Mr. Silly, Inc.'s Mongolian Adventure

Quick, hide, the pigs are here!!

2009-11-24T23:34:00.000-06:00

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. I know that I told you it would be, but at the time I really didn’t think it’d be this long. I know of at least a couple mothers and one grandmother out there that has been wondering what I’ve been up to. So, I hope you enjoy. I’ve been up to all kinds of crazy things in the last few months. Let me tell you of some of the most exciting.

I found some Mt. Dew at the store next to my buddy’s place in the city. I bought 10 of them and they lasted me several weeks as I savoured every last sip. It’s a really nice grocery store compared to most, and surprisingly, the prices are pretty cheap. I usually get cheese for my pizzas there. Since it is literally next door to my buddy’s place, we always go there for what we want. I swear I’ve been in there five times in one day. You’d think it’d be smarter and more efficient to go there just once, but for some reason or another, it never works out that way. I’ve gotten to know the guy that sits at the door and watches the cameras. He’s a nice guy and is always smiling. As is congenial in Mongolian culture, I greet him with a “Hello big brother, how are you?” while giving him a handshake. He always gets a kick out of me and takes care of me if I need anything. For example, beer, after they’re not supposed to be selling it anymore for the day.

For my own mama: I went to the dentist recently. It was a quick trip, in and out. No cavities. One of my friends had seven cavities when she went, and she brushes all the time. I just knew that I was going to have at least one, given all the candy that I eat. I was glad that I didn’t.

At the beginning of August, I went to see the trainees’ swearing-in ceremony. It was in a town right outside of UB and is the only place in Mongolia that I’ve seen that actually resembles American suburbs. I mean, there is even one house with a white picket fence and some of the nicest grass you could find. When I was walking by it, I had to stop to feel of it, cause it’s been so long since I’ve seen grass like that. Anyway. The trainees were all excited to finally be done with their training. I remember being like that myself last year. Ah, how much a person changes in one year. I got to visit with them a little bit that evening, but they were either tired or not quite as rowdy as some of the people in my group.

In the few months since then, though, I’ve gotten to know a few of them pretty good, and they seem alright. One of them is my new site-mate, named Josh. He’s 28, from the DC area, and is an English teacher. He’s alright. He comes over about once a week or so and we talk, have a few drinks, play Settlers (where I give him a good spankin’), and watch movies. Like everyone, he’s integrating and getting frustrated and learning how things work around here. I think he’ll be fine.

James left in September. There is no telling when I’ll see him again, so I went into the city and hung out with him for a few days. He’ll went back to New York and will take a few months to acculturate back into the life of an American, then start school next semester. I’ve talked to him a few times on email since he’s been back. He’s doing exactly what I’d expect him to do: being lazy, eating good food, drinking good beer, and hanging out with friends. I’ll miss him.

In late August, my group went to Terelj National Park for Peace Corps’ Mid-Service Training (MST). This time, it was only Volunteers, and the schedule was kind of relaxed. We spent time talking about projects that we’re working on so others could take notes for things they might like to do, and we took Mongolian language lessons. These days, the biggest thing I’m interested in is learning more Mongolian, so that was my favourite part. For every meal, we had really good food from the hotel’s restaurant. They serve a few courses for each meal, also, so I never walked away from the table hungry or wanting more. During breaks and after our day finished, we went outside. There is one of the few forests I’ve seen in Mongolia there, with a river running next to the hotel. All weekend, there were half-naked Volunteers jumping off the foot-bridge and into the freezing cold water. I knew I wanted to do it, but didn’t have the time until about midnight one night. A group of us went outside, screwed up our courage, and then jumped in. I barely hit the water before I was trying to get out. Luckily, only the water was cold and I was smart enough to bring a towel.

We also had a Settlers of Catan tournament one night. It’s become quite a cult favourite among PC/Mongolia Volunteers. If there’s a group of us and someone has the game, you can bet that someone will be playing it. One of the girls started about a month ahead of time and organised a tournament for everyone interested. After talking a few last minute players into joining us, we had a 16-person, single-elimination bracket. We started one night after dinner, two four-man games going at once. Each game takes 30 minutes to an hour. I made it to the second round and was then put out. I hung around til the end, around 1:00a.m., and had the pleasure of seeing Brandon win the whole thing. In true Mongolian style, he was awarded a certificate in front of everyone the following day. Some of the other people made fun of us when we first started talking about playing, but many of them were in and out to watch us, then cheered heartily when Brandon got his certificate. They appreciated the fact that, even though they weren’t interested, we were all able to get together to do something we enjoy.

My friend Mendee had a baby girl. I hadn’t seen him for a long time when I ran into him in the city. At the time, he had changed jobs and was working for the Scouts, but he’s told me that he’s changed jobs again, since then. As with any parent who has just had their second baby, when the first one is still a young toddler, he was as busy as could be. Coincidentally, after having talked to him for a bit, I met random Scouts in the street that were selling bars of soap. They showed me the small cube and told me in English that the price was $1. I looked at him, then I asked in Mongolian and he told me it was 500tg. That’s a big difference at about a 1/3 of a dollar. I got one and still haven’t used the whole thing yet. It’s just an awkward shape for my hands, and it doesn’t suds up well. I’m glad I got it, but I won’t get another one.

I went through a period where my water pressure was literally a drip. Some might say that at least I have water that comes into my apartment, but my rebuttal is that even though they have to go out for water, at least they get more at a time than I did. I might have gotten only 7 gallons of water a day, if I let the faucet run 24/7. Not to say that isn’t a lot of water, but at least if I was hauling it myself, I would be able to get more if I wanted it and be able to do everything I wanted all at once, instead of waiting for more to drip out. I know some volunteers who have 30+ gallon water containers in their gers.

After complaining however many times, some guys finally came to my apartment to check it out. As is their wont, the first thing they did was to get a hammer and bang on the pipes, hoping that would make it work right again. At first they were just using the small multi-tool hammer that I have. When that didn’t work, they got a bigger hammer. I never thought I would see the saying truly put to practice. “If it doesn’t go in, get a bigger hammer.” It would’ve been funny if they hadn’t messed up my multi-tool in the process by bending the piece of metal that keeps it closed. In the end, they got a pipe-wrench and took out the screen filter that was in one of the joints. Instead of just cleaning it good and putting it back, they threw the entire lot away. Now I can get 10 gallons of water in just a few minutes, but I have to be careful about small pieces of rust.

Then, right before I went to UB a few weeks ago, the faucet in the kitchen messed up. It’s always been tricky to get it to turn off. It finally gave up the good fight. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the faucet to close. All it needs is a little pressure to keep the handle down, but I didn’t know what. Finally, the idea struck: use a water bottle full of water. So, now I have a 1.5 litre bottle of water carefully balanced on the faucet handle to keep the water from running freely. There’s still a drip, though. I’ve already told people that need to know, but they just laughed. I’ll let the water drip for a while, then complain about it again. I’ll keep you posted on when it finally gets fixed properly.

Did I tell you about the cactus that I got last fall? I was with some people in the city when they stopped at a flower store and I thought I’d get something, too. I saw a neat little yellow cactus that was cheap, so I picked it up. Well, back in the spring, a new plant started sprouting out of the same pot. I don’t know where it came from, because all of the dirt that I have in that pot was gotten from the flower shop. The only thing I could imagine was that maybe one of the 14 million flies had brought it in somehow. As an experiment, I decided to make sure it had plenty of water and sun so I could see what it was. It grew, then after a week or so, another just like it sprouted. A few days later, I transplanted both of them into their own pot and continued the water and sun regimen. It grew, and more sprouts emerged and eventually it took over the whole pot. Before the cold weather hit and it died, it had started growing along my window ledge. As far as I could tell, it was just a wild flower like I might find outside when I’m walking out on the steppe. It was small, with little yellow flowers that bloomed for a few days at a time. I’m hoping it’ll come back next year.

Back in August, I walked into my buddy’s place in the city and met Stephen. He’s an American CouchSurfer who has been living in Russia for a few months and had to leave for a while because of his visa. He was our age and fit right in with our group, quickly catching on to our jokes and picking on us as much as we picked on him. He came with Evan to my town for a few days and we had a good time. Later, I walked into my buddy’s place in the city and met Dimitry. He’s Russian, and as it turns out, he is Stephen’s friend from the town he used to live in. What a crazy, coincidental world we live in. Dimitry was cool, though definitely Russian when he got a few drinks in him. He also came to my town for a couple days and stayed with me. We sat around watching movies and cooking lots of food and playing a Russian card game that translates as “fool.” He taught me how to make a really easy stew, also. That’ll be good, now that’s it’s f-ing cold outside.

Here are a couple of links to stories about Mongolia. I found out about them from another Volunteer. Hope you enjoy them.

Msnbc http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32736713#32736713

NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112466787

Back at the end of August, I went with six other Volunteers to Hovd and Bayan Olgii, way way way way way out in the far west of the country. Did I say it is way out there? OMG!!!

I went out there to visit with some friends and see the Eagle Festival that is held every year. That side of the country is only a short distance from Kazakhstan, so most of the people there are Kazakh. They are the only ones in the world that are legally permitted to possess eagles and train them for hunting, or so I’ve been told/read somewhere. Later, after however many years, they release them back into the wild with no worries that they will be able to fend for themselves.

There are two ways to get over there: bus and small plane. The plane is quite expensive not only for Volunteers, but for all foreigners with something like a 50% tax. The bus is a little less than half the size of a Greyhound bus (no bathroom), and designed for off-road. Just a few hours outside the capital, all roads become the bumpiest, most pot-hole filled dirt roads you could imagine. The bus is first crammed full of everyone's stuff, including people that only pay to have their stuff sent; then the 26-seat bus is filled with 35-40 people. It's one of the most uncomfortable things you could imagine. The first leg was 38 hours. I’d say I probably got a total of about 8 hours sleep, if that. We stayed in Hovd with a few friends for a couple days, then got on a small Russian van and went another 8 hours to the Kazakh town of Bayan Olgii, where the Eagle Festival is held.

The people there weren't very nice. They demanded $30US from every foreigner that tried to go in. Since most of them were just tourists, it was only a problem for me and my friends. Some sneaked in with a car of Mongolians, a few paid, and me and a buddy climbed a mountain to avoid the money guy. The mountain was a little steep going up, but it was terribly so on the down side. The first 20 minutes was really scary, but after that, we were able to kind of surf down the scree and made good timing.

The Eagle fest itself was kind of cool. People there speak Kazakh if given the choice, so I didn't understand most of what was going on, but they do speak Mongolian, so when I asked someone, they would explain it to me. They had games where men on horses would play tug of war with a goat carcass; women would ride a horse and chase men on horses, the whole time, beating them with sticks; eagles would fly from mountain crags to land on the arm of their master that is riding a horse; and there were foxes and wolves that were sacrificed to the eagles for the enjoyment of the crowd. And all around everywhere, there were men with eagles on their arms, enjoying all the attention they were getting. Whenever I get around to it, there are lots of pics. That stuff was pretty neat.

On the way back, the Russian van that we rode in from Hovd had three flat tires. There was a spare for the first, so that was a 10 minute stop. When the second tire went flat, the driver got out, ran off into the countryside, then came back 20 minutes later rolling a new tire. He put it on long enough to go to the house that he got it from. I have no idea how he knew exactly where it was. At the house, we all went inside to get warm. It was snowing, and there was no heat in the van. For some reason, the tires had inner-tubes, so we sat there for about an hour or so while it was repaired. An hour after getting back on the road, there was a third flat, and no nearby houses. We all stayed huddled together in the van as the driver got out to fix that inner-tube, taking about an hour and a half. The ride to Hovd was about 10 hours.

The next day, we got back on the bus to go back to the capital. It was packed full of more stuff and people than the ride in had been. We had three flat tires and ran out of gas three times. Luckily, there were plenty of spares, and we were never too far from a gas station. Once, the driver got out, grabbed a can, and took off running down the road for gas. Once, we were literally 100 feet from the pump. They surprisingly had enough spares for all the flats, so those only took about 10 minutes each and allowed us time to stretch our legs. Inside the bus, there was a passed-out drunk guy leaning back on my feet for most of the ride, and a guy that just didn’t care at all about me leaning on my legs. That ride took 45.5 hours. So, in the space of 9 days, I was on a bus for 5.5 of those days. The first things I did when I got back to the city were take a nap, eat good food, and get a massage. I felt much better after that.

Now that I'm back at my home, I don't plan on ever doing any kind of traveling like that again while I'm in this country. In the 101.5 hours that it took me to go from the middle of the country to the west, and back, I could've gone from NY to LA 2.3 times. Man, I wish this country had good roads.

Since the last time I’ve written, I’ve gotten about three boxes from my mom and sister. As always, that’s kept me in extra crunchy peanut butter. I haven’t gotten any Ranch packets in a while, so I’m down to two now. Yikes!!! I don’t know what I’ll do with out Ranch dressing.

Several months ago, H1N1 hit the world unawares and has caused people in the Asian world to bring out their ever-so-ready masks. When I first moved to my town last year, only one guy here wore a mask, and it was a black one that was worn to accentuate his rock-style image. A few months ago, the Mongolian government suggested people wear masks and the number has increased to at least half of the population here. In the city, it’s the same way. People everywhere are wearing masks. In true “screw you, I’m going to make money somehow” fashion, all the drug stores raised the price of their masks from about 100tg to about 700tg.

So, all of this was going on, and I was in the city discussing why we’d only HEARD of two foreigners to wear the mask (and one only because she thought it was cool), when I became quarantined in UB. “Pig sick” is how it directly translates from Mongolian, and it brought this country to a stand-still for a while. The reported number of “pig sick” cases had been rising dramatically, so the government shut down all schools for about four weeks, not even allowing the teachers to go; banned all public transportation in and out of the city; forced all restaurants, pubs, clubs, and bars to close at 9pm; and banned all alcohol sales after 9pm. As a result, Peace Corps Mongolia issued a “Stand fast” order, meaning that we were to go to our closest consolidation point and not leave until given further notice.

I was in the city for that whole time. Lucky me, so were three of my best friends here. We enjoyed the week and a half of lounging around with nothing to do but sleep late, enjoy each others company and conversation, eat good food, and not doing anything we didn’t want to. I spent that time meeting a lot of the Mongolian friends that I have in the city, also. The travel ban has finally been lifted, and high schools are back in session now, but kindergartens and some clubs are still canceled. I went last week and got my seasonal flu shot and also the H1N1 vaccine. Let’s hope they work.

I’m still studying the language as much as possible. I continue to take four classes each month, where I learn grammar and ask questions, and then I go out into the city and try to improve my vocabulary. At this point, my vocabulary is the only thing that ever trips me up in a conversation. I have gotten good enough to where something can be explained to me in Mongolian and I’ll understand it completely. That helps a lot. I always carry a pen and paper with me so I can write down new words and phrases. I’ve been getting a lot of my younger guy friends in UB to teach me a lot of slang. They are complete city boys, having been born and raised there, so they speak a lot of slang. Their English is almost perfect, so they can explain a lot, and I try to talk to them in Mongolian as much as possible. One day, one of the guys laughed and said, “It’s funny, you speak Mongolian, but it’s not Mongolian,” meaning that I speak Mongolian like the old woman that teaches me, not like the guys that are my same age. I thought it was pretty funny.

As always, I took my notes in for my teacher to check. When she was looking over the page that I’d learned from my buddies…oh man, you should’ve seen the look on her face. One of the phrases pertained to when you’re really hungry, sitting in front of some good food. Imagine a young fella talking to his buddy and saying, “Let’s F this food up!” Haha. My teacher, not truly understanding the word, looked at me and said in English, “Why would you do this to food?” I laughed then explained the slang to her. She told me that I should never say these things, because people might think less of me. I had quite a time assuring her that I only say those things to my young, guy friends. Then she proceeded to correct the spelling, cause someone has wrote it wrong. Good times.

Alright, that’s it for me, for now. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I would venture to say that it might just be my favourite American holiday. In case you’re wondering, it’s because I get to eat so much food. I’ll miss being with my cousin, Chad. On Saturday, a lot of the Volunteers will meet in the city and have a potluck dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving. We’ll meet the new ambassador. After that, it’ll just be a few more weeks of pseudo-working, then the New Year planning will begin. Yep, that means there won’t be much work going on at all for a few months. So, I’ll be spending a lot of time trying to keep warm. It has become very cold here, and if I’m not careful, my apartment becomes an icebox. I do seem to be able to handle it better when I’m outside, though. I guess since I know what to expect, it doesn’t seem quite as bad.

Think warm thoughts for me and write when you can. Talk to you later.

he loves his momma....

2009-08-04T01:32:00.000-05:00

Around the end of July, first of August, 2009

It’s right at the beginning of the 14th month of me being in Mongolia with the United States Peace Corps. If there weren’t PC Trainee’s in town with me, giving me something to compare my experiences to, the time that I’ve passed here might not be quite as noticeable lately. One way or another, I’ve seen the majority of them at least once a week since they’ve been here. It’s brought a few things to my attention that I might not have noticed otherwise.

Once, after a weekend in the city, I got off the mikre (micro bus) in their part of town. I met with a group of the Trainees and went to one of their host family’s home. I had expected the entire experience to be quite a different affair than what happened. At the first home, I repeated “Trip” enough times for the most inexperienced person with the English language to get it under their tongue, so I was sure everyone had it down.

I was wrong. No problem. Back since I went to the Khentii pig roast, I’ve had a Mongolian name. I can only begin to tell you how handy it has been for me. I don’t think I mentioned it before, so I will now. It’s what I cite when a particular Mongolian seems to have trouble with “Trip.” When I was at the pig roast, I talked to several Mongolians that continued asking me, in English, what my Mongolian name is. Their American had a Mongolian name and they couldn’t figure out why I didn’t have one. I told them no one had ever given me a Mongolian name, so they proceeded to think of one for me. After a random 15 to 20 minutes, someone decided on Sanchir, meaning “Saturday,” or “the planet Saturn.”

After I tell Mongolians my Mongolian name, followed by “Od shig” (like the star), they all seem to feel much more comfortable with me. I’ve noticed such a big difference with people since I’ve been able to give them a name they can pronounce with little cognizance. Just this evening, I hung out with a guy that just couldn’t get the “TR” to work for him. OH, wait! First, I have a funny story to tell about this person.

I had been helping the jijuur (building worker) today, so after we’d worked on several radiators, I followed him outside and sat down across from a guy that is 21 years older than me. The older fella asked my buddy “what kind of person is the guy with you?” not thinking about the possibility that I might understand Mongolian. My buddy mumbled something incoherent in reply, but I took control of the situation. I said, “Did you ask what kind of person I am? I’m a regular, plain ol’ person.” Counting him, there were five of us there; and all five of us laughed heartily. After that, we got along famously.

This old fella turned out to be a childhood friend of my buddy. We’d all done a bit of labour throughout the day, so we pooled our money from Lilliputia and bought some vodka. Seven of us were able to afford 1 ¼ litres of vodka. In case you were wondering, that works out to plenty of shots each. I was glad that the host kept offering a big pot of flour soup and plenty of water. I got my fill of each. They were sending someone after another bottle when I took my leave.

I told you a few weeks ago about the Trainees coming to my place for fajitas. They had such a good time that we scheduled a rendezvous for a later date. After I’d been to the city to pick up some cheese that was much cheaper than I’d expected, they came over one evening for beer and pizza. I don’t know if they’d ever had home-made, American-style pizza, but they professed “goodness” after every bite. That was enough to make them want to book a future date at the Sanchir Mansion. They even told me my pizza was better than what they had at the restaurant in UB. Sweet!!!

For their latest visit, they came over expecting desserts. I saw a couple of the girls the other day and they told me that when they all left last week, I had promised them that I would buy stuff to make brownies this evening. Since I’d (supposedly) said that very early in the morning, I had no recollection of those words coming out of my mouth. I wasn’t sure that I believed the girls, but I still felt bad, since I had nothing to do with brownies in my immediate possession.

As it turned out, my mother saved the day – once again. I’d found a few random, free postcards recently and I’d had them ready to send to a few select loved ones. I’d been asking the postal worker if a package has come for me for the last several weeks. Every time, she would smile and say, “Not here.” I wasn’t expecting anything when I took my three postcards in to get some stamps. As soon as I walked into the small room, my eye was drawn to the conspicuous white USPS box on the counter next to the wall. Without getting my hopes up, I went to pay for my postcards, not expecting anything else. Before she knew what I was doing, she was shoving the box in my arms and pointing at the line requiring my signature. I signed for the box, paid too much for my three postcards (going back later for the change), then smilingly carried my package all the way home.

Inside I found such things as tooth brushes, Ramen noodles (my lunch), pinto beans, garlic, peanuts, peanut butter, jelly beans, steak marinade, country ham, marshmallow treats (my lunchtime dessert), extra special cheese cake, shaving soap, magazines, a Bible, and a computer cord. I have to admit, the most notable thing I feel like I got was the computer cord. I’ve been without a computer for over five weeks now. I’ve been able to handle the times, but it took some getting used to. Thanks, mom.

One of my self-entertainment methods has been a lot of reading. As I said I would before, I’ve begun reading Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. Along with that, I’ve been reading the Japanese classic Musashi. I first heard about a samurai named Musashi when, as a kiddo, I played a video game by the same name. After getting here, I found the almost 1000-page book in the Peace Corps library. I wasn’t sure how interested I’d be when I first picked it up, but since I’ve opened the book, I haven’t been able to put it down. It was written somewhere around the 1970’s, and is said to be the Gone With The Wind of Japan. I couldn’t tell you how many times my grandmother has read and endorsed Gone With The Wind, but I have to say, if Musashi is any indication of how good it might be, it is on my list of future reads.

Also, I’ve devoted a little more time to my Mongolian language studies. I’m not sure if I mentioned it in my last post, but I have made a concrete step forward in my studies. There is a series of three books for learners of the Mongolian language and I have recently moved on to the third book. It was unexpected and it made me feel proud when my teacher announced my next lesson would be in the third book. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks now and I seem to be doing alright. My grammar and vocabulary is escalating with each successive lesson. I’m getting much closer to being able to sit down and write anything I want to say.

That means, with a little stumbling, I can usually get my point across with the smallest amount of confusion. Then, of course, just when I think I’m doing well, I’ll have a conversation with someone where I don’t understand one word the other person is saying. They’ll know that I understand fairly well, and then just go off speaking their normal 100km/h. After they get the idea that my soupcon of Mongolian is not going to be enough to survive the current conversation, they slow down to about 35km/h and I’ll finally get the point. I feel like a tar-tar at first, but I get over it.

The show is still going; slowly but surely, I suppose. We were originally told that filming would be finished before Naadam (the second weekend of July), and the show would air for the first time on July 20th. For some unexplained reason, things just dropped off for several weeks, with no word from the studio about what was going on. We finally received a call last week and were told to meet the next day at M Entertainment Club. It’s kind of like a posh, young professional hang-out, ran by the people that own the telecommunications company Mobicom. If you have the Mobicom contract where you pay at the end of each month, depending on the amount of calls and messages, then you can do things for free, or a greatly reduced price. They have a Play Station 3 game room, where you get your own flat screen, PS3, a comfortable chair, and your pick of dozens of games; a bar/restaurant area, where the food was wonderful; private, surround sound home studio rooms, where you can watch your choice of several movies; private karaoke rooms, where we sang several songs, terribly; a night club; and a small bowling lanes.

There were only six lanes, but the entire place was much nicer than any bowling alley I’ve ever been to in the US. All of their stuff was Brunswick, and it was well maintained. The shoes were practically brand-new, but the closest size for me was at least two sizes too small; and they didn’t slide, so they had powder to rub on the bottoms. The first thing we did was to throw a few practice balls, then bowl a game. We had all talked about whether we had played before and I mentioned how my grandmother used to be a manager at a bowling place, so I got to bowl a lot as a kiddo. With the camera on me, I threw my first ball and got a strike. Sweet! Unfortunately, my game didn’t proceed as it had started. For the first eight frames, the Japanese guy and the other American guy were winning. Then, on the tenth frame, I threw a strike and spared, giving me the win by three pins. Whoo-hoo! Haha. It was good fun. I’m glad it was free, cause when I looked at the prices, it seemed a bit pricey. A little more than $10 for one game, including shoe rental.

It had been bruited about amongst the Trainees that some of my buddies were coming to my place on the last weekend of July. Evan, Ridge, and Ben were dropped off out by the road, so I walked out and met them, taking the excursion through the middle of the military base. We weren’t awake too long Saturday morning before Trainees started showing up. We guys ate biscuits, gravy, and eggs while sharing stories and anecdotes with the Trainees. We played a few games of Settlers and drank a few beers.
It was a good time.

On the news channel that I have, they always show the current stock markets. I’m glad to see the Dow’s going up. Not to say that it won’t drop again tomorrow, but I’ve watched it go up over 3,000 in the last three or four months. That seems to be a portent of good things happening. I hope so. I had a bit of money in the stock markets when I came to Mongolia. That’s when the Dow was above 14,000. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when it dipped down below 6,000. I have faith in my broker that things always go up in the long run, so I’ve tried to not worry about it too much. Olly, I hope you know what you’re talking about, buddy.

Since I’ve moved here, I’ve wanted to just take off walking and see what I could see in yonder rolling hills. I finally got to do that this last weekend. The guys woke up and left for UB Sunday morning, leaving me alone to sleep a little more. After getting up and doing a bit of cleaning, I got music and books and took off walking in a direction that I hadn’t been yet. I walked to the top of the tallest hill, looked for the next tallest one, and then took off for it. I made it to the top of the third one after an hour and a half and found it to be the ideal place to stop. There was an outcropping of rocks at the very top, making a natural seat in one place; and there was nothing but rolling hills, gers, herds of mixed and various animals in the distance, and bright blue sky and far as I could see.

I took my shirt off, sat down, and opened a book to wile away the next couple of hours. It was so nice that I was distracted from my reading by looking and listening at everything around me. After less than 10 minutes, some old herder saw me and pointed his horse in my direction. At least, I assume he came there because he saw me. He might’ve known about the outcropping long before I ever even thought about walking in its direction. He got off his horse right next to me. I shook his hand and asked how he was doing, telling him where I’m from and where I live now. I offered him my water and we said about three more sentences each. After that, we both let our own minds wander and didn’t say anything else for the next hour or so. I went on reading my book while he napped a bit. I hardly looked up at all until the old fella got up, we both said “Be happy,” and he got on his horse and rode away.

It’s been nice having my computer back. I didn’t have internet at first, because I didn’t pay for it during the month of July. There is no contract, so if you don’t have the bill paid before the first of the month, they cut it off until you pay, at which time it will immediately work again. It’s kind of nice like that. I’ve been able to read and reply to all my emails, catch up with some friends on IM, and update my blog (as you see).

Oh yeah, before I forget. I got drunk-dialed the other day. My BFFE Matt had called me a couple weeks ago. He and my good buddy Chris were out together the other night and happened to think of calling me. Chris called me and we had a good two or three minutes’ talk before the battery on my phone died. Drat!! Oh well. It was better than nothing, and I appreciated the thought very much. And, just in case any of you were wondering, the cheapest way that I’ve heard about to call me is to get one of those international calling cards from Wal-Mart. I was told that they are a really good deal, and you can put more money on them if you want. (For those of you who boycott Wal-Mart, for whatever your reason might be: I don’t know where to tell you to go, but I know they have those cards in other places.) Don’t ever worry about what time it is: I’ll always appreciate the call.

Well, I think I’ve caught you up on most everything I’ve been up to since the last time I wrote. Now that I’ve gotten into the habit of writing less frequently, I think it will continue this way; at least for a while. I was getting to that point where I was doing so many of the same things all the time that it wasn’t really worth writing those things over and over. I’m sure you understand. I hope you are good. Write, send postcards from your own travels, call, or send packages, whenever you feel like it. I’ll appreciate all. Talk to you later.

a bit of reading about where I've been

2009-07-14T03:49:00.000-05:00

July 14, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Have any of you missed reading about my adventures and misadventures? There are a few reasons why it’s been so long. I’ll tell my story and you see if you can’t pick them out.

The power cord/adapter/converter for my computer messed up a few weeks ago, so I don’t even know what the last thing I wrote about was. Last month, after we’d been to the lower Gobi, James came to my home with me and stayed for a week. I went to work for a few hours in the morning and then spent the rest of the day hanging out. That week was the poorest that either of us has been since we’ve been in Mongolia. All we did was cook food, play Settlers (which I started winning more), and hang out with some of my friends. We had a good time, for the most part. One night, though, wasn’t such a good time. Moogie is one of the LCF’s (Language and Culture Facilitator) for the new Trainees that are here. She had just gotten back one day and she came to my place to hang out with James and me. We talked her into cooking tsuivan for us and we ate it all. Some of her teacher friends figured that she had money, so they kept calling her to go and hang out with them so she would buy the alcohol for them. After the fourth time they called, she turned her phone off. They just weren’t trying to hear that she didn’t have any money. After a while, four of them showed up at my apartment, already buzzed. Somewhere, somehow, they got enough money between all of them and went to the store for vodka. They were alright for a while, until one of them started touching my computer. It was my first time ever being around her, so apparently she didn’t know me very well. She knows me better now. I saw what she was doing the first time and told her not to, but she did it anyway. I cussed and left the room for a minute to calm down. An hour later, she did something else to my computer that I saw she was about to do and told her not to. I cussed again, in English, and she got pissed at me. We argued back and forth for a few minutes before she finally got the point to not touch my computer anymore, and just because I’m in Mongolia does not mean I’m Mongolian. I was quite upset. Things finally settled down, then the women got to singing and laughing. It wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door. It was a policeman, saying the neighbours had called them. Great. That’s all I need. The aftermath of that was that Moogie’s boss and mine told her that she can’t hang out at my place anymore. I don’t know why they think they can tell someone not to hang out with someone else, but they did.

During the same week that James was here, the new Trainees came. There are 10 of them, training to be TEFLers (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). I wasn’t in UB when they all first got to the country, so I didn’t go to the airport and meet them all like a lot of other Volunteers. They are actually in the other part of town, so James and I decided to walk over and meet them when they got here. I knew it was mostly to cure our curiosity, though, since they were busy meeting host families and such. A couple days later, James and I were bored, so we walked over to see if we could find some of them. After asking where the new Americans were, a little girl led us to a house and told us one of them was there. We got lucky and arrived right at dinner time, and they were having “boats”!! They were the best Mongolian-made boats that I’ve ever had, too. They put cabbage and green onions in them. I stuffed myself. The girl that was there was happy we came. She had been having a bit of anxiety about being away from her family.

A few weeks previous, I had randomly ran into one of my friends while walking down the street in UB. She told me that her sister is a model at a studio and they were looking for foreigners that speak Mongolian to be in a TV show. When she asked if I was interested, I told her I was. She gave them my phone number and they called me that evening. The Saturday that James and I went back to UB, I was picked up by a guy and was taken to a recording studio. The first thing we did was sing a song – which I’d never even heard before – while we were filmed. There are two Americans, a girl from Vietnam, a guy from Laos, a guy from Japan, and a guy from Pakistan. My singing was terrible, so I was glad to see the final product had been edited in such a way that my voice wasn’t very loud. I spent two weeks in the city doing a few hours of filming each day. We sang songs, recited poems, went to museums and natural parks, ate food, and met famous people. Filming was supposed to finish before Naadam, but for some reason, it didn’t. We didn’t go to the nice restaurant and night club that was planned. Also, there was supposed to be a trip to the countryside, and possibly to the famous lake that is out West. We were originally told it would be on TV and the internet on July 20, but I’m not sure about that now. I’ll let you know when it will be and you can watch me on the internet, speaking terrible Mongolian.

Have I mentioned how almost everyone in Mongolia knows someone that is famous? Especially in the city. If you know who you’re looking at, you could see someone famous all the time. After a day of filming, I had a sudden and unexpected encounter with a famous guy. One of the guys from the studio was giving a few of us a ride and after dropping everyone else off, I was the last one left. Traffic was heavy and he needed to turn left all on a sudden. When he tried to, a guy in a Land Rover dramatically slammed on his brakes. We had accidentally cut him off, but not as bad as he was making it out to be. He pulled along side us and started cussing, then angled his vehicle in front of ours until we were forced to the side of the road and stopped. The other driver got out, opened the driver’s door, and demanded to see his driver’s license. My driver apologised profusely, but the other guy wasn’t trying to hear it. He took the license, got back in his car, and drove away, heading to the police station. We followed him for a little while, thinking that he would stop soon, but the guy went clear across town and never stopped before my driver got tired of following him and took me to where I was going. Come to find out, the other driver was some famous dancer back in the day. Now, he’s old and everyone says he’s going crazy. Sheesh!

