Ah, it's nice to finally be home.

May 9, 2009

We woke up at a decent hour and went to the school to do our project today. James – yellow and brown – and I printed out our materials and started cutting stuff out and figuring out the order we would teach. About half-way through cutting, we found a printer that actually had toner in it, so we reprinted the things and redid our cutting. The first thing we did was teach 8th graders about the hazards of smoking and drinking and ways they can avoid peer-pressure. It seemed to go alright. We were originally supposed to have a one hour break after that, but since the Mongolians that were using the class before us went way over their time, we went straight from one thing to the next. The next group was 9th graders, and we taught them about nutrition and hand foot and mouth disease. There was an outbreak of hand foot and mouth disease in Mongolia this time last year, and since all of these kids live in the countryside and have regular dealings with livestock, we thought it would be good for them to be aware of it.

When we finished, we decided that we would make pizzas. The dough had been sitting for about 20 minutes when we got a call saying that we would have a ride to the aimag centre in about two hours. Since that coincided with when the pizza dough was supposed to be finished, we sped things up by not letting the dough set so long. I didn’t think it would work, but James assured me it would. It did. We made the first pizza and scarfed it; made the second one and gave it to his hashaa family; made a third for his director; then made a fourth for us again. His director only ate a few pieces, so we ate the rest.

We were packed and ready to go by the time we were told the porogon was going to leave, but we seemed to be the only ones. Our ride was two hours late picking us up. When we got in, our first stop was at the only tree right at the edge of the soum, where we all got out to leave sacrifices and pray. When we loaded back in, we went to James’ manager’s ger and all the teachers and we got out and ate a quick bowl of food. After that, we stopped a little bit outside the soum and someone brought out a bottle of vodka. The first shot was given to God, then the teachers made short work of the rest. The last sip was finally taken and all 24 of us slowly crept toward the aimage centre. The ride was very cramped and uncomfortable. The three of us sat on a wooden bench facing the rear, right in front of another seat full of people. The other two were actually sitting on the metal that covers the engine, so they had a very hot butt by the time we got to where we were going. They squirmed a lot. Everyone’s knees were crammed together and it wasn’t long before we were all squirming.

At the centre, about two hours later, we dropped the kids off, dropped our clothes off, then met the teachers at the school where they were staying. The jijuur (building worker) was drunk and demanded to see our passports as soon as we went in, even though he’d previously seen us and knew who we were and what we were doing. We made a conscience effort to be nice and play along with his show of authority. In the room with the teachers, they were just finishing some really good noodle soup, so we forced a bowl down. Does anyone wonder why my stomach was hurting, after all the eating I’ve done today? Since we split two big bottles of vodka between us, it wasn’t really a bad thing that I ate as much as I did. The older women told me several times that I had a pretty smile. I’m not sure if I agree, but I thanked them anyway. As much as I was laughing, they had plenty of chances to see it. Surprisingly, we weren’t too late getting in the bed.

May 10, 2009

Happy Mother’s Day! If you are a mother, I hope you were treated in some kind of special way.

Yellow James and I woke up around 11:30 and went to the shower house this morning. The only thing I’ve washed since last Monday was my hair, so I was quite ready to bathe. It only cost 800tg for a shower, but the amount of time we had to wait raised the price really high. The building has about 8 different shower rooms in it, and each person gets a number when they pay. The good thing is that families tended to go in together. I’m sure that saved a little time. I had to wait almost two hours before it was my turn. Actually, I got lucky because a couple of girls told me it was my turn, though I knew it was theirs. I asked them if they were sure before I went in. There was a small room where you first walk in, then a bigger room where the shower is. The first thing I did was shave my week-old beard. Without my clippers, it took about 4 times as long as normal. In the shower, I washed everything twice, just to make sure it was good and clean. The way things keep getting delayed, there’s no telling when I’ll get to UB and be able to bathe again.

Feeling so fresh and so clean, we all went to a guanz (diner) where I got the last 10 “boats.” Turns out that my eyes were bigger than my belly, cause I could only eat eight. They were big! For the rest of the day, we just sat around, reading and hanging out. Yellow James has a board game called The Settlers of Catan that is very fun and addicting, so we played several games of that. It’s easy to learn, but hard to win. I didn’t win once. They have at least a year’s worth of experience on me, so I wasn’t too upset about it.

