There's a new cook, but he's not good with knives. You gotta watch him.

November 8, 2008

Last night, Tsegii came over while I was celebrating Brother Baasun’s Birthday, waiting to go to the dance. She had to baby-sit her niece, so she wasn’t going to go. Before I left, I changed into the clothes I was going to wear and asked her how I looked. I had on a big, thick fleece shirt and a scarf. She smiled and said, “You look fat.” I was appalled and made moves while talking about changing my clothes. She said, “No, fat is good!” I’ve heard Mongolian women say that several times, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. I asked one lady and she said that she likes it when she hugs a guy and she can’t put her arms all the way around him. It’s not unusual to see a woman that is attractive by Western standards to be married to a really fat guy and be extremely happy about it. The same goes for men. I’ve seen many thin men with fat wives. Reluctantly, I took her word for it and headed for the Culture Centre. It was close to 9 o’ clock and the dance should have been hopping, if it had started yet. When I got there, all the lights were out and no one was there. Well, shoot. I wish I’d have known it wasn’t going to happen. I had passed up an opportunity to go and play volleyball so I could go to the dance. Oh well.

For dinner, I decided that I wanted to eat boats, so I started cutting meat around 2:30. Like I’ve said before, it takes me about 3 ½ to 4 hours to make them. I’ve seen Mongolians make them from scratch to finish in about an hour, along with other food, too. It’s all in the cutting, I’m sure. As I was cutting the meat, I was listening to the TV and I let my mind wonder. Next thing I knew, my thumb wound up under the knife and I sliced into it about a quarter of an inch. Luckily, the knife was kind of dull and my fingernail helped stop the blade. Whew! I was bleeding pretty good before I could get the end of my thumb wrapped up. At first, I just used one of the butterfly bandages that is in my medical kit, but the first one didn’t hold well and let some blood come out, making the stickiness not work. I had to use another, and then wrap it with medical tape. The tape didn’t want to hold too well, so I wrapped that with some duct tape. So, for those of you who were wondering why I might need duct tape, this is another reason. It was hard to finish cutting everything, without the use of my thumb, making it take even longer than normal. Good thing I like boats.

November 10, 2008

Today, I finally got the installation discs from Dell that I’d asked for over a month ago. When the guy brought the package into my office, I’d actually forgotten all about it. Fortunately, I don’t use that software that much. In the instructions, there is a warning that says when I install the software, everything that is on my hard drive will be erased. Dang it man! I really, really, really hope that this will make everything work like it is supposed to. Still, I will wait a while before I do it. At least until after I get internet. That will make things much easier.

I got something else unexpected while at work today, too: a cold from my co-worker. I think she gets as bored as I do sometimes, so she comes into my office on occasion. Today, she was coughing up a storm, and her voice had that sound to it when your throat is sore and you’ve been coughing too much. At least she had the courtesy to cover her mouth. It didn’t help much, though. This evening, I feel the beginnings of a scratch in the back of my throat. Drat! I hate being sick. I hope this doesn’t last too long.

November 11, 2008

Today’s free lunch, after teaching, was bantan. It’s a kind of flour soup with mutton in it that tastes an awful lot like chicken and dumplings. I’ve written about it before. Do you remember? I really like it. It wasn’t long after that when one of the people I tutor (Muugy) decided that she had nothing to do for lunch other than cook boats for me. Sweet! I was already full, but I can always eat boats. As I’ve said before, I’d gladly take money if Peace Corps allowed it, but food is the next best thing. As much as I eat, I’m surprised that I don’t gain weight instead of lose it. It’s not like I’m particularly active over here. In February, there is a national holiday called Tsagaan Sar that translates as “White Month.” Everyone gets dressed in their finest and goes around to their friend’s houses, where they eat boats and drink vodka. There is a PCV who just ended his service that once ate over 100. I told him that I’m going to make a run on his record. I’ll let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, I’ll be practicing.

This evening, I was having a particularly hard time with the stage of Warcraft III that I’m on. Right now, I’m trying to beat Hellscream after he has drank the blood of the evil demon. For a couple of days now, I’ve been trying to beat this stage, but it’s very hard. I know that most of you won’t understand (or care), but he’s a particularly hard enemy. To figure out how to beat that character, I went to my office to check the internet. At first, I was worried whether the door would be open so I could get in.

When I got there, there were a couple of guys drinking vodka. I know that most of you who read my blog are not guys, but the peer pressure of drinking for a guy is very difficult. In Mongolia, it is even worse. When I first walked in the door, I saw the guys and thought, “Aww, crap!” Those guys are a few of the ones who are known to be drinkers. One of them is a building worker, and one of them was the local military leader. They are both really nice guys and I try to talk to them every chance I get. Tonight, they had been drinking for a while, so they were way ahead of me when I met them. Later, one of the local policemen came who is an ex-wrestler, so I got a bit of training. In case you can’t imagine, drunk wrestling is as difficult as sober wrestling, but a little more awkward. There were four guys trying to integrate American and Mongolian wrestling. I understood it, but it took me a few minutes to get it. I also talked with the military guy about the differences between American and Mongolian military marching. Mongolian marching is a little flashier. I couldn’t imagine doing a 10 mile hump while marching like that. American marching seems to be intended to eat away the miles with as little pressure on the marcher as possible while maintaining uniformity. To step it out in a Mongolian march, one has to be more conscious of what you’re doing, and it’s not a natural gait. It looks like something a Communist military would do, too.