I’d spent 10 days in the guest house, at 6,000tg per night. That was a big chunk of my monthly allowance blown. I was lucky when I found out one of the Volunteers that is about to end his service just got a new apartment in the city, and he wants people to stay with him. I stayed with him a few nights and spent July 4th there with some buddies. They had a thing at the embassy for Americans to go to, but I decided not to. It costed 7,000tg to get in, and they had hotdogs and hamburgers. Last year, I would’ve been excited, but I knew better this year. I never like the hotdogs they have in this country. It might be different if they had chilli and all the fixin’s, but they never do. James and I went to the Mongolian barbeque buffet place and stuffed ourselves instead. By the way, it’s nothing like the stuff that you get at the Chinese buffet in America. Still, it was good.

I had more Mongolian lessons while I was in the city. I am progressing little by little every time. There is a set of three books that my teacher has been using. I was good enough when I first started with her to skip the first one. The other day, I finally finished the second one. Now I’ve started the third. This one has a lot more to do with working on sentences and reading and understanding entire passages. I’ve only done the first lesson so far, but I feel pretty good about it. I’ll let you know how it continues.

July 11-13 is Mongolia’s national holiday. It’s the one called Naadam, where they have the three manly games of Archery, Horse Racing, and Wrestling. Do you remember me writing about wrestling last year? I’d thought about going to the huge one in the city, but it’s really big and costs money to get into. Like last year, my town will have their Naadam in August. So, everyone went to the town that is down the road to enjoy their Naadam. I got there around 11 o’ clock Friday morning and was drinking airag and vodka by 11:30. Airag is the fermented mare’s milk that I wrote about before. I’ve gotten used to it and kind of like it now. I had some other stuff called neelmel that is Mongolian vodka made from milk somehow or another. It’s pretty good. When I asked, I was told the alcohol content is about the same as wine. A big part of Naadam is also eating hoshor. That is the fried pizza pocket like thing, though there is only meat inside. They are pretty good, but quite greasy. It rained most of the day, but I was lucky to have friends that own a meeker. I sat inside it most of the time while different people got in and out to socialise. One of the new Trainees wrestled, but like me last year, he didn’t last long. It didn’t help that he’d never wrestled before. When we heard that the horses were close to finishing their race, we hopped in the meeker and went about a kilometre out. When they got along side of us, we raced along side of them, hoopin’ and hollerin’. The driver was flying on the open steppe and wasn’t very careful of the ruts and holes. We were bounced and jounced all around the inside, giggling the whole time. Good fun.

I’d invited the Trainees to my place this last weekend. I knew they would enjoy getting away from all things Mongolian. It must be that time of year, cause it’s been raining a lot lately. They said they hadn’t been walking five minutes when it started to pour. They got to my place dripping wet. When they got semi-dried, we went shopping for stuff for fajitas. I’d cooked the beans earlier, so we just needed to cook the meat, veggies, and tortillas. Since there were so many to make, and they can only be done one at a time, the tortillas took the longest. They were all excited and we stuffed ourselves, and still had leftovers for me later. Yum! They were really excited about the Ranch. I’d been to someone’s ger for one day of Naadam. While I was there, I ate plenty of food and was given a big bag of candy and a big bottle of expensive vodka as a present. I decided to drink that with the Trainees. They were appreciative. As I’d expected, they asked me a million questions about the Peace Corps and Mongolia before we moved on to more general topics of conversation. They all seem to be a pretty good group of people that are excited to be here. Because of the economy, there have been budget cuts that have affected their training, but I think they’ll be alright. We’ll see.

Since I haven’t been on the internet as much as usual, I’ve been doing more reading. I’ve read Hard Times by Charles Dickens, and I’ve almost finished The World According to Garp by John Irving. They are both pretty good books. I’ve already got my next book lined up. In the one I’m reading now, it mentions Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I just so happen to have that book – and passed it up for the one I’m reading now – so it’s waiting for me.

I know this doesn’t do justice to almost a month’s worth of doings, but I hope it’ll satisfy you for a while. The package with the new power cord for my computer will be at least another week in getting here. Let’s hope that’s all it is. I still haven’t gotten that one package from my sister. It had a lot of stuff like Tylenol and Alka Seltzer and other over the counter meds. That sucks, cause I know that stuff, including shipping, isn’t cheap. Maybe it’ll come one day, but I’ve pretty much given up hope. I’ll write more when I can. My boss is trying to get the fast internet that is now in her office ran into my office, but they IT guy is clowning. What’s new, right? Oh well. Hope you are good. Talk to you later.

It's nice to be home.

2009-06-17T00:39:00.000-05:00

June 17, 2009

Well, it’s been another while since I’ve written last. Since it has been, this particular post will be of a different format than usual; and much shorter than it might otherwise be.

I’ve finally returned to my home after a month and a half of traveling. As always, it’s so fun to travel and visit friends and see new places. But it’s almost just as nice to be back home and just relax in a comfortable place where you don’t have to worry about anything. That’s what I’ve been doing since I got here Saturday.

In the last month and a half, I’ve been to four different aimags (states). First was when I went down to Dondgovi (the upper Gobi) for a few weeks to help James with his health project. Next, I went to Khentii for the pig roast, immediately followed by a trip to Selenge to hang out with my host-family.

After coming home for just a few days, I returned to UB and met up with James again. He, Byron, and I tried to buy a bus ticket on the day before we’d originally planned to go on our trip, but all the seats were full. As always, there is a story involved. There are two different places that buses leave from UB. If you want to go East and South, you usually catch a bus on the east side of town. If you want to go West, you usually catch a bus on the west side of town. Since we were going south, we naturally assumed that we needed to go to the east side of town. When we got there, the lady told us that the tickets were all sold out. When we asked her if we could buy tickets for the following day, she asked another lady, then was told that the bus didn’t even leave from there, but from the other side of town. Dang it! The taxi driver said he didn’t know, and felt bad for us, but it was good for his business. Haha. After we got to the right place, they were sold out, too, so we had to leave and go back the next day, since they only sell tickets one day in advance.

The bus ride was a bumpy, uncomfortable, and long 13 ½ hours. That’s the longest trip I’ve ever been on in Mongolia, and I think it’s the longest trip I’ve ever taken. We stopped for an hour lunch break and several pee breaks, getting to Omnogovi (lower Gobi) around 10 o’ clock. We had been very fortunate by getting a recommendation for a guesthouse and went to bed soon after getting there. The ride was so bumpy that we were tensed up the entire ride, trying to hang on and not get bounced out of our seat, so we didn’t getting any kind of rest. We were exhausted by the time it stopped. The next day, all we did was find a driver to take us where we wanted to go the following day, then relaxed, watching several movies throughout the day.

When the driver got there at 8 the next morning, we were ready to go. Even though we were in the hottest part of Mongolia, the weather had turned a bit chilly, with cloud cover because of rain the previous night. I’d accidentally forgotten my jacket at the guesthouse in UB, so I wasn’t as comfortable as I’d liked to have been. The ride was about an hour long and took us to the mountains that we could see in the distance. There is a national park there that has several sights, but we were only going to see one. At the entrance, there was a small museum that was kind of neat. There were all kinds of fossils and stuff. Did you know that the Gobi desert is where a very large portion of dinosaur fossils have been found? Outside the museum and souvenir shops, there were all kinds of fossilised dinosaur eggs lying around. My mom, being a rock collector, would have loved to have one. If they weren’t several hundred pounds each, I might’ve thought about getting one for her. After paying the 3,000tg entrance fee, our driver drove us the remaining 10km.

We went to a place called Yoliin Am. It literally means “Mouth of Yol,” but in this case, it means “Valley of Yol.” When we stopped, the driver stayed with his jeep and we got out and set off walking. Up in the mountains, it was windy and colder than it was at the foot. I missed my jacket even more. After walking a few kilometres and taking many pictures, we came upon the small river. The river goes through a deep but narrow valley in the mountains. By some kind of natural wonder, it’s so cold there that there is ice almost year round. The ice was over five feet deep at most places. It was so deep that it was blue. How cool!! It was slippery, and very cold, but we walked for a while, just because we thought it was so neat. We stopped when we got to a crack in the ice. Byron jumped over it first, giving James and I pause. James jumped over, thinking that would be all the peer pressure I’d need to follow. It wasn’t. Nor was the expectant name calling. I didn’t care. The crack was only a couple feet across, but it was very deep, and the ice on both sides was slippery. I was scared. They finally gave up trying to talk me into jumping and we went back and found the least coldest place to have lunch. It was very neat to say that we ate lunch on five-plus feet of ice, in the Gobi desert, in the middle of June. The next day put us on the bus back to UB. Somehow, it wasn’t quite as bad as the one down there; and it was an hour quicker, too.

This last Friday, some other Volunteers and I met with the ambassador to get some ideas about the life of a Foreign Services Officer (FSO). They are the people that work in embassies around the world and could possibly go on to become ambassadors. There is an FSO exam that I want to take and he gave us a few pointers on how to study. Basically, I need to familiarise myself with the Constitution, Amendments, at least the top 20 landmark Supreme Court cases, and random things about American culture. The test is multiple choice, so I don’t think it will be as hard as I’d originally thought it would be. I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.

This past Saturday night, the new group of Americans came. Their class is M-20, meaning they are the 20th group of Volunteers to come to Mongolia since Peace Corps started their programme here. Most of us current Volunteers are excited to meet them and planned to go to meet them at the airport. James and I, however, were exhausted by our travels and decided to come to my home. Since getting here, we’ve done nothing but relax, eat a lot, watch movies, and play Settlers. By the way, I’m happy to report that I’ve actually started winning some games. We’ve hung out with some of my friends. We had a good time messing with some of them, making them think that James didn’t know any Mongolian. His is much better than mine, so there were a few times I would act like I was translating and he would tell me what was said, then I would say something in Mongolian. It was pretty funny. Tomorrow, the Trainees that will be in my town will come. Actually, they will be in the other part of town, but that’s still close. We will walk over and meet them when they come. I’m kind of excited that there will be Americans here this summer. And I’ve been told that a Volunteer will be placed here after they swear in. That will be awesome. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll let you know how everything turns out.

Alright, I hope you haven’t been waiting too expectantly on this. As always, the biggest reason is my laziness. I still haven’t gotten that second box that my sister sent over two months ago. I’ve been to the P.O. several times this week, but it’s always closed. There are some snacks in it that I really want. Hm, I think I’ll go and check on it now. Hope you’re good. Talk to you later.

I've been here for one year today. It doesn't seem like it.

2009-06-02T10:42:00.000-05:00

May 18, 2009

The presidential campaign is in the last few days, so both candidates have been touring all the places they haven’t been yet. Yesterday, the Democratic Party’s candidate, Elbegdorj, was in the other part of town. Today, the People’s Party’s candidate, President Enkhbayar, came to my part of town. From somewhere, a huge truck with a side that opened up for a stage was pulled to the front of the government building, and there were chairs set up for a couple hundred people. I got there a few minutes before 9 and stood in the back with a few guys I know. After a while, a parade of police cars and SUVs came flying up and the president hopped out with a look on his face like he’d rather be somewhere else. I kept waiting for him to smile and finally saw a brief flash of it after he was well in the midst of the crowd of people offering their hand to him. When he and all the people he was with got to the stage, some other random guy got up and talked for about 10 minutes. When he finished, the president got up and talked for about 5 minutes. Everyone sat down on the stage, and then random people made their way to the microphone that was set up for the crowd. I was sure that it was so they could ask the president questions, but that never happened. Person after person got up and talked for a while, randomly eliciting applause from the crowd, then sat down. I asked Moogie why no one was asking questions and she said it was just so people could tell the president whatever it was they were telling him. When I found that out, after already having noticed that the president was talking to the people next to him and not paying the least bit of attention to the people that were talking, I decided to leave. To say that I was unimpressed would be an understatement.

There were several different news channels there. I had talked to my friend that works at TV5 and she told me that her cameraman would be there and that she’d told him about me. I didn’t think that much about it until I found out that I was on the news tonight. During the story, the camera scanned the crowd, and then stopped on me for several seconds. It’s neat to say that I was on TV, but I really hope that they don’t use my image in any kind of way to promote someone’s political interests.

“I have a chicken.” That’s what one of my friends said to me today. Her birthday is tomorrow, and as I’ve written before, Mongolians don’t like Tuesdays for some reasons. I was trying to ask her what it is about Tuesdays, but I never got an answer. She said that she wouldn’t go out with her friends because it was Tuesday, then told me that she had a chicken. I was being silly and asked her if she wanted me to cook it for her. As it turned out, she’d meant to say that she IS a chicken, and that’s why she wouldn’t go out tomorrow. That led to several minutes of non-stop laughter.

I knew that my sister had sent a couple of boxes to me several weeks ago, so I went to check the post office today. Sure enough, there was something for me, but only one of the two boxes. Before I could leave, though, I helped the postal workers with some English they were working on. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I stayed there for a few minutes. When I got home, the box from Ann had bacon, Circus Peanuts, salad and potato toppings, bacon bits, pinto beans, canned diced and whole tomatoes, strawberry jam, strawberry muffin mix, corn bread mix, hot sauce, 2% boxed milk, and fudge brownie mix. Thanks, sis. I really appreciate it.

Saturday night, I shared a cup with Julia and James. I got Julia’s cold. Dang it!!

May 19, 2009

I washed clothes today. After being gone for two weeks, it was sure time. While that was going, I finished The Count of Monte Cristo. I’ve seen the movie before, but it was nothing like that. You know how the movie focuses a good deal of time on his exploits in prison? There’s not that much focus in the book. And you know how there are several sword fights in the movie between the main character and others? The main character didn’t fight once in the book. The book was really good. I played Settlers with Ambaa and Tsegii this evening. I’m not sure if they didn’t understand or didn’t like the game, but they didn’t seem that into it. I won, but it was too easy to count as part of my record. For my dinner, I didn’t have quite enough flour to make the tortillas that I was trying to make. I used some biscuit mix and the tortillas turned out like flat biscuits. They were pretty good, though.

My camera works! While I was away, Yellow James plugged my camera’s memory card into his computer and made it where I could access all the pictures. This morning, I moved 420 pictures to my computer and uploaded them to the internet. To look at them, click on the link at the top right of my blog. Enjoy!

May 20, 2009

My cold has worsened. My head feels like it’s ready to implode. I finally looked through the med-kit that PC gave us and found some Sudafed. It worked wonders to help me breath better. Other than lie in the bed and watch movies, about all I’ve done today was pack for my trip to the pig roast and to see my host family.

May 21, 2009

I met Jason and a random American tourist named Kyle when I got to UB. We found a place that had nice tables and played billiards for a while, then met other Volunteers at Ikh Mongol and had a few drinks. Everyone is excited about the pig roast this weekend.

May 22, 2009

Woke up early and had breakfast at Amsterdam Cafe. I’ve never had a full English breakfast before, but the person I was with told me it wasn’t the real thing. Oh well, it was still pretty good. Around noon, I went to the market and secured a meeker for our trip. The guy was excited when I told him there were 10 of us. There ended up being 11 of us, and we were packed in. On the way, we saw a huge Chinggis statue made out of metal. It’s just out there in the middle of nowhere, next to the road. It’ll be in my next batch of pictures for you.

When we got to Khentii, we went to the wholesale store and bought lots of alcohol, since we won’t be able to for the next 5 days. Because of the election on Sunday, they are restricting sales. After the riots that burned down the People’s Party headquarters and saw five people shot by the police last year, they aren’t trying to take any chances this year. There are about 15 of us here now, having a good time, enjoying each other’s company.

May 23, 2009

When we got the invitation to go to the pig roast, we were told to bring some kind of side dish of our own. I brought Ranch dressing, pinto beans, Jell-O, macaroni and cheese, and Circus Peanuts. I spent the first part of the morning cooking, and then a group of us walked out and met the others that were already by the river. They’d found a nice spot amongst the small trees and made a camp. They already had an old bed frame converted to a barbecue pit going when I got there. We put our beers in the river to keep cold, stripped down to our bathing suit/underwear, and sat in the frigid water for a while. The water was so cold but the sun was bright and shiny. It wasn’t long before I could feel the sunburn on my back. That’ll be with me for a few days, I’m sure.

After a while, everyone else showed up. There ended up being about 20 or so Americans and about 10 Mongolians. There was all kinds of food and I tried some of every bit of it, dipping most of it in Ranch dressing. I was stuffed! We had lots of leftovers, but as always, there were lots of little kids there begging for some of it. A couple people gave some to the kids, then they told them to leave. The kids paid us no attention and just invaded our camp and took anything they could get away with. I was pretty upset about that. I hate living in a place where you try to be nice and give something to someone, then they continue to take more than they were offered. I know it’s a cultural thing, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.

We played I don’t know how many games of Settlers. It seems it doesn’t matter who I play with, other than Mongolians, cause I just don’t win. If I didn’t like the game so much, I would give up; but it’s addicting. I don’t mind. It’s fun.

May 24, 2009

We didn’t do much but sit around playing games today and cooking and eating more food. There are a couple women here that are very good at baking and we guys sure enjoyed that. Ha, especially when they brought it to us and we didn’t have to get up. That’s always nice. Though everyone is having one last hurrah before we leave in the morning, I’m in the bed early tonight.

May 25, 2009

We were up and met the meeker driver by 9 this morning. It was the same one who brought us, so he was expecting 11 of us again. He seemed a little disappointed when there were only seven of us. About half-way back to UB, we told him we wanted to stop and eat. He pulled in at a little place and we all got out wanting “boats.” They didn’t have them and we started to go somewhere else, but the driver told us no other place had them, either. We ordered something that is similar to boats, then went to the store to buy some drinks. We had to walk a long way to find a store that was open. On the way, we passed by several restaurants that were solely for boats. Drat!! I knew that driver had to be lying. I don’t know what his reason for that was.

When I got to UB, I hung out for a few hours, then got on the night train to visit my host family. I’ll get there early tomorrow morning.

We found out that Mongolia elected a new president. Considering all the crazy last minutes rule changes that have happened in the last couple of weeks, we’re all quite surprised. When we got to the city, we saw all kinds of people decked out in the Democratic Party’s gear. Of course, the knuckleheads were still out and about. We were crowded in the taxi, so one of the guys got out a few blocks early, by himself. As he was walking, a guy flicked his lit cigarette at his face. When he asked the guy what his problem was, the guy’s buddies came walking up. My friend said he had a hard time swallowing his pride and walking away, but he knew it was in his best interest to do so. Always a jackass to mess up something good.

May 26, 2009

I got to the station in Sukhbaatar at 6 this morning, then to my host-family’s house at 6:30. They were all up and expecting me. The sleeper on the train is way too short for me, so I didn’t sleep well. After a small breakfast, I went to bed for a couple hours. After I got up, I just sat around and visited for the rest of the day. I went to the store once and got caught in a dust storm. Those things suck. Not only does the dust get in my eyes, but also in and on absolutely everything else that is exposed. There’s no taking a bath til I get back to UB, so I’ll just be dirty til then.

This evening, after a good dinner of hoshor, one of the family friends came over with a small bottle of vodka. He said they weren’t selling alcohol today, and he didn’t know I was coming, so that’s all he had. The seven of us that were there made quick work of that, then my host-dad pulled out the litre bottle that I’d given to him as a gift. That took a while longer to finish.

May 27, 2009

The combination of greasy hoshor and vodka had my stomach upset all through the night. This morning, when I went to go to the outhouse, no one was around and the dogs were still off their chain. You remember those stupid dogs that I wrote about last summer, right? I thought I would chance going by the dog that was lying next to the front porch, but it raised its head and started growling as soon as I stepped out the door. I stepped back inside and grabbed the broom, thinking that would help. It didn’t. My host-mom came running from the outhouse, hollering. When I looked at her, the dog lunged toward me, stopping right before it got me. Man, I hate dogs. That thing scared me. I had a hard time waiting for her to get them tied up. I’ve had diarrhoea ever since then. I ate six Pepto tablets and decided to leave early today. I took a car to Darkhan, then another to UB. It snowed the whole time. Luckily, I was in and out of a tired stupor, so I didn’t have to worry about crazy driving. I got into the city right at 4. That’s much better than tomorrow morning. I’m sure glad I had taken those Peptos. This evening, I’m at the guesthouse and going to bed early.

May 28, 2009

I woke up and got ready to go to the meeker about the same time they were to get into UB. I dropped my bags off in the meeker, knowing the driver would watch them closely, then went to the market to do some shopping. I’ve been in there twice before, but this was my first time alone and with the intention of actually taking my time and buying some things. I wasn’t there 10 minutes when I found a booth selling Mongolian DVDs. I’ve written before how Mongolian movies are hard to come buy. As I was asking about different movies and such, the vendor walked away. Before I could finish the thought, “I could walk away with any of these and get away with it,” a guy came from my right, swiped a movie, and kept walking. Before he could get past the stand on my left, that vendor demanded the movie back, then punched the guy in the face for his efforts. I really and truly had no intentions of taking anything, but that made me sure of it. I took my time walking around and saw all kinds of things that I’d like. I knew that would be the case, so I made sure I only had a small amount of money when I went there. I bought a 10-movie DVD, a shot glass, metal chopsticks, a whet-stone, a large mixing bowl, some house slippers, and a broom with a handle on it; and I checked on the prices of bicycles and tents that I plan on buying when it gets warm enough to be outside overnight.

May 30, 2009

I’ve not done much more than watch movies and try to get rid of this diarrhoea for the last few days. As far as I’m concerned I don’t think it’s related, but I’ve heard that nine of us that were at the pig roast have gotten sick. While we were there, we all exchanged movies and TV shows, so that’s been my entertainment for these last few days. I used the last of my cheese and made pizza tonight. That was good stuff. I’ll have to get some more soon.

May 31, 2009

Moogie has been chosen to be one of the language teachers for the PC Trainees that will be here this summer. As a result, she will be in UB for the next couple of weeks to train, then live in the other part of town once they get here. Since we probably won’t hang out for a while because of that, she came over tonight and ate pizza and watched a movie with me. She was pretty good friends with the guy that was here before me, so she’s starting to understand some of the stupid and crude American humour. We watched a movie called College that was as bad as you might guess it to be. She kept asking if certain things were true and I was a bit embarrassed to say that most of it was.

June 1, 2009

Today is Child’s Day in Mongolia. It’s a day where the children are celebrated and spoiled even more than they already are by giving them gifts and candies and letting them do whatever they want. Drivers turn on the lights of their vehicles. That’s good, since the other 364 days they let it rain, snow, or be dark and don’t worry about lights, as long as they can see what they’re doing. My friend asked me when Child’s Day is in America and I told her they don’t have that day. She said, “Oh, it must just be every day in the U.S.” I laughed and said, “Uh, yeah.”

I tried to get on the internet this morning and found out that I’d forgotten to pay my bill. Drat! They don’t give any leeway when it comes to that. And, of course, Skytel is closed today, so there’s no way to pay before tomorrow.

June 2, 2009

Today, I have been in Mongolia for one year. Can you believe it? It doesn’t really feel like it’s been that long when I think back on it. Check out some of the other blogs I have links to and see what they’ve written about their last year.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to post this for you. I’m about to go back to the city and then meet a friend and go to the lower Gobi this next week, then go and meet the new Americans when they come; so it might be a while before I post again. Know that I’m thinking about you and I’ll write something as soon as I get a chance. I hope you are good. Talk to you later.

P.S. Ann, that second box still hasn’t come yet. I don’t know what the problem is. That’s just Mongolia’s postal system, I guess. Maybe it’ll come eventually.

Ah, it's nice to finally be home.

2009-05-17T10:05:00.000-05:00

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.

Chillin' in the Gobi (literally)

2009-05-08T09:08:00.000-05:00

May 1, 2009

I posted last week how Shuree and some of her students were going to come to my place for pizza. They showed up with a bottle of vodka, beer, and a cake that someone had made just for me. It had green icing like the kind you might buy to put on a cake in the U.S., and it was the best cake that I’ve had since being in Mongolia. The girls loved the pizza, saying that it was better than the pizza place in UB. That made me smile. They left after about two hours, leaving me with a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Maybe I’ll get them cleaned up when I get back on Sunday.

May 2, 2009

As usual, I went to UB for my Mongolian lessons. Today, I learned how to say that one think is like another. As always, there is more than one word to use, and depending on which two things you are comparing, there is a different way to say it. It was fairly easy, though.

This evening, I went to a birthday celebration for a girl that is a friend of a friend. She’s Mongolian, but she was raised in Germany. It’s kind of funny that Mongolian is her third language. While there, I met two American guys. They have been in the country for about four years working, and neither of them seemed to have anything nice to say about Mongolia, Mongolians, or the Peace Corps. One of them was just an idiot. When he started talking about how no one really cared about Mongolia, I wasn’t the only one who was offended. Instead of spending the rest of the night with them, I went to the guesthouse when they went to dance. That’s put me in the bed at a decent hour.

May 3, 2009

Today’s lesson consisted of the two ways to say “because” and the two ways to say “so.” That was pretty easy, so we moved on to different ways to say that I want something. I already knew one way, but the other is a stronger way to say it. I’m glad to learn it. It will be helpful. Right at the end of the lesson, I filled up my notebook. Since I can’t count the notebook that I’d had during training – that one was stolen from me, if you remember – this is the first one that I’ve filled up. That was a neat feeling of accomplishment.

On my way to catch the meeker, I met a cabbie that wanted to just sit and talk to me. He knew a little bit of English and wanted to practice with me. I told him I didn’t have time and left. It didn’t matter too much, though, cause I didn’t make it to meeker on time. Just like last week, it had already left. I don’t know what’s up with that lately. I was lucky enough that there were a couple of guys from my town with cars, so I got some tsuivan and got in one of them. I seemed to have picked the wrong one, though, since the driver crammed 5 people in the back seat and charged more than the meeker. I was really upset about being crammed in there. My legs were hurting and falling asleep until I finally put them across another guy’s lap. Since that was the only way for me to get home, all I could do was sit there and steam silently. I will not ride with that guy again, that’s for sure.

May 4, 2009

I went back to UB today. My friend James asked me last week if I wanted to help him with a health project, and since I’d only been waiting for an excuse to visit him, I figured this was a perfect opportunity. He lives in the Gobi desert, which is south of my town, but I had to go north to the city in order to get a ride. As you might imagine, you can find travel to anywhere in Mongolia, but it’s not always the most efficient. You often have to go to, or through, UB to get somewhere.

As soon as the meeker stopped in the city, I bought and ate some “boats” while sitting there. When I got to the PC office, I went looking in search of my favourite PC Medical Officer. He’s a really good guy and I always make a point to stop and say what’s up when I’m in town during the week. It was his lunch time, so I went with him to a Chinese restaurant. It’s the first time I’ve eaten Chinese since being here. Just like the last time we ate lunch together, he paid, saying that he knows he makes many times what I do. I was very appreciative. After that, I had him look at my throat. I’ve been having symptoms consistent with enlarged, swollen adenoids: mouth breathing, not resting well at night, constant build up of phlegm, etc. When he looked, he told me that I have an infection on one side of my tonsils and gave me a 10-day supply of penicillin VK. Let’s hope it helps.

At 3 o’ clock, I met James’ hashaa brother. Hashaa basically means fence/yard. Each Volunteer that lives in a wooden house or a ger lives in a hashaa with a Mongolian family that makes sure the Volunteer is taken care of. I was quite lucky that he was in town, so I didn’t have to pay the 11,000tg to ride the bus to the aimag (state) centre that is 70km away, then however much more to get to James’ place. His brother’s name is Shonkh and he has a paragon. It’s my first time riding in one. A porogon kind of looks like a Russian version of a Volkswagen van. It’s really basic, but tough cause it has a high clearance, off-road tires, and 4-wheel drive. When I opened the door to put my bags in, it was lined with all kinds of beer. Holey Smokes! His family owns a store, so that’s what it was for. Before we left the city, we made three or four more stops to get various things. On the way out, he was going kind of slow, but I figured he knew what he was doing, so I didn’t say anything. As we went through the gate going out, we stopped to wait on his friend that was to ride with us. We sat there for about 20 minutes then Shonkh suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten something. Dang! So, we turned around and went back into the city to get a bunch of oil.

When we picked his friend up on the way out, we started our five to six hour trip. For the first 30km, the road was paved, but we were only going between 30-40km/h (24-31mph). Again, I didn’t know why he was going slow, but I figured he had his reasons. After that first 30km, the road changed to dirt; and there wasn’t just one road, but three or four parallel roads, mostly going in the same direction. Occasionally, one of them would split off and run in perpendicular course. Shonkh never hesitated in his choice of which one we took, and his speed had suddenly increased to around 70km/h (43mph). Considering the poor condition of the road, it seemed like we were flying. It made me think of what my mom would say if she’d been in there with us: “You’re scaring the mommy!” It was obvious that he’d made the trip hundreds of times before, so I trusted him and enjoyed the ride. I saw my first ever eagle fly out of our path, innumerable mice scurry from the road to their holes, rabbits, and random birds. Other than the random birds, I haven’t seen any of those animals since I’ve been in Mongolia. It was cool.

About an hour before dark, Shonkh suddenly turned off the road and drove into the vast nothingness. Once we got over the hill there was a random ger. They were herders living there and they’d combed their goats for that most wonderful item we call cashmere. Shonkh would get out alone, go in and visit with the family for a few minutes, then come back and get us and his scales. We would drink a little tea, eat a traditional Mongolian pastry or harden milk curd, load up the cashmere, then get back in the porogon. We zig-zagged through the countryside, stopping at two or three more gers, repeating the above. When we got back on the road, it was dark, but Shonkh’s speed didn’t decrease at all. He seemed to have an internal GPS; his decisions seemed to be as infallible as if the sun was directly overhead. After a while, he suddenly turned off the road again, heading into the distance. Did I mention that there are absolutely no landmarks? I mean, nothing that my uneducated eye could discern anyway. But he never missed his mark. We went straight to a ger that would never be found if you didn’t know exactly where it is. When we left there, we headed out again, full speed. Our five to six hours had long been surpassed, so when he started looking around, I thought maybe he was looking for the soum (small village) that he lives in. He turned off his lights for a second and I was sure that’s what he was doing. Off to our right, we saw a signal light, and Shonkh immediately made for it. It was another random ger. Were they expecting us? How did they know we were there? There is absolutely no cell phone signal, so the rendezvous had to have been set up in advance. Shonkh traded some of his gas, which a couple of guys siphoned from the paragon, for a bag of meat.

It was another 2 hours before we finally got to James’ soum. I’d previously given up looking out for lights that would mean the distant sign of life and had let my heavy eye lids close their selves. My grip on the OH-CRAP! handle never loosened, though. Around 11:30, we pulled into their hashaa. James was waiting on me. We stayed up til almost 2, talking in his ger.

May 5, 2009

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It’s really hot today. I guess that’s to be expected, since I am in the Gobi desert. Even worse, I had started making water during the day. I’d forgotten how quickly that will make a small, enclosed area heat up. James and I were sweating all day, wearing nothing but shorts. Speaking of, James had a pair of shorts that were way too big for him that he gave to me. They are a little big for me, but a belt takes care of that. I’d gotten some tequila in UB to celebrate today, so we drank that as we cooked fajitas for James’ hashaa family. I used to really dislike tequila in the U.S., but it doesn’t seem that bad now. After a year of drinking crappy vodka, almost anything is welcome. We invited his manager over, also. I don’t think they liked the fajitas as much as we did. No matter: I got my fill. I’m stuffed tonight.

May 6, 2009

Not long after I woke up today, the other James came. He lives in the aimag centre (capital) and has come to help us with the project that we will teach. Here’s a funny story about him. The James that lives here is Korean. The James that came here from the centre is white. The Mongolians were talking to us and said “Yellow James” to distinguish between the two. Going on how Americans often say that Asians are yellow, I figured that they were talking about the Korean James. Come to find out, they were calling the white James yellow. I thought that was pretty funny how white people call Asians yellow and Mongolians call white people yellow. We didn’t do much but hang out today. We had lots of leftovers from yesterday, so we ate fajitas again. Luckily, we didn’t have but a bit of flour, so I wasn’t able to stuff myself again.

May 7, 2009

We woke up to no power today. It seems like they don’t tell James about when the power will be out anymore than my town tells me. We found out it will be out tomorrow, also. We had originally planned on doing our project today, but Mongolian-itis kicked in and it was moved to tomorrow. Since there will be no power tomorrow, we’ve moved it to Saturday. Since we have no power, and there was nothing to do, we just hung out. Three guys sitting in a one room tent, about 12 feet in diameter has the potential of being kind of boring. Luckily, we all get along pretty well. Ha, that reminds me of the best knock-knock joke ever! I got Yellow James good.

