It's Friday, and I'm actually posting this! Are you surprised?

January 5, 2009

For the first time in a few weeks, I woke up and went to work at the regular time. Most of my day was spent editing the language book for the next group that will come to Mongolia in June. I’ve told you before how I want to write a book, but I think I could really be happy with being an editor. I see mistakes in all kinds of things that I read and it just irks me. Even in the English newspaper that is printed in the city is full of mistakes – and it’s written by a native English speaker! I always see openings in the paper for the editor position, too. I always wonder if I have enough time to do that. Too bad I’m not allowed to hold a regular job while I’m here. In the meantime, I’m getting my editing fix from this book: it’s full of mistakes, too.

This evening, I left work a little early and did some grocery shopping. In the U.S., I’d gotten really used to going to only one place for absolutely everything that I needed. Here, I can’t do that. Have I told you that there are about 13 stores in this tiny place that I live? I went to one store for pasta and toilet paper; another store for bread; and a third store for strawberry jam and ready-made noodles. And no matter where I go, I can’t find vinegar. I was able to find it only one time since I’ve been here. Every couple of weeks, I go to every store and ask if they have it. It seems to me like someone would eventually buy some so I would be able to buy it. They are bound to jack the price up some, to be sure to make a profit. I know I’m not the only person here who wants it.

As I left the final store, I ran into one of the building workers from my building. He was drunk and asked me if I wanted to drink with him. As an excuse not to drink with him, I told him I was trying to find vinegar. He told me he had some at his home and that he would give me some. Since I knew other people would be there, I went with him. After he gave me the vinegar, and I ate and drank the obligatory candy and tea, I got up to leave. Before I could stand fully erect, he and his wife both told me to stay for food. Cool. You know how I like free food. I was given a bowl of meat soup. Basically, it’s just meat in a bowl of its watery juices. I stayed for another couple cups of tea, and then when I saw that the guy was properly passed out in his chair, I left.

Not long after getting home, Tsegii came over. That’s the first time she’s really been here in a couple months. I didn’t realise I’d missed her. She’s pretty cool; and she cooks really well. Her niece was with her, so I played with her a bit while Tsegii cooked tsuivan. Before she could do that, I had to run back to the store for flour. About half-way through the giant bowl that she fixed for me, I remembered that I’d already eaten. I really could’ve eaten the rest, but I knew that I didn’t need it. There are all kinds of leftovers. I should have enough for a few days left. Yum!! On top of that, Tsegii cleaned my dishes for me. Man, what a woman! The only thing she asks for in return: chocolate. I’m more than happy to make that trade. Oh, and you remember that big hunk of meat that I bought however many months ago? The last of it was finally used tonight. That was a pretty good deal.

January 6, 2009

I forgot to tell you another story. Have you every heard the song “Happy New Year” by ABBA? Well, that song, along with every version of “Last Christmas” (“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. The very next day, you gave it away…”) that the pub had was played back to back to back to back to back on New Year’s Eve. Oh my gosh! Literally, I heard both of them at least six times each; sometimes the only difference between songs being that the singer was different than the one in the previous song. Mongolians love those songs. For the rest of the night, and part of the next day, I had those stupid songs stuck in my head. I would be sitting there and bust out into the few words of the songs that I knew, every time wanting to kick myself. Yeesh!

I went to the Water Company today for my usual Tuesday class. I figured they would be back to their normal work schedule and would be ready for class. I waited over 30 minutes for them to finish the meeting that they were in, and they never did. I could hear through the door that they were having a big ol’ argument about something. I decided to leave and just come home. After a short nap, I worked on editing the language book for several hours. I have a slight cold going on, so I didn’t feel like going back to work. Besides, I just read an article on MSN about how it’s good for people to stay home when they’re sick, that way everyone else doesn’t get sick, too. That’s how I justified that decision.

This evening, I found a website that streams movies for free. After trying several different links, I finally got Hancock to work. I don’t know if it’s because I’m so far away from where the stream is coming from, or if it’s because my internet is slow, but it was taking forever for the movie to load. I would let it load about 10 minutes, and then watch it. The third time I stopped it to load, it just quit everything. Dangit! I’ve been wanting to watch that movie for a while. Oh well. I’ll see it eventually.

I added some more of my friends’ blogs to mine, if you’re interested. I figure you might like to get someone else’s perspective on another part of Mongolia. I also uploaded some new pics. Check them out. Leave comments, if you have them, and I’ll try to respond on my blog.