November 12, 2008

Today was my day to go to the other part of town. There wasn’t anything going on, so I just hung out with Tulga. He’s a nice guy. For lunch, we ate at the kindergarten, then went to Tulga’s place. It wasn’t long before his mom started cooking and we ate again. Tulga ate his first bowl, and then got another for himself and me. I was too full and told him so, but he ate all of what he had. He is the one that I told you about before who wants to gain weight so the women will like him. I did notice that he’s starting to get a little bit of a belly, so maybe he will get what he wants soon. Let’s hope so.

For whatever reason, the meekers weren’t running their usual routes, so it took me longer than normal to get back to my side of town. I didn’t do much of anything besides watch TV when I got home. I felt like crap from my cold and a lack of water today, so I’m going to bed early.

November 13, 2008

Today, Peace Corps came for my site-visit. That means that I didn’t go in to work and I slept late. Ah, after going to bed early, I felt much better today. The reason for a site-visit is to make sure that everything is going as planned and to fix anything that needs it. For the first couple of hours, my programme director and my regional director asked me all kinds of questions about what I do in my free time; how many friends I’ve made; what do I do with my friends; do I visit them and do they visit me; what I need taken care of in my apartment; what kind of things I’ve been doing for my job; what kinds of things that I plan to do for my job; how do I get along with my co-workers; and a few other random things that I can’t remember. They are really nice people, so it was a pleasant conversation.

About the time I was getting ready to eat some lunch, they decided that they were ready to go and talk to my boss and co-workers. I thought I was going to have to postpone my usual lunch time, but when we got to the office, my boss had sent for food from the guanz (cafe). We had boats and ardz. Ardz is that twice-distilled mare’s milk that I wrote about before. I’ve had it at least one other time since I first wrote and told you that I planned to stay away from it, if possible. Well, it seems like every time I decide I don’t like something and would prefer not to have it, that is the exact thing that I get the most of. Fortunately, a few of those things have kind of grown on me and while I don’t exactly like them, I don’t dislike them anymore. Ardz is one of those things, now. It is definitely an acquired taste. They asked my boss basically the same questions they asked me about my work.

Ha, at one point, my boss started talking about the difference in the way I talk and the way the Volunteer that was here before me talked. I explained to her that he is from California, and I’m from the South. I told them that, comparatively, my accent isn’t as bad as many of my friends, but people from the North can always hear it. Then, just to demonstrate, I put on my best Southern accent and talked for a minute. You should’ve seen the look on their faces. It was funny. They noticed how I talked with the front of my mouth more and said that it is very difficult for Mongolians to do that. Mongolians tend to make the sounds for their words with the back of their mouth and throat. It’s almost impossible to lip-read what a Mongolian is saying. During training, whenever someone would say a new word, I would watch their mouth, trying to see how they made those sounds. It never worked and I finally gave up trying.

Meeting with my boss took about an hour, and then I had the rest of the day to myself. This evening, as soon as I walked into my apartment and turned the light on, it went right back off. At first, I thought that the light might have blown, but when I checked everything else, I found that the power was out. Dang it! On my walk home, I had been thinking about what kind of food I was going to cook and was looking forward to something hot. Now, I wasn’t able to cook anything. I had to settle for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Good thing I like those. Tsegii came with her niece about that time, too. We sat and were entertained by her niece by candle light. Good thing I bought those candles way back when. Too bad I didn’t think to buy some kind of candelabra at the same time. But, with the usual Mongolian ingenuity, Tsegii had me in working order. She turned a bowl upside down, dripped some wax onto it, and then stuck the candle in the wax. It held perfectly. Some time while she was here, we found that my water was off, too. That’s bad enough, but since the radiator works on steam, that meant that I was totally without heat. At negative temperatures, it doesn’t take long for all the heat inside to dissipate. Luckily, while I’ve been writing this paragraph, the power and water came back on. Now I can start to thaw out. When I told my boss about my power and water being off, she said that a town up the road had turned it off. I don’t know why in the heck they have the option to do that, but I wish it wasn’t so. I wonder how much a generator costs?

November 14, 2008

Well, this week has been a fairly slow one. But, if you know me, you know that I don’t mind slow one bit. So far, today has continued the pattern. I got to talk to my favourite elementary teacher today. Actually, I’ve started a Peace Corps programme called One World Classrooms with her. Peace Corps reimburses the price of one letter a month and I write to them and tell them all kinds of things about Mongolia. She told me that her kids are all excited about it and have already written me a letter. I’m looking forward to it. I figure I’ll write them a letter this weekend. I hope they can read my terrible handwriting. Yikes! I’m so used to writing for myself that it might be hard for a 4th grader to read my chicken scratch. I’ll have to be careful about that. She’s read some of my writing before, so maybe she can work as my translator.

Schools all across Mongolia have been on break this week. That means that all my Peace Corps buddies that teach English have had a free week’s vacation. Some of them have stayed home and rested while others have gone to visit friends in other towns. All I’ve gotten out of the deal is that I don’t have to go to the school today and meet with the students. Instead, I will go to the kindergarten for some kind of something they have going on. As always, I only half understand what will happen before it does. Also, I heard another rumour of there being a dance tonight. I’ll check it out and let you know. Other than that, I have another lazy weekend planned. One where I will be extra careful while I’m cutting any meat. My thumb still hasn’t healed. It would’ve probably been good if I could’ve gotten a few stitches, but I didn’t feel like going through all the hassle of getting to the city, going to the Peace Corps office, finding the doctor’s office, going back to the Peace Corps office, then finding a ride home. What was that saying again? Oh yeah: If you’re going to be dumb, you gotta be tough.

Have a good weekend. As always, send letters, emails, and texts, or call any time. I hope you’re good.