Person 1: Knock knock.

Person 2: Who’s there?

Person 1: KGB.

Person 2: KGB…

Person 1 (Suddenly slapping Person 1 in the face and adopting a Russian accent): We ask the questions here!

Ah, good stuff. I hope my buddies back home use this one on each other and credit me. Somebody be sure to get Chubbo before he reads this!

When James talked to his manager today, she found out that we just ate some snacks for our lunch, since the power was off and we weren’t able to cook. She felt bad for us and invited us to her home for dinner. We got there at 6:30, and 10 minutes later, tsuivan was plated up. James had told her that tsuivan was my second favourite Mongolian food, so she piled my plate so high that it was spilling over the edge. For once, I had the sense to not eat it all, though I could’ve crammed it in. I knew that she would give me more if I finished, and I didn’t want to waste any more than the little I didn’t eat, so that was another reason to not eat it all. When we got home, we lounged around and watched movies. I’ve gotten lots of new music and movies from these guys since being here. You know I always enjoy that.

May 8, 2009

After that first day that was so hot, it turned cloudy and really windy. It was not very cold, so it was okay. That changed last night. I woke up around 6:30 this morning to use the outhouse and felt some moisture on the wind. When I got out of the bed a few hours later, the rain had come in earnest, and it was cold. By the time we went to the school, the rain had turned to sleet. Not long after getting there, there were big flakes of snow coming down. I was amazed at how much it was snowing in the middle of May, in the Gobi desert.

We had gone to the school to print out stuff for our project. I guess the rain had deterred whoever was going to turn off today’s power, so we decided to take advantage of it. The only thing was, James’ director had the printer we needed locked up in her office. We sat there for a couple of hours, waiting on her to return from the political meeting she was at. She never did. It was still good that we went, though, cause we were able to work out the bugs with the projector. So, if the power is on tomorrow, and we’re able to get to the printer, we’ll hopefully be able to do what we’ve come here to do. I’ll let you know.

Since things have been moved back a couple of days, I think that will put me back at my site sometime next week. Not a big deal, though, since I’m here to help, and I’m having a good time visiting while I’m at it.

I hope you are doing good. Write when you can. Talk to you later. See ya.

Saying bad words are bad, umm kay.

2009-05-01T12:13:00.001-05:00

April 25, 2009

We talked about how to make plurals at my lesson today. I was confused again. Making something plural is something that I’ve wondered about for a long time, so I was glad to learn it, but boy, it is confusing. There are about five different endings that you could possibly use, depending on what kind of word you are pluralising. Then, like almost everything else in Mongolian, you can sometimes use two or three different endings for the same word. Surprisingly, one of the endings is the simple “s,” like we use in English. Not surprising is that using the simple “s” ending is kind of rare.

This evening, I’d made plans to cook for Taivan and his family. Not long after my lesson, I met him at the Democratic Party’s main office. Among his many jobs, one of them is with the DP. I had been invited to hear the DP presidential candidate speak today, but it was at the same time as my lesson, so I couldn’t. I would have liked it, I think. I’m interested in politics in general. When we left, our first stop was at the grocery store where we bought lots of food. He was paying for everything, and wanted the real deal, so I got everything I could find that would be good in fajitas. After buying everything, the only thing we didn’t have was the Ranch dressing that I’d forgotten to bring with me. At his home, I immediately went to the kitchen, acquainted myself with where things were, then got to cooking. It was very helpful that he helped me cut things up. I’ve written before how my knife skills are kind of slow. He saw that quickly and offered to help. I was glad, since that made things go quicker. We were all slathering for fajitas. Unexpectedly, for a guy that brings in a good deal of money, his apartment is newer than mine, but about the same size and setup. We spread a table clothe on the floor and ate in the living/bedroom. As always, it was fun to be reaching across each other and waiting to get at whatever someone else was currently adding to their tortilla. I told them I’d cook pizza for them next time. They’re excited about that, since they’ve both been to America before and really like pizza.

When I left Taivan’s, I met some friends and went to a Korean restaurant. One of the guys is planning on quitting the Peace Corps on Monday, so it’s likely that I won’t ever see him again. (He said he was only planning to stay here as long as it benefited him, and it no longer benefits him.) We decided to have a little get together with him, one last time. Even though I’d just finished a full meal, I still ate a little bit. I really like Korean food. When we left there, we went to karaoke. It’s the same place that we went to before, where we had our own private room. The Mongolians that were with us were punching buttons and singing before we could even get settled. They aren’t the least bit self-conscious about bad singing, like a lot of Americans. As always, I didn’t sing the first note, but I enjoyed watching and hearing everyone else.

April 26, 2009

During today’s lesson, I learned how throwing a single letter in the middle of a sentence can replace an entire word that would go in a different place in the sentence. For example, instead of saying “my only sister,” you can say “sister L.” Or, to say something like “nothing,” “never,” “no one,” or some other negative, you can add “ch” after “thing,” “time,” or “one.” That was good to learn, cause those things are used in writing all the time.

On the way to my lesson yesterday, I saw a jeans store. I stopped in to check out the price and the quality and decided that I was going to buy a pair. It’s a Wrangler store that also sells Lee’s. I went back with money today and found a pair that I kind of liked for a price that I was willing to pay. Just like in the U.S., some of them costed close to $100. I found a pair of Lee’s for 58,500tg, that are almost too cool for me. They are the kind that look like they’ve already been wore and worn out, with holes in a couple places. I was sure to make sure that it only looked like holes and that there were sturdy patches on the backside. My waist is a size 34, but I always bought 36’s in the U.S., just cause I liked the way they fit. In the U.S., though, I had a lot more selection and usually bought my jeans from American Eagle or GAP. The 36 Lee’s I tried on didn’t fit like I wanted around my thighs, so I ended up buying 38’s. Oh, and they have a button-up fly. I really don’t care for that; but like I said, they costed the price that I was willing to pay.

When I got to the market, I found that I’d barely missed the meeker. Dang it! I was standing there with a couple other people from my town, trying to figure if I was going to have to stay in UB another day when another guy from our town came along, smiling. When asked, he told us that he had a car. How lucky! I was ready to go home, to my own apartment. Another good thing is that, unlike most people who have private cars, he didn’t charge us more than the meeker price. Usually, people with their own cars will charge at least 500tg more. Before I got in the car, I was sure to get some “boats” for the ride.

Yesterday, on my way to meet Taivan, I walked by a book vendor that I always see. I always walk by slowly to see if there is anything that catches my eye. He lays his books out along the corner of a building, and on the wall he had a humongous map of Mongolia. He’d had it marked down to 5,000tg, from 8,000tg and wasn’t willing to do any kind of haggling. At about 3ft x 6ft, that was a good deal, so I bought one. I taped it to the wall in my living/bedroom when I got home. Man, that thing is big! It’s an old map, from 1992, but it’s still cool.

My cable was finally fixed Friday, after being off for about a month. When I talked to the cable guy a few weeks ago, he told me that someone had cut the cable in my building, and he was going to fix it that day. True to Mongolian style, it wasn’t fixed that day. Tonight was the first time I’ve watched TV in almost a month. I had all the channels memorised before, but now they are all different. Since he determines all that stuff in his office, at the main reception box, I don’t know what that has to do with the cable that was cut in my building. While watching the news, I learned about the current Pig Flu Scare that is going on in the world. According to the articles that I’ve read, a flu pandemic can hardly ever be successfully predicted, but I hope you take care of yourself. Take all the precautions you can.

April 27, 2009

“I’m Khalkh! I’m a real Mongolian!” That what I heard one of my friends say this last weekend. She was just being silly while talking to another Mongolian girl, but when I heard her say that, I stopped and looked at her. When I asked her to clarify, she repeated the same thing. I told her that, yes, she was a real Mongolian, but so were the other ethnic Mongolians that aren’t Khalkh. Just cause there aren’t as many of them doesn’t mean they aren’t real Mongolians. When she tried to argue with me, I said, “That’s the same as me telling my friend that has Korean parents that he’s not a real American, because he isn’t white. Or, even worse, it’s like telling one of my black friends that they aren’t a real American, because they aren’t white.” She said, “That’s different, cause American people came from a different place before living in America.” I said, “Okay, well, in that case, you’re not a real Mongolian, because no matter how long ago it was, Mongolians came from somewhere else before settling in Mongolia.” She didn’t have anything to say to that. I really dislike racism; even the subtle kind. I’m sure it’s because I’m from the outside looking in, but I notice it here in Mongolia more than I ever have before. Whenever I see or hear it, I try to do my best to say something, with the hopes that every little bit helps. It’s a tough job, though.

The following story is copied from a friend’s blog.

A Mongolian Children's Folk Tale
Once upon a time there were four animal friends walking in the forest. A wolf, a fox, a hedgehog, and a rabbit. Suddenly, they found a bottle of vodka in the middle of the road! However, they thought that the bottle was too small to share amongst the four of them, so they decided that whoever got drunk the quickest would be allowed to drink the entire bottle their self.

"I get drunk after just one taste of vodka," said the wolf.
"I get drunk after just one smell of vodka," said the fox.
"I get drunk after just one look at vodka," said the hedgehog.
"I get drunk after just hearing about vodka," slurred the rabbit.

So the rabbit won and got to drink the entire bottle of vodka by himself. THE END.

This evening, just as I was finishing my dinner, washing clothes, and watching a movie, Tsegii knocked on my door. Cool, I thought, I always enjoy her company. That is, until one of the high school students followed her in. I knew there had to be some kind of reason that I wasn’t going to really care for. Sure enough, I was right. It’s getting to be the end of the school year, so they are all preparing for upcoming tests. He had a notebook full of English questions and he wanted me to help him with it. He told me that his test is tomorrow. Dang it! The first thing I said was, “What’s up, man?” In Mongolian, he said, “Huh?” In English, I said, “What is your name?” In Mongolian, he said, “Huh?” I saw where this was going, and I wanted no part of it. In Mongolian, I asked him what he wanted and he told me that he wanted the answers. I sat down next to him with the notebook and started on number 1. He didn’t understand a single word. The sentence said something about a photographer and that “reminded” him that he was supposed to have his picture taken at school – at that exact moment. He left and didn’t take his notebook. Tsegii and I started going through it, and I used it as a lesson for her. The boy was supposed to come right back but didn’t. After 30 minutes, I asked his teacher if he had a test tomorrow and why he was asking me for help. She said that he did not have a test and that he was not in class this morning when she gave them the answers. I immediately took the notebook from Tsegii and told her that we were not going to do it for him, since he should be asking his friends for the answers; especially since he wasn’t even here to learn anything. To make it even worse, some of the sentences were grammatically incorrect; and some of them didn’t have the right answer. That really made me mad. It’s almost 11 now, and he still hasn’t shown up. Grr!

April 28, 2009

Yay!! Today, we got an email talking about the results of the Living Allowance Survey that we filled out a couple months ago concerning Peace Corps/Mongolia. In order for anything to be taken into account by Washington, D.C. (the people who set our salary), at least 75% of PCVs had to fill it out and turn it in. Over 90% of us did so, which is almost unheard of in the Peace Corps. As a result, two things will change, as of May 1, 2009. The base pay will increase to 196,400tg, and all PCVs will be paid the same, no matter where they are in the country! Before, people living in UB were paid the most, due to highest prices; people in so-called “special aimag centres” were paid more, due to high prices; and people in the countryside were paid the least, due to the lowest prices. Even though people in the countryside had often complained about having to pay as much as people in UB, in some cases, due to the distance from everything else, it didn’t matter until these surveys were filled out and Washington, D.C. could see it officially. That will be awesome for them, since that will be about 40,000tg more for them, per month. It means 21,000tg more for me, per month. I can definitely use it.

Last night, I was talking to a buddy and he told me about the awesome French fries that he’d made. That reminded me that I hadn’t eaten any good fries in a long time. Since I’d never made any before, I thought I’d give it a try tonight. I looked up a recipe for a simple batter, then got to cutting up potatoes and onions. It didn’t take long to make and fry them all. While I was in the fridge, I saw my bacon and was reminded of an article I read a while back talking about some place in the U.S. that batters and deep-fries strips of bacon and thought I’d try it. I mixed together a lot of catsup and mayo, got some Ranch, then sat down to my dinner. It was yummy, greasy goodness. I’m sure I’ll regret all the grease tomorrow, but until then, it was totally worth it.

April 29, 2009

Those of you that know me well know that I have worn a hemp necklace almost every day for the last 10+ years. I wear it partly just because I think it’s cool, but a big reason is because I am a strong supporter for the legalisation of hemp in the U.S. Because of my interest in this subject, I have just finished reading a book called The Emperor Wears No Clothes, by Jack Herer. This is a very informative book that details all the uses of hemp (e.g., clothe, fuel, food, medicine, reversing the greenhouse effect, etc., etc.) and the “conspiracy” of the government to maintain its illegality. If this piques your interest, go to your nearest library and pick up a copy. It’s a very enlightening look about the history of the U.S. and its politics concerning hemp.

May 1, 2009

This evening, Shuree and four of her students came from UB to my home. I’ve been telling them for quite some time about all the good food that I cook and they’ve always get excited just hearing about it. I’ve always told them that they are more than welcome to visit me and I’ll cook for them. They finally decided that they would come today. Originally, they were to leave UB at 5. Since they are Mongolian, it was 6:45 before they left, which put them here around 8:30. When they arrived, the five women came in and got settled in right at the same time I put the first pizza in the oven. As soon as the first one came out, I put the second one in. After cooling, that first pizza was quickly eaten. Only because they are girls (I think) and they don’t eat as much as the same number of guys, two pizzas were all they needed. I’d prepared enough dough for four pizzas but didn’t need it all. You know what that means: I will get to eat pizza at least two days in the coming week! I’m looking forward to that.

They didn’t stay very long before they left, but I’ve been up late tonight, doing random things. I hope you are good. Write when you can/want. I always like hearing from you. Take care.

P.S. Mom was nice (brave?) enough to point out a spelling/grammar mistake that I’d made last week. I was sure to fix it immediately. If you happen to see anything like that in any of my postings, please let me know. I really dislike those kinds of things.

Pizza 3 nights in a row!

2009-04-24T05:48:00.001-05:00

April 18, 2009

I came to UB yesterday to hang out with friends. I knew that it was time for James and Evan to get back from Cambodia, so I wanted to be here to hang out with them. For lunch, I’d already eaten some good Korean food, but I went with some friends that were in town to Nayra’s café. It’s an “American” style place, so lots of PCVs like to go there. Their pizzas don’t have tomato sauce, and their burritos don’t have beans, so I consider it to be fake American. I just hung out and chatted, then when they left, I stayed with another friend that came later. I didn’t really have anything to do until time for my lesson, so I enjoyed the company of people that I don’t get to see that much.

We talked about verb tenses during my Mongolian lesson. When she first said what we were going to be talking about, I thought, “Oh, I know that stuff.” As it turns out, I only know about half of it. There is a past tense, past negative, unknown past, unknown past negative, known past, two known past question tenses, known past negative, present continuous, and present continuous negative. I struggled to say the least. I was glad to learn them, though, cause I see them in writing all the time and never understood them. Of course, writing and speaking are usually very different. Also, there is a “proper” and colloquial way to pronounce almost every word, too. There are even a few letters that can be pronounced a couple different ways. Crazy!

I hung out with Eegii for a while after that, just sitting outside. She’s a nice girl, but shy to talk. Her reading and writing are really good, but her listening and speaking are lacking. When she left, I met another friend and we went to a rock concert. We got there right on time, but we ended up sitting in the bar for over an hour, wasting time, cause they weren’t ready to let people in yet. We had free 10,000tg tickets from her rock-star boyfriend, though, so we weren’t complaining. I don’t really care for rock music, so I was glad that we actually had nice seats to sit in. The headline band actually had a lot of English songs that weren’t too bad. I might have even liked them if it wasn’t way too freaking loud, like any typical Mongolian performance where speakers are involved. We decided to leave early and went to the nicest restaurant I’ve been to in Mongolia. It was down some back alley that I never would have gone down myself. It was a little pricey, but it was worth it. I had had plenty to eat that day, so I just got an appetiser that was advertised as being hot. When I asked the server, he told me it was okay. I told him that I wanted it very very very hot and he just smiled at me. I guess that was the smile that means, “Yeah, sure buddy, I’ll tell you what you want to hear, then bring you what I want to bring you.” The food was really good, but I would’ve preferred it to have been about ten times hotter.

James and Evan got back from Cambodia around midnight. I’m staying in a guesthouse with some other PCVs and we were kinda-sorta celebrating one of the girl’s birthdays. Things were starting to wind down and I was starting to think about going to bed when James called me. Of course, they revived the party, and everyone ended up going to bed around 5:30. James had a bottle of Muscle Wine that he brought back with him. On the box, it actually said that it would help you get into shape and build muscle. We laughed and talked about how you will never see that on alcohol sold in the U.S. Have you ever had Mad Dog 20/20? The stuff kind of tasted like that. I’m sure it was that cheap, too.

That reminds me: I’ve been taking pictures for you, but I haven’t been able to put the pictures onto my computer. You see, that crazy virus that I had before got onto my camera. I don’t know if it’s just that memory card, or if it’s the camera, but when I connected it to my computer, my anti-virus thingy took care of it. Now I can’t upload the pictures. I’m trying to figure it out. I’ll let you know when I do. My memory card is almost full, so I hope I figure it out soon.

April 19, 2009

I practiced reading newspaper ads and reports at my lesson today. It built on what I did yesterday. Mostly, I learned a lot of new vocabulary. That’s always the hardest part for me. It seems like right when I get one word down, my teacher or someone else will use a different word that means the exact same thing. That confuses the heck out of me and they look at me like a fool.

I met the guys at Cola and Kabob for lunch. Since it’s getting warmer, the street kids are a lot more visible these days. One came in and started going to everyone’s table and asking for food. One guy gave him the rest of his kabob and he ran out. Another kid came in and stood around the counter until no one was watching him, then grabbed a cup of coffee and ran. Another came in and started trying to sell newspapers until one of the workers went to run him off. His first instinct was to cover his head with the newspapers to avoid the wallop that he knew was coming. Luckily, he only got some harsh words.

I decided to stay and hang out with James and Evan for another night. Of course, Donny is always in UB, so he was there, too. He’s a good guy. I like him a lot. We got some alcohol and went back to the guesthouse and didn’t leave until the next morning. It might have been better if we had left, though. We watched hilarious comedy shows and played cards, being our crazy guy selves until late into the night.

April 20, 2009

It rained last night and that turned to snow before morning. In the city, it didn’t take long for everything to melt and just make a wet mess. In the countryside, though, the snow cover was still there and it was nice looking. I’d gotten so used to what Mongolia looks like with a nice blanket of snow on everything. It’s taking me a bit to get used to the ugliness of bad roads, mud holes, and dead animal carcasses.

I feel terrible after three nights of little sleep. When I got on the meeker, all I wanted to do was not worry about anything on my way home. Two drunk guys that decided to get on the meeker changed those plans. I don’t know what they were doing, cause I’ve never seen either of them before; and no one on the meeker seemed to know them, either. It was like they were just rambling through the parking lot and decided to get in with us. They were talking loud and cussing and the women were trying to get them to shut up and go to sleep. (I’ve recently learned all the Mongolian bad words for a project that I’m working on, so I understood the ones that they kept shouting at each other.) At the place where we have to stop to give the cops our passport info, the drunk guys got out and bought another bottle of vodka. At first, the women told them to not drink it. After they saw they were having no effect, they seemed to adopt an “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude. The women that I was sitting next to pulled beers out of their bags and started passing them around. I just smiled, then refused all alcohol that came my way. My stomach was in no mood for that kind of stuff.

After making tortillas and eating the last of my fajita leftovers, I’m to bed before 8 tonight.

April 21, 2009

I think I’m officially getting old. My head was still feeling out of it at work today. The little girls that always come and ask me for candy, then put on a show like they’re crying, got on my nerves quicker than usual today. It really makes me mad when they come into my office and start going through all my things, begging me for candy, then tell me I’m bad when I don’t let them do absolutely whatever they want. I keep hearing that Mongolians still follow the idea that “It takes a village to raise a child,” but I’m yet to see that evidenced anywhere. I think I’ve written before how I will never think of an American kid as being spoiled again.

This afternoon, when I was on the way back to my office from lunch, I ran into Densmaa. She told me to go with her, then we went the school. There, she talked to kids and parents about colleges and vocational schools and gave them contact information. From there, we went to the other part of town and did the same thing. While there, we met people from Nalaikh, who were here to check out our school system. When we came back to my part of town, we went to the kindergarten. After the usual tour through all the classes, we were served dinner in the director’s office. I was glad when they brought in lots of “boats.” About the time we finished eating, two bottles of vodka were pulled out simultaneously. One person got each bottle and started dispensing shots. You’d be surprised how many times two litres of vodka will go around for about 10 people. I thought we were finished when the last was poured, but I was wrong. Densmaa said, “Now we will go to the natural bar.” There are no bars in my town, so I didn’t know what she was talking about. The two people that had been pouring the shots were the drivers, so it was good that they hadn’t drank anything. We piled into our respective vehicles and left town. We went down the road a little ways toward Nalaikh, then pulled over on the side of the road. We then all crammed into the meeker where they pulled out boxes of meat, bread, and fruit; then started passing around two more litres worth of vodka. I was sure to eat as much as I could. They got a kick out of me reaching for the fat when I was given a shot. That’s a Mongolian thing, and they know that most foreigners don’t usually like to eat hunks of fat at all, let alone chase their vodka with it. Anything to get the vodka taste out of my mouth.

April 22, 2009

Something to think about:

I used to have an African friend in the U.S. that was raised in Africa. She told me that she was a Christian, but she insisted on the reality of voodoo. She told me that if someone were to put a curse on a person, that person could literally die as a result. Here, I have a Mongolian friend who has told me of the reality of shamanistic curses. She’s Buddhist, but she claims that very bad things can happen to people because of curses put on them. Neither claim to follow these beliefs, but both are scared to death of them. I think it’s all in what you believe. I mean, if you believed it enough and someone put a death curse on you, I can see how that would put you in such a state of stress that you would die because of it. My friend here told me that her mom – who proclaims to be Buddhist – went to a “wise woman” to ask about my friend’s business and who she will marry. The wise woman told the mother that my friend already has someone that she plans to marry. When her mom saw her, she demanded to know who it was and got very angry when my friend insisted that she wasn’t even dating anyone, let alone planning to marry anyone. But, before you start to think about how crazy all of this sounds to your Western way of thinking, stop to think about how your ways of dealing with the unknown sounds to someone here. Just something to think about.

April 23, 2009

Today, I woke up and cooked biscuits, gravy, country ham, and eggs; then put a bunch of strawberry jam on top of all of it. I think that might be my favourite breakfast. I’m sure I’ve lamented about not having good ol’ American whole fat milk here before. I’ve totally gotten used to the powdered milk that I have (which is much better than Mongolian milk), but I still miss the whole fat stuff. I had leftovers, so that was my lunch, too. Yum!

Today, I worked on a joint consulting firm proposal for my friend Taivan. He asked for help, and I never mind, but I had a hard time, since I don’t know exactly what the guy wants. He told me to edit it and add some things, but since this is the first that I’ve heard about the whole thing, there was nothing I could add. I told him that would have to wait until this weekend so I can meet with him and ask lots of questions.

April 24, 2009

This evening, I’m cooking pizza for some of the teachers. Remember a couple weeks ago, when I said that the Peace Corps came here to check on stuff for PST? Well, the day before, I asked one of the teachers if she was ready. I don’t know how, but she misunderstood and thought that I was saying I was going to make pizza for them. It’s the same group that I cooked fajitas for before and they’d been wanting me to cook pizza for them. Instead of clarifying what I was talking about, she told the group that I was going to cook for them. They were disappointed when I went to UB instead. I told them it wasn’t my fault, but that didn’t matter. Now, I hope that their sore breasts will be aleved. (I could’ve sworn “aleve” was a word. I guess the popular pain reliever has made its way into our vernacular as a verb.)

“What?!” you say. Well, in the world of sociology, it’s a well-known fact that different cultures manifest bodily pains in different places for different reasons. In the U.S., a person might get a sore neck due to stress. In China, a person might get a sore back due to stress. In the U.S., a person might simply have feelings of frustration due to being disappointed – or whatever happens. In Mongolia, women’s breasts get sore. I get a giggle out of it every time, but I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate me laughing at them. Let’s hope the pizza helps.

Remember the pants that I told you I ripped on the barbed-wire fence a while back? I finally got them sewed up where you couldn’t really tell. Well, it seems like I’ve had them long enough for them to naturally get a hole from wear and tear and washing. When I went to put them on this evening, my big toe caught the new whole and ripped them right nicely. Dang it! I’ve been asking where I can buy some good quality jeans in the city. I guess I’m going to have to step up my search. I hope they don’t cost too much.

Alright, I’m going to go and get those pizzas to cooking. I hope that you are good. Write me when you can.

Pizzas and fajitas! I never get enough.

2009-04-16T02:25:00.000-05:00

April 9, 2009

I had another first this morning. When I was brushing my teeth, my toothbrush broke. WTF?! I didn’t think that I was putting that much pressure on it, but I guess I was wrong. It snapped right in two. That’s what I get for using cheap products, huh? Good thing I have a backup.

April 10, 2009

Today, people from the Peace Corps were in my town to get ready for Pre-Service Training (PST). They were at the school all day, looking at resumes and interviewing potential Mongolian teachers. When they left this afternoon, I got a free ride to UB. It was probably the most comfortable ride I’ve had since being in Mongolia. It was a nice Landcruiser and, counting the driver, there were only four of us. During the ride, I explained what Easter is all about, and what an Easter egg hunt is like.

I’m staying with Mendee this weekend. His wife is gone to Japan until next week, so we’ve stay up late and had lots of guy talk. As always, I can tell that he misses it as much as I do.

April 11, 2009

Surprisingly, I woke up early this morning. I hung out with Mendee for a while, and then went to eat Korean with Shuree. Have I mentioned that I’d never had Korean – other than kimchi – before I came to Mongolia? It’s so good. The place we went to today was quite cheap. The two of us got stuffed for 7,000tg. After that, I had my Mongolian lesson. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have a teacher. I’ve learned more in the short time I have with her than I have in the last several months. And the best part is that I’ve already been putting it to use.

This evening, I met Eegii. She is a journalist at TV5 that I met through another friend. After sitting and chatting at a café, we went to watch “My Evil Neighbour” at the theatre. It’s a new Mongolian movie, and though I didn’t understand everything, it was very funny. One of the guys is always saying the equivalent of “Right?” and it’s an instant catchphrase. It’s something that most Mongolians don’t say that much, so it definitely gets attention. Mongolians looked at me funny when I said it to them this evening, until I explained it was from the movie.

Tonight, I went to Ivory Club. As always, I walked there and it ended up being much further than I’d expected. Even worse, it was in a part of town that I’ve never been to. The place is a really nice Japanese restaurant/club. A PCV named Kevin played his guitar and sang and Brian DJ’d old American rock songs. There were a lot of Westerners there, but there were still more Mongolians. They seemed to enjoy the music as much as we did.

After walking everyone to their respective guesthouses, I went to Mendee’s. He knew I was going to be out late, so I wasn’t too worried about it as I knocked on the door. Then I knocked again. Then again and again. I started getting worried. After about 10 minutes, I figured that no one was going to wake up, so I went to the Peace Corps office. I finally got to sleep around 4.

April 12, 2009

After only four hours of sleep, I woke up early and went to Mendee’s. He felt bad about not answering the door last night, but I told him to not worry about it. When I left for my Mongolian lesson, I stopped at the store to buy more cheese for pizzas. That stuff is expensive at 5,000 for a small block. I did pretty good at my lesson, though I was tired. At the end, my head was fuzzy and I was starting to make a few silly mistakes. She knew I was tired, so she was patient. I ate “boats” at the meeker stand. I never have any catsup, or any other condiment, but they are good. And cheap, too. I forgot to write that I ate boats yesterday. The only place I could find that had them sold them for 400 each. Usually, they are only 250 each. At the meeker stand, I got 10 for 2,500; and they come with a bit of slaw. They are always enough to fill me up for the rest of the day.

One of my friends was supposed to go to Thailand for vacation in a few days. Well, the riots there spoiled that for her. That stinks. I wish Thailand could get their act together, for their own sake. With 18 or so coups in the last few decades, life has got to be crazy there. I hope they figure it out soon.

April 13, 2009

Today, I was standing outside the government building, waiting for something to start, when one of the guys grabbed me and told me to come with him. As usual, I had no idea what he had in mind, but I followed. We went into a hall where we had a meal for everyone from the family of a guy that died last week. I still haven’t figured out what that’s all about, but I sure appreciate it. We sat down at a table full of food and candy and were immediately served milk-tea. Next, we were given big bowls of soup. When we left, we were given a gift bag. In mine, there was hand soap, tea, incense, and matches. As I’d learned before, I took out one of the matches, struck it, and let it burn til it went out. This time, it didn’t take long for it to go out. When I struck the match, the head broke off and fell into the palm of my hand. Youch!!!!

When I left there, I went back outside to where I was in the first place. There was some kind of education celebration going on. The governor, my boss, and someone else got up to give a speech that no one seemed interested in; then groups of kids danced, sang, and recited poetry. The wind was blowing very hard and was whipping up all kinds of dirt. Right at the very end, when I was getting ready to go inside, a piece of dirt that felt the size of a small car blew into my eye. It took me forever to get it out.

Since the wind was way too strong to do any footbagging, I ran to the military base and back for today’s exercise. I really miss being able to run on a regular basis. On the way there, the wind was at my back, pushing me to go faster and faster. On the way back, it was all I could do to maintain a jog, partly cause I’m out of shape and partly cause the wind was so strong. You should’ve seen some of the looks I got when I ran back into town. Mongolians don’t run for fun, so they think it’s weird that anyone else might. When I got home, my face was muddy from dirt mixed with sweat. I guess that was the impetus for a few of the funny looks. Haha.

It was more pizza for dinner! Yum! I’m so glad that it is so easy to make.

April 14, 2009

This morning, I was awakened by some crazy noise. At first, I thought it was a rain storm and was glad: I don’t have any way to get to work without being soaked, so I’d planned to stay in the bed. After a while, I realised it wasn’t rain. When I went into the kitchen to see what it was, I found out it was my fridge. It was making noises like it was about to blow up any second. I figured there was nothing I could do about it, so I just got ready and went to work. It had quit making noise by the time I got home.

This afternoon, the university students that are here for their internship did a thing for the kids called You Are the Future. As always, I hardly understood anything. It lasted about two hours and I just sat there, looking like a tar-tar. At the end, Densmaa wanted me to say something, but I told her I had no idea what was going on, so I wasn’t going to. I’m getting to where I kind of dislike being on display, just cause I’m the American. It might be different if they actually asked my opinion every once in a while.

This evening, Ambaa didn’t show up. That was okay with me. Instead, Tsegmid and Manibazar came. They are the building worker and military commander, respectively. They are pretty cool guys. I was just finishing some lima beans, so we ate those with the beer they brought. Afterwards, we watched a movie. This time, Tsegmid stayed awake through the whole thing.

April 15, 2009

I finally finished the letter to the kids that I write to in the U.S. Several of them had mentioned how long my previous letters were, and that I should write a book, so I kept this one short. I hope they enjoy it just as much.

I invited the university students to my place for dinner this evening. They showed up right on time with a bottle of Coke. That was good, because I never have anything to drink but water. They came right as I was finishing cooking and one of them enjoyed helping me roll the tortillas. Mongolians are always surprised at the dough, since it is much softer than normal Mongolian dough. Also, they are taken aback when I don’t put oil into the skillet. They all enjoyed the fajitas. I really like the social aspect of it, with everyone reaching across each other to get something else to put into their tortillas, then fighting to keep it from breaking apart as they eat, giggling the whole time, watching everyone else to make sure you or they are doing it right. When I asked them which movie they wanted to see, one of the girls was adamant about watching Harry Potter. I think she’s in love with him or something. We were sure to tease her about it. We laughed a lot and joked about the movie I watched last weekend. They’ve seen also, but it still took them a minute to realise that I was messing with them. Since their Mongolian is a million times better than mine, they soon turned the tables on me. I didn’t mind. It was pretty funny.

