying. I'll write again next week. Byartay!

From an Invitee to a Trainee

Hello all! I am exhausted (already!) but I am now no longer a Peace Corps Invitee but am now a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). I'm in San Francisco, just writing this entry before going to bed. It has been a very long day. I got to bed last night at 2 AM because I was packing and repacking, trying to make everything fit. I did not get everything to fit and left a trail of clothes and shoes and various other sundries at Nathan and Marilyn's. Sorry Nathan and Marilyn! I tell you, the best laid plans. Then I got a call from United at 3 AM, saying my 6:00 AM flight was cancelled and they put me on the 6:00 PM flight, arriving in San Fran at midnight. In a fog, I figured out that if I was on that flight I was going to miss staging. So I called the travel agency's emergency number (by this time at 3:10 AM) and they got me on a 6:25 AM flight on Delta that got me to San Fran before noon. As I was waiting for the travel agent to get authorization to change my flight, I thought this is probably the perfect introduction to life in the Peace Corps--requiring great patience. So I got back in bed at about 3:30 and got back up at 4:15 AM. So, I didn't get too much sleep last night. But I got here successfully. As I was lugging all my bags through the San Fran airport, I was wishing I had spent a little more time thinking about the baggage and how it was all going to fit together rather than what was going to go in it (especially since I had to leave a lot behind) so I could carry it. I ended up purchasing a backpack in the airport and transferred a bunch of stuff to it, which is now my "personal item." I've already met a bunch of friendly, cool people. We learned a lot about the PC's core expectations and talked about our own expectations among other things. We did skits and drew on big paper. It's a little like camp. It was fun. I met another woman who is a lawyer. She left a firm in Atlanta, but she has only been out of law school for 2 years. I thought I was going to be the only lawyer in the bunch. (She's a Gator! She went to Florida for law school, but I will try to overlook that indiscretion.) There are 76 volunteers going to Mongolia in the M21 class! I had no idea there were so many. And about 80% are English teachers. There are only 2 other University English teachers besides me. One of 'em has 2 master's degrees and a Ph.D. and left a job teaching business at a college. He's got more degrees than I do! Well I must go to bed. I can barely keep my eyes open. And we have to be in the lobby at 5:30 AM and load the bus to the airport at 6:00 AM. My next entry will be from Mongolia! WOO HOO!!

The Long Awaited Blog

Hello! Well, friends and family, here is the blog I've been talking about for months now. And just in time. I'm leaving June 3 to go to San Francisco for Peace Corps 101 and then fly off with the rest of the M21's (the 21st class of Mongolia volunteers) on June 4. We fly to Seoul, Korea (a 12-hour flight--UGH!), have a 3-hour layover in Seoul, and then fly to Ulaanbaatar (the capital of Mongolia--only a 3 1/2 hour flight). We'll arrive at about 9 PM on June 5. PC staff and other PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) will meet us at the airport. We board a bus to go to Zuunmod where we'll stay in a dorm for about a week before we're farmed out to our Mongolian host families. Each PCV lives with a Mongolian family by themselves, but we all have training together for the first 3 months. At the end of training, we're given our site assignments where we'll be for 2 years. My work assignment is university English teaching. I won't know exactly what that entails until I get there. You'll notice that the Peace Corps has its own language made up of acronyms. I am sure I will become fluent in PC-speak in no time. Becoming fluent in Mongolian, however, is a whole 'nother story. I've done some studying already and feel pretty comfortable with the alphabet (modified Cyrilic--thank you, Russia :/ ). It's just the putting the letters together into words and the words into sentences that I have yet to learn. No problem, I'm sure. Ha! Ha! The pictures I've posted are from my Farewell Tour (as my boss, Steve, dubbed it). I went to Williamsburg, VA for a family vacation, to Maine to visit friends, to Merlefest (a fabulous Americana music festival in Wilkesboro, NC), to Myrtle Beach to visit my college roommates, and ended the Tour with a blowout going-away party at my sister's house in Salem, VA. WOO HOO!! Now, it's all over but the packin'. All my stuff is laying in the floor, waiting for me to pack it into 2 bags (not to exceed 100 lbs. together) and a carry-on bag. If only I had Hermione's magic expanding purse. I'm going to have to make some tough decisions over the next few days, cuz I don't think it's all going to fit. I want to thank you all for the well-wishes, good-lucks, and gifts I've received. I couldn't do this without support from my friends and family. Check back in on me from time to time.