May 11, 2009

Yellow James went to work today, so the other James and I went in search of a bank or ATM that actually worked, striking out four times before we finally found one. For our lunch, we went to a guanz and ate soup. The bantan I got is my favourite that I’ve written about before, that tastes kind of like chicken and dumplings. I need to learn how to cook that. We checked out the market when we finished, then went back and played Settlers some more. I still haven’t won.

Unexpectedly, we found that we would have a ride to Katie’s soum and that they would be ready at 2:30. As usual, it was around 4:30 before the jeep showed up with 14 people in it already. That ride was about as uncomfortable as the one that took us to the aimag centre. I don’t know how many times we stopped for kids to get out and throw up, people to take pee breaks, or the driver to look under the hood and get back in. It took about two and a half hours to get to Katie’s ger. The first thing we did was to go and meet her hashaa family and eat a bowl of rice and meat. After that, we came back to her ger and make some tsuivan. It was pretty good, even if it was Americans that made it. It was more Settlers after that. I really like the game, but I still haven’t won, yet. Katie made the cake that James had brought, and the icing we put on it was really good. Yum!

May 12, 2009

I was awakened at 10 after 6 this morning by a call from my BFFE, Matt. He’d tried to call me a few days ago, but I didn’t hear the phone ring. It was good to hear from him. We exchange emails, but it different to actually hear his voice. I miss his big head. He told me that he’s trying to work it out where he can come and visit me in July, after he finishes his work in S. Korea. Pray for us that things will work out.

I stayed awake after that and did some writing, reading, and playing video games. When the others finally got up, we went to Katie’s school and talked to the manager about when we would do our project there. We decided on tomorrow. Since Skytel doesn’t work here, my internet doesn’t either, so I tried to use the school’s internet. After 5 minutes of waiting for one page to load, James and I came back to Katie’s ger and played more Settlers. Still no wins for me.

Katie had beans, so we put those on while we watched 30 Rock. That show is pretty funny. Her hashaa mom brought us all some soup that we devoured, then, when the beans finished, I mashed them for refried beans and made all the stuff for fajitas. We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed every bite. Since then, everyone has just been laying around, doing their own thing.

I have to tell you about something that I wasn’t expecting when I came down here. People in this part of the country have an accent that is noticeably different from where I live. At first, I thought that both Jameses were saying some of their words wrong, but then I noticed that the people they were talking to pronounced them the same way. Even worse, they don’t understand half of what I say. The few times that I’ve tried to say something significant, James had to translate for me. The Mongolians laughed at me when I teased them about talking weird down here.

May 13, 2009

We woke up this morning ready to finish the project that we are here to do, but wouldn’t you know it, there was no power. Why does this keep happening? I talked to a few different Volunteers in different parts of the country and they said they had been out of power, too. One difference, though, is that when the power goes out here, so does all cell-phone service. The other Volunteers had heard different reasons for their power outages. One had heard that they were preparing for winter. I don’t understand that, since it’s only spring. Another had heard that a certain city needed to borrow electricity, so it was shut down everywhere else. I’m not sure if I believe either of those reasons.

We went to the school and told them we would teach tomorrow, since we needed power, then went back to Katie’s ger and did very little. We read books, played handheld video games, and played Settlers. I finally won!! James had been teasing me about how good it felt to win and I found out that he was right. Especially since I beat him by a very big margin. When it was time for dinner, Katie’s hashaa mom brought a big pot of noodle soup. It was made with dried meat and was quite salty, but it was good. We have a little bit left over for tomorrow.

May 14, 2009

How coincidental. Last week, the day after the power was out and we did our lesson, it snowed. The rain that came last night turned to snow by the morning. There is a saying in Mongolia that “spring weather is like a moody person.” I can definitely see why they say that.