April 16, 2009

Since I don’t get to take care of my chores on the weekends now, I spent time today doing them. After washing all of last night’s dishes, I did some laundry. I still haven’t taken the winterisation stuff from my windows and balcony doors, so my clothes are spread throughout my living room to dry. I think I’ll be able to open them soon, so that’ll be nice. It will dry my clothes faster, too. I’ll just have to watch for any dust storms that might happen. It would suck to wash them and then submit them to that.

I hope you are good. Write when you can.

at less than 60 F, I've been really hot this week.

2009-04-07T23:09:00.000-05:00

March 31, 2009

I must retract a statement that I posted back in October of last year. In it, I said that Carl likes fatties. Truthfully, I have never seen him with a fatty, nor have I ever heard him express any wishes to be with one. So, let it be known that the Crizzle Crazzle does not like fatties. Now, uglies are a different story. Hahaha.

This morning, I helped Moogie with her CV and cover letter. My town has been chosen to be one of the training sites for the next group of Trainees, and the Peace Corps is going to hire a couple of Mongolian teachers at each site. Everyone in town that knows about it is excited about the Trainees coming here. It will bring a little bit of money to the town and get their name out there. While she was working on that, I fixed all the computers in her lab. The students keep downloading games and other things, and getting viruses on the computers, and keep doing it, no matter how they are threatened. I made it to where they couldn’t download anything without administrative privileges. Maybe that will keep some viruses out of town and away from my computer, too. Let’s hope so.

This afternoon, I went up next to the school to play footbag. The kids are on the second week of a two week vacation, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone interrupting me. I had a good workout and got 180 kicks. Not bad. I’m going to see what I can do about beating my record of 1,040. I’ll keep you posted.

This evening, I returned home one minute before Ambaa showed up. After washing our hands, I took him into the kitchen where we washed dishes and made pizza. He had never eaten pizza before, so it was cool that I could introduce him to it. When we were putting the toppings on, I gave him a piece of bell pepper and told him to dip it in Ranch and eat it. He raised his eyebrows and exclaimed, “No!” I laughed and told him it was okay before dipping a piece and eating it myself. He hesitatingly dipped his and ate it but didn’t like it at all. Mongolians do not eat raw vegetables like Americans often do. He barely swallowed that bite and wouldn’t eat anymore. He kept going on about how it was raw. I just laughed and told him that it was good. He said he liked the pizza.

April 1, 2009

A while back, I was talking to some Volunteers from the group before mine. They told how they had discussed with the medical team what would be the smallest injury to earn a trip to Thailand. Mongolia doesn’t have all of the medical services that are available in today’s world, so if something really bad happens to us, we are sent to a place that has what we need. The closest place is Thailand. From their discussions, they deduced that the smallest injury they could “accidentally” inflict upon themselves to earn a free trip to Thailand was to chop off a thumb. Today, I found out how true that is. As I was cooking my dinner, I was trying really hard to cut through a frozen chunk of meat. I was listening to music and not paying attention to much else when there was a loud bang on the door. My attention was diverted and was quickly followed by the knife. As a result, I no longer have a thumb on my left hand. It was cut off right below the joint by the palm of my hand. As I type this now, I’m sitting in the airport, waiting for the flight to Thailand. It’s hard to type, and it hurts, but the pain medicine I was given is working wonders. Have you ever tried to type when your brain is totally relaxed? It makes for lots of mistakes and backspacing. They said there might be a chance that it can be sewn back on. Cross your fingers for me.

Just kidding. April fools!!!

Today has been eventful, but not quite that much. As I was walking through my building, a couple of the guys were doing something, so I decided to help them. I carried a projector to the car outside, and then rode to other part of town with them, just because. We just dropped the stuff off and came right back. When I went for my lunch break, a guy that I see around town told me to follow him. I had no idea what he wanted, but I followed. He took me to his place and told me that I’d be eating lunch with him. Sweet! I met his niece, Bormaa, and in so doing, found a fourth person here that speaks good English. She cooked tsuivan for us and I enjoyed it. When we left, I was invited to dinner and I promptly accepted.

I went for more footbag today. I got a good workout, getting 307 kicks. At this rate, I’m right on track to set a new record this summer.

Back at the place I had lunch, it wasn’t long after I got there before the “boats” were ready. Unfortunately, some of them were made with innards and they kept finding their way onto my plate. I reached for the regular ones when I could, but I usually didn’t get a chance before the others were put in front of me. Densmaa came right as we finished eating, then they pulled out the alcohol. First was a bottle of 10% cocktail mix that was quite sweet. Beer was introduced later, around about the same time as the vodka. I was glad that I had a full belly of food. The women wouldn’t drink but a sip of the vodka, so that left me and the only other man there to drink the bottle ourselves. Luckily, it was a small one.

April 2, 2009

I woke up with a cold and have sneezed a lot today. I don’t know where it came from, but I think my immune system took a beating yesterday, with the exercise and subsequent drinking. I persevered with my footbag, though, and got outside. It was way too windy to do much more than jump around, flailing arms and legs, looking like a fool. That’s all I need for a good exercise session, so I wasn’t too worried about it. I played with two different groups of kids that came along. The first was a group of girls that have probably never done anything like that before. The second group was some teenaged boys who have obviously played the Mongolian version. A couple of them were quite good.

April 3, 2009

I guess I was out of it when I went to bed last night, cause I forgot to make some water. And, of course, I only had a small bottle left. After I took an expectorant, the lack of water really did a number on my head. It felt extra fuzzy all day and I was out of it. I left work early.

When I left, I went to pray and meditate at the OBOO. The wind is just a little bit chilly, but the weather is getting to be really nice. I was there for a while before I was interrupted by some rude kids. I heard them coming way before they got there, but chose to ignore them. When they got there, I could hear them whispering about what I was doing. After a few minutes, one of them yelled, “SAN OH!” HELLO! I thought my persistence would deter them and they’d leave me alone, but I was wrong. After the second, “SAN OH!” I opened my eyes and told them they were being rude and asked what they wanted. They just gave me the thumbs up and told me what I was doing was good. I nodded and went back to it. Just a minute later, another boy yelled curses at someone in the distance. I opened my eyes again and chided them for using foul language. It wasn’t long before they wandered off into the distance. I could hear them singing as they walked shoulder to shoulder, to a different OBOO. I finished a while later and they came running toward me when they saw me stand up. They just wanted to talk to me. I didn’t have any hard feelings, so I joked with them a bit before coming home.

This evening, I’m totally worn out and feel like crap. I hope going to bed early will help my cold.

April 4, 2009

My cold was practically gone when I woke up this morning. I was glad of that as I got on the meeker to come to UB. I slowly made my way into the centre of town and saw an advertisement for a freestyle wrestling tournament. I walked right in the building and sat in the stands and got to watch for a while. The wrestling was a little sloppy, but I was glad to see it. I really wanted to jump down on the mat and see how I’d fare.

My reason for coming into the city was for Mongolian lessons. I can’t find anyone where I live that is willing to teach me, no matter how much I offer to pay. When I asked the PC Language Coordinator to recommend someone in UB, she told me about Tsetsgee. She runs classes for English, mostly, out of the Stuppa Café. In the two hours that I spent with her today, I felt like I learned more than I have in the last several months. She charges 5,000tg/hour, which is a bit steep, but I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. Let’s hope so. I don’t really need to know more Mongolian than I do now, but it’d be really nice to make myself understood.

Since I had a cold and didn’t want to pass it on to Mendee or his family, I decided to stay at a guesthouse. As another Volunteer said, “You won’t give it to someone you know, but strangers are okay.” Haha. I didn’t think of it like that at first. I stayed at the Golden Gobi. I think that is my favourite guesthouse. It’s quite large and really nice. This was the first time I’ve ever seen that many people there. It’s getting warm, which means it’s tourism time in Mongolia. I met several cool people. As you know, I really enjoy that. I met Raphael, from Canada. This is his second trip to Mongolia. He was here about 15 years ago and learned how to make gers. This time, he came back to visit the same people who taught him before, and to perfect his skills a bit. When I asked, he told me that he can’t sell a ger for less than $15,000. Holey smokes! They don’t cost any where near that here. I also met Anna, Claire, and Amanda; two Americans and a Swiss girl. They were here for a school break, from their studies in Russia. Since I had nothing better to do, I offered to go with them to take care of some errands. Their first stop was at a pharmacy, where they bought anti-diarrhoea medicine. They had been on some excursions into the countryside, and apparently the food didn’t agree with them. One of the girls was in bad shape. After we went to a café for their dinner, I took them to the train station. They had told me how they’d had terrible experiences with cabbies (no surprise there), so I made sure they got to where they were going without incident. They even paid for my cab ride back. That was cool, cause I’d planned to walk.

April 5, 2009

I slept horribly in a room full of strangers. I think I was the only American. None of them seemed particularly concerned with being quite when they went to bed. This morning, I woke up and studied before going to my lesson. Here’s another example of how hard Mongolian can sometimes be. In two different questions, the only difference is one letter. One question asks what time I went to sleep and the other asks how long I slept. It’s crazy the difference that one letter makes.

I hadn’t had much to eat by the time I made my way to the market to go home, so I waved down the first vendor that walked by and bought some “boats” to eat at the meeker station. I’m glad I ate, cause I waited an hour and a half before we left; then we made another stop for about 30 minutes before we left the city. Right before the turn to my town, I got off and got in another meeker with Bormaa. Her aunt and uncle – the people who gave me lunch and dinner last week – were there, visiting with someone else. They had both just pulled to the side of the road and were hanging out. When I got in with them, I was promptly given two 1/3 cup shots of vodka and a shot of 10% cocktail mix. Needless to say, I had a bit of a buzz when I got home. I was sure to drink lots of water.

I found this story online. I’m not sure where. I thought you might like to read it.

http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2446&Itemid=42

“While the swastika, as numerous historians and authors note, has its origins in a Buddhist tradition and was bastardised by Germany’s National Socialists in the early twentieth century…”

I have one thing to say about the above quote. It says that the swastika came from Buddhist tradition. While most people in Mongolia will tell you that is so – and it kind of is – the swastika actually pre-dates Buddhism by a millennium or two. Buddhism branched off from Hinduism, from which the symbol was borrowed. Hinduism, however, inherited the symbol from the Aryans, before Hinduism became what it did. The Aryans had invaded and took over their culture a really really really long time ago. The Aryans used the swastika as a symbol to represent the sun they worshiped.

April 7, 2009

I was quite busy today with the social workers, visiting poor families. Three university students from the city are here for a three week internship, studying to be social workers. We walked around to the two different ger districts on this side of town and asked the poor families all kinds of questions. In a few of the gers, I saw the dirtiest homes I’ve ever seen here. Mongolians, for the most part, keep very clean homes. In one of the gers, everyone had a layer of crusty dirt on their bodies and clothes; not to mention the furniture and floor. There was more dirt in the air inside the ger than there was outside. We went to five or six different ger families, and after lunch, we went to several families living in apartments. You’d be surprised how small of a space an entire family can crowd into. The six of us made it that much more crowded.

My footbagging earned me 898 kicks this evening. I thought I was going to be able to get more, but as always, one slightly miscalculated kick sent that awry. Oh well. There’s always tomorrow.

After Ambaa left this evening, Tsegmid brought a couple of beers. We drank those while I cooked dinner, then we started watching a movie. It wasn’t long til he started nodding off and decided to leave.

Oh yeah. I found out that I will not be a trainer this year. Maybe next year. All’s good. That just gives me lots of free time this summer. I see some short-distance traveling in my future.

April 8, 2009

It’s Wednesday morning. I’m finally posting this for you. I hope you are well.

If you know Matt Rhodes, tell him I said he has a big head and he should keep his helmet on. Something that big is bound to get knocked around, and that can’t be good.

Pizza Monday

2009-03-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

March 23, 2009

I got two things in the mail today. The first was letters from the kids that I write to in the U.S. I always smile when I get those. They repeat a lot of questions that I’ve already answered, though. The second thing that I got was a package with two CDs and card from a really good friend in the city. I’m always looking for Mongolian music that I might like, but never know what is what or if I’ll like it. She sent me some music that she thought I might like. It’s not bad.

Walking around today, it was a little bit warm. There was a strong wind, but it wasn’t too bad. Or so I’d thought. I went down the road a little way and played footbag in the street. Some of the people in the cars looked at me crazy when they drove by. I gave them a wide-berth when I saw them coming then started playing again when they went by me. The wind turned out to be a little colder than I’d anticipated. Next time I’ll take a pair of gloves with me. It took a lot of jumping and kicking to get my blood pumping to all my extremities and get warmed up. Considering the wind, and how long it’s been since I’ve been able to seriously practice, I didn’t do too badly.

March 24, 2009

I came to UB to hang out with James and Evan today. They were still in the bed when I got there and they laid there talking to me for a long time before they got up. When they finally did, we went to eat Korean. I really like that stuff. Before the end of the day, other friends came to the guesthouse and we took it over with PCVs. Out of eight single beds and a double-person room, we filled all but one bed. That evening, we all went to Ikh Mongol and watched a really cool band. That is, everyone except James. His excuse was that he was going to play a video game so he could “beat the dragon.” As you might imagine, we all teased him real good about that. The band is a really popular one here. They play traditional instruments and have throat singing, but they’ve electrified the instruments and added drums. They sound really good. Whenever I can remember their name, I’ll find them on YouTube and send you the link.

March 25, 2009

For lunch, I met with a friend at Coffee Empire. I was surprised how much it looked just like any coffee shop you might find in the U.S. When I left there, I went walking around town to check out Skymall and Mercury Mart. Both of those tend to have lots of stuff that is hard to find at other places. I’m still on a search for my pizza ingredients and those are the places that I’ve been told have them. Later, a couple of us guys went to a cheap guanz (diner) for my tsuivan fix. It seems like I never have that anymore until I order it at a place in UB. It was good.

Tonight, I’ve hung out with lots of people at the guesthouse, having a good time enjoying American guy humour. Somehow or another, we got to playing rummy today. Evan and I were the only ones there who knew how to play, so we taught everyone else. They picked it up pretty quickly and went with it. At first, it was just me and James playing. Then, more and more people joined in. At some point, someone introduced alcohol into the mix and, after every new person that joined, we changed the rules appropriately. Ah, leave it to some ex-fraternity boys to make it interesting in some way. At the end, there were just four of us guys and I think that it one of the absolute funnest times I’ve had since being in Mongolia. We sat around and made fun of and laughed at each other for a couple hours, never getting to take more than a few breaths before something else funny was said or done. (By the way, MS Word is telling me that “funnest” is not a word. Anyone know what I should use in its place? Maybe it’s just a brain-fart, but I can’t think of anything.)

March 26, 2009

I hung out for a while before slowly walking toward the meeker. I always get shin splints when I go to the city. I think the biggest reason is that I walk several kilometres throughout my day when in the city, whereas I walk nowhere near that distance at my site. I tried to stretch my shins out well but they’re still sore tonight. I was lucky at the market and caught the early meeker, right before it left. I was glad that I didn’t have to wait very long. That’s unusual for me.

When I got home, my power was off and meat blood had thawed and dripped out of the fridge, into the floor of my kitchen. Dang it!!! When I checked, someone had turned off the breaker to my apartment. That really makes me mad. I really need to see about getting some kind of lock on that thing.

March 27, 2009

When I was walking around town today, I saw an advertisement on the side of the Culture Centre. There was to be a movie tonight, and it only costed 2,000tg to watch. I had forgotten about it when I started watching a movie at home, and then remembered right before the second showing was to start. I quickly got dressed and went. There were about six people there when they started the movie only 15 minutes late. I counted 20 people by the time everyone got there, 30 minutes into the movie. It was definitely not a good movie experience. The movie itself was a little bit less than good and almost every person in there talked to their self, their friend sitting next to them, their friend across the room, or to someone on their phone. I have problems paying attention anyway, so that exacerbated things immensely. I was quite perturbed, to say the least.

Tonight, I found part of my blog quoted online. This is from a site that has all kinds of stuff about the Peace Corps, but it’s not the Peace Corps, so keep that in mind. Here’s the link to my blog quote:

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/3213958.html

March 28, 2009

I just want to say hi to Alex’s mom. What do I do at work, you ask? Let’s just say that I can make it looks really good on paper. Thanks for reading. Haha.

I came back to UB today. My first stop was at a shop that is near the black market. I got a new spring/fall jacket. I’d stopped by that store a couple of times, and the last time, I found a cool Adidas jacket that is perfect. I had thought that I was going to buy a jacket at another store for 80,000tg. I prefer the Adidas brand, and the price was only 45,000tg. I talked the lady down to 42,500.

From there, I went and hung out with Mendee. I had planned to go with him to his work for the day and maybe help him out. When I asked him what time we’d leave, he told me the sports competition that they were supposed to have had been canceled. The sports complex had caught fire that morning and it was way too smoky to have it. So, he took me to a place close to his place and I got a hair cut. I was lucky this time because the guy that was sitting in the chair before me had his hair cut just like I wanted mine. I told the lady and she gave me the best haircut that I’ve had since being in Mongolia. All the Mongolians kept telling me that my hair looked good long, but I just couldn’t stand it. After that, he showed me a nice market where I’ll do most of my grocery shopping tomorrow. At the front of the store, there was a little movie selling counter. When I asked for real Mongolian movies, the guy showed me a DVD with about eight or nine movies. I bought it for 4,000tg. That’s a much better deal than the two VCDs I bought before, for 5,000tg.

This evening, I met some Mongolian friends and went to see Othello the opera. It was my first opera ever so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was alright. The only thing that I saw that might not be equal to something on Broadway (or whatever famous place in America that has operas) is that Othello kept watching the maestro for his cue. No matter where he was standing, or which way he was facing, he would position himself in such a way to be able to see the maestro. It was a little bit funny. The singing, though, was awesome. I’ve already talked about how much Mongolians love singing. It was easy to tell tonight. Afterwards, I met some friends at the Chinggis Brewery. There were 11 of us there. Some had been there for a couple hours before I got there. After a certain point, they made us pay our tab before they would serve us more. They didn’t think we’d be able to pay for what we had, so they wanted to be safe. I thought that was kind of funny.

March 29, 2009

This morning, I woke up early and went shopping at the store Mendee showed me yesterday. I only had to get three other things at another store. I got yeast, veggies, cheese, and tomato sauce for future pizzas. The yeast was much easier to find than I thought it was going to be. For my lunch, I met Shuree for lunch at Broadway Pizza. I hadn’t seen her in a long time, and she wanted pizza. I think that place is supposed to be the best place in the city to get pizza, but some of the okay pizza in the U.S. is better than it is there. They don’t put tomato sauce on their pizzas!!! It just doesn’t taste right to me.

I hung out at the Peace Corps office with a couple of PCVs for a while and then made my way to the market where I waited an hour and a half for the meeker to leave. I barely missed the one that left right as I got there. At home, I washed dishes and watched one of the Mongolian movies called “Stain.” It was pretty good.

March 30, 2009

10 Facts about Mongolia, from the VSO website:

http://www.vso.org.uk/about/cprofiles/10_facts_mongolia.asp

Today, during my lunch break, I made pizza dough. It was cool to play with the yeast. I’ve never made pizza dough from scratch before. The recipe was really easy, only needing water, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, and flour. After mixing and kneading, I let it set for about 45 minutes, then kneaded it some more. I let it set until I got off work, then kneaded it and let it set a bit more. I cut it in half and put half in the fridge for later, then rolled the rest out into a small, shallow pan that I have. I added lots of tomato sauce, cheese, tomatoes, peppers, pepperonis, and a little kimchi on one piece. The pizza took less than 20 minutes to make. It was hard to wait long enough for it to cool down, but I persevered. When I finally took that first bite, it was nothing but yum-yum in my tum-tum. I ate every bit of it. Oh, and of course, I had a beer with it. The two yeasts just go so well together that it’s hard to separate them.

I hope none of you have been holding your breath for this. If so, you can let it out now. I hope you’re good. Tell everyone that you know that I know that I say hi. Write when you can. Talk to you later. See ya.

Sometimes I'm awed when I stop to think about where I am.

2009-03-22T09:27:00.000-05:00

March 16, 2009

Not long after I woke up this morning, I received a text message. “Cool,” I thought, “someone is thinking of me.” When I checked it, it was from the Peace Corps. It was a warning for bad weather for the next two days. Since that time that I walked 6.5 km from the other part of town, in -32 degree Celsius, I’ve paid attention to the weather messages we get. When I went outside, there wasn’t much going on. All day, I watched out my window, waiting for something to happen. Other than looking like trouble was brewing way out there, nothing happened.

I read a National Geographic magazine the other day and saw a neat article about why we need the dark. In the back, there was a snippet about the article and a website for the International Dark-Sky Association (darksky.org). When I checked the website out, I saw that they are doing a study right now and they want everyone’s help. All you have to do is go outside and find one of three different constellations, count the approximate number of stars that you see, and then enter some data into their website. They are trying to determine how much of the world is affected by light pollution. I went out tonight to see what I could see. The square in front of my building is pretty lit up, so I decided to walk out into the field behind the building. I got all the way out there and looked up to count stars…and could hardly see a few of the brightest ones. Cloud cover had moved in. Drat! I guess I’ll be back out there tomorrow. There is a place on the website where you can look at current results. Wouldn’t it be cool if I were the first person to post for Mongolia! Whoo-hoo!

March 17, 2009

Is today St. Patty’s Day? I had almost forgotten all about it. That is one of my favourite hanging out days with the guys. I really like the green beer. Once, we had a keg party at a friend’s house and I was sure to supply the green food colouring. It was lots of fun. I especially like it when Chauncy is there so I can either order a green beer for him when he goes to the bathroom, or put green food colouring in his beer when he’s not looking. He hates the green beer. I don’t know why. It’s fun, and easy, to get him riled up sometimes. He’s a pretty good sport about it, mostly. Mostly. Too bad I don’t have any green food colouring to show the Mongolians what St. Patty’s Day is all about.

I got a call today telling me about the imminent bad weather that is supposed to happen this evening and last for the next 5 days. I wasn’t told what kind of bad weather, just that it was supposed to start after 8 o’ clock, and I shouldn’t do any traveling until after the 23rd. As far as I can tell, nothing is going on yet. I’ll keep you posted with the latest.

I got a box from my sister today. My co-worker, Javkhaa, came to my office and said that it came yesterday. It was from my sister, filled with goodies. Bacon, pepperoni (I see pizza in my future), bacon bits, peanuts, garlic, beef jerky, cough drops, pinto beans, cornbread mix, country gravy, pistachios, hot chocolate, pudding mix, hot sauce, cheesecake mix, biscuit mix, milk in a box, star crunch, Rice Krispies Treats, and Ranch. I have to say, the boxed milk was particularly gutsy. I’m very surprised that thing didn’t bust like the biscuit mix did and get all over everything. I didn’t even know they sell milk like that in the U.S. I’d never seen milk in a box until I came here. It will be nice to be reminded of what American milk tastes like. Other than the powder stuff that I’ve been drinking for the last several moths, that is. Did I tell you Mongolian milk tastes weird? It does. I don’t know how to describe it, but I don’t really care for it. I’ve been told that American and Mongolian flour tastes different, too, but I’ve never paid that much attention to the taste of flour. Oh, the first thing that I ate from this box was a handful of peanuts. Yum!

March 18, 2009

Today was Soldier’s/Men’s Day. Starting around 10 o’ clock, policemen, firemen, and military men and women gathered outside the government building and about half the town turned out to watch them. In groups, they took off on a 10k run around the district, involving hills, shooting guns, manoeuvring past obstacles, and throwing fake grenades. They had asked me if I wanted to join in, but I told them I wasn’t in any kind of shape to be running 7 miles. By the way the slowest of the groups was running, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up. Maybe next year.

After lunch, there was a concert in the Culture Centre. All the same people (men and women) that were in the run sang in the concert. After that was an hour and a half time-span of nothing, where everyone in the government building got ready for what was to happen next. At 4 o’ clock (read: 5 o’ clock) we all met in the meeting hall. All the men sat at the table while all the women gave us candy and kept our shot glasses full of vodka and peer pressured us to drink. I was very surprised to see some of the guys that usually like to drink a lot not drinking that much at all. We also got a gift bag of shampoo, conditioner, and deodourant. What good timing I’ve had lately. I have about one more use of shampoo left in the bottle I have. The stuff we got is the nice, expensive stuff. I’m glad I got it because I was planning on trying it out. Now I get to do so for free.

Oh, I remembered something that I wanted to write about before. Sometimes I’ll ask Densmaa why Mongolians do something random that they do. She’ll start explaining, awkwardly, and I’ll sometimes ask if it is from shamanistic times. I’ve asked that two or three times. The other day, she said, “Why do you always ask that? Mongolia is Buddhist. We were never shamanistic.” When she said that, I knew she didn’t understand what I was saying, so I looked up the word and translated for her. She finally understood what I was asking, but she wasn’t much help. She doesn’t know much about shamanistic practices in Mongolia. She seemed genuinely surprised when I told her Mongolia used to practice Shamanism before Buddhism was introduced. So, I still haven’t found out what’s up with Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll keep investigating.

Still no bad weather.

March 19, 2009

Today was a slow day. The biggest thing that I accomplished was doing some laundry. Even though it still requires some work, I’m always thankful that I don’t have to wash my clothes by hand. Man, that would suck.

After a break last week, Ambaa has been coming this week for his tutoring. For some reason, Khishge told me that she wouldn’t be able to come here anymore. I don’t mind. She’s really nice, and probably the best English speaking student in town, but she’s kind of hard to teach. She dismisses a lot what I say with, “Yes, I know.” Then, come to find out, she doesn’t really know. Then, of course, I don’t know how to properly explain some point of grammar. Ambaa surprised me with gifts this evening. There was a nice thing of chocolates that are quite expensive and a big beer. He just said, “For you.” If his brother didn’t own the store that I’m sure they came from, I might’ve felt bad about taking the gifts. As it is, I accepted them gratefully. I’ve already broke into the chocolates. The beer will wait until this weekend.

No bad weather, yet.

March 20, 2009

Have you ever heard those dirty rumours about government workers in the U.S. being lazy and overpaid? I don’t know why America’s government workers get such a bad rap. The people spreading this filth has obviously never been to Mongolia and worked with their government’s workers. Now, it’s true that every culture has its own definition of what is and is not lazy. I’m not saying that Mongolia’s government workers are lazy. I’m just saying that, when looked at through an American’s viewing lens, Mongolians seem to have less concern for their work than American government workers.

Having said that, I went to work this morning and everyone seemed to be out and about the halls, visiting each other. That’s really not any different than usual, but it had just a little bit of a different feel to it. Moogie told me that several of the teachers were asking if I’d cook American food for them tonight. I didn’t have any plans for tonight, so I told them I would. I spent my lunch break getting some beans going and tidying my living room. This apartment reinforces my earlier belief that I would not like to live in a studio apartment. I hate not having my own private bedroom that no one goes into unless they are specifically invited. It kind of makes me feel exposed. That’s the best way I can describe it.

I had originally told the teachers that I’d be ready at 7:30, but they said that was too late. After getting my stuff from the office, and doing some shopping, I slowly got to cooking. I used the tomatoes and peppers that I’d frozen, mixing them with meat, potatoes, onions, and spices. The teachers were either really hungry or really excited to eat what I was going to cook. They kept telling me to hurry and six of them finally came over about and hour and a half before I finished cooking. I had some leftover cheesecake that I let them have. They made short work of that. I cooked fajitas for six teachers and myself and we all sat around the table in my living/bedroom and ate all the tortillas worth of fajitas. I had given them the beer I got last night and, after dinner, one of the teachers pulled out a small bottle of vodka. I’m glad it was a small bottle and there were seven of us. We sat around talking and picking at food for about another hour, and then they all got up to leave. I was surprised when I had the kitchen cleaned up by 9.

Oh, I went to the store once, tonight. It was quite warm today and I was on the verge of sweating. While I was cooking, I had on shorts and a t-shirt, then had to run to the store. It was a little chilly outside, but not too awfully bad. (That bad weather still hasn’t come.) Whenever I passed anyone, they would stare at me. One group of girls got into a giggling fit amongst themselves when they talked about how cold I must be. I just ignored everyone and went about what I was doing. I did have the realisation that they must be thinking, “Stupid American.” It was hard not to laugh when I thought that.

March 21, 2009

Click this link to see the speech I gave at our swearing-in ceremony: http://www.youtube.com/user/asb353

March 22, 2009

It’s been another nice weekend for me. I’ve cleaned my apartment, ate fajitas, did some reading, watches some movies, and watched the heck out of South Park. South Park is funny as heck and keeps me cracking up. It seriously has me sucking air sometimes because I’m laughing so hard. But, please, don’t watch it. The humour is so stupid and crass sometimes that I can’t recommend it to anyone with a clean conscience.

I think I’ve turned my heater off for a while. My boss will have a little bit less to worry about me now. She shows me my electric bill every month and it seems to be higher and higher. She always wants to know what it is that I’m doing to use so much electricity. The only think I can think of is the heater that I would have running all the time. It’s still a little chilly in here, but not as bad as it was. I’m glad it’s warming up.

I hope you are good. I think I’m going to make a couple trips to the city this next week. I’ll meet some friends that are going to Cambodia first, then go back to do some shopping. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Talk to you then. See ya.

Ah, what a weekend.

2009-03-15T10:16:00.000-05:00

March 9, 2009

There are a few things that I forgot to write about in my last blog. That’s what happens when I don’t write regularly. I’ll spend a few minutes talking about those things now.

A big part of Mongolian culture is singing, or anything like it. It seems like there is a song for everything. I can understand that, I guess. That is, if it was not for absolutely everything. Is the president making a special holiday speech? Sure, have a song. Is the new kindergarten in town having a special opening ceremony? Sure, have a song. Is it a special holiday and you’re sharing company with a good friend? Sure, have a song. Are you hanging out with your buddies, late at night, doing a little drinking and talking about girls? Sure, by all means, please, have a song. I can’t tell you how many times I would be visiting with someone during Tsagaan Sar – or anytime, really – and someone will just start singing. Everyone stops whatever conversation they were having and joins in. Sometimes, depending on the amount of alcohol that has already been consumed, Mongolians go right into another song – as soon as they finish the first and have another shot.

Springing from this love of all things song, Mongolians sometimes like to go to karaoke. While I was in UB last week, one of my Mongolian friends decided that she really really wanted to go to karaoke. It was never that big of a deal to me in the U.S., but, along with some other friends, I went. I told them that I would not be singing anything, no matter how much of a hard time they gave me. I was expecting something like I’d always seen back home: a bar with some tables and booths, people passing around the song book and selecting their song, then being called up to sing in front of the whole bar. Nope, nothing like that. When we got there, we were directed to a private room downstairs. It was almost creepy down there, but once we were in the room, with the door shut, it was alright. There was a big wrap-around couch along the back wall, with a big coffee table sitting in front of it. In the front of the room was a big entertainment centre with a big-screen TV and all the karaoke, microphone, and speaker equipment. We told the guy we wanted 2 hours, so he punched the appropriate buttons on the machine, took our drink order, then left the room. We were left with drinks, two microphones, a song book, and a huge remote to select our song. The lady who really wanted to go there didn’t even get settled before she flipped through the book, found the first of many of her most favourite song, punched the number into the pad, then got up to sing. It was good practice for me to read the words as I heard them sung. I usually have no idea what songs here are talking about. I could at least figure out the cipher for some of the songs I read. I did end up participating in a couple songs, but as you might imagine, they were American hip-hop. The other American that was with us likes hip-hop almost as much as I do. We got a good laugh out of one song. We’d heard it over a hundred times each, I’m sure. We didn’t know all the words, and we were not ready for the words that actually appeared on the screen. They were the right words, but we weren’t expecting them. That clarified a few points in the song, and had us both laughing so hard that we lost where we were. Oh, and at the end of the song, you get a grade. The very first song that was sung got a 100. After that, the highest score I saw was a 99. Just another cultural award for having sang, no matter how bad of a job you did. Too bad I don’t know any songs.

Last Thursday, Peace Corps PST people came to my town to check it out for a possible training site for the next group that will come in the summer. The training manager, the language director, and the safety and security officer walked into my office around 11 o’ clock. I first took them to talk to a guy that is pretty high up on the governmental totem pole. He was excited about the opportunity and gave them brochures about the town and district, and ensured them that this would be a good place for a training group. The next two people we talked to was the school principle (?) in the other part of town, and the school training manager for both schools. They were as equally excited about the possibility and assured the PC women that this is a good place to fulfill their needs and requirements. We’ll see how it turns out. I think that would be kind of cool to have a group of trainee’s in my town.

