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!!