Katie had told us about some people that live near her that have camels that she has rode before, so we went there yesterday to see if we could ride them ourselves. We were told to go around 6, so we left her place and headed that way around 6:30. The guy was just coming from the field when we got there, but there were no camels. He told us to come today, at exactly 10 o’ clock. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard a Mongolian say that something was to be done at an exact time, so we were sure to be there a few minutes early. When we arrived, he had the two camels ready to go and we were excited. We were expecting to ride for at least an hour. In case you don’t know, Mongolian camels have two humps, instead of the one that you see on Middle Eastern camels. A saddle is lashed between the two humps and a piece of bone with a long strip of leather is pierced through the nose that is used to guide the camel. To get on, you have to make the camel lay down. I was the first to hop on. I’ve rode horses before so I expected some kind of similarity. Being on the back of an animal was the only similarity I found. When the camel gets up, it raises up its front legs, then its hind legs. I wasn’t ready for the see-saw motion and felt a slight tinge of nervousness about falling off. James snapped a few pictures of me, the guy walked the camel in a circle, and then I got off. I was ready for the see-saw motion again, but it was still weird. When the camel goes down, its front legs go down first, then its hind legs. After yellow and brown James had their pictures taken, the guy basically said, “Okay, I’m busy. Leave.” We might have been there 20 minutes. It was cool, though, so I don’t have anything to complain about.

We played Settlers again today. I was distracted by text messages at the same time I had enough points to win, so I didn’t claim victory. When James took his turn, he got enough points and quickly took the victory from me. I had 17 points and he had 15. He won by a technicality. Rats!!!

The only ride for yellow James to get back to his place for the next week left today at 1. We went to a guanz (diner) where I had some really good “boats,” and then he had to run the porogon down because he almost missed it. We didn’t realise until he was gone that between his computer and mine, his was the one that could read Cyrillic. We had planned to go to the school at 3, but that moved our plans up about an hour. We met with Katie’s manager and I was very surprised to learn that she is quite competent with computers. I’ve found that to be rare amongst Mongolians. She showed me a thing or two. First, she gave me the setup so my computer can read Cyrillic, then she helped me figure out how to make the projector work when I attached it to my computer. It was very easy to do, but I didn’t know. We spent about 30 minutes getting one of the school computers to recognise a printer they had, then we went to the cafeteria to set up for the kids. By the way, that is the first cafeteria that I’ve seen in a Mongolian school. In many (most?), the cook takes the food and dishes to the kids’ classrooms. There were about 35 8th and 9th graders that came for our lessons, and they seemed to absorb it pretty well.

Katie’s co-worker had helped us, so when we left, we asked her if she wanted to hang out and have a few drinks with us. She accepted, but told us that we should go to her home first and she would cook dinner for us. Never one to turn down free food, we accepted. She told us to be there at 7, so we left Katie’s at 7:30. She cooked some good vegetable soup and we ate some goat yoghurt that we put sugar in. We went back to Katie’s place and had some drinks and played Uno. Katie had bragged about always winning, so we ganged up on her to make sure she ate her words. It was pretty funny. Our ride leaves to UB in the morning, so we’ve not stayed awake too late.

May 15, 2009

Happy Birthday, baby sis! I hope you get all kinds of wonderful things today.

The porogon was to leave at 7 this morning. We sent Katie to reserve our seats yesterday, so they were waiting on us when we got there at 7:15. (Can you tell we’re getting accustomed to Mongolian time?) It was another 30 minutes before we left. There were only supposed to be nine people, but the driver crammed in five or six others. I attribute it to greediness and a lack of care about other people’s comfort level. But, we were getting the only ride of the week that goes to UB, so we tried to grin and bear it. James and I were actually glad to be leaving. Katie’s hashaa brother is quite dirty and has some kind of infection all the time, and she’s always getting sick. I was glad that I was on penicillin the whole time. Then, Katie found two ticks on her yesterday. The ride was a very long and uncomfortable six and a half hours.

The first thing I did when we got to the guesthouse was to shave my face. It felt nice. After that, I went to see the PC Medical Officer and he checked out my throat and told me it was all better. I’m glad of that. But, of course, being in UB has given me that all too familiar harrumph in my throat again. I hope it doesn’t stick around and give me an infection again. Cross your fingers for me.

When I met James, we decided that we had earned ourselves a massage, so we went to our favourite place. Ah, it was wonderful. I could stand to have one of those every day. When we left there, we went for Korean food. Man, that stuff is so good. Julia had just got into town today and was staying at our guesthouse, so we hung out with her tonight. She braided James’ hair and we talked about all kinds of random stupid things. Good times.