While in the other part of town, I got the driver to stop at the store where I buy kimchi. I haven’t been able to go over there and get it in a while, so I was glad to be able to. I asked for one kilogram and decided to take the .34 kilograms that was left. The training manager had went into the store and asked if there was anything I wanted her to buy for me. I wasn’t sure I understood, so I asked her to buy some juice for us to drink. She said she was intending to buy me something just for me, since I was helping them out with meeting and talking to the right people. Guess what I picked. Give up? Tomatoes. They actually had some real tomatoes. I would’ve taken all of them, but the others were bad. The first thing I made with them was the chickpea salad that I wrote about last weekend. It was quite tasty, and colourful. I put the other tomatoes in the freezer, for later.

The night before, I had put on a pound of pinto beans. I knew the PC people were coming, and there wouldn’t be anywhere for them to eat lunch. Before, when PC people came here, they just bought some noodles that I fixed for them. This time, I just felt like cooking and being nice. I cooked some pinto beans, fried some ham pieces that my mom had sent to me to put in there with them, and then put all the spices that I thought I might like to taste. (I wasn’t sure if they’d like it at all, so I figured I should be prepared to eat a whole pound of beans by myself. Haha.) I made some American rice that I put the beans on top of, and then showed them the Ranch and hot sauce. Surprisingly, they all reached for both. Some of them, after stirring around what they had and tasting it, decided that they wanted more Ranch. Yes! One by one, Mongolians are falling under the spell that is Ranch sauce. I’ve found new stores to shop at in UB, but I’ve found Ranch at none of them, so far. I’ll let you know when I’ve finally done my part of Ranch’s international expansion efforts.

Here’s something that I found out while in Sainshand, but forgot until now. The vitamins that we are given is making my nails grow faster. “Why?” you ask? It’s because we are all given pre-natal vitamins for pregnant women, as of several months ago. When I got the first bottle, I asked if it was really okay for a grown man to be taking pre-natal vitamins. I was assured that I should have absolutely no problems. Well, my nails’ growing faster is a problem for me. Haha. I don’t know why, but it’s just one of those grooming things that I don’t like to do. You can guarantee that I do it; I just don’t like doing it. Now, it seems like I have to cut my nails a lot more often than I used to. Every time, I just laugh about the idea of taking pre-natal vitamins.

That’s all of the stories that I can remember, for now. Check back later for updates. Now for one that happened today.

Do you remember me writing about the electrical wiring in the kitchen that is really touchy? The one that is a fire-hazard. It still hasn’t been fixed yet. This last weekend, I saw that they’d left the new, two-spaced outlet. I decided that since I knew just how to change an electrical outlet, I would switch out the two-spaced one with the one-spaced one in the living room. (My dad used to be an electrician and would take me to some of his jobs with him, in the summers.) I got all my tools together (1 Swiss Army knife and 1 multi-tool hammer), then went outside and turned the breaker off to my apartment. I took the face plate off the outlet in the living room, and as I was reaching to pull the outlet from the wall, I had one of those thoughts that goes through your head when it subconsciously knows that this situation presents danger. My particular thought was, “Now, boy, this is where you want to be careful.” I did everything I could to keep from making a connection between the two wires as I separated them from the outlet and replaced them in the new one. I might have even been holding my breath. I am now, writing this. Haha. I had to hammer some of the brick wall away so I could get the bigger two-spaced outlet to fit flush with the wall. I know I could fix the wiring in the walls, too, if I could easily get to it. But I can’t. I would have to tear the whole wall down. As it is, the wires are short and spliced in more than one place. I’ll let you know when things are up to fire code in here.

It was time for some grocery shopping when I left work. By some crazy alignment of the stars, I bought all but two things in one store. I could hardly believe my luck; and the lady seemed to hardly believe hers, too. One thing I finally found was some beef. It was only a couple of hundred tugriks more than mutton, so I asked for two kilograms of beef with no bones in it. She pulled bag after bag after bag out of the freezer and threw them onto the digital scales. I still haven’t gotten those things quite figured out yet, so I just trusted that that was 2 kilograms. If anything, it was a little more, and I had to pay for it, but I didn’t mind that. There were seven bags that filled up my freezer, all for something like $11. In another store, I found some bell peppers, found out the name for them, and bought everyone of them that wasn’t bad. I bought a dozen eggs, too. When I buy eggs, they put however many eggs I want into a bag, loose. As you might imagine, I’m as careful as I can be when I get them. I got all the way to the kitchen before I had a problem. I sat them on something where I thought they were safe, but I was wrong. One fell out and busted onto the kitchen floor. Drat!!

Since I had gotten some tortillas in a previous box from my sister, I started thinking about what I would do with those bell peppers and I could see fajitas in my immediate future. I came home, put some pintos on quick cook (3 hours), and asked Moogie if she wanted to share. I’d often teased her about cooking fajitas before. I would tell her while eating them, or after I’d eaten them. She’s used to me teasing her about anything I can, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect her. I always laugh at her either way. She came over after her work and watched me cook the last little bit. Included in my poor man’s kitchen set was not a lid for my medium-sized pot. As recourse, I’m forced to use a bowl for a lid. When the rice was almost done, Moogie told me how excited she was to finally be eating this. That made me that much more ready to eat, so in an attempt to pull the lid (read: bowl) off the rice, I got a nice little steam burn on the tops of three fingers. Yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi, yoi! I’m okay, though. It is easily aggravated, but I laughed about it mostly. When we were almost finished eating, Moogie told me that her and a group of teachers had been wondering if I would cook “American” food for them. I laughed and told her that I’d have to tease them about it for a while first.

I let her try my chickpea salad while she was here. Because I’m an idiot, I like to call them garbonzo beans. When I told her they were garbonzo beans, she stopped to look at me and ask what I’d said. She laughed. She had heard me say “garbonzil.” And that’s how I learned the word for masturbation.

I think I wrote this up there, but I got a box from my sister, Ann. There were all kinds of goodies in there. I have to say, percentage-wise, bags of Circus Peanuts were high numbers at 6. Other things were hot chocolate, sardines, Jello, pudding, country gravy, peanuts, cough drops, pepperoni, Rice Krispies Treats, Rolaids, rice, beans, bacon, strawberry jam, and Ranch. The first thing I treated myself to was a Rice Krispies Treat. I love those things. When I was a kiddo, it used to be so fun to make those things. I could probably eat a whole pan by myself. Thanks, Ann. I appreciate it.

March 10, 2009

Last week, one of the guys that I see out and about town came into my office with his 7 year old daughter. He said something that I didn’t understand, and then asked me where Densmaa was. He left my office and came back a few minutes later saying, “Back-way.” Not there. He told me he would come back when Densmaa was there. That turned out to be today. He sat in my office with his daughter for about 30 minutes while we waited for Densmaa to finish a meeting. When she came, she translated that the man wanted me to tutor *gasp* not his daughter…but his niece! To hear his story, the little girl’s real dad got a green card and lives in America now, driving a truck between San Francisco and Sacramento. In a few years, the little girl is supposed to go and live with him, and the uncle wants her to get a head start on learning English. The story sounds a little fishy, but whatever. It’s only for 30 minutes, so it shouldn’t be that bad. And she knows absolutely no English (not even “HI”), so I can basically teach how I want and not worry about if it’s correct grammar. You know, like colloquial English. We’ll see if she falls by the wayside like all of my other students.

March 11, 2009

I woke up to a cloudy day this morning. I’ve written before how Mongolia is purported to have 280 days of sun per year. I didn’t realise how used to it I’d gotten. Everything seemed eerily odd out. Before the morning was over, it began snowing. A lot. This must’ve been what yesterday’s wind was presaging. The wind is crazy here. Good thing I like it, for the most part. I’ve been told that springs here are full of dust storms, though. That is something that I’m not looking forward to at all. Oh, and I’ve also been told that the wind is not a factor in Mongolian weather forecasts or recordings. So, even though the temperature might say -7 Celsius, that doesn’t count the 50+ k/h winds that are blowing through.

I am always on YouTube, finding something to watch and waste my time with. Recently, I found a recipe involving Circus Peanuts. I think I might try it out. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVXBKv-sVrg&feature=related

Tonight, my Mongolian lesson consisted of watching one of the Mongolian movies that I bought. Before I could do that, though, I had to download software to play VCDs. Luckily, it was a simple, small programme that I got from download.com. You can find all kinds of stuff there, and you can be reasonably assured that there are no viruses. The movie was good. The name of it translates to something like “Bondsman’s House.” It’s about a couple of guys who get caught up in the mafia and suffer the consequences. I didn’t really understand most of the words, but I heard many words that I’ve heard before. That’s always good. Also, I heard the word for brotherhood, or fraternity. Everyone always asks me what the brand on my arm is for and when I tell them it’s from my fraternity, they look at me funny. Apparently, that word isn’t very widely used in Mongolia. So it was really cool to understand a word that a lot of Mongolians don’t understand. [Ed. Note: it was later learned that the writer of this blog found out that Windows Media Player plays VCDs. He’s not as bright as he looks.]

March 12, 2009

I remembered a story from way back around Christmas time that I wanted to tell you about. There is a rapper/singer/hip-hop artist from the U.K. called M.I.A that has a song called “Jimmy.” During all the Christmas (read: New Year) plays that were performed, they would have this song and the kids would dance to it. At first, I couldn’t figure out how they even knew that song, let alone why in the world they were using it in their play. When it got to the chorus, I realised what was going on. You see, in their play, they were saying good bye to the old year and hello to the new one. In the song, she says something like “Jimmy, ha-cha!” A Mongolian would hear this and think that she was asking Jimmy where he is going, which would be appropriate when saying good bye to someone, I guess. “Ha-cha” is one of the most contracted phrases in Mongolian. The full question is about five or six words, and they have contracted it down into two syllables. Now, that’s why colloquial Mongolian is so hard to learn.

I uploaded a video to my YouTube account today. It’s from during my PST. It’s the day that we went to the ger camp and had our host family appreciation day. Check it out here, if you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDtzfpr_cUM

Well, today was the first dust storm. The window from my office looks toward the school, so I always see the kids coming and going. Today, I could see their little bodies bent in the wind, trying not to be blown away. At the same time, there were little eddies of dust forming across the ground. By the time I came home, the dust storm was in full effect. I had to pat and wipe myself off when I got into my building. I took a picture, looking across the square at my office building and I could barely discern what it was. Crazy!

It was brought to my attention that your time has changed again and you are now 13 hours behind me, if you live in the Central Time Zone. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about changing my clock. That is something that I never liked doing, and I never understood it. I’ve read plenty of articles online that talk about how it isn’t necessary anymore, but the U.S. (in most places) continue to do it anyway. Can anyone show me a good article that talks about how this practice is still relevant to the people of 2009?

I watched the other Mongolian movie that I got. It, like the other, is on two different discs. No matter which one I put in, it seemed to start right in the middle of things. After trying them both, twice, I put one in and watched both sides. When I put the other disc in, I saw that whoever burned the disc did something wrong. The disc that I watched second was really the first disc. The two sides were switched. I ended up watching the movie like this: last half, second quarter, first quarter. The movie was alright, but I bet it would be even better if I watched it in the correct order. I’ll have to try that again.

March 13, 2009

It’s Friday the 13th!! Cool. Have I told you that 13 is my favourite number? I think it’s because so many people think that it’s unlucky. Yeah, I’m weird like that. I really think Friday the 13th’s are cool. Just something silly to share. Unlucky days for Mongolians are Tuesdays and Saturdays. I haven’t figured out why, yet. People don’t like to travel or do much of anything on those days. The big market in the city is closed on Tuesday. People won’t invite you to their homes on those days. Hm, I really want to find out why, now. I’ll get back to you and let you know.

Ah, here’s another silly story to share with you. Do you remember me telling you about the life-changing find that there is a secret compartment full of blankets and sheets in my couch? Ever since then, I’ve been using one of the blankets to lie on while covering myself with one of my sleeping bags. It’s taking some getting used to, but I prefer folding a blanket in the morning to zipping, rolling, and cramming the other sleeping bag that I used to lie on. But, to even out the hassle, the blanket has caused some unexpected extra work of its own. I don’t know what the blanket is made of, but there are always little red hairballs that fall off of it. Those, in turned, get trekked throughout my apartment. That causes me to have to go through and pick up each hairball individually. I try to get a little exercise out of it, though, by staying in a low wrestler’s stance. There are usually enough little red hairballs strewn throughout my apartment to have my legs burning really nice by the time I get them all. I do the same when I have to sweep. I’d really like to have a vacuum, but I don’t see myself being able to justify the cost anytime soon. Until then, I’ll keep working on my stance.

I had been tempted to go to UB this weekend when some friends called and invited me to a birthday celebration. I decided that I would stay home and do absolutely nothing, instead. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted for dinner, I decided that I wanted hoshor, but without as much hassle. After looking through my kitchen, I had a craving for potato with meat and veggies hoshor. I put the potatoes to boiling while I chopped onions, mushrooms, cabbage, and beef. When the potatoes were as soft as I wanted them, I drained most of the water, added some of the garlic butter that I’d made, and mashed the potatoes. After I mixed in all the stuff I’d chopped, I made the dough. It’s a very simple dough, consisting of 2 ½ cups flour and 1 cup water. After rolling the dough into an elongated shape, I cut it into several sections, which I then rolled out into small circles. From there, I spooned a glob of my concoction into the centre of the circle, and then pinched it closed and smashed it flat. To cook, I just deep-fried it. I put hot sauce and Ranch on them, and boy, oh boy, were they good! I have leftovers for tomorrow, and still more potato mush that only needs more dough.

While I was cutting the meat, I remembered a story about when I was in Amsterdam. It was a couple nights before I was to go back to the U.S., and I wanted to buy and cook a nice dinner for Austin for letting me live at his place for two weeks. I hopped on my bike and rode to the store that is just a few blocks away. Unlike Mongolian, an English speaker can half-way read Dutch and kind of sort of make out what is being said. I bought what I thought was some nice meet, some good veggies, and decent beer. I got back to Austin’s and immediately started cooking, telling him that I’d take care of everything. He came in a few times, just to watch. Once, he saw the meet and asked what kind it was. I told him it was venison. He looked at the package and told me that he thinks I got food-for-animals meat. I told him that it was right in the middle of every other piece of meat in the store, and I thought it would be okay. He immediately started trying to text one of his Dutch speaking friends to find out exactly what I had gotten us into. I forgot about him (though that’s hard to do), finished the meal, and gave him a bowl of my creation. He took the first bite and said it was pretty good, though the meat was a little tough. Halfway through his second bite, he received a text saying that the meat I’d bought was deer hearts and organs, and people do sometimes buy that just for their animals. I laughed and told him I didn’t care, it tasted good all the same. He carefully picked every piece of meat out of his bowl and gave it to me. He got a kick out of telling people that I cooked and ate “dog food.” He would be hard pressed if he ever found himself in Mongolia, with some of the food decisions I make on a regular basis.

Here’s another story. The week that I celebrated Tsagaan Sar here, I had the equivalent of Mongolian milk wine. I had seen one of the women drinking it from a juice jug, but I thought it was just water. Somehow, the jug got around to her husband. When he started pouring it into shot glasses, I knew it was more than just water. I was given a big shot and was basically told “it’ll sneak up on ya.” Whenever I hear something like that, I’m always careful, so I smelled it and sipped it, then took the whole shot. It tasted like water that had come from some obscure source, giving it a slightly un-watery taste. That’s the only way I can describe it that makes any sense. In fact, every shot that I had of it, I was even less sure that it wasn’t water from some obscure source. If the Mongolians were joking with me about it being really strong Mongolian wine, they never let the façade slip. The hosts even gave another bottle to someone as a gift.

March 15, 2009

My weekend has been just as lazy as I was hoping for. I watched a lot of South Park, did a little reading, cooked some good food, and got plenty of sleep. I haven’t been outside once. It’s been kind of nice to stay half-way warm. I finally made that cheesecake that my sister had sent to me. Man, that thing is good. I made some more hoshor, and I still have some filling left. Good thing the dough is so easy to make. Now, I have to worry about what I’m going to do with the oil I used to cook them in.

I hope you are good. As always, write when you can. I hear awesome stories from some of you, sometimes, and I can’t get enough of it. Keep ‘em coming.

Here I am! I survived.

2009-03-08T06:02:00.002-05:00

Well, here I am, after several weeks, finally sitting down to write something for you. I’ve already been politely nudged by one regular reader, so I can only imagine that there are at least a few others of you that might be wondering what in the heck I’ve been doing. I was reading an article from MSN the other day about the link between madness and creative genius (there isn’t one; only a correlation). Not that I think I’m mad, or a creative genius, but I do think a quote was relevant to me. "If the writer doesn't sit at the computer every day… [t]he muse is not going to visit." So, I’ll tell you some of my doings of the last couple of weeks, and do my best to make it interesting for you.

I woke up on Saturday, February 21, and got on the meeker to UB. I’d planned on going there for the Tsagaan Sar celebration, but I was ready to get out of here and distract my mind from small town life. That day, I met with a guy whose name translates to Peace, whom I had met a few weeks before. He works at an NGO in UB and wanted some help writing a grant proposal. Since I’m putting out feelers for a new job, and his NGO works with kids, I was happy to help him. Also, he was a fairly nice guy. In fact, I had finished the majority of the proposal earlier in the week and emailed it to him already. When we met, we mostly just cleared up a few misunderstandings that I’d had, and then we polished it nicely. Again, writing part of it reminded me of writing stuff in school. Sometimes I amaze myself with how smart I think I sound. I just hope that the people reading it think the same thing. The grant proposal was asking for about $6,675, which would be spent on fixing up a kindergarten in the ger district, which is where the poorest kids of the city live.

We’d finished right around dinner time, so Peace took me to a Korean restaurant that he frequents. He says his wife knows the owner, so that’s the main reason he goes to that one. I guess that’s a Mongolian thing, because after the one visit, I wouldn’t go there again. Have I ever written to you about the level of service that you get in a Mongolian restaurant? I used to be a server in two different restaurants – a country club and Red Lobster – for a total of about six years. I like to think that I have a pretty good idea of what good service is. You can throw all that out the window when you come to Mongolia. I think the biggest thing is that servers here get paid a set wage and don’t receive tips. I don’t think their daily wages are very high when compared to what an American server could take home in one 2 ½ hour lunch rush.

One of the first things you’ll notice at many of the restaurants here is that someone might show you to a seat, or you could just walk in and find your own. It doesn’t seem to matter to them, either way you prefer. That adds a little bit of chaos right off the bat, with people walking around the different dining rooms to see which arrangement they like the best. Next, when you get menus, you’re likely to not get enough for everyone at the table; so some people want a menu book, some people are sharing and fighting about which page to look at, and some are ready to order straightaway. When everyone is finally ready, it would be totally useless to sit there and wait for your server to show up and take your order. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen here. Instead, there is a nifty little button on the table that, when pushed, sounds a small alarm somewhere, with your table number flashed on a screen. In whatever part of the building the servers are hiding in, one will eventually amble out and look at you confusedly while you make your order. And you’d better tell them absolutely everything you want the first time, cause it will be hard to get anything later. In the Korean restaurants, food doesn’t actually take too long, so that is a plus, but other places never seem to care how your stomach is trying to digest your spinal cord.

The Korean places bring out your food and a whole lot of little side dishes that come with the meal each order. A person could get full on the side dishes! There are usually things like a couple different kinds of kimchis, eggs cooked whichever way the chef felt like that day, tofu, some sardines, and random other things. I had pickled celery a few times. (Hm, I wonder: if you pickle celery, does it add calories and make celery not a negative-calorie food anymore?) I’ve been with up to four other people before and we ordered two main dishes. Those, along with the sides that can be refilled for free, are plenty of food. Oh, and if you want a side refilled, you have to push the button and wait on the server again. And if you haven’t completely finished one of the sides that you want refilled, you’d better be quick and adept with a pair of Korean chopsticks and get it before the server grabs the dish. If there is anything left in there, it will be wasted. I hate the idea of wasting food. (By the way, Korean chopsticks are flat and made of metal, whereas Chinese chopsticks are the wooden kind you can find in almost any Chinese buffet in the U.S. I’ve seen some from Thailand that are thick at the top and drastically taper off in the middle, before going down to a very skinny rod. I didn’t use them, but they looked like they would take some getting used do.) At the end of the meal, you have the option to sit there as long as you like: they aren’t going to make you feel compelled to leave by bringing your bill before the end of your meal; or any other time, until you summon them and ask for it. They are making money by the hour, so the less work they will eventually have to do for you, the longer you sit there, must seem a better allure than doing all that again for someone new as soon as you leave.

My buddies back home used to get a giggle out of my frustration at restaurants with poor service in the U.S. They’d never had the experience of having worked in one before and learning what good service is supposed to be; nor did they realise how easy a server could make it on themselves if they just kept in mind the golden rule: efficiency! If you are efficient, you make things better for everyone you affect. Well, I guess they are getting the ultimate giggle, now. I’m sure my expectations for service won’t be quite as high when I get back to the U.S.

After hanging out a few days, meeting friends, formally and informally having meetings with people in the Peace Corps office, and eating lots of Korean food, I went with a friend whose name translates to Coral. From what I’m told, this is a strange name for a Mongolian. There is no coral in Mongolia, since it is the second biggest landlocked country in the world, so why is there even a word for it? (If I had to guess, I’d say that it is due to the trade that used to pass through Mongolia, on its way to a stop further into the west.) We went to Coral’s parent’s home, to a small community right outside UB. The scenery is awesome there. The community is tightly hugged by mountains on every side that are covered with snow. It’s perfect for the touristy community that it is. There are three or four nice hotels there that are only open in the summer, I think. That’s too bad, cause to see the beauty of a mountain covered in snow is different than too see that same mountain’s beauty in the blazing heat of summer. Every time I’m close to the mountains, it makes me miss having one right at my front door step, like when I used to live in East TN. Even Huntsville had a big hill that is officially a mountain. (A mountain is usually defined as having a peak that is between 1,000 to 2,500 metres higher than the surrounding area, depending on the angle of incline.) Where I live, there are only rolling hills. While attractive to the eye, they don’t appeal to me the same way mountains do. I’m kind of disappointed, since about 40% of Mongolia is mountainous. I can see some mountains, way off in the distance, but they will take a long time to get to. I plan to visit them in the summer, but I won’t be able to that often.

Anyway, we got to Coral’s parent’s house right at 5 o’ clock. They were expecting me, and knew that it was my first White Month, so they were ready to show me all about it. I was immediately served a big bowl full of meat that was poured full with milk tea. The meat I was served was already hot, but oftimes, I’ve seen Mongolians cut cold meat into a bowl and heat it by pouring milk tea in there with it. That stuff is scalding hot, so it doesn’t take long for it to get warm. Actually, what takes a while is letting it cool to a temperature where you can stand to put it in your American mouth. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked over and seen a Mongolian slurp down the last sip of a scalding drink from their bowl, while I’m nursing the last half of mine, trying my best not to blister the inside of my mouth. I didn’t do too well that first night, the eve of White Month: I went to bed with a scalded tongue.

About 20 minutes after I’d finished the meat (the cook-time for boats), I was practically assaulted with a large platter of boats and told, “Id, id, id, id.” That’s Mongolian for “Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat!” It really sounds just like “eat,” so there is no mistaking the command for something else. In Mongolia, you don’t ask people if they want to drink anything, nor do you ask them if they want to eat anything. You just pour it and plate it up, then force it into their hands, all the while, alternately telling them to, “Eat, drink; eat, drink; eat, drink; ad nauseum.” When you finish, you will be told to eat and drink more, and that even more is on the way. And, indeed, if you did eat and drink as much as you were told to eat and drink, then you probably would have a good case of nausea. At the least, you will make yourself sick.

That’s what happened to me. To be perfectly honest, it wasn’t the Mongolians’ fault. The traditional food for White Month is boats. After these many months, I don’t think I have to expound on how boats are my favourite food. Well, come to find out, there is another guy who likes them even more than I do. Last year, he ate 170 boats in one day, beating the previous record of 100 in a day. “The big boats, not the small-sized bansh-like ones,” he told me. I told him that I really liked boats, too, and I often ate more than every one else around me, and I could still eat more when I finish. I told him that I was going to make a run on his record. He smiled his big smile and said, “Good luck, brother.” Those are the words that came to mind as I reached for that platter of boats. I didn’t have the whole platter to myself, so I didn’t eat as many as I could have that first night. I still went to bed with a distended stomach. We determined that one of two time limits could apply, depending on which you prefer. A person could have a time limit that goes from the first plate served until the last plate served, in one day; or they could have a 24 hour time limit. I went to bed thinking that I might be better suited to try the 24 hour time limit. I went to bed having put down 22 boats.

After the sun went down, on the eve of White Month, a flurry of action began. You have to wait until then before you can start making and decorating the area where everyone will be welcomed with the Lunar New Year greeting. (By the way, on the night of White Month, there is no moon to be seen. Because of that, Mongolians pray for a white moon. The word for month and moon is the same.) There is a Mongolian pastry whose name sounds like “bove.” With as many of those that we had, we made a tower that kind of looked like a stuppa when you’re finished. Then, we took candies, sugar cubes, and a hardened milk curd thingy and decorated the bove tower. Oh, and we absolutely had to be sure that the tower was straight. We had to take it down and put it up again because of some crookedness to it that emay (grandmother) saw. When that was completed, we took a half of a sheep that had already been cooked and frozen and put it on the table. It would thaw overnight – most of the way. If not overnight, then during the three plus days that it will be sitting there. Many bowls of candy and various kinds of solidified milk products were placed on the table, a bottle of the best Mongolian vodka, a bottle of good Inner Mongolian vodka, a bottle each of red and white wine, and a bottle of some kind of expensive wine-like drink. The floor of the room had been lined with plastic, and we were sure to do the same to the tables. I could tell that they were expecting a mess by the time the dust cleared. I pondered that as I took care of shining the silver bowls that would be used.

The next morning, when the first batch of milk tea was finished, the first serving was taken outside and, with a spoon, thrown in the four directions. Prayers are said at the same time as this God-honouring tradition. This is done on regular days, as well as special days, as well as for each meal, for the most devout believers. We then got dressed in our White Month clothes. The name of the robe-like contraption sounds like “dale.” I’m not really sure if my description will suffice, but I’ll try to describe the man’s. They can be almost any colour. Mine was brown. It is usually what an American might think is about four sizes too big. There are buttons at the throat, the right shoulder, under the right arm, and on the right side. If you’re lucky enough to have a wife or mother that has made yours, the buttons will fasten with a traditional Mongolian knot. She would probably make sure that you’re properly wrapped, buttoned, and belted, too. Mine was left to me by the previous Volunteer, and was probably bought; and I was left on my own to get dressed. It fastened with big beads. When you’ve finally got your fat fingers to operate the vexing buttons, you take a length of cloth that is about 37 2/3 feet long and wrap it around your middle and tuck in the end. It’s not as easy as it sounds. You have to make sure that you leave plenty of bulge in the top portion of your dale. I didn’t know that and went for a more slimming look. One of the other guys in the room came over and jerked me around for a few seconds to get me looking right, then said something about having plenty of motion for your arms. It was easier to move like that, but I looked like I’d put on about 75 pounds. Another reason for the bulge is to make a pocket. It’s nowhere near as uncomfortable as I’d thought it might be. I kept my phone, camera, keys, and random other things in there, all at the same time, and I was never once bothered by it. Some men have big, almost gaudy cowboy-like belts. They made them look good, though. The women’s version of the dale is slightly different. It’s more feminine, but is basically the same thing. Many women use a regular belt more often than the cloth wrap around one. Often, they will wear a special kind of vest that is made to match. Women can regularly be heard bragging to others about a specific piece of jewelry that used to belong to some ancestor. Men usually have things like snuff-bottles or smoking pipes and accessories, and can similarly be heard telling anyone who will listen. For men and women, they usually wear a matching, traditional hat.

When we were all dressed, the family met in the meeting room right after the sun came up. Starting with the oldest person in the room, both people make sure they have their hats on. The younger person will hold out their hands, palm up, to support the elbows of their elder. They both say what translates roughly as, “Peace be with you. Have a good year.” Mostly, I was the youngest, but the kids would always come to me and support my elbows and exchange the greeting with me. Most of the times, kids would only do it after their parents had told them. I don’t think they were afraid of me. I think they are just young (between 0 and 10 years) and still trying to feel comfortable in a traditional setting while they are all the time bombarded with media portraying the modern world. Of course, for the babies, they were too little to know what to do, this having been their first or second celebration. Many times, a gift of money is given to the host, so as to help offset the cost of hosting. The gift could range from 1,000tg to 20,000+tg. It kind of depends on your relationship to the host. After everyone has exchanged this greeting, people will figure out who sits where, based on importance. The head of the household usually sits at the head of the table. If the head of the table is a couch seat, then oldest and most respected people will set with the man. Otherwise, the men will start their seating arrangement beginning on the right of the man. To the left will sit his wife, then important and older women. Of course, as with anything, there are always exceptions and the actual seating arrangement turns out nothing like traditional lessons might tell you. Add an American and that changes things even more. Sometimes I sat the furthest from the head of the table, but more than often, I sat at the head or only two seats away from it. I noticed that I got a different level of respect when I sat at the different places. People tended to ignore more the further I sat away. When I sat close to the head, people would often say something to me, or comment about me in some way. Ha, one woman said that I had pretty hair, like a baby. I just laughed and said thanks.

After the family had greeted each other, we sat down and shared another traditional greeting. Those who have a snuff bottle will offer it to others while asking if the person is having a nice new year. Men and women own and pass snuff bottles. A person that receives a snuff bottle has two options. First, you can politely refuse by sniffing the top of the bottle, with each nostril, then returning it to the owner and asking if they are having a nice new year. The second option is to actually get a snuff of the snuff. If that is the option you choose, you will hold the bottle in your left hand while pulling the cap with your right. Attached to it is a small spoon that fits down into the bottle. You spoon three spoons worth of snuff onto your left pointer finger, then put it to your nose and snuff. I saw very few people actually snuffing. After that, everyone sits and drinks a bowl of milk tea. The important people, starting with men – or everyone, if you have enough money – are served milk tea in a silver bowl. This has something to do with a chemical reaction between silver and poison. Is it true that silver reacts with poison? I don’t know. I’ve been told that Chengiss Khan’s son wore a silver ring so he could tell if his drink was poisoned. Poisoning is the means by which Chengiss was believed to have died.

One of the sociological things that goes on during White Month is that of making and renewing family and social ties. If a person doesn’t live with an elder sibling, they are expected to go and visit them in their home. If you have a younger sibling, or relative, they are expected to visit your home. People travel across the country to see their family and friends. If one is not able to see someone, for whatever reason, then a phone call with all the greetings and a bit of conversation will suffice. Sometimes, people won’t have seen each other for many years. When they finally do, that makes for a special occasion, since they will sometimes have a wife and children, or elder brother, or friend. Really, it doesn’t matter who it is. And I kind of get the feeling that it’s better to just show up, instead of calling and asking if it’s okay. You know the saying: “The more the merrier.” By the time the visitor leaves, they will have strengthened or formed a good relationship with an entire family. This, again, is one of those traditional pieces of culture that is Mongolia. It’s a big country, sparsely populated by herders. No matter where a Mongolian might find their self in the country, they probably have a friend that will host them. I’m sure you can imagine how that could lead to business and bartering, and all those other and similar things that result from two people having a strong relationship.

While everyone was sitting around drinking milk tea and hacking chunks of meat off the half-sheep, the women folk of the household began a flurry of table setting performances. A big plate of potato salad was brought out at the same time as a plate of sausage slices. Some people serve various kinds of slaws, salads, fruits, veggies, and pickles. Before I could even make a reach for the food, we were all directed to “Id, id, id, id….” I held off, only having a few pieces of candy, and waited for the boats that I knew were coming. I needed to save as much room as possible. As soon as they arrived, I ducked my head, poured some chili catsup on my plate, and then started chowing down, paying most attention to what number I was on. After a while, I saw that the boats just weren’t coming fast enough for what I was trying to do, so I couldn’t set any kind of pace. The eldest son and his family came and a couple of cousins that first day. A new batch of boats was served for each new set of visitors, but they just weren’t fast enough for me. About six hours before the end of my 24-hour time limit, I called it quits. I’d eaten 62. I waited a couple hours, just to be sure, but I couldn’t eat any more. I messaged that other guy and told him that he totally has Daddy Rights until next year. (For those of you who don’t know, Daddy Rights go as follows. If two guys want to have a light-hearted competition and put something on the line, but they are not willing to bet money, that will bet for Daddy Rights. Who ever wins the bet will have Daddy Rights for a specified set of time. During that time, any time that the person with Daddy Rights asks the loser, “Who is your daddy?” the loser must answer, “You are my daddy.” It doesn’t matter when or where the question is asked: the loser must always answer.)

