Friday's special. First one's free.

October 18, 2008

This morning, I went to the school. There was another volleyball tournament going on, this time between area adults. Everyone kept asking if I was going to play, but that isn’t what I went there for. There is a small room that I’ve been told I can use to play footbag. Before I came to Mongolia, that was what I did to get my exercise. A good hour of jumping and kicking will get me as sweaty as anything else I could do. And it’s easy on my old-man knees, too. Boy, am I out of shape. After only 30 minutes, and only getting a paltry 62 kicks in a row (a long way from my record), I was ready to finish. When the kids opened the door and saw what I was doing, that is what decided me. Every time I started to play before, kids always ran up and wanted to play, often taking my footbag off by themselves. Mongolians don’t play the way Americans do. And the kids seem to care less about sharing; unless it’s you they want to share with them. I don’t mind playing with someone else, as long as they play by the rules I’m used to. It seems I’m a little stingy with my footbag, huh? Oh well. I don’t care. I prefer to do it by myself.

The room I was in had mats on the floor, so when I finished, the boys started wrestling American style. Now that’s something I could quickly get into with another person. The boys were all small at about 12 years old, but I wrestled with them anyway. About the time they were tired of me beating them, a guy in his 20’s came in. Before I knew it, he and I were wrestling, American style. Right off the bat, he jacked me up (a wrestling term) and put me on my back. Dang it! The boys were all watching, and my pride was hurt, so we went at it again. I won the next four rounds. Yay! It was all I could do to stand up, but obviously, his pride was hurt, cause he asked me to wrestle Mongolian style with him. I couldn’t refuse, so I gave it my best. For a second, I actually thought I was going to win, too. At the very last second, when I was behind him, working him to the ground, he shifted just enough to make my knee touch first. Ah well. Can’t win them all. When I was finished, I was reminded of exactly what a mat-burn is. I have them all over: knees, elbows, forehead, even on the back of my ear. I’m totally worn out, too. So out of shape.

Not long after getting home and bathing, Muugy came over. She told me she would cook my lunch if I gave her some tutoring. That was an easy deal to make. The first thing she did, though, was fix my steamer. I wrote before about how the wire blew itself in two when I plugged it into the power strip, taking the power strip as a casualty, also. I showed her and she pretty much said, “Give me that thing. I’ll show you a thing or two,” then proceeded to take the connector apart, strip the wire, and put it all back together. When we plugged it in – this time making sure that it went directly into the wall, and not the power strip, so only one thing would blow – it worked like nothing had ever happened. Sweet! She then proceeded to cook the dumplings whose name is pronounced like “boats.” She had just enough dough at the end left for one more, but no meat, so she stuffed that one with kimchi, saying that the lucky person would get that one. I have a feeling she knew which one it was when she put it on my plate, cause I got it. That one turned out to be as good as, if not better than, the regular ones. I don’t know how many she made, but she only ate a few, and I finished all the rest. Man, I love those kind of English lessons.

October 19, 2008

I got to sleep late today, but I didn’t get out of the bed for over an hour later as I finished reading the book I was on. I wasn’t up and around long before Tseegi came. At one point, she got up and wondered into the kitchen and saw my dirty dishes. She just smiled at me, tsk-tsked a few times, and then proceeded to wash them. Wow, what a surprise. Mongolian men have it made. When she finished, I figured out why she went in there in the first place. For some reason, she had to work today (on a Sunday!!) and hadn’t eaten anything all day. She said something about eating all my peanut butter, so to keep her from that, I taught her how to make spaghetti. To me, it turned out freaking-A awesome, but I don’t think she liked it as much. Either that, or the hot peppers I put in it had her on fire. She didn’t complain at all, though, and ate most everything that was in her bowl. When we finished, we made some fiesta Ranch, just so she could see what it was, since I didn’t have any already made. She said she liked it. Just wait: I’m going to have this whole town liking Ranch dressing before I leave.

October 20, 2008

Last night, I was so sore I couldn’t sleep well. I mean, my entire body is sore. Even my ears! As tired as I was, and as sore as I was yesterday, too, I don’t know why it took me forever to go to sleep, then rest well once I got there.