January 7, 2009

When I got ready to go to bed last night, my neighbours were up, being loud. I stayed awake longer than I wanted to, hoping they would shut up, but they never did. I lay down to sleep about 45 minutes later than I normally would. Surprisingly, I went right to sleep; but less than an hour later, I was awakened by their loud singing. I laid in the bed, steaming, for about 45 minutes before I finally decided to say something to them. I got up, put some clothes on, grabbed my clock to emphasise the time, and banged on their door. As loud as I was banging, I know they heard me the first time, but it took three more times to get someone to open the door. The woman gave me a blank look while I drowsily held up my clock and said that I was trying to sleep. She said, “Okay,” and shut the door in my face. I thought that would take care of things, so I went back to bed. I heard peels of laughter, and then the singing started right back. I lay there, seething, for another 30 minutes before I decided to turn my TV on and turn it up as loud as it would go. About 20 minutes later, I heard people leaving their apartment. I left my TV on for another 30 minutes, just to make sure they got the point. I mean, I do absolutely everything I can to be quiet and not disturb them. It seems like they would do the same, when it’s 2:30 in the morning, in the middle of the week. Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen again.

Either coincidentally, or as a result, I felt even sicker when I woke up this morning. I usually only allow myself to hit the snooze button one time before I force myself out of bed. I don’t know how many times I hit it today. After a while, I told my boss that I was sick and the neighbours had kept me up really late, then rolled over and went back to sleep. Around 10 o’ clock, Oko came to check on me. She asked me if I was okay, if I needed a doctor, if I had medicine or vitamins, if I had water. When I told her I just had a cold and I was tired from the neighbours, she asked me if I drank with the neighbours last night. I assured her that I did not. I’m not sure why she asked me if I had water, but it made me worry. Sure enough, when I wanted some a couple hours later, it wasn’t working. I told my boss, like I’m supposed to, and she told me that the people would be by to check on it. I’d forgotten about it by the time they showed up. The guy came in to check if I had water and it worked like nothing was wrong. Of course. Not 30 minutes later, it was off again, so I told my boss again. She told me they would be by in 10 minutes to check on it. I still haven’t seen them. It finally came back a few hours later.

Today, I decided that I wanted to make fajitas. That’s my favourite food, and I really miss Mexican food. I’ve thought about trying to find a Mexican restaurant every time I go to the city, but everyone tells me that they suck. I’d rather have none than crappy. When I was in high school, my dad used to work at a carpet factory with a lot of Mexicans. They would bring fajita makings for their lunch everyday, and he soon learned how to make them himself. Since they were so simple, I picked up the recipe easily. So, this afternoon, I put some pinto beans to boiling and let them do their thing for several hours. When they were finished, I cut up an onion and put it in the frying pan with oil, then put the beans in and proceeded to mash them with a coffee cup. I don’t have a masher, so I used what I had. It took a bit longer than normal, but it worked just fine. When they were thoroughly mashed, and I’d made refried beans, I set them to the side as I cut up the horse meat and cooked it with a can of tomatoes and chilies and some cabbage. I wouldn’t normally put cabbage in there, but I wanted some other kind of vegetable, and that’s all I have available in my town. When that finished, I put that conglomeration to the side and made the dough for tortillas. I’ve always known that you can make tortillas by hand, but I never thought I would. Turns out, they were very easy. You mix ¼ cup oil and ½ cup warm water with flour until the dough isn’t tacky. Add flour if you like. You then roll out tortillas to the size you like and fry them in a dry skillet, turning them when they start to bubble. Very simple. That mixture made five tortillas for me. When I finished, I got some Ranch dressing and hot sauce, then put all the ingredients together and ate five tortillas worth of fajitas. Yum!!! F-ing A awesome! That is the absolute best meal that I’ve eaten since I’ve been in Mongolia. The best part is that I have plenty of beans and meat left over for at least three more meals of the same size. You can believe that I will most likely eat them everyday until they are gone. I invited Tsegii to experience the awesomeness, but she had other things to do. Oh well: more for me!

January 8, 2009

The first couple of hours at work were spent on working on an introduction for my upcoming life-skills lessons. I’m supposed to have a meeting with all the different social workers in town to talk to them about what exactly life-skills are. It wasn’t that hard, since I was mostly copying the information from a set of books that I was given by the Peace Corps. My biggest problem will be that of translation. About the same time I finished that, one of the ladies that works in my building stuck her head in my office and told me there was a meeting. Um, okay. I don’t know why she told me, since I never know what is being said or talked about, but I went. As usual, I had no idea what was going on.