Later, I got the worst case of gastro-intestinal distress that you could imagine. I mostly sat on the couch and had terrible intestinal pain. They were rebelling at all the fatty boats that I had stuffed down my gullet. I think the milk tea was the biggest factor in my soured-stomach burps. Yuck! It was all that evening, and night at 2 and 4 in the morning, that I got my lesson in what it’s like to need to run to the outhouse when it’s about -25 degrees Celsius outside. I first had to get dressed. When I got out there, it was so dark that I couldn’t see anything. Luckily, I have a flash light on my phone. I think I’ve told you that I am considering trying to move to a ger next year. That outhouse experience is, by far, the biggest con on my list.

When I talked to the guy I lost to and asked how he felt when he ate 170, he said that he felt just fine. He regularly eats a whole bag of frozen boats himself, and he’s done competitive eating before. Nice. Maybe I should’ve asked a few more questions, or did a lot more preparing, before I let myself get into that one. Emay was sure to congenially tell me that I was dumb for even trying to eat that many boats. And further more, she thinks that the other guy is a liar and didn’t really eat that many boats. She said she would make that many boats for him if he would come there and prove it to her. He got a good laugh out of that and said, “Time and place. Time and place.” I hope it happens and I’m there to share in the fun.

The second day, I was allowed to sleep fairly late. I woke up around 10, right before the first set of visitors got there. Immediately, I was steered to the table, given a silver bowl of milk tea, and asked about how my stomach was doing. After I assured them that I was okay, the story was shared amongst all visitors for the rest of the day. They first awed at how many boats I’d eaten, then laughed at me having made myself sick. Then I was told to “Id, id, id, id.” For the first half of the day, I just ate a little of a few different kinds of slaws and salads. Later, I ate a few pieces of meat, without the fat. I didn’t eat any boats until late into the night. I only had three, and even though they still tasted just as good as the first one I’d put in my mouth two nights before, I held back on eating more.

Also, the second day was one where the family I was with did nothing but host the entire day. Usually, a visitor is expected to eat at least three boats and take three shots of vodka whenever they go to a person’s home. That first day, so many people were driving that we only had two shots the entire day. The second day took a different course. Emay declared it her drinking day and kept the men’s shot glasses filled with vodka, then filled shot glasses of wine for the women. There is no special meaning as to who got which drink. I think that was just a different way to honour the men and women. Whenever someone heard about my upset stomach, they would encourage me to drink vodka. Vodka is, I’m told, very good for an upset stomach. Is that true? I can’t imagine that it truly is. I did try it out, though. I wasn’t going anywhere that day, and I had nothing better to do, so I matched emay all day. By the end of the day, all of the people that had been there had finished all the bottles of vodka and wine that were on the table, and the reserves had been broken into and had a good chunk taken out of it. Admittedly, my stomach was feeling alright by the time I got in the bed.

On the third day, I got to sleep even later, and there were still several visitors. Slightly odd to me was one set of visitors. Three or four of them used to be the students of grandfather, when he was a high school math teacher 20 years ago. They hadn’t seen him in a while and they all had wives or husbands and kids. Some of the wives teased their husbands by asking grandfather what their husband’s nickname was in high school. They all had a good ol’ time catching up on what everyone had been doing since they had last met. I told them how most Americans aren’t that kind of friends with their high school teachers. Maybe with some of their university instructors, but usually not high school teachers.

Whenever someone was ready to leave, the host would rush to another room and bring back a parting gift. These gifts could be absolutely anything, depending on who you are to the host. I saw some people get new clothes, new purses, gifts of money, dishes, lotions, perfumes, colognes, phone units, toys, candy, alcohol, and money. From all the people I visited, I got alcohol, two different colognes, spray deodourant, phone units, a small keychain that I immediately gave away, phone units that I couldn’t use that I immediately gave away, candy, and money. I have to say, the candy was the best thing. Once, when there was an agglomeration of several different kinds of candies, I got one of each and sat to try each of them in turn. I wanted to figure out which ones I liked the most. I went through six pieces of different flavoured jelly-filled chocolates. My friend said, “Trip, I didn’t realise you like candy so much.” I told them, like I’ll tell you: I love candy. I have a sweet tooth bigger than any two kids combined. But I try to not eat sweets that often. I try to have a little bit of control. That’s partly why my candy tends to last so long, usually. I got a lot of really good candy as parting gifts.

Late Friday night, I finally got back to UB proper. Another friend had told me that a bunch of people were meeting at Face club for someone’s birthday, so I went to join them. We got there just a little earlier than the crowd and we were able to find some nice couches to sit in and just doing nothing but sit and hang out and watch people, or whatever else we felt like doing. I mostly sat and hung out with some of the guys. Other than to shake someone’s hand, I only got up a couple of times. I was tired, and worn out, but glad to see my friends. We were up late that night.

That weekend, I just hung out with a few friends, walked around the city, paid some bills, and did a bit of shopping. Earlier in the week, I’d ran across a grocery store that has all kinds of different stuff for cheap prices. I found some different kinds of hot sauces that were really cheap and a whole gallon of mushrooms that cost only slightly more than the quart size I used to get at the State Dept. store. I finally found a decent market for electronics and bought some new ear buds for my mp3 player. My last pair crapped out last summer. Luckily, I’d brought another pair of headphones, but they are big and clunky, and not made for exercising with. There was one place in there that sold made in Mongolia Mongolian movies. Believe it or not, all-the-way Mongolian movies are hard to find. I think I’ve told you before about the American, Russian, and S. Korean movies that are terribly dubbed over. There is even a movie store right below my apartment that doesn’t have any Mongolian movies. What a shame. I got two movies for 5,000tg and was told by several people that they are very good movies. I got a couple more kids’ books, too. One is the story about a picture that I see absolutely everywhere. No one has been able to explain it to me, so I’ll try to read the book and figure it out for myself. The other book is about a Mongolian legend about how the camel lost its horns and tail. The deer got the horns and the horse got the tail. I’m not sure why, so I’ll try to figure that out, too.

I got back to my site on Sunday evening. I told my boss that I would visit her at her place as soon as I got back. Since we live so close to the city, most people went there for the Tsagaan Sar holiday. While there, they didn’t get to see some of their friends from here. This is where an extra week long of partying began. The Peace Corps had told me that the holiday was officially three days long, but people in the countryside tend to celebrate it until they finish, however long that may be. I wasn’t ready for what I was getting myself into. Luckily, I was only a block from my home, no matter which direction I walked in. Literally, that’s how small my town is.

When I got home, I put on my dale and went to my boss’s place. Her daughter ushered me in and told me that Densmaa was at work. On a Sunday? Yeah, well, come to find out, things got changed around at the last minute. The previous Friday was supposed to be a work day, but the government decided to keep the holiday going and moved the work day to Sunday. What? Glad I didn’t know that. So, her daughter played the perfect host and told me to sit on the couch. She immediately served me a big bowl of milk tea, and then started bringing out the usual Mongolian appetisers: potato salad, sliced sausage with pickles, and candy. As soon as she knew that I had enough to hold my attention for a few minutes, she went to put some boats to cooking. She would randomly walk back into the room to refill my bowl o’ milk tea and tell me, “Id, id, id.” She was younger than me, so she only told me three times, instead of four or more. It seems like the older a Mongolian gets, the more they tell you to eat. When the boats came, she pushed the appetisers to the side and put the whole plate right in front of me, with more commands to eat. She walked through every so often, just to make sure there was nothing I needed, then, right before I was finished, she poured me a shot of vodka and a shot of scotch. I drank the vodka straightaway, then sipped on the scotch for a while, waiting on Densmaa. She never came before I got tired of waiting.

After a several days of this Tsagaan Sar thing, I’d finally learned a trick. Eat til you’re not quite full, and then chill. If you’re the only one in the room, just take a bite when they come in so they will see you eating. If you’re in the room with several other people, watch for the times when the host is looking at you. Always have a little something on your plate, and when they look toward you, reach for something else to put on there, and then eat a bite. I’m not saying this will get you out of all of it, but it is definitely a trick to keep your stomach from exploding. Remember the previous paragraph about how things went from the time I walked in the door to the time I left, cause that is exactly the same way that things happened in every house I went to.

When I left Densmaa’s, I saw some guys in the street and walked over to talk to them. We stood there talking for a little while, just watching people, until my boss finally walked up. I’d told her that I had recently left her house. She said, “Okay, please come with me now.” We went to the home of one of the ladies that works in the gvt. building and did the whole routine of greeting, sharing snuff bottles, eating appetisers, meat, and boats, and taking shots of vodka. We were there for about 45 minutes, and then went to the home of someone who lives on the floor above me. I had no idea that the guy I met so long ago while wrestling lived there with his wife and son. His and her parents were both there, and they were really nice people. Ha, this is where the lady told me I had pretty hair, like a baby. From there, the majority of the party went back to Densmaa’s house, where everything but the greetings happened again. We were up really late.

Densmaa told me I didn’t have to work on Monday, so I didn’t even try. She woke me up and I went to her place for lunch. My co-workers were there, so we did the usual visiting thing again. They fed me til I was stuffed, gave me a few shots of vodka, then told me to go back home and rest, cause we were invited to a hair-cutting ceremony that evening. Cool. I’ve heard about those before and have wanted to see what it’s all about. Densmaa told me she would call me at 5 and we would go there together. I went home and slept for a while. She finally called at 6:30 and told me someone was going to pick me up and take me to the ceremony, in the other part of town. The celebration was over by the time I got there, with the little bald girl running around playing with a few other kids.

I’ll tell you what I have been taught about the ceremony. The ages are slightly different for boys and girls. Girls are usually 3-6 years, I think, while boys are 2-5. I think that’s right. Anyway, until the hair-cutting ceremony, the baby’s hair isn’t cut at all. That makes it hard to distinguish boys and girls in Mongolia, especially when either of them could be dressed in pink everything, and even boys wear headbands to hold back their hair. The reason for the ceremony is that all the baby hair is cut away so the child can grow into the man or woman they are supposed to be. Some words are said, maybe prayers, and then starting with the oldest/most respected person, everyone takes a turn cutting a piece of the child’s hair and gives the child a small gift of money. If there is any particular person that should’ve been there, but could not make it until a later time, then one sprig of hair will be left on the child’s head, until that person is able to see the child and cut it off. I’m not sure how long they wait for the person to come. Because of this, it’s not unusual to see a little bald kid running around with, at worst, a sprig of hair sprouting out the side of their head, right behind an ear; at best, an awesome rat tail will hang down the child’s back. I just greeted the child and gave her 1,000tg.

The child is the granddaughter of Densmaa’s best friend. Her and her husband’s family were for the holiday, so we did all of that stuff, too. At one point, they just got ridiculous with the shots of vodka, and I had to slow things down. At first, they all made me take a shot with them. Then, the host would pour a shot for me and a shot for someone else that we immediately took. A few minutes after that, I and another person were given a shot. That’s when I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up that kind of pace, so I started taking only partial shots. That helped a lot. After the third person took a shot with me, we all took a shot again, and then I took a few shots with a couple of old ladies. Of course, don’t forget that there is all kinds of food being ate at the same time. I think that helped me, too. I tried to eat the fatty stuff, so it would take longer for the alcohol to soak through. After thinking about it, that’s been one of my tricks this whole time. Because of that, and just eating so much lately, I have gained some weight. I’ve got to do something about this.

I was determined to go to work on Tuesday, so I was lucky when there was nothing going on. Also, Tuesdays and Saturdays are bad luck days for visiting, or something like that. That gave me a night off of visiting, eating, and drinking. I just relaxed that evening, hoping against hope that Ambaa and Khishge wouldn’t come for tutoring at 6:30. By 6:45, I knew they weren’t coming and totally relaxed. I had a small dinner and zonked out early that night.

Wednesday evening, I went to the house of one of the jijuurs (building worker). I get on alright with all of those guys, and he’d been asking me to his place forever. In the morning, I reminded him that he’d asked me to come that evening. He asked me what time I’d be there, and when I told him 7, he shook his head no and said, “Six o’ clock.” I laughed and said okay, having no intentions of going straight there from work. I got to his place around 6:30 and his wife and several teenage kids took care of me. He finally showed up about 30 minutes later. The first thing he reached for was the bottle of vodka. Three quick shots each and we finished the half-bottle that was sitting on the table. I thought that was good until he gave his son some money and sent him to the store for more. Dang it! I can’t do this again. Luckily, it wasn’t long before two other jijuurs came with their wives. That saved me from drinking a litre bottle with only one other person. As much as they were drinking, I once again cut myself back to only partial shots. When we left there, I thought I was going to be able to go home. It wasn’t too late yet, and I could get plenty of sleep. Wrong. I was pulled to another house. Basically, we just moved the party to get away from all the kids. More food and vodka were served. At that place, I just did the touch it to your lips thing.

Friday, the governor’s office had a day set up for the women. March 8 is Women’s Day this year. After work, we were to all meet at the school at 2, and we would play a volleyball tournament between all the different departments. At a few minutes after, I was told that no one was there. I decided to walk and check out some buildings I haven’t seen yet. I don’t know what one of them used to be, but I think it must’ve been a gym or something. On the outside were the numbers 1980, along with the Olympic rings. I know it has something to do with the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, but I haven’t the faintest about why that is on that building, here in countryside Mongolia.

When I got to the gym, I was there for a good 45 minutes with a couple of high school kids. That was a good chance for me to get some extra play time in, and get warmed up. I had a good sweat going by the time everyone got there. As it turned out, my team was in the first game. With some awesome, barely over the net with heat serves, yours truly contributed to the win of that game. The only other guy on my team doesn’t play any volleyball, that I can tell, and the women were all over 40, with a couple of them over 50. I think we won that game cause the other team sucked worse than ours. The next game was about an hour later, and my muscles had cooled down. The gym is so small that spectator toes are literally on the line, so there was no place for me to get warmed up ahead of time. We lost to a team that had two guys on their team who’d played more than a little bit of volleyball. They basically took over and hit all the balls that came on their side of the net, sometimes pushing other players out of the way. That’s probably the one thing I don’t like about volleyball here. People will run and jump in front of you to hit a ball that only sometimes does what they want it too. Then, when a ball will be coming between you and the other person, but closer to them, they will stand and watch you, thinking you were going to get it. There were four teams altogether. One of the teams in the finals had two women that play volleyball a lot and a couple of other decent guys. The other team was all guys who play a lot. The guys won, but they had to fight hard for it.

That evening, there was a big celebration in our conference room. It was supposed to start at 7, but as usual, people didn’t start showing up til 7:30. Then everyone started decorating and fixing food and arranging tables. There were three tables of seven, then a head table that had about 15 people. We had all the standard appetisers and were served boats for our main meal. There were several pauses in everything, where someone would make a speech, give an award, say a poem, or sing a song, and take a shot every time. Of course, each table had their own pace set for the amount of shots they were doing. Oh, and don’t forget the beer. I tried to drink beer and stay awake from the vodka. It didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. It was the first time that I’ve ever seen Densmaa take a whole shot, let alone ask for more. The women, obviously, were celebrating their day. After a while, we started playing games. Each table had to have a game for people. The first game called a woman from each table, without telling them what they had to do. They were then told they had to race to eat a huge piece of cake. The bulge in their eyes was comical. We all got lots of laughs and cheered them on while they were chomping away. Toward the end, one lady was about to win and her table was cheering loudly. Densmaa saw what the commotion was all about and turned it up a gear. No one was even looking at her when she stood erect and announced that she’d finished first. Haha. Scene stealer! Awesome. She immediately came back to the table for another shot. There was a game where people had to go out, then come back in and make a fool of their selves by acting like they were a train. At least, that’s what I got out of it. Even when you think you know exactly what’s going on, if you don’t have an interpreter, it’s hard to tell. My table played the human knot game. Six people stand in a circle. Each person reaches with their right hand and takes the right hand of another person. Next, each person reaches with their left hand and takes the left hand of a different person. Not letting go, everyone then tries to untangle the knot that they are in. It’s quite fun and funny to see some people squeeze through some of the holes they do. Right at the end, with only one person to fix, someone got confused and turned the wrong way, then let go, turned right, and grabbed hands again. I wasn’t the only person who saw it. Oh well. I was surprised we’d lasted that long.

I got home about 4 o’ clock that night. There is a Mongolian word that roughly translates to “tough.” I first heard it one night we were drinking and my boss asked me if I was that. She had to explain to me that she was asking if I was tough enough to drink as much as I was and still be able to be at work in the morning. Of course, I grinned big and told her that I was, but inside…inside, I knew better. Haha. I’ve found out that even though I might be tough, I ain’t Mongolian tough. This weekend, I haven’t even left my apartment. I’ve been lazy, ate decent food, read, and watched movies.

That reminds me: I got two boxes this last Monday. I knew they were on the way, so that morning when I finished the last two spoonfuls of peanut butter, I didn’t worry too much. Little did I know that all I’d have to do was walk outside. I saw the post office worker and he motioned to let me know there was something for me. There were two boxes. The one from my mom had a cake pan that is too big for my oven (thanks for trying mom), extra-special Circus Peanuts, unforgettable bag of Bisquick that had busted in the box, magazines worth more than one read, envelopes, crunchy peanut butter with honey mixed in, almonds, hot sauce, peanut brittle, heart-shaped box of candy, Ranch, a movie, and white board markers. The other box was from my sister, Ann. In it was incense; cough drops; packets of jam, sweet relish, American catsup, mayo, and hot sauce; boxes of rice, with one busted; crunchy peanut butter; bouillon cubes; vinegar; hot sauce; spray cheese; mac and cheese; syrup; Jello; bacon; beans; candy; Ranch; and two movies. I don’t know what I’ll do when/if I ever get a package that doesn’t have something busted in it. Haha. I really appreciate everything in them, though. They make my life much easier.

The weather here has been getting warmer. Ask any Mongolian and they will tell you that spring starts after Tsagaan Sar. True or not, I can see why they say so. The nights are still cold as can be, but the days are warming up to a balmy -7 degrees Celsius. I’ve even cut back on wearing so many layers. I woke up one morning and it had snowed a white blanket on everything. I was expecting it to be colder when I went out, so I put all my usual layers on. I was hot for the rest of the day. There has been more daylight, too. Even now, on Sunday evening, there’s an implicit promise of another hour of daylight. A few weeks ago, it would’ve been starting to get dark about 45 minutes ago. I’m looking forward to the longer days. That will help me get outside so I can get some exercise and try to get rid of my holiday weight. I’ve already been scoping out places where I can play footbag and not be mobbed by too many kids. There are a few places I have in mind. One of them is just out in the middle of the road, away from the centre of town a little bit. I’ll keep you posted on what I figure out.

So, I’ve finally gotten to the end of my tale. This is Sunday, and I’ve done little more than make a good chickpea salad, wash laundry, and wash a movie. After three or four days of pecking away, I’ve finished about 13 pages of update for you. Now, you know everything about why it’s taken me so long to post this. In future, know that I’m here, thinking of you, but just remember something that I read in a recent email from one of my buddies here: It will take tsag. Mongol tsag. (Tsag means time.)

Hope you’re good. Special shout out to my fraternity brothers. March 1 was our International Founders’ Day. For my university, it was the 30th anniversary of our presence on campus. I miss that I wasn’t there to celebrate with them. Write whenever you like. Miss you.

P.S. I forgot to include one part of the Tsagaan Sar preparations. People start making boats weeks ahead of time. When they are cooked, they will cover them and put them outside, to freeze, until it’s time for them. Some people make more than a thousand. So, really, since cook and recook is the same amount of time, that’s really like cooking two thousand. Goodness, that’s a lot of boats.

Oh, and something else. I had to format my computer again. Did I put that in my last post? I don’t think so. When I got it all set up again, I downloaded the trial version of AVG and scanned both my hard drives. On the one with all my music, all my pictures, all my movies, all my important documents, everything, the virus had apparently attached itself to all those files. They were immediately deleted. Arggh!!!! Luckily, I do have the majority of those files backed up on my work computer, and the other hard drive that I have. I emailed Amazon.com and told them my tale and asked them to reset it so I can download all the music that I’d bought from them since being here. I got an email this morning saying that they had fixed it so I could. Sweet! That makes me happy. I should be able to download the pictures I've taken since being here from my own site. Glad I have it. I should have new pictures up for you in the next little while.

Make sense of this

2009-02-16T03:10:00.001-06:00

Alright, so this might be a bit convoluted, since I haven’t written anything at all in over a week, but I’ll try my best to catch you up on what I’ve been doing. Here goes.

I got a ride to the train station last week with plenty of time to buy my ticket by 6:30, like the people at the station said. As you might guess, the cashier wasn’t there at that time, though. The train was supposed to leave at 6:50. I think she got there at 6:45. I heard the train rumbling in around 6:55 and had to take off running to get on it. For some reason, it doesn’t stop at the station, but way down the tracks. I don’t understand the reason. It makes it hard to get on, since the first step is about as high as my thigh. I feel sorry for the little old ladies who ride the train. Carrying a big bag and a full backpack, I was huffing and puffing by the time I got on and started my search for a seat. The first compartment looked liked there was room enough for me, but it was mostly guys, so I kept going. As a rule, I try to stay away from groups of guys here. If you’ve ever heard about the machismo of Latino/Hispanic men, try meeting a Mongolian man. It’s about the same, if not worse. The next compartment was full of middle-aged ladies, with what looked like one seat available, so I asked to sit with them. After their okay, I got settled, and then was promptly invited to play a game of cards with them. I’ve only played the game with one other person before, so playing with five others totally changed the strategy. I didn’t get it at all. When they saw that I didn’t know what I was doing, they allowed me to hold my cards until it was my turn, then one of my two partners would take my cards, ask the other partner all the pertinent questions, then play appropriately. About one out of ten times I guessed the correct cards. The rest of the time, I was totally baffled by their decisions. We played for over an hour, then they all decided to lie down. The trip to Sainshand was seven hours, and they were going further than that, so they wanted to get some rest. There were three sets of three levels of bunks, and I was relegated to the highest, most uncomfortable one. A few hours later, another guy got on and was on the top bunk across from me. We talked for a while, then I took an almost-nap for the last 30 minutes of the ride. As promised, James stayed awake to greet me when I got there. We stayed awake for a few hours, drinking and talking, trying to be quiet for the girls. They had been asleep for hours. He’d told me he’d had a hard time lying in the dark, keeping his word to stay awake for me.

For the next two days, we walked around town, pretty much doing or own thing. Being that Sainshand is right in the middle of the Gobi desert, it’s very sandy. If you remember from my days of training, I really abhor the sand. It just gets everywhere, and along with the wind, it doesn’t take long to get dirty. And both of the PCVs that live there live in gers, so taking a shower was out of the question. Since I had on several layers of clothes, I satisfied myself with just washing my hands, face, and hair. That went a long way. By the time I got back home, though, all my clothes were filthy.

We met up with the girls often – girls are always fun company – and did things with them, but we mostly did our own thing since we were basically the only two guys there not playing basketball. The whole reason for everyone being there was that one of the PCVs that lives there had put together a big basketball tournament and there was an American team of PCVs involved. All the players stayed together in a hotel, and we left them alone for the most part, so they could sufficiently psych themselves up. They seemed to have done a pretty good job of it. Their first game was a shortened pig-tail bracket game that started around 11:45 pm, Friday night, to get rid of the lesser qualified teams, and they won by a resounding 20 points. There were seven American spectators in a gym packed full of Mongolians, but we made the most noise of all. All the Mongolians would cheer when “their” team scored, but we kept a constant raucous going that seemed to frustrate the other players. I really think we got in their heads a few times. The rest of the games pretty much went the same way: we beat the other teams by no less than 20 points. That is, until the final. The other team just seemed to be on top of their game. In the end, we lost by three points. It was an awesome game, though, and no one was upset about the outcome, even though the referees made questionable calls on the part of both teams.

While there, we had the opportunity to stay in the same small, one room apartment with the girls, but we decided not to. That was a hard decision. The girls were pretty, and what guy doesn’t want to wake up to pretty girls running around in their panties, getting ready in the morning. But, ultimately, James and I decided that it would be better for us if we stayed elsewhere. We didn’t need to temptation, or the headache of dealing with women who just had to have it their way. Also, there was a ger that wasn’t being used that I wanted to stay in. Have I told you that I’m contemplating moving into a ger next year? Before I came to Mongolia, I had this idyllic setting in my head of living in a ger on the Mongolian steppe. After getting here and realising just how hard of a life that would be, I chickened out. I mean, who wants to walk however far to fetch their own water, or go outside in negative temperatures to squat and use the bathroom? Those were the two biggest things that scared me away when I was asked my preference. But after being in my apartment this winter, and being cold most of the time for no fault of my own, I think I may have changed my mind. I’m still trying to figure it out. At least, if I’m in a ger, and I get cold, it’s my own fault. So, James and I stayed in the ger. We used paper and wood kindling to get the fire started, then used pieces of coal to keep the fire at a hotter temperature for longer. Ha, the only time we had a hard time starting the fire was the night we had been drinking and James was struggling to get things working right. I curled up in my sleeping bag and passed out while he passed out on the stool in front of the fire. Good stuff. The girls all live in gers and kept asking me what I thought of it. I told them my only complaints were the ones I had when I first made my decision to live in an apartment.

Oh, and there is something else that I absolutely must tell you. It’s gross, but hilarious. Ever since coming here, I’ve heard people joke about the poop-sicles in the outhouses. I thought it was a joke and just giggled any time it was mentioned. Well, I’ve found out that it’s no joke. When I walked into the outhouse, there was literally a six foot stalagmite of frozen poop, rising from the depths. OMG! I couldn’t help but take a picture. So, that will be one that you will at first think, “What the heck is that?” Then you will remember this story and laugh as you retch. Quite humorous.

While there, I got a big ol’ hankering for boats. As I’ve said numerous times, I just can’t get enough of those things. We’d been to two nice, overly priced restaurants, but they both had the usual offerings of things I could make much better on my own. I wanted some plain ol’ boats, so James and I sat off, wondering around town looking for a guanz (diner) that might have them. For some reason, they aren’t as easy to find as you might think, since they are one of Mongolia’s most traditional foods. We went to four or five places, then decided to check out a really nice place, knowing that the price would be more than we wanted to pay but decided that at that point, it was worth it. They pointed us back across the street to the place we’d just come from. When we’d just left that place, the lights weren’t even on. On the way back, we saw that they were. We knocked, and when the lady answered and told us she didn’t have any boats, we began to walk away. We didn’t make it 10 steps before she called us back and told us that if we’d wait 15 minutes, she’d make some for us. James was a bit impatient, but I told him we were going to have to wait no matter where we went; and what else did we have to do. We decided to wait and James pulled out the big bottle of vodka he had in his bag. He and one of the girls had played some gambling game and that was one of the things he’d won. The lady was so nice that we drank the whole bottle with her as I ate all the boats I’d ordered, then ordered ten more to go. We went back the next day for more, sans alcohol, and got some to go, again. They were really good the next day.

The last game of the tournament ended with only two hours before everyone’s train was to leave. There was a big celebration at a nearby restaurant that everyone got to as soon as we got packed and ready. As soon as we walked in, we were sat down, given food, and shots upon shots of vodka and beer. Everyone sang songs, gave toasts, and awarded medals. It was a good time and augured a nice train ride back for us. The augury was partially right. About 15 of us got on the train and basically took over an entire section. We’d all had plenty to drink, so we were quite rowdy, mingling in with the already present Mongolians. It wasn’t long before the swaying of the train made us drowsy. I just laid my head down where I was sitting, a couple of people laid down on the benches together, and a few daringly crawled to the upper bunks. Those upper bunks are a bad place to be sober, let alone drunk, with all the jarring, jerking, and sudden stops. James actually fell off and bruised his ribs and woke up in the floor wondering what in the world had just happened. I woke up at one point to ask where we were and was told we’d passed my stop. I just laid my head back down, thinking that I’d really wanted to go to UB anyway, and didn’t worry about it. When I got there, someone told me that they’d mistakenly told me we’d passed my stop, even though we hadn’t. Oh well.

That gave me two extra days away from my site to calm down and get away from everything. The first day was basically spent in bed, recovering. Drunken sleep, in a sitting position, on a rocky train doesn’t make for good rest; especially when you haven’t slept that much the previous two or three days. I woke up long enough to have two big meals and chug a bunch of water before going back to bed. The next day, I woke up and wondered around the city, taking care of a few errands, then got my stuff ready to find a meeker to take me home. When I started making the usual calls to make sure the drivers were still there, I was referred to one, and then another, and they were all gone. Aw, shucks: looks like I get to spend another day in the city. Haha. I didn’t mind one bit. I would’ve stayed longer if I could; but my boss was calling, wondering, “Where is our Trip?” It might’ve been endearing if all the previous bull crap that I’ve written about hadn’t happened, with her starting rumours and all. From my understanding, it’s yet to be resolved.

When I got back, the light in my living room went out. It’s one of those long neon lights, but like most everything else in Mongolia, it was all jerry-rigged beyond the way it was supposed to be. I had a replacement bulb, but it was way too long for the fixture. When I told my boss about it – and the electrical outlet in my kitchen that still hadn’t been fixed – she sent someone out the next day. Two guys came, muddy boots and all, and proceeded to change the light. After blowing the new one, totally, they just put in a plain bulb, hanging by wires that are duct taped together. It works, but there’s not as much light in there now. In the kitchen, they changed the electrical outlet for a nice, shiny new one, recessing it into the wall instead of having it poke out like the old one. It worked fine until they left. I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up the mess they’d made in the living room and kitchen. They came back today, muddy boots and all, and put the old outlet back on, and told me that they would have to buy something in UB to make it work right. If I jiggle it just right, it works. Hopefully, none of the wires will go crazy and start a fire before I no longer live there.

Last Friday, the social workers got together for another set of life-skills lessons. When I did mine, I made sure they had a copy in Mongolian. They weren’t so kind to me. Again, instead of having 10th and 11th grade students, there were a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds there. Then, it wasn’t the least bit interactive, like it’s supposed to be. I just sat in the back, oblivious to what was going on, and watched with impatience.

This last weekend, I didn’t do anything at all but sleep. I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but one of my ways of dealing with stress is to sleep. Sunday, the only reason I got out of the bed was to change laundry and cook food. Tsegii came over on Saturday, I think. We made dinner and talked about how upset the both of us were that my boss had started rumours about us. It sucks that none of my friends want to hang out because of that. Moogie was even going to cook for me the other day, but she wouldn’t do it at my place. My boss had told her boss to tell her not to hang out with me outside of working hours. The Peace Corps called me again to say that they would say something to her, but I’m not sure what good that will do.

Well, for not having written in over a week, I think I got most of the main points down. I’ll post this now. I just finished talking to my baby sister. If you pray, please do so for her. I love her dearly, and she’s going through some tough times. Please pray for her to make good decisions about what she has going on.

Write when you can.

P.S. I can't really get this thing to do what I want, but I want you to see a funny link that a couple of my friends have come up with.

http://sites.google.com/site/travishellstrom/peacecorps/RMLD

Cut and paste if you have to. It's just some silly texts they send back and forth about random things in Mongolia.

I'm off to the Gobi!

2009-02-05T00:21:00.002-06:00

January 31, 2009

I forgot to write about something last week. I had a little bit of vengeance about my “may” and “might” pet peeve. During tutoring with Ambaa and Khishge, I corrected their usage and made sure they understood that one expressed permission and the other expressed possibility. Also, I taught them English directions. They seemed to be as mind-boggled as I was when I learned Mongolian directions. I tried to tell them the story of me learning Mongolian directions, but they didn’t understand.

I woke up and came to UB today. I needed a break from the small town that I now call home. My first stop was to buy electrical strips. Last week, I plugged something into the one I had and it blew. Dang it, man. I never understand why they will work just fine for a few months, then just blow like that. That makes the third one that has blown since I’ve been here. This time, I bought two so I’d be sure to have a backup the next time it happens.

Teachers’ Day was yesterday, but teachers everywhere were still celebrating today. I met with Shuree and several of her friends and we all went to a club called Amrita. It was quite posh, and really cool. There were four big, slightly abstract statues of naked women, surrounded by big half-circle booths with white leather seats. I was the only guy with nine women. I got several looks as other guys walked in later. We all sat around having a few drinks, and then did a bit of dancing when the music started. There was a DJ and a band. Later in the night, there were performances. The first consisted of some people doing acrobatics and the like. The second was a guy spitting fire and swallowing swords, having bricks broken on his head, and breaking and lying down on glass. It was fairly entertaining. I didn’t even notice how late it was until I got in the bed and saw that it was 4 in the morning.