To Julia’s mom: Hi! There is a link on the upper-right of my blog that is for my pictures. I haven’t uploaded any new ones in quite a while, but you can see what I look like there. Yellow James put my camera’s memory card into his computer and tried to fix it so I can see the pictures when I connect it to my computer. I’ll check to see if it actually works when I get back to my home. I’m doing a lot of traveling this month, though, so it still might be a while before I upload more.

May 16, 2009

James and Julia left early this morning and I was the only one in the guesthouse. I checked emails and did a little bit of studying before I finally took a shower and went in search for food. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind, so when I saw a Vietnam place, I went to see what they had. I’m not sure why it’s called a Vietnam restaurant, cause when I looked at the menu, it had all the Mongolian usuals. I ordered tsuivan and had to wait about 30 minutes before it came out. I was starting to wonder what the cook was doing back there when it was finally brought to my table. When I got it, it turned out to be the best tsuivan that I think I’ve had. Fresh peppers, onions and garlic were used, then there was a strange black spice on the top called black pepper. What in the world is that doing on a dish made and served by Mongolians? It was really good.

At my Mongolian lesson, I did pretty well when talking about all the things that I’ve done in the last two weeks. There were a few suffixes that I messed up, but there wasn’t much more than that. When we got into the lesson, she started talking about something that she’d told me I’d already learned. I had no idea what she was saying. As it turns out, there is a different way to say the same thing that I learned last time, and of course, it’s the colloquial. There is a difference on what exactly is said when you are talking about 1st person or 3rd person, though. At this point, I wouldn’t expect anything different.

There is a German couple that is staying in the guesthouse. They said this is their first time in this part of the world. They had gone out today and when they stopped somewhere, the man set his bag down and walked away. He said he wasn’t 10 metres away when it was stolen. When he was telling me the story, he quickly flipped through his German-English dictionary and said that it was because he was “arrogant.” Yep, that’ll do it. He told me he’d paid for a lesson that he won’t soon forget.

May 17, 2009

Happy Birthday, Ann. I hope your day is good.

I woke up around 9:30 this morning and did some writing before it was time to start getting ready to leave. For only a very few minutes, I got to see a couple of friends that just got into town. They are on their way east to hang out with other friends. My lesson today was one of the hardest so far. It was about combining two different sentences that have different subjects. Also, it depends on a few different things on what kind of suffix is to be used. I got a few of them right after a while, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the others. I’ll have to do a lot of studying to get that.

As soon as I finished, I hopped in a cab and made my way to the meeker. I was determined to not be late today. When I got there, there were about four seats left. I found the one that looked the most comfortable and settled in. At first, someone told me to go to the back, but I told them my legs were long and stayed where I was. Two or three different times people gave me a look saying they wanted me to move to the back so they could have my seat, but I didn’t budge other than to stand up and let them go by me. After the last two weeks of cramped rides, and being tired of being treated like a child and told where to sit, I wasn’t about to give in. For so long now, I’ve allowed myself to be put into uncomfortable situations so as to not make a fuss and be a nuisance to Mongolians. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I’m spoiled, or whatever else they might think. I’m starting to stand up for myself now and assert myself more. If they get mad, they’ll just have to get over it, like they would with any other person. I won’t intentionally make anyone mad, but I’m not going to just let myself be uncomfortable because someone else wants what I have. Oh, and this was the third ride in the last couple of weeks that at least one kid got car sick and threw up. I don’t know what’s going on with that.

When I got home this evening, I took the pizza dough that I’d made a few weeks ago and was waiting for it to reach room temperature. It wasn’t out 20 minutes when Moogie told me she was cooking “boats” and invited me over. She told me to bring a dessert, so I got the last boxed cheesecake and made it over there. Nomin was there, too. We ate one batch of boats and Moogie asked if I wanted more. I really did, but I knew that I would be the only one eating; and if I did, I would eat way too much. I told her not to cook more. They really enjoyed the cheesecake. We sat around joking with each other for a little while, and then I came home and watch The Princess Bride. I haven’t seen that movie since I was a kiddo. It was as good as I remember.

I hope you’re good. I’m going to be going to Khentii aimag at the end of this coming week. The Volunteers that live there will be hosting their annual pig-roast and lots of us will be there. I’m looking forward to the good times that I know will be had. When I leave there, I will go to Sukhbaatar and see my host family. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen them since I left their last August. I’ll tell you all about it later. Take care. Talk to you later.