When I walked into my office this morning, it was a balmy 29 degrees C (84.2 F). I guess they were right when they talked about my office being warm in the winter. I wasn’t here long before my boss came in and told me about the Open Door Day that was going on at the culture centre and told me to go with her. She said it was a festival and had me thinking it was going to be something fun. Wrong. When I got there, all the organisations (Social Policy Dept., Police Dept., Fire Dept., Insurance, et. al) were there, set up around the room. They all had signs and fliers and tools of their trade. I was told to sit with one of my co-workers, at the table designated for us, and answer anyone’s questions. I smiled and said okay. Basically, I sat there and watched everyone else do their thing. Finally, I got up to walk around and check out other organisations. At the hospital’s station, I got my blood pressure checked and weighed myself. I don’t know what my blood pressure was, but they said it was good. I weighed 82 kg (180.77lbs). That means I’ve lost at least 5 lbs since being in Mongolia. Not bad. We’ll see how the winter treats me. I hear that guys usually lose a lot of weight, trying to stay warm. It was really a boring day, with nothing much to do, but the company was alright. The “land” company was on one side of us and the hospital on the other. Ha, at the end of the day, the hospital hadn’t gotten rid of all their condoms, so my co-worker grabbed a handful and thrust them at me. One of the social workers and a couple of guys were there, and they all started laughing when I blushed and told them I had no need for the condoms. They assured me that I did, then started naming off different women in town. OMG! I think my face was as red as my shirt as they forcibly stuck them into my coat pocket. When we got back to the office this afternoon, my co-worker found that someone had stuffed her coat-pocket full, too. We both got a good laugh out of that.

I was invited to play volleyball with some people, so this evening, I went to the school. They said they would start at 8. So, what did I do? I made sure that I was there promptly at 8. It was a chilly, dark walk. The stars were as bright as could be. When I got there, no one was there. I don’t think I was really too surprised. I was well on my way back when I ran into the gym teacher and his three sons. They were on their way to play volleyball, so I went back with them. We played for a good 20 minutes before anyone else showed up; but not the people who invited me. After about an hour of hitting, we finally began playing a game. It’s been years since I’ve hit a volleyball for real, but I didn’t seem to be doing too bad. I was definitely better than a few of the people there. We played for almost 2 hours, with a couple other people coming later. It was nice to work out some of my soreness, but now I will have bruises on my forearms from digging spikes to go along with the ones I still have from wrestling. Ah well. As I’ve said before: I’m tough. Or was that dumb?

October 21, 2008

At the end of my English lesson at the water company, they invited me to have lunch with them. Considering where I am, their kitchen/cafeteria is very nice, and all kinds of people go there for lunch: teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and of course, the people who work at the water company. They sat down a big plate of rice and beef in front of me and wouldn’t let me pay for it. Sweet! It was very good. I think that is only the second or third time that I’ve had beef since being in Mongolia. I miss it! I don’t know where to buy it around here. I’ll have to get on finding some, but I think it costs more than mutton. I’ll let you know.

October 22, 2008

I was awakened at 5 this morning by a sour stomach. You know, where your stomach feels all weird, and you have those nasty burps that taste and smell sickly sweet, like rotten eggs. Gross. By the time I was to get up and get ready for work, I still hadn’t gone to sleep, so I called my boss and told her that I would stay home. For the rest of the day, I was practically chained to the bathroom. It seemed like I would barely get sat down in the living room before I was up and running again. I finally got some sleep in the middle of the day, but it wasn’t very restful.

Of course, the few dishes that I’d used during the day were still sitting in the sink, dirty, when Tsegii showed up. She gave me that look again and started washing them when she walked into the kitchen. When she finished, she smiled and said, “See: easy.” I told her that when I’m sick, the last thing I’m worried about is whether my dishes are clean. She had brought her niece with her. She was a cute little girl, 5-years-old, and very shy. It took her a while to warm up to me, but like all kids, she eventually did. She had a cold, too, and didn’t cover her mouth while she was coughing, so we’ll see if I catch her cold in the next day or two. Man, I hope not. I hear that several people around town are sick right now. Please pray for me to stay healthy.