February 1, 2009

I woke up at a decent time to hang out with a friend that had just got into town. He was staying at a guesthouse, so I went there. The ladies there know me, so we teased them a little bit, teaching them a few new English phrases. My friend and I had planned to go for lunch, but he had given them his pants to wash, and it was taking forever them to dry. I waited with him for a couple of hours, but when I saw the pants were a long way from drying, I told him I’d see him later: I was hungry, and I had to get ready to go home. I went to Cola & Kebab and slammed a shish kabob. When I got to the market, to get on the meeker, I saw friend that has a car. I decided to ride with him. It costed just a little bit more, but the comfort was worth it.

February 3, 2009

First thing at work this morning, I got a call from Moogie. She told me that we were both wanted at the police station at 10 o’ clock. We met right before walking in and neither of us knew what was going on. We got there and had to wait a few minutes for the guy that had told us to come there. When we went into his office, he pulled out a file from his desk, asked me if I spoke Mongolian, and then told us that he’s the so-called secret police. As soon as I heard this, I was reminded of a couple of friends in another part of the country who had a run in with the secret police. In their experience, they came into their apartment and demanded to see all kinds of documents. I’m not sure what they wanted, but nothing bad came of it.

After he’d introduced himself, he jumped right into why we were there. He told me that he had a secret file on me that says I have been hanging out and drinking with underage students; I’m always drunk; I always have people over to my place to drink and party; I always have women over to my place and have sex with them; and I meet people on the internet and get them to come and visit me. I asked him where he got his information from and he said that he had done a secret investigation himself. I asked him if I could see the file and what’s in it and he told me no, it’s a secret file. I denied all the things that he was accusing me of and he kept calling me a liar and telling me that he knew I was a drunkard and that I always have people over and stay up late partying; and he was going to write a letter to the Peace Corps to tell them to kick me out and send me back to America. He told me that I had broke the law, but when I asked him which law, he told me that I could look it up on the internet. I told him that it was in Mongolian, and I can’t understand it. His response? “Maybe it’s in English.” I just laughed. He kept saying that I always drink and I always have people over to my place to drink with me. I asked him if he had talked to any of the people that have supposedly been over to my place to drink with me and he ignored the question. I asked him if he had talked to any of the store owners to see how often I buy alcohol from them. Again, he ignored the question. I asked once more if I could look at the file. He said no, it’s secret. He told me that he monitors all of my internet activity, here and in UB, and he knows everything that I do on there. I laughed and told Moogie that I knew better; that he didn’t have the capabilities to do that. (I think I’m literally the only person in town that has internet, so there’s no way he can monitor my internet if he doesn’t have internet himself.) He asked what I said and Moogie made up something. I told him that I’ve only had people over to my place a few times to drink, and we were only loud once. I told him that any other time that I drink at my place, I do it alone. I told him that the only time anyone underage has been to my place was on Halloween, and every Tuesday and Thursday when Khishge comes and leaves with Ambaa for English. I told him that my friends come over to hang out with me sometimes, but we never drink. He kept calling me a liar, then told me that he would see if I was telling the truth. If I told him all the people that come to my place, and it matched the names in his file, then he would believe me. I told him everyone’s name, and exactly how many times they come over, and he continued to call me a liar and said that he was trying to protect me. I just laughed at him and told him I appreciate his protection, but whoever has told him all this is lying. He told me again that it was from his own private investigation. I left him to his own suppositions about me thinking that he was the liar.

He finally told me to go and get my passport from my home and bring it back to him. I had absolutely no intentions of giving him my passport, but I left his office with a big smile and assured him that I would be right back. As soon as I walked outside, I called the Peace Corps. They had never heard of the secret police before my friends had a run-in with them, and this seemed even fishier than their story, so the first person I talked to told me not to go back. Next, I talked to our Safety and Security officer. She got the guys phone number and told me to not go back until she called me back. After that, I talked to the Peace Corps country director. He told me that it sounded like someone had it out for me and to only give him copies of my passport and visa, not the real thing. (My Peace Corps passport is the property of the U.S. government.) He told me that unless the officer had some kind of evidence about all the things he’s accusing me of, the letter that he threatened to write to PC wouldn’t do anything to get me kicked out. The country director told me that if something does happen, and the guy has some kind of connections high up in the government – which he doubted – he might be able to get my visa revoked, which would make me have to leave the country. I was assured that if that happens, I will most likely be able to go to another country to be a Volunteer.

Before I got a call back from the Safety and Security officer, Moogie told me that the officer said to bring my passport tomorrow, cause he had stuff to do. When I met her, she told me that he kept calling her a liar when I left and told her that he knew she had been drinking with students, also. The Safety and Security officer finally called me back. She told me how she had tried to call the officer from the PC landline several times and the he kept denying her call. Finally, she called on her cellphone and he answered. Whenever she asked him questions, he told her that it was all secret. She got the chief’s number and called him. I’m not sure if the chief was in the loop or not, but she basically told him that I’m an adult and they’d better quit paying attention to the moves that I make everyday. She told him that he’d better tell the so-called secret police to leave me alone. I knew the Peace Corps would get up in that ---. They don’t play no games when it comes to people messing with Volunteers.

Still, that totally pissed me off. It’s bad enough that everyday people gossip and spread rumours as much as they do, but when some kind of police that thinks they have special authority starts believing them and messing with me…. The whole time he was accusing me of everything he was, I kept thinking, “Man, I wish I knew how to tell you that I studied police interrogation tactics in university, and there ain’t nothing you can do to make me say something that isn’t true, or do something that I shouldn’t or don’t want to do.” I think I was a little bit lucky that Moogie’s English isn’t any better than it is. There were several things that I wanted to say to him, several cross-examination questions that I wanted to ask him, but I knew she wouldn’t understand. She was visibly upset. I felt bad for her. I tried my best to exude an outward calm by taking my coat off, getting comfortable in my chair, looking him in the eyes, smiling as much as possible, and keeping open body language. Her lip was trembling from trying to hold back her anger. The guy told me that he was a criminologist, and I couldn’t help but think he’s a bad one. Grr. That ruined the next several hours for me.

Around 4:30, though, I saw something to raise my spirits and set off to pursue it. Looking out my office window, I saw a bunch of kids playing in a place that is usually just an empty space. I had seen them there earlier in the day and didn’t think much of it. I really paid attention this time and saw that there must be something going on. The place where they were is the floor area of a building that is no longer there. All that’s left is two parallel walls. When I got there, I saw that someone had put enough water there to make it one big smooth sheet of ice. I found out later that it was the Water Company that had done it. All the kids were having a good ol’ time, running and seeing how far they could slide, and playing some kind of ice soccer. I got a big smile on my face as I joined them. As always, I was swarmed by kids wanting to play with me. The sliding was really fun. I went the furthest several times. A lot of the kids wanted me to pull them across the ice, but I couldn’t get good footing. From that, we somehow got to playing another game they liked: trying to sweep each others feet and making the other person fall. I fended off about seven of them for a long time, sweeping several of them right onto their butts or back, but they finally got me. I wore myself out playing with them, and I’m a bit sore tonight; but I was very glad to have the fun.

February 4, 2009

Today, I spent the first hour of work making a written report about my yesterday and all the events leading up to it, and then emailed it to the Peace Corps. A few hours later, I talked to the Safety and Security officer again. She told me that she talked to the police chief again and grilled him some more. She told me that the so-called “secret” police officer was only a regular officer; there is no secret file about me; no one has made any complaints about me at all; and I will not be bothered again. She said all of that was just done to scare me, and warn me. I still don’t know what kind of warning it was supposed to be. I think I would respond much better to a different kind of warning. With my personality, that is the kind of warning that makes me want to rebel.

This afternoon, I was trying to work on the StopSign antivirus programme that I have. I paid for it about two months ago, and it has only worked for two weeks. I sent them an email today, requesting that I get a full refund. My recommendation to you is to not buy or use StopSign. Not only does it not work like they say it should, but their support is slow and not good. I kept telling them that what they were telling me to do was not working, but they kept telling me to do the exact same thing. Uh, duh, if it didn’t work the first 10 times, what makes you think it’s going to work the 90th time?

While I was fooling with all this, I started hearing a Windows error sound every couple of seconds. I rebooted my computer, thinking that might help. When it came back on, I had that stupid virus that I wrote about a few months ago; the one where the box with a wand floats around my screen saying, “This computer is being attacked.” Not only does that happen, but I can’t access the Control Panel, and I can’t open several of the better known antivirus websites like Kaspersky, McAfee, and Norton. This means that, once again, I will have to format my computer. Argh! That is so frustrating. Does anyone know of a good antivirus programme that will block and get rid of viruses? I’m thinking about buying AVG. If you have any suggestions on which one you think is the best, please tell me and give me some reasons why you think so. I’d really appreciate it.

I went out to play with the kids on the ice again today. I’ve told you before how tough kids’ games are here, and when they’re on the ice, nothing changes. Everyone was sliding around, having a good ol’ time, and then some mean-spirited boy would skate up behind someone and kick their feet out from under them, giggle, and scurry away before they could face any repercussions. Girls were not excepted from this treatment. It seemed that every few minutes, I would look over and see another kid lying on the ice, crying and screaming at the offender. One boy was constantly doing this to the girls, but he was always quick enough to get away from them. I finally got a couple of them to gang up and give him some pay back. Once, I even held him until they could get their hands on him. He didn’t seem to appreciate that too much. It was kind of funny.

February 5, 2009

When I got up this morning and did my usual email check, I saw that I had an email from StopSign. It said that my refund was approved and I should see the full amount reimbursed to my account within four to five days. Wow, that was the fastest they’ve ever responded to me and I’m quite surprised. I’d imagine that dealing with them, and having them deal with me, was ending up costing more than the price of my subscription. So, have any of you got any ideas on another virus protection and removal software programme for me yet? I’ll be buying it after the weekend, when I format my computer.

At work, my boss had asked if we could use my computer for the Child Labour seminar that we were hosting. I told her sure, but there was a virus that she might not want to deal with. She didn’t. There was another computer brought in and I hooked it up to the projector and tried to make it work. Something was wrong with that computer, so I brought the one from my office and got everything working. When my boss put her flash drive in and tried to access a PowerPoint presentation that she’d prepared, it wouldn’t work. She said that my computer had too new of a version. Does it really work like that? Next, they went and got a neat looking Sony laptop and brought it in from somewhere. I got it hooked up, but no matter where we looked, or which button we pushed, we couldn’t figure out how to turn the thing on. How weird. We ended up just using the computer from my office and skipping her presentation. The seminar was about two and a half hours long, but it wasn’t too bad. We had coffee and snacks in the middle. Toward the end, I was handed 5,000tg. When I asked what it was for, I was told that it was for “helping to put on the seminar.” Ha, I told my boss that we should have more seminars. When we finished, we went to her office and ate the boats that had been made for us. Yum!

I appreciate the 5,000tg. That will pay for my train ticket this evening. I am going to the Gobi desert! Some PCVs down there are hosting a big basketball tournament this weekend, and I will go to watch, hang out, and see the desert. It will be the first time I’ve ever seen a desert. I’m excited about it. The train is to leave around 7 o’ clock and will arrive in Sainshand around 2 o’ clock in the morning. I will leave work early and finish packing.

I’m going to post this today, so I won’t have to worry about taking my computer with me this weekend. I’d thought about taking it, but I don’t want to have to keep up with it. I hope you are good. Talk to you later. See ya.

P.S. Right after I posted this, I went into the conference room where there was a big retirement ceremony going on for the assistant governor. All the directors from the local organisations were there. One by one, they took some papers, a pen, and a stamp up to the front table where the governor was sitting. They would exchange papers and stamp and sign each set, then get up and make way for the next person. After that was finished, the governor made a short speech. When he sat at the conference table with the rest of us, he gave another short speech, then passed around a bowl of traditional Mongolian candy and a bowl of regular candy. Then, everyone was given a shot of vodka and we toasted the new retiree. It was kind of neat to witness it all. Especially since all I had to do was sit there and watch.

So glad this week is over.

2009-01-30T03:58:00.000-06:00

January 26, 2009

My work day started out alright. I got to work and finished the surveys for my life-skills lessons. I had Moogie translate the questions this weekend, so it wasn’t a problem for Oko to type them up this morning. After we printed everything out that we’d need for our lesson, Oko and I went over everything to be sure that we were on the same page. The jijuurs (building workers) came to put together the white board that was bought specially cause I’m here. It’s a big, six foot by 3 ½ foot board. No instructions came with the frame, so it took the guys putting it together a few tries to get it right. When I went to lunch, I felt alright about everything.

The lesson, for students and social workers, was supposed to start at 2 o’ clock. This coincides with the same time that I’m to return from my lunch break, but I knew it wouldn’t be a problem if I got back to my office at the time things were to start. As I suspected, no one was there when I got back. Around 2:30, people were there and we got started. Shuree had translated everything for me, and I had an English and Mongolian version of everything. I had high hopes of what we were about to do.

Right off the bat, I was upset because the age range I’d asked for wasn’t there. I’d asked for only 10th and 11th grade students to be there, but there were several 8th and 9th grade students. This had me upset from the jump. Slowly, we got started, and I thought everything was going to be fine. Since I was the only person in the room that spoke English, I let Oko do all the speaking, and made sure that she followed my outline. It was fine for a while. And then she skipped a part. I asked her what she was doing and she said, “Oh, it’s okay. That’s not important.” Since I had no way to tell her otherwise, all I could do was think, ‘Yes, it is important; why the heck do you not think so?’ No matter what I said to her, she continued as she pleased. After that, there were several parts that she just completely skipped, thinking that they weren’t important. I can’t put into words how much this bothered me. The only thing I kept thinking was, “I have to learn Mongolian so I can do this on my own.”

Man, that put me in such a bad mood. I left work at 4:45, went to the bank, then did the grocery shopping that I’ve been needing to do. I’ve been going to a few new places lately, so that meant that I only had to go to three different stores for all the things that were on my list. That was kind of nice. Surprisingly, I even found some real tomatoes and bell peppers. They were in a freezer, frozen, but better than nothing. Beer was one of the things on my list, too. When I got home, I ate some kimchi and cooked a really nice meal involving beer in the recipe, and have done nothing but listen to music, watch TV, and try to relax, since. It’s been an alright plan to relieve some stress.

January 27, 2009

The first part of my day consisted of more editing. I thought that’s what I would do when I returned from lunch, but Densmaa called me after 30 minutes and asked me to meet her in her office. She wanted me to go to the kindergarten to do some kind of training. I thought she had set up some kind of English class for me and was dreading it, but when I got there, I found out that it was a session on how to be a good teacher. Um, okay, I know about that kind of stuff. I thought that I might give some actual input on the subject, but all I did was set up the projector and screen, tell her the first computer we had was bad, then sit and be bored as she gave a presentation. It wasn’t a very good one, either. If I were to have given a presentation like that in school, I had one instructor in particular who would’ve gone berserker. Densmaa had a PowerPoint prepared – either by herself or someone else, I don’t know. First, there were spelling and grammatical mistakes. It was in Mongolian, and I could even see that. Next, she had each slide just full of info; and she read every bit of it. To risk sounding like a snob, let me tell you: that’s not how you’re supposed to use PowerPoint. You’re supposed to put your key points up there, then talk about each of them. If all you’re going to do is read to people, you’d might as well just print it out and give it to them. Let them read it by their self, instead of wasting their and your time. Oh well. I’m a Youth Volunteer, not a Business Volunteer, and I don’t know how to explain all that to her anyway, without having a whole month long class about it. You know what; maybe I’ll do it anyway. Afterwards, some people from UB came to check on all the work that our district did last year. She wanted me to be there for that, too. After about 10 minutes, she told me to help Oko and Javkhaa do whatever it was that they were doing. I stood watching for a few minutes, and then they told me to go to my office and wait. Fine with me. Later, I went to a summary meeting. The coolest thing was a model of what they want our district to look like in however many years in the future. They have big dreams if they think it’s going to look like that. It would be really cool, though. We’ll see in a couple years how much they’ve progressed toward that vision.

Ambaa and Khishge came for tutoring and as soon as they left, I finished making the kidney beans I’d started earlier in the day. I added tomato and country ham, and all kinds of spices, as I’m wont to do. I made some good cornbread to go with it, too. While enjoying a bowl, there was a knock on my door. Of course. No matter where you go in the world, someone, somehow, is determined to disturb your evening meal. When I opened the door, I saw that it was one of the cops that has told me several times he wants to learn English. I thought he was there for me to teach him. I quickly saw that he was in his uniform and was on duty, so that couldn’t be the reason. When he came in, he started asking about drinking. After a minute, I realised that he was asking if I’d been drinking with kids. What! What!! What!!! I assured him I hadn’t, then went on to explain that there was an underage girl at my place, but she was there with someone else at the same time, we were only studying English, and the two of them left together. He had me nervous for a minute. I don’t know why he was asking about that, but he dropped it as soon as I told him all that. During most of this, I continued eating. He eventually asked me what I was eating, and when I told him it was American food, he asked if he could try some. He had a bite and liked them, so he asked for a small bowl with some cornbread. He said he liked them. After that, we exchanged phone numbers and he said he’d “protect” me, if I needed. That’s nice to know.

I finished all the editing marks in the language book this evening. Now I just have to make the changes on my computer. That shouldn’t take too much longer.

January 28, 2009

My work day consisted of working on the edits to the language book. I finished the last change right at 5:30 and emailed it to the PC Language Coordinator. I’m really proud to have done this. It was fun, and I feel like I’ve made a little bit of a contribution to the next group of PCVs. There were mistakes on almost every page. Sheesh! It definitely makes up for the crappy day I had on Monday. I really could have finished it sooner, but there were a few evenings at home that I didn’t feel like doing anything but zoning out. It took me another hour to actually get the file attached to an email and send it. It was about 15.7MB. Hm, now I’m going to have to find something else to occupy me. Good thing I have plenty of books to read.

This evening, I came home and there was some random guy outside my building. I said hi to him and kept walking. He started saying something to me and followed me up the steps. As usual when I don’t know what’s going on, I became suspicious of what he was doing. He asked me if I had power, so I stopped at the electrical box outside my door, hoping that would appease him. “No,” he said. “Inside.” I opened the door warily, keeping one eye on him, then reached in and turned on the light, showing him that I did have power. “No,” he said. “In the kitchen.” Dang it. I’d never seen this guy before, and I had no idea what he wanted. He followed me into the kitchen and started talking 160.9 km/h (100 m/h), and I finally figured out that my boss had sent him over. I told her a couple of weeks ago that the outlet was bad and sometimes it would go crazy. The last time I was in UB, it had gone off and my fridge thawed out, getting water all over my floor. He was here to check it. He grabbed his only tool – a screwdriver – unscrewed the cover, and started poking it into the holes. “Be careful!” I told him. He just looked at me. Ok, whatever. If you get the end of your fingers exploded from messing with 200V of electricity, don’t bleed on my floor. After a few minutes of fooling around, he came up with the same deduction that I didn’t have the language to tell him: the outlet is bad and needs to be replaced. He’ll be back tomorrow to do that. So he says.

When he left, I took the bell peppers and tomatoes and sliced them up. They had thoroughly thawed out and were leaking juice out of their bag and into my fridge. I mixed them with some meat and fajita seasoning, warmed up the can of black beans that Myra had sent, made some tortillas, and had some of the best fajitas that I’ve had so far. I just can’t get enough of those things. I love them. Maybe I should start up my own guanz (diner) and cater to the Mongolians on the weekends. Too bad I can’t make a profit. I’m quite sure that they would like them. I’ve had two different people so far tell me that they were really good. Well, they really didn’t have to tell me: I already knew.

January 30, 2009

After getting to work this morning, I went to my boss’s office. I don’t know what she and Oko were doing, but they seemed to be hard at it. I asked if there was anything that I could do to help and she said yes, giggled, and then just looked at me. Um, okay, anything in particular? After asking a few more times, just to make sure she understood what I was asking, she told me to go to the Culture Centre and make sure that everything was ready for this afternoon’s celebration. Today is Teachers’ Day and all across Mongolia, places are having celebrations for their teachers to tell them how much they are appreciated. When I got to the Culture Centre, it was teeming with kids getting ready to practice. Of course, as soon as they saw me, I was swarmed. They were cool kids. As always, they made a circle around me and asked me all kinds of questions. “Are you married?” “Do you have a girlfriend?” “Do you live by yourself?” “Do you know my sister?” “Do you know this person?” “Do you know this person?” “Do you know this person?” ad nauseam. A couple of the kids decided to practice their English with me. Basically, that consisted of them telling me their name and asking mine; telling me how old they are and asking me my age; and maybe one other obscure question. One of the guys had previously asked me if I knew any Russian. People always want to know if I know Russian. Most of the older people here know it and think that since I don’t know Mongolian that well, and I kind of look Russian, maybe they can communicate with me in Russian. There have been several times, after I’ve asserted that I do not know Russian, they’ll start talking to me in Russian anyway. It’s like they thought I was joking or something. Anyway, the one boy started saying something that I couldn’t understand at all. It was in a perfect Russian accent, so I asked him if he was speaking to me in Russian. He said, “No, English.” Huh?! After I got him to repeat it a few times, I was able to figure out what he was saying. He said some memorised phrase about how he is in the sixth grade and is learning English. I guess I can see how Mongolians don’t understand me when I try to talk to them sometimes.

I went to the thing for Teachers’ Day this afternoon. It was quite boring. At first, a bunch of different people got up and gave presentations similar to the one I wrote about earlier in the week. All but two literally stood at the podium with their head down and read everything, word for word. After every person was finished, the MC asked if anyone in the crowd had questions. Out of the all the presentations, only one person was brave enough to stand up and ask a question, one time. As shy as most Mongolians are, I was actually surprised that he asked a question at all. But he’s from a different part of Mongolia, where (they say) people are different. Maybe that’s what he had going for him.

It’s the end of another week for me. This one has seemed particularly long for me. I’m glad it’s over. I hope you have had a better week than me. Talk to you later. See ya.

You had to know that three Fridays in a row was too good to be true.

2009-01-25T07:36:00.001-06:00

January 17, 2009

I woke up and came to UB today. I didn’t have anything that I especially needed to do other than have a break from countryside life. After living in an affluent place like Huntsville, where I had pretty much anything I wanted at my fingertips, whenever I wanted it, living in the countryside away from most all modern conveniences is a big change. When I got here, the smog was as bad as ever. So bad, in fact, that I couldn’t see the mountains that surround the city; and their really close. I knew the filter in my nose was going to have its work cut out for it. Sure enough, I was blowing snot, dirt, grit, and blood this evening. Yuck! My first stop was at the P.O., since it was closed in my town yesterday. I’d finally written a reply to the kids I write to in the U.S. I’ve heard that they’ve written to me again, too. Maybe the teacher will send them soon. (hint, hint) After that, I went to Big Burger. I was a little bit hungry, and I had to have my fast food fix, so I had a grilled chicken sandwich. That was the first time they’ve actually had that sandwich when I’ve been there, and it was pretty good. I think it took me about five minutes to chow it down and be on my way.

When I left there, I went to the Peace Corps office for a few minutes, saw a few friends, and then went to Shuree’s. She wanted to go to lunch, so we went to Marco Polo’s. It’s a really ritzy Italian restaurant, with matching prices, but I found it to be wanting. The pasta I ordered was supposed to be in a white wine sauce, but it was just a white sauce; and it was extremely bland. Shuree said her pasta with Bolognese sauce wasn’t as good as it usually is, also. It had grren peas in it! When I looked around, I noticed that every table but ours had salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar on them. When we swiped some and added it to our meals, it helped a little bit. If I go there again, I’ll be sure to order something different. There were flyers on the table advertising the club that they have on the second floor. It didn’t say anything about it on the flyer, but I heard from people who’ve been there that it is a strip club. Nice.

Back at Shuree’s training centre, there was a class going on. It was actually for Mongolians who are trying to learn English so they can be tour guides, but I sat in on it anyway. I taught them a few words and learned a few in Mongolian while I was at it. When that finished, I went to Mendee’s place. It was good to see him. He was excited to tell me about his new job, too. He now works for the government, working on Population and Family Development. He said that it’s a new position, so the first little while will be him working on defining exactly what they will be doing. I’m happy for him. He’s been out of a job for a couple months now and it’s been getting to him. I think he enjoyed spending more time with his son, but he somehow felt less of a man because he didn’t have a job so as to be able to add to their family’s income.

This evening, there was a surprise party for Cass, a PCV who just got back from the U.S. Her brother had died, so she went there to be with her family, and was gone for about a month. She told me that she’d gained about 7 pounds during that time. I told her I would probably gain more than that, since I’d have unlimited access to places like Taco Bell and momma’s cooking. The party was basically Cass and I and a bunch of Mongolians sitting around a circle, eating snacks and cake and drinking beer and vodka. We decided to teach them how to play American drinking games. Do you know about “Never Have I Ever” and “Circle of Death?” The first one is where you go around the circle and each person says something that they have never done. If anyone else has done it before, then they have to drink. For example: “Never have I ever crapped on a dog before.” That made Cass have to drink, cause she has done that. If you haven’t already, and would like to read the story, check it out here http://cassandraw.blogspot.com/2008/09/dont-read-this-it-hilairbut-really-dont.html. It’s an extremely funny story. If you have read it before, it’s worth a reread. After we finished everything and cleaned our fingers with our tongues, we decided to go to Oasis. As always, it was a cool place and I met some crazy international people. I met a deaf guy from America that I conversed with via pen and paper. He seemed pretty cool. I met a lot of random people, too, and was being my usual social butterfly-self by talking to them all and enjoying it. I really like meeting new people.

January 18, 2009

I didn’t want to be, but I was up really early for water this morning. Being that I don’t take my water distiller to UB with me, that means that I actually had to get dressed and walk down the street to the kiosk and buy water. I still can’t figure out why those kiosks sell water for 500tg when the stores in the town I was in for training sold them for almost 3000tg. I think they were just enjoying ripping off the Americans. After I’d been up for a while, I went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. I didn’t eat dinner last night and was still hungry when I finished my lunch, so I ordered another meal. I ate more than half of it before I decided that I’d better stop before I just made myself miserable. I brought the rest home for my dinner.

While I was sitting in the meeker, waiting for it to fill up so we could leave, a couple of drunk guys walked by, opened the door, and tried to do something. Luckily, the driver was Johnny on the Spot and didn’t let them in. The door was open while he was talking to them and I was watching the conversation. The drunkest of the two decided that he didn’t like me and spat at me. That came really close to making me mad, but I just looked at him as he sneered and gave me the Mongolian equivalent of the middle finger. They stick their thumb between their pointer and middle finger. You’d better be ready to fight if you do that to a Mongolian. Needless to say, Mongolians don’t play the “I got your nose” game with their babies. The driver shut the door, but the drunk guy kept cussing at me and trying to get in. I smiled really big at him as I held the door shut and the lady next to me fussed at him. You can always count on an older lady that you’ve made friends with to help you out when drunk people are involved. He was finally pulled away by his buddy.

When I got home this evening, I was really tired. I tried to go to bed earlier, but my new clock is one of those that only has a twelve-hour alarm. Since I wanted to wake up at 7:30 a.m., I had to wait til after 7:30 p.m. to go to sleep. I finally got it to work right around 8 o’ clock.

January 19, 2009

Not much was going on at work today, so I did some Mongolian studying. I’ve got to where I’ll think of a word that I want to know how to say, then I’ll look it up and copy all the different phrases in the dictionary using that word. After lunch, I went with Oko and Javkhaa and hung out at the social workers’ office. They got a lot of new things for their Women’s and Children’s place and they wanted me to take pictures for them. I don’t know why, but they seem to think I’m their personal photographer or something. I know all these people have their own employees with cameras, so I don’t know why they always want me to do it.

This morning, I saw the lady from the Post Office and she told me I had some packages. Since I was busy at the time, I told her I would get them later. When I got there, there were two packages from my sister, Ann. I had been told that they’d been sent, but I was still surprised to get them. I haven’t talked to her in years. Like always, I brought them straight home to see what kind of treasure was inside. I found Pop-tarts, hot chocolate, dry milk, kidney beans, mixed beans, ready-to-eat bacon, peanut butter, fudge grahams, fudge rounds, fudge brownies, corn muffin mix, no bake cheesecake, garlic pepper, garlic salt, poultry seasoning, Mrs. Dash, Big Red, strawberry spread, country gravy mix, hot sauce, Vienna sausages, and Beanie Weenies. I always find something that I eat right away and this time was no different. I opened a can of Vienna sausages, poured some hot sauce on them, and chowed down. They are never good, but they were a nice reminder of home. After that, I ate one of the smashed fudge rounds. I was really glad to get the peanut butter and hot sauce, since I was literally on the last couple of spoonfuls of each. I think the cheesecake is my favourite, though. Cheesecake and German chocolate cakes are my favourite desserts. By the way, do you know why a German chocolate cake is named that? See if you can find the answer. It’s just one of those tidbits of random info that I’m full of. Thanks, Ann, for the stuff. I appreciate it.

I had put some beans on earlier in the day, to make refried beans. When Tsegii came over this evening, I walked her through all the steps of how to make the fajitas. The dough for the tortillas is much different than dough that Mongolians usually make for anything. Since Mongolians have all kinds of practice rolling dough into perfect circles, I thought she’d be able to make them rounder and prettier than I can, but she couldn’t. She tended to make them too thin, which would make tears in them when they were put in the skillet. After showing her how to do it, she got the hang of it. Oh, and as usual, she cleaned dishes before, during, and after.

January 20, 2009

Tonight, I stayed up late to watch Obama take is oath of office. The whole thing started around midnight, my time. I’m never a huge fan of any politician (though I really enjoy studying politics), but this was quite an historic moment that I wanted to experience in the only way that I could. I mean, really, did anyone who reads this think there would ever be a black U.S. president? I’ve lived through three or four other presidential election campaigns involving black guys who were all defeated soundly. It says a lot about the changing beliefs of Americans that are of voting age now. I really hope that everyone gets the “change” that they “hope” for. On a lighter note, did you see Chief Justice Roberts flub the oath? I wonder if he was thinking about Obama not voting for him to be approved to his judgeship. That’s what he gets for trying to be cool and do it by memory. Haha. Pretty funny.

January 21, 2009

Surprisingly, I wasn’t tired today. My day at the office was as boring as ever as I worked on editing the language book. Around 4 o’ clock, I made my way down to the military commander’s office. I talked to him last week and found out that his rank is somewhere between a Colonel and a Major. I’m not up on my military rankings, so I couldn’t figure out what his exact rank is, and a search on Wikipedia about Mongolia’s ranking system yielded no results. One of his friends was there and after a while, they asked if I wanted to drink vodka with them. After figuring that I had nothing better to do, I decided I would. I had a few shots with them while the friend talked to me about Mongolian shamanism. It was really quite interesting. Most of you know this about me, but for those of you that don’t, I’m really interested in learning about religions; especially those of the East. He told me a very interesting story about his father having died 28 years earlier when his younger sister had some kind of ritual. During the ritual, his father came down and took over his sister. Her eyes were covered, but “he” was still able to point out things asked for. Also, he told them about where he had hidden some money in the home he’d shared with his wife, when he was still alive. Sure enough, when they checked it out later, they found a lot of money hidden in one of the walls. I also found out that there is no hell in Mongolian shamanism. When I was talking to one of my friends later, I was asked if I believed it. I told them that it sounds a little odd to me, being from the background that I’m from, but I had no personal experience in it, so I would not discount someone’s experiences. On top of all that, I learned a few new Mongolian words. I always enjoy that, no matter what language it’s in.

This evening, Tsegii came over again and we made more fajitas. We were both hungry but didn’t want to put much effort into cooking, so we decided on that. Her cooking language is getting better every time she comes here. I think she likes fajitas about as much as I do; and she adds as much Ranch as I do, too. I think I’ve got her hooked on it. After she left, I went to Moogie’s and met new people. They were all teachers, and since this week is some kind of break from school, they were enjoying it. Odno is the only one’s name that I remember. They had been drinking for several hours, and it was quite evident. Once, they collected money from everyone and went on an alcohol run. Two of them went and when they returned, we noticed that they had the beer but not the vodka. We found out that the one lady had dropped it right outside the building, busting it on the ground. Drat! Coincidentally, she is the one that we had to support to walk home. When we got her there, she just fell into the bed. I bet she’ll feel like crap in the morning.