When that was finished, I went to Densmaa’s office and talked to her. Yesterday, when she called to check on me, she kept telling me to go to work today. Today, I found out why. The assistant governor, who is the head of the social department, from UB city was going to be here, along with people from Channel 9 News. She was coming to check on everything here. Densmaa walked around town with her going to all her different stops. Around 11, Oko and I went to meet them at the kindergarten. Basically, they did the same thing as everyone else that goes to the kindergarten: they met with the director, and then went to all the different classrooms for a short performance by each group of kids. After lunch, they went to our office. There, about 11 of us crammed into Densmaa’s office as she talked about what our office does, and what I’m there to do. Just like every other time when I’m talked about, Densmaa broke from her Mongolian, looked at me, and said, “Please, introduce yourself.” I never understand why she does that. The little bit of Mongolian that I know has already told me that she had been talking about me for at least two minutes. What else can I say with my limited language skills? I froze up, as always, and relied on Old Trusty: “My name is Trip. I’m a Peace Corps Community Youth Development Volunteer….” “What else do you want to know?” Yeah, I really said that. I mean, really, what else? That elicited the normal giggle from Densmaa, and then she picked up and told them even more about me and what my plans are. They looked at me, smiling, and then said thanks for being there, when she finished. Yep, no problem. It’s my pleasure.

From there, everyone from the building, and all the visitors, went to the conference room for yet another meeting where I had no idea what was being said. Luckily, it was very short. When they’d left, Densmaa announced that everyone could go home early. Sweet! No arguments from me. I came home and took the nap that I’d missed during my lunch, since my time was cut short, then woke up and made fresh tortillas for more fajitas. They were just as good as yesterday. I’m almost out of hot sauce, though. Maybe Lady Fortune will smile on me soon and my next, unexpected package will have all kinds of hot sauce in it. Have I told you how expensive that stuff is here? They only have Cholula brand hot sauce in UB, that I’ve seen. The same bottle that might cost $4 in the U.S. costs more than $8 here. Sheesh! I’ll wait til I completely run out and really really really want it before I break down and buy it. Hm, I wonder if there is a recipe to make my own hot sauce. I’d bet that would require some hot peppers, though, right? Those are as hard to come by as hot sauce. Maybe I’ll find something to work. I’ll keep you posted.

January 9, 2009

Since it’s Friday, I woke up and went to work an hour later than my normal time. The first thing I did, after dropping off my bag and taking off my coat, was to go to my boss and co-worker’s office. They were watching old videos from 7+ years ago, about old concerts and Naadams from our district. They were having a good time reminiscing and seeing how young everyone looked. We sat there doing that for about an hour and a half, then Densmaa asked if I wanted to go to eat lunch at the guanz (diner) with her. Of course I did. It is the first time that it’s been open since mid-December; and there were new people running it today. I found out that the previous people were “too busy.” The new set up seems to be better: more food, easier to tell what is available, and the price is visible. We ate vegetable soup and boats. Back at the office, Densmaa asked if I would let her borrow my laptop for two weeks. What?! She wanted it so her daughter could take it to UB and work on a school project. I told her I couldn’t do that for two weeks. Then, she asked for one week. I just looked at her, did something on my phone, and she finally left. Does she really expect me to let someone I’ve only met once, for five minutes, take my $1,000 machine for two weeks? Besides, what would I do for internet during that time? Sheesh!

After lunch, I went back to work and found out that I will now be teaching English to my boss and co-workers, everyday, for 40 minutes. I really don’t mind that, though. They had their own list of words that they wanted to go over – words that I’d just happened to have translated for them this morning. It helps a lot that my boss speaks decent English. At 4 o’ clock, I went to the school for my usual Friday conversation with the English students. They don’t seem to be very interested lately, so I only stayed there for an hour. For some reason, Densmaa asked me to be back at the office by 5. When I got there, they were still watching old videos. Ahh, the life of a government worker. You think it’s easy in America? Try it out in Mongolia. We ended up going home a very short while later.

At home, Tsegii and Ariuka came over. Surprisingly, they had finished their work early, too. None of us had eaten, and we were all ready to, so we decided to cook. Tsegii was jealous that she’d missed the fajitas the other night, so I told her I would cook some for them tonight. After a quick trip to the store for some meat (and I finally found vinegar!), I added to my leftovers, then made some fresh tortillas. When I’d made them yesterday and the day before, I didn’t worry about how lopsided they were. Tonight, since I had some Mongolians who are experts at rolling out dough in perfect circles, I enlisted their help. It did take them a second to get used to the dough, though. It wasn’t as hard as they usually make it. It didn’t take long, though. I showed them how to construct and fold the first one, and then I let them make their own after that. They said they liked them a lot. Yay! Peace Corps’ goal number two is being accomplished: teach Mongolians about American culture.

Okay, so it’s Friday night, and I’m just sitting here, typing this and watching music videos on TV. There is actually a decent music video channel, called Music Box, that is most always music videos – unlike stupid stupid stupid MTV. (I hate that channel.) I hope you are doing alright. Write when you can. Talk to you later. See ya.