October 23, 2008

I felt much better when I woke up this morning. I could’ve used a lot more sleep, but at least I can go to work. And, boy, was it cold! It snowed yesterday morning and all the previous night. That, mixed with the wind, had me pulling up the hood on my coat. The other night, I got a text from Peace Corps saying that the weather is about to really get bad, with snow and winds up to 18-20m/sec. That’s a big difference than in my office, where I was almost sweating, since I’d put on my long underwear this morning. I’ve had to intermittently open the window, so as to cool down some. But only for a few seconds. When I walked into the building this morning, a couple of guys asked me if I was “cool.” I said, “Yes, always.” Mongolians definition of cool is my definition of cold; and their definition of cold is my definition of insane. They asked me if it was cold outside and I told them it was very very cold. They got a big laugh out of that.

I was invited to play volleyball again, so this time, I waited until 20 after 8 before I left my apartment. Before I left, I got my big, fuzzy hat and gloves, thinking that I really wouldn’t need them. Before I got to the school, I wished that I’d gotten my scarf, too. My face was freezing! The snow was compacted into ice, and with the wind blowing so hard, I had a hard time walking. At the school’s gym, people were already in the middle of playing a game of volleyball, which meant I had to wait before I could play. I was surprised that everyone was there on time. Some of the guys that played tonight were really good. Once, though, I actually blocked a guy’s spike. That made me feel good. Ha, and everyone else in the gym started giving the guy a hard time. Pretty funny.

October 24, 2008

I got a package from my cousin Chad and his wife, Chasity, this morning. Yay! Thank you guys so very much. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. There were beans, spices, Pop Tarts, peanut butter, deodourant, Ranch, pasta, toothpaste, gum, and candy. One of the candies is Circus Peanuts. Have you ever had those? OMG! I freaking love those things. On the ingredients list, it says that all they are made of is sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, artificial colours and artificial flavours. I’ve loved those things ever since I was a kiddo. Yum! Like I told them: don’t let your kids eat these. If you do, from that point on, they will be addicted to them. Some people don’t like them, but I think there must be something wrong with them. They are deliciousness in a bag. Yum! One of the Mongolians took one bite and held it in his hand until he left my office. Later, when I was leaving the building, I saw where he had thrown it on the ground. Oh, and how could I forget. There was a couple of pieces of art from sweet little Haley. She’s always made stuff for me, and I’ve always kept them in my office. I will put one in my office and I will put the other one in my apartment.

For lunch, I went with my co-worker and another lady to some building behind our office. I don’t know what they do there, but I think it has something to do with water. We went to the back and found a guanz (diner). I had no idea that was there. I’m very excited to have found it. We had hoshor, and they paid for it. Can’t beat that.

Today is my free day, so the only thing I have planned is to go and talk with the English students at the school. Last week, they told me they like Rock music. Mongolian Rock is a little different than American Rock, though. All their kinds of music are different, actually. Sometimes, they might sound the same, but they are mostly different. Ha, one of the most popular songs in Mongolia right now is by a guy who sings about missing his mother’s milk tea. And their hip-hop is nothing compared to American hip-hop, once you get past the surface. Sure, the guys look all gangsta, with their pants sagging and their bling; but the words are anything but. With the hardest look on their face, they rap about how much they miss their mommas or girlfriends; how they like to hang out with their friends from school; or how they want to do good in life so they can be successful. I know, I know: American rappers say the same thing: but the language is so harsh and vulgar that you would never guess, until you’ve delved into the psyche of the culture. Anyway. I’ve chosen a few Rock songs for them to listen to and typed out the lyrics for them. We will go over two songs by Cake: Let Me Go and When You Sleep. (I just realised that I typed an email to someone earlier and told them the name of one of the songs wrong. You know who you are. Sorry about that.)

Now, I think I’m going to post this, then get my camera and walk to yonder hill and take a few pictures of the snowy countryside. I’ll go to the city tomorrow, and hopefully (please, please, please) my computer will be back to normal. If so, I’ll post some pics for you. I hope you all are good.

P.S. So, I didn’t post this before going to the top of that hill. First, I took my box o’ goodies home and got my camera. It took longer to walk up to the top of that hill than I thought. The whole time, I was walking right into a head wind. I thought my ears might freeze, crack, and fall off before I could get there. Then, guess what. When I pulled my camera out for pictures, the battery had just enough juice in it to come on and tell me that it was low before turning itself off. Doh! I’ve learned a trick to get every last bit of power out of it, though, so I got a few pictures. On the walk back, with my hood up, and the wind at my back, it wasn’t too cold. The wind has been blowing so hard that it has packed the snow very densely. I literally skated across some drifts that were about a foot and a half deep. Fun.