January 22, 2009

This morning, Densmaa and Oko went to UB, leaving me at the office by myself with absolutely nothing to do. So, I decided to come home. It was early, but I decided to cook a big lunch for myself. I made some good tomato-based pasta sauce and put it over some noodles. It was pretty good, leaving me with some leftovers. During cleanup, I saw some horses in the far distance, grazing. I’ve decided that I want to buy a horse when it warms up, so I thought about going out to talk to the herder. I practiced some language to talk to herders (How many head of horses do you have? What kind of fodder do you feed them? How do you prepare for a hard winter?, etc.); put an extra layer of clothes on top of the two that I already wear; made some hot chocolate and put it in a thermos; and took off walking, looking for the herder. When I got out there, there was nothing but horses to be found. I was determined not to waste my adventure into the cold, so I went to the ger that is on the military base; the one that I visited before. There was a big pond in my path that was frozen solid, but I was afraid to walk across it. I felt sure that I’d be able to, but I didn’t want to risk it. When I got to the barbed-wire fence surrounding the base, I found a place that I should have been able to fit through. I wasn’t careful enough, though. I ripped my best pair of jeans and had a time getting them off of the barb that got me. Now I’m going to have to buy another pair. I’ll try to sew that up, and I have another pair, but I don’t have any that I can wear out to a decent place now. Ah, soog!

At the ger, they served me two bowls of tea that I drank pretty quickly. The lady fussed at me for being out in the cold. Also, the soup she was cooking finished within a few minutes of my arrival, so she gave me some of that. I was really full, but when she offered me seconds, it was so good that I couldn’t refuse. While eating, I noticed that I could see my breath. It was that cold in there, but it felt hot compared to outside. It was the ladies birthday I found out, so the guy gave me a shot of vodka out of a really cool glass container. It looked like a tall round tube with rocks, sand, trees, and a snake in it. The vodka tasted different than regular, making me think it might be homemade. He didn’t expound, and I didn’t ask.

On my way home, I had an experience I never wanted, but I’m glad I had: frozen eyelashes, with ice on the inside and outside of my scarf and hat from my breath. Yesterday and today has been extremely cold, with winds reaching really high speeds. On the way to the ger, it felt like someone was pushing me in the back. On the way back, I had to lean forward in order to proceed. I was worn out from the triple workout of walking, freezing, and walking against the wind, so I took a nap when I got home. As always, it was nice.

January 23, 2009

After a boring day at work, I got a call that I didn’t understand at first. Eventually, I understood “package,” and I knew that it was from the Post Office and what they were calling about. I quickly bundled up and went to get the package from Myra, my mom’s friend. I brought it straight home and tore into it, curious about what kind of bounty this box would produce. When I opened it, I found an array of things that I really appreciate. The first thing I opened was something wrapped in Christmas paper. Cool, a late Christmas present! It was a multi-tool that will definitely come in handy. Other than the Swiss Army knife that I have, I don’t have any tools. The first thing I did was try to turn on the hot water in my bathroom. The faucet turned, but no water came out. Drat! I guess I’ll have to do without a warm shower – or a shower of any kind – for a while longer. Also in the box was a wall calendar, personal calendar, magazines, bacon bits, soul seasoning, packs of meal seasoning, ham flavoured bouillon cubes, Crystal Light, fruit salad, garbanzo beans (a.k.a. chick peas), black beans, beef jerky, and plastics bags. After the multi-tool, the first thing I ripped into was the beef jerky. Thanks Myra. I really appreciate you thinking about and taking care of me. I don’t know why your package got here after the one that I got earlier in the week, since yours was sent first. That’s Mongolia’s mail system for you, though, I guess.

January 24, 2009

I had a lazy day reading Maxim, watching TV, and playing on the internet. Odnoo came over this evening, then Moogie came over later, bearing boats and something like boats, but with fruit in it instead. She wouldn’t tell me the name of the other thing, but it was good. I teased her and asked her why she hadn’t cooked that for me before. We sat around talking and watching TV and had a few drinks.

While sitting there, I noticed that some of the nails that hold my bed together were coming out. I went for my new handy-dandy multi-tool and used the hammer to nail them back to where they belong. While doing that, I noticed something on the inside of my bed. When I said something and started pulling out a blanket, Moogie pulled up the front of the couch and I found blankets, sheets, and pillows under there. Holey guacamole! This is life changing. Moogie laughed at me. I told her I had no idea about that, since American beds aren’t like that. She told me I should have asked her. My reply: how in the heck am to be expected to ask about something that I have absolutely no idea about? She got a big kick out of it. Tonight, I’ll sleep with blankets, instead of sleeping bags.

January 25, 2009

I woke up late today, looking forward to the Sunday ahead that I could waste away being lazy. When I finally went to cook something, I decided that I wanted biscuits and gravy. In the U.S., I always bought those frozen biscuits that you just have to put in the oven. I’d tried to make biscuits a few times, but they just never turned out good. Since I didn’t have anything pre-made, I looked in the cook book we got from PC. I found an easy looking recipe. Since there isn’t any self-rising flour in Mongolia, I had to add some baking powder. Luckily, the guy that was here before me left a lot. Otherwise, I would’ve been out of luck. The recipe made 11 biscuits. I had room for nine in my small oven, so I cooked the other two in the skillet, on the stove. When they were all finished, they were a little heavy, but really good. I ate the two from the stove straight away, putting strawberry jelly on one and Ranch on the other. I used one of the gravy packets I have and warmed up some of the bacon my sister sent, adding a big glass of milk, and had a good meal. Next, I’ll have to learn how to make gravy from scratch. No matter how many times I’ve helped my mom make it before, I just can’t seem to get it right when I try it alone.

Since then, the only productive thing that I’ve done is wash dishes, do laundry, and write this. I hope that you are doing well. I have my first life-skills lesson tomorrow. Shuree is translating it as I write this and will email it to me tonight. Pray for me to do well. I’m a little bit nervous about it. Write when you can.

Uh oh, watch out. Two Friday's in a row. Something's must be going on.

2009-01-16T10:13:00.000-06:00

January 10, 2009

After a few hours of reading, a couch surfer came here. He had messaged me a couple of days ago and said he wanted to experience what it’s like outside the city. I told him he was welcome to come to my place for the weekend. His name is Donnel, and he’s from the San Francisco area. He seems to be a fairly nice guy. It was time for lunch when he got here, so the first thing we did was make a trip to the store. We made a simple meal of pasta with onions and sausage. After that, we walked up to the OBOO. OMG, it was freaking cold! This was the windiest day that I’ve experienced so far. I thought my face was going to freeze off. My nose was numb by the time we got back to my apartment. The scene was really cool out there, though. The wind was blowing the top layer of the snow across the ground, and it made a really neat effect. I took a video of it, but it doesn’t do it justice. It looked like a frozen desert wasteland. Felt like it, too.

When we got back, we just sat around talking and watching music videos. Don taught me how to play Cribbage. Have you ever heard of that game? There are some funky rules and scoring, but I like it. When Moogie finished practicing for some kind of teacher concert they’re having soon, she came to my place. She had already been drinking, so she was feeling pretty good. My plan was to buy some drinks for us, then ask her to cook, but since she’d already been drinking, I just asked her straightaway. She agreed to cook boats for us. Sweet! I didn’t have quite enough meat, though, so I had to go and buy some. At the store, I started digging in the freezer, looking for what I wanted. The owner told me that all they had was innards. Yuck! I sure didn’t want that. As I was about to leave, another customer told me that there was some meat in the next room. I had never even noticed the other door, so I was skeptical. When I opened the door, it was dark in there, and I could see someone on the other side of the room, laying down and smoking a cigarette. I started to leave, but the guy assured me there was someone, and meat, in there. When I went in, the guy stood up and a couple of other guys I’ve never seen followed me in. Immediately, my hackles raised and I was worried about my safety. After some confusion about what kind of meat I wanted, the guy picked up a big burlap sack and took it over to the store. I don’t know why they kept asking what kind of meat I wanted, since the guy only had one kind and I kept telling him that was the kind I wanted. In the store, the guy pulled out an entire leg of mutton and asked me how much I wanted. I got one and a half kilograms for 3,500tg. Not a bad price. When we left, Don bought vodka.

Back at my place, we had a good time sitting around talking and preparing boats while taking intermediate shots. I still don’t like vodka, but the kind he’d gotten was smoother than some others I’ve had. Don made a game of seeing how creative he could get with his boat pinching. Moogie got a good laugh out of them all. Mongolians seem to have this preset idea of what boats – and other foods that are pinched, but basically the same thing – are supposed to look like. I told her that I don’t really care what they look like, as long as they cook right and taste good when they’re finished. We probably made somewhere around 50 boats, and when it got down to the end and everyone else was finished, I polished off the last few. As I’ve said countless times: I can’t get enough of those things.

When we’d finished, one of Moogie’s friends from school came over with another couple small bottles of vodka. Her name is Nomin. I’d seen her a couple times before, but I’d never met her. She was really nice. She doesn’t speak any English at all, but I could understand most of what she was saying and was able to respond in kind. Older PCVs had always told me that alcohol was somewhat of helper when it comes to speaking better Mongolian. True or not, something seemed to be doing the trick. Granted, we didn’t talk about anything too deep, but I was able to do alright.

January 11, 2009

Don and I woke up late today, and after eating breakfast/lunch, we went to the school. Moogie had told us that people would be there playing volleyball and asked if we wanted to play. I told her I would go, but I probably wouldn’t play. She made it sound like there was some kind of big competition going on. But, just in case, I did dress for the occasion. When we got there, it was just a few people, hitting the ball around. Okay, I could handle that. We hadn’t even started a game yet when Don said that his brain couldn’t handle it and he was going to walk around outside. Apparently, he was still feeling pretty bad from last night. Luckily, I had stayed true to my secret hang over cure: I drank lots of water before I went to bed. It works every time. I stayed and played three games and didn’t do too bad. People were still playing when I left a couple hours later.

When Don got back, he said that he wanted to go and watch the sunset and take some pictures. So, we bundled up and took off walking to the hill that’s over there. When we got there, we saw a further hill that the sun was just going behind that might offer a better view. To get there, we had to walk through the ger district. That was my first time over there, so it was kind of neat. A couple of kids had built a snow fort. That was my first time ever seeing anything like that. I was sure to tell them how cool I thought it was. They beamed their smiles at me in return. We had good timing in getting to the other hill. It was only another 10 minutes before the sun went behind the distant mountains. On the walk back, we got to see the full moon rising. It was supposed to have been the biggest one of 2009 last night. We saw it when we were out last night, after it was already normal size, and noticed how bright it was. Tonight, as it was rising over the horizon, the moon looked several times bigger than normal. As always, I got some pictures that you’ll be able to check out eventually.

When we got back to town, we stopped at the ger that I was taken to when the last couch surfers were here. I was expecting to see my friend, but I was told she was in the city. I don’t know who the two women were that were there. The older lady was hard of hearing, but very nice. After telling the younger to give us tea, she said down with her prayer beads and kept herself busy fingering each one while reciting her prayers. When we left there, we went to Densmaa’s place. Our goal was to ask about the train schedule, but she made us sit down and have tea and some snacks. Then, after she found out what we wanted to know, and secured a ride for Don to get to the train station, she made us stay while she cooked dinner for us. That, as always, was cool. After coming home, we’ve decided that we would go to bed early tonight. We are pretty tired (me even more so, from the volleyball) and we have to wake up early. If you know me, you know that I’m not looking forward to that.

January 12, 2009

I read an article on MSN about a couple who got married in a Taco Bell. It seems that someone loves the place more than I do. I could eat there almost everyday of the week, but I don’t think I would want to get married there.

This morning, we woke up and were on the meeker at 6:30. Densmaa had set up a ride for us to get Don to the train station in the other part of town. We got there, I ordered his ticket for him, and then I was brought back, where I promptly went right back to bed for another hour. I was still tired when I woke up and got ready for work. At work, I was in a bit of a daze as I continued to work on a life-skills lesson. Luckily, I’d already made an “action plan” a few weeks ago. But when Oko came to my office to write one up, it took me a few minutes to remember that I’d done it. I had most of the important words translated, too, so that helped a lot. Now I just have to see about finding a translator for the lessons that I’m typing up. If I’m lucky, Shuree will be able to do it for me; but she’s really busy these days. I’ll keep you posted.

Densmaa told me today that I won’t be teaching English to anyone but her, Oko and Javkhaa. As I said before, I don’t mind that. She set a time schedule for 3 o’ clock, everyday. Wouldn’t you know it, though, at 3, Oko was the only one in the office. We went over the words from the other day, and then I went over some other stuff with her. Right now, her English is the worst, but I bet that it will improve quickly. She’s shy when it comes to speaking English, but she’s willing to learn. I think she’ll do alright. I’ve been talking to her in English when I say something, and then saying it in Mongolian. I’ve noticed that she already understands many of the things I say, even though she can’t quite say them herself yet. She’s doing pretty good about helping me with my Mongolian, too. We took turns quizzing each other today. Even if I just learn a few words a day, that’s better than nothing. I even used one of the new words in a conversation this evening. The word was ‘stamp pad.’ I don’t know when I’ll really ever need to know that word, but since Mongolian words have so many different meanings, depending on the context, maybe it will help. We’ll see.

For those of you who check out some of the other blogs that I have links to on my blog, please check out the Advance Humanity blog and click on the posting titled It’s Saturday Night! That’s Travis’s blog and he lives in the same place as Alex. Both of them were with me during training, and they are a couple of extremely cool people who made my summer very memorable. There are a couple of videos of them being goofy that I’m sure will give you a snapshot of what I mean by “memorable.” Enjoy!

January 13, 2009

Not long after getting to work this morning, Oko came into my office. She had a project proposal in hand and told me that when Densmaa had asked for an “action plan,” that is what she wanted. Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place? So, I sat down and started working on that, not being in much of a hurry. Javkhaa came in shortly after and they were both sitting there watching me. Along with them telling me to continue to write when I paused to talk to them, they gave me the feeling that I was expected to have it finished today. I spent the first half of the day working on that and really, oddly, quite enjoyed it. The first part of it reminded me of writing papers for my classes in university. I really liked the creativity part of it. As I said before, I like writing. There’s something about thinking of as many synonyms as I can for a word, then deciding which one I want to use in a particular sentence. I don’t think it really shows in my blog, though. Using the words I did, I knew that they would be hard to translate, but I used them anyway.

After lunch, I quickly finished and took the final product to Oko and Javkhaa. They seemed to be amazed and said, “You are a very fast writer.” I just smiled at them. Densmaa came in and helped translate the easy parts, then left us to take care of the rest. Um, that’s a little backward, don’t you think? Oh well. We sat down and got to work, with me making the pages of the dictionary dance a flurried shimmy in my hands. I was reminded that some of the things we might say in English just don’t translate to Mongolian. And a couple of times, I would show them the translation and they would look at me funny. Turns out, the first translation isn’t always what we would think it should be. I can’t think of the instance from today, but once, I talked about how dull my knife was. Densmaa didn’t know the word “dull,” show I showed her the translation. She looked at me and said that can’t be the word I meant, cause knives can’t be dull. I told her that they most certainly can be, then I showed her the word “sharp” and told her “dull” is the opposite of that. We then flipped back to “dull” and she found a word that was the third or fourth translation. The first one meant “not smart.” Translation is so difficult sometimes!

Last Friday, when I left the bank, one of the ladies from one of the stores I frequent hollered at me, “Bagsh ah, bagsh ah!” (Teacher! Teacher!!) I’ve become used to people thinking I’m a teacher, so I didn’t correct her. When I followed her into her store, she asked me if I would tutor her younger brother. After telling her that I would not tutor him every day and that, because of Peace Corps policy, I couldn’t take payment, we decided that he would come to my place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 6:30, for one hour of tutoring. I wish I’d have made some kind of deal for food. I didn’t think about that until today, when they actually showed up 10 minutes early. I was extremely surprised at that. Her brother’s name is Ambaa. He’s 26 years old, and studied English at university. His English isn’t too bad. He just needs some practice. This evening, we went over basic questions like “What is your name?” “How old are you?” “Where are you from?” “What do you do?” and other trivial questions. Like most people who know the least bit of English, his grammar is what needs the most work. The hour went by fairly quickly and when he left, he asked me if he was to come again tomorrow. When I told him Thursday, his face fell. Oh well. I’m not trying to have someone over here every day, teaching grammar.

January 14, 2009

A few years ago, I learned about how the ancient Jews’ directions were different that today’s. For example, their north was our east. That explains how they “went down into Egypt.” I thought that was weird then, but I just chalked it up to that being so long ago. I didn’t really think about how a people decide what is what when it comes to cardinal directions. And I sure didn’t think that it could be different today. I was surprised to learn that it is different in Mongolia. Everything here is backwards: north is south, and east is west. I learned this during training, but I’d kind of forgotten about it until I was writing something yesterday that required a direction. Once I heard the explanation for why this is so, though, I understood. You see, Mongolians are the reason that the Chinese built the Great Wall. They are the ones who kept raiding the Chinese. In turn, the Chinese often retaliated, and when they became considerably more powerful, the Mongolians really had to keep an eye out for them. As a result, Mongolians always – and still to this day – faced their homes to what we would call the south, so they would be able to see the Chinese coming. After hundreds of years of orienting themselves this way, I guess it just became natural for them to refer to that direction as north. It really makes it hard when asking for directions sometimes. If you are facing what we would call north, looking at the bank, and you want to go to the store that is to the right of it, you would have to tell a Mongolian that it is on the left side, or west. It’s quite confusing. I always have to stop and think things through before I speak. Luckily, there hasn’t been anything important for me to worry about when it comes to getting directions.

This afternoon, I was in my office, working on a bit of Mongolian, when Oko came in. She said, “Trip, come on. Are you ready?” “Ready for what?” I asked. There was a big meeting with our office, the kindergarten, the hospital, the Social Insurance place, the social workers from both parts of town and both schools, and some students from both schools. We started out by going around the table and everyone introducing their self. For the next two hours, I sat there as they all took turns talking about whatever it is they were talking about. I really don’t have any idea. And I had to pee the whole time, so that just made it worse. At the end, Densmaa asked me to introduce the like-skills project that I’ve been working on – very quickly. I had something prepared, but it wasn’t made to be very quick. Expecting her to translate what I said, I started my spiel about what life-skills are, then was stopped after two sentences. I was told that maybe we would go over that later, and then Oko stood up and talked about it in Mongolian. I was a bit peeved, to say the least. Immediately after that meeting, all the social workers and students stayed, and then Densmaa gave a quick overview about the scope of the project. They asked some questions that I had thought Densmaa knew the answer to, though she didn’t, and I thought to myself, ‘if I had a chance to give the spiel that I have prepared, most of these questions would be answered.’ We ended the meeting with setting another meeting for Friday. I sure hope it goes much better. Pray for me, or cross your fingers, or whatever it is that you do to send luck to someone on the other side of the world. I’m sure I’ll need it.

This evening, I was in the middle of reading when I heard a light tap at my door. I had no idea who it might be as I opened the door. It was two of the students from school; two girls. One of them speaks enough English to kind of sort of get her point across, and the other knows just a few words. The one told me she wanted to ask me a question about a lesson she was working on. When she showed me what it was, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. There was a story about what reality shows are, and examples of different ones: American Idol, Survivor, The Bachelor, and another one that I can’t remember. On the surface, the questions had nothing to do with the story. The directions were to answer the questions, and depending on how many A’s, B’s, C’s, or D’s you had, you would be able to tell which reality show you most wanted to be on. You know, kind of like one of those silly Cosmopolitan quizzes that teenage girls take. (Yeah, I know about those. I actually like reading Cosmo, sometimes.) The questions used words that had two or three meanings, and, of course, they weren’t the first translation. She would translate a word, and then I would have to tell her the translation that was meant. It took much longer than I wanted it to. Especially, since they were the kind of giggly girls who talk in their own language and share private jokes. I was ready for them to go before they did. They’re cool, but that’s not the kind of thing I wanted to do this evening.

January 15, 2009

I began my day by working on the letter to the class that I correspond with in the U.S. I received two sets of letter from them at the same time, and all of them but one asked me several questions in each letter. The one girl didn’t ask one question in either. I thought that was a little funny. Still, I was sure to write to her. With a few breaks, it took me all day to finish. Boy, was my hand hurting when I finished. I enjoyed it, though, knowing that they will really like it. In the first letter to them, I wrote the numbers for one through 10, and some of them used them in their letters to me. Today, I wrote all of their names in Cyrillic. It’s a little bit hard, since you have to do it phonetically, and I’m really not that good at pronouncing all the letters correctly. I think I did a good enough job, though. They’ll get a kick out of it.

One of the breaks I took was kind of forced on me, unwillingly. A lady came into my office with some papers that had a bunch of fill-in-the-blank English sentences. After lots of confusion, and asking Oko, I figured out that she wanted me to answer the questions for her kid, whoever that is. I didn’t want to, but I did it anyway. It was a bunch of questions photocopied from a workbook, and it was soon evident that a native English speaker did not write the original. There were several questions that weren’t technically grammatically correct, and some had misspelled words! Then, there were many sentences that should’ve used the word “might”, but only had “may” as a choice. Now, some liberal writers and speakers might say that it’s okay to interchange the two, and you definitely may do that if you are one of those people; but I’m a style nazi when it comes to writing, and I don’t think it should be encouraged. All of that put together – me not wanting to do it in the first place; grammar and spelling mistakes; and the misuse of “might” versus “may” – made me mad about the whole thing. It’s bad enough that I have to teach English, but by doing something like that, I was teaching improper English. I won’t do it again, without sitting down with the student and making sure they understand what is correct.

This evening, Ambaa came again. Khishge came, also. She’s one of the silly girls that came last night. She’s one of the best English speakers of her class, and she was there with me last week when Ambaa’s older sister asked if he could come. She asked if she could come, also, and I told her yes. I’m finding that the one of the biggest problems for Mongolians are those words like a, an, the, is, am, are, was, were, and the like. Those words don’t exist in Mongolian. Those words are either automatically implied, or you change the ending of a word to get at the meaning. They’re doing alright, but they will need a lot of help with reading comprehension. I wrote a sentence that Khishge said (My favourite subject is English, because it is an international language.), and after reading the sentence several times, Ambaa couldn’t tell me what her favourite subject was, or why. We’ll work on that.

After they left, I finished my letter to the kids and put it in an envelope, then sealed up a very small package for my BFFE, the Rectangle Head. It’s all rednecked up with all kinds of duct tape. I want to make sure that no one tampers with it. After that, I exchanged a few emails with one of my absolute favourite people. You know who you are. Thank you for that. It was very fun. I needed that.

Did you know that, if you have RealPlayer, you can download videos from Youtube? Yep, you can. I’ve downloaded several music videos that I like. Very cool. I thought that you might be interested, too.

January 16, 2009

Today, there wasn’t much going on at all, so I stayed in my office for most of the day, working on some Mongolian. I know all the words for think, want, wish, with, hope, desire, have, fancy, long, feeling, heart, sounds, talk, speak, and spell; but there are a lot of phrases I wanted to know using those words. That’s what I worked on all day, taking a few breaks to go and talk to Oko and Javkhaa. I got four pages of new phrases. That’s a lot. Especially since they are all figurative phrases, which changes the words and meanings.

This evening, I haven’t done much of anything. The meat that I got last weekend was all rib meat, so I cut it all off the bone, then steamed the bones with my dinner, and put some hot barbecue sauce on them. There was just enough meat left on them to give me a good appetiser. While I ate my dinner, I started watching Schindler’s List. Have you seen that movie? Whew, it is long; right at three hours. I took a break half way through to clean my kitchen. I’m going to go to UB tomorrow, and will spend the night, and I don’t want to come home to a dirty kitchen. That’s the worst, isn’t it? I think so.

It’s the end of another week for me. I hope you have had a week as good as mine. Write when you can. I always enjoy hearing from you, even if it’s just to say hi. Talk to you later. See ya.

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

2009-01-09T09:13:00.000-06:00

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.

Only two days late this time.

2009-01-04T06:29:00.001-06:00

December 26, 2008

Surprisingly, the play that was supposed to begin at 1 o’ clock started before I got there at 1:30. I could hardly believe it. The little bit that I missed wasn’t a big deal, though. The play was pretty much the same as the past three, but with different people. I didn’t have any qualms about leaving a little early.

This evening, at 7 o’ clock, I went to the Culture Centre for our work party. I’m coming to find that whatever time I’m told something is to start means that that’s when everyone will get there to start setting up. There were about seven tables, for about 10 people each. After about an hour and a half, when everything was set up, there was enough food, snacks, and alcohol for about 20 people at each table. There were all kinds of vodka, beer, champagne, boats, fruits, and candies. I ate before I went, and I ate more when I got there. It’s a good thing, too. It wasn’t long before someone opened the first bottle of vodka and started pouring shots. Man, I really dislike vodka.

At the same time everyone was drinking and socialising, there were random groups of kids that would come in and do some entertaining. During all that, I think I had an epiphany about why all the kids were dressed as random animals. I think the animals are the ones of the lunar calendar. While looking and them, pondering the meaning, I remembered walking through the park in front of my apartment, where there are statues of all the lunar calendar animals. Since Mongolians put only a little bit less emphasis on the lunar years as the Chinese do, it only makes sense.

Santa was there, too, and he called out everyone’s names and we went up to receive a bag of goodies: juice, cookies, cakes, and candies. Later, our names were called and we all took turns drawing numbers for gifts. I drew my favourite number – thirteen – and got a yellow veggie peeler – my favourite colour. People played games, too. For one of them, guys dressed as women and blind-folded women had to guess who it was. It was pretty funny.

December 29, 2008

As predicted, there was hardly anything going on at the office today. The most exciting part of my day was trying to find out who had my bag of goodies, my veggie peeler, and my scarf from the other night. Somehow, I forgot them there. I was really worried about my scarf. I bought that thing in Amsterdam and I really like it. Luckily, after the usual confusion of conveying my message, we figured out where they were. All except the veggie peeler, that is. I think it might be gone. Oh well. I never used the one that I had in the U.S., so it’s really not a big deal that I don’t have one here. I’m so forgetful sometimes. My grandmother used to tell me that I’d lose my head/butt if it wasn’t attached.

This afternoon, I went to pay the bill for my internet at the bank. It was due yesterday, and since yesterday was Sunday, there was no way for me to pay it. When I woke up this morning, I found that my internet is cut off. Drat! When I got to the bank, I took my bill with me and asked the ladies to help me. They looked at me like I was stupid, started saying something as fast as they seemingly could, and then handed the bill back to me. From what I was told at Skytel, I should be able to just transfer money from my account to theirs. So, I went into the bank manager’s office and asked her to help me. She speaks just a little bit of English, but apparently it wasn’t enough to understand what I wanted to do. She had one of the tellers try to call Skytel as I waited outside, then she called me back into her office. She had my boss on the phone, who asked me what I was trying to do. After I told my boss, she asked me to go to my office and wait on her so she could help me. I waited much longer than I felt like waiting before I left.

There was a dress show at the school, for teachers and students, and I was invited. When I got there, the lights were low and a disco ball was shooting rays of light around the room. Everyone but me was dressed in their finest. After just a few minutes, everyone started dancing. That raised my suspicions immediately and I got nervous. Moogie came over and I asked her what was going on and she told me it was a mask show. Finally, I figured out that it is basically their equivalent of a prom. They would vote for a king and queen later. Sure enough, as I’d feared, one of the high school girls came over, grabbed my hand, and tried to pull me onto the dance floor. She was persistent, but I protested, saying that I couldn’t. I was not about to dance with high school girls. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone else, student or teacher, would try to get me to dance. I acted like I had a phone call and dipped out. I’m one of the dumbest people you can imagine when I’m with a group of friends, but I can’t tell you how shy I am when it comes to dancing in public. Yikes!!

Um, never mind about the loss of my veggie peeler: I found it in the sport jacket that I wore the other night. Like I said: I’m forgetful.

This evening, there was a New Year’s celebration for the entire district. It was at the new Sport Centre that isn’t even finished yet. I went there during the day, just to check it out. The floor is all kinds of warped. I’m sure whoever plays basketball, or whatever other sport, will have fun on that. I think the only reason that the celebration was there, instead of the Culture Centre, is because the area was bigger. That’s nothing to say for the seating, though. They had lined the walls with seats, but that was nowhere near enough for the amount of people that were there; or that were to show up. The people who didn’t have seats just stood up and blocked everyone else’s view. I was close to leaving when the people on the row of seats that I was on had the ingenious idea of moving them further from the wall. That made things bearable for a while. It wasn’t long before I realised that the same play I was watching was the exact same one that I’ve already seen four times now. Goodness, you’d think they would change it around just a little bit. Surely they know that some of us have been to absolutely every play that has been put on in the last couple of weeks. It finally did change a little bit. When some of the dancers started asking people from the crowd to dance with them, encouraging everyone to hit the floor, I decided to make my way toward the door. I came home and watched Juno. Have you seen that movie? It’s pretty good. Check it out if you get the chance.

December 30, 2008

I remembered a story about the last time I was in UB. A few of us were at Big Burger, getting our fast food fix, when a couple of homeless kids came in. I don’t know if they’d been to other tables first, but they ended up at our table, begging for food. From what I understand, some places let them in to beg. They started asking us for food and we told them to go away. When one of the employees saw them bugging us, she came over and fussed at them and tried to push them away. They were persistent and wouldn’t leave. One of the kids actually grabbed one of my friend’s fries and slowly starting picking them up. The kid was slow and just watched us. My friend just watched, so I reached across and grabbed them back, delivering a few harsh words all the while. Eventually, the manager came out and sent them scurrying. We talked about that for a while, surprised that they were as brave as they were.

Just cause there was nothing else to do, I came to UB a day early. I figured I would enjoy it here more than I would at home, being bored in front of the TV. I went to my friend Shuree’s place and helped her translate some documents so a guy could get a UK visa. She didn’t need any help translating, but she needed a little help with editing. It took much longer than I thought it would. When we finished, the guy took us to an awesome dinner at a Korean place. There were three of us eating, so he ordered three different meals. On top of that, the first thing they do is bring out all kinds of small dishes of different things like fried bean curds, slaw, anchovies, a couple different kimchis, eggs, and a few other things. I enjoyed the heck out of all of it and stuffed myself. Yum!

When I left there, I went with Shuree’s brother to his parent’s home. Her brother is a monk at one of the monasteries in UB. He’s really cool, and apparently, he’s a little bit important. He hangs out with the Dalai Lama whenever he visits Mongolia and America, and a few other countries. I got to check out his monastery. It just so happens to be the one that I saw right before I went to my site. It’s really neat. His parent’s place is outside UB. His parents were gone to China, and no one was home, so it was very cold at first. We didn’t do much that night but get a fire started. It eventually warmed up.

December 31, 2008

Surprisingly, I got to sleep late. Not long after I woke up, I had a new meal called “jones.” It’s a soup with some noodles you add to it. I told them how that is someone’s name in the U.S. and they got a kick out of it. After we ate, I was hot, so I went outside. What a scene! It’s been snowing lately, so absolutely everything was covered with it. There were mountains around the entire village. It was beautiful. There was a short pagoda-like thing on top of a nearby hill, so I walked up there. From there, I could see the entire valley. It was really cool up there. I took some pictures, so you’ll see them eventually.

When we got back to UB, my first stop was to pick up my dry-cleaning. My suit pants had a stain on them since before I went to my site, and I wanted to wear it tonight. I was worried about the place not being good, but they took care of everything. Since New Year’s is a big family thing in Mongolia, we called around to find out which places would be open for how long. Eventually, we decided to just walk and find one. We found one that was fairly close called Moon Pub. It was really cool and ritzy, belying the run-down look of the outside. They said they would stay open til midnight. Right before then, though, we decided to go to Sukhbaatar square. We weren’t sure what would be going on, but we thought there might be something. We made it there just in time for 12 o’ clock. There were all kinds of people there, drinking champagne and shooting fireworks. You know how, in the U.S., the fire department will oversee the fireworks, just to make sure everything is safe? Well, it’s nothing like that here. Random people had fireworks and were shooting them off. It was really cool, but just a little bit dangerous. A couple of times, some of the fireworks shot through the crowd. Luckily, I didn’t see anyone get hit. It was nuts. We also saw some random PCV friends. They had talked us into going to a club with them, but before we got there, everyone started splitting up, so we just went back and went to bed. It was a fun night.

January 1, 2009

After waking up late, I went to visit Mendee. When I got there, I asked where his wife and son were. He told me they went to her parent’s house. When I asked why he didn’t go with them, he told me it was because I was there. Doh! I felt bad, but he assured me it was okay. His wife had made some kind of chocolate cake that I had some of. It was the best cake that I’ve had since being in Mongolia. Maybe part of it was because it didn’t have any of the usual, crappy icing on it. When I left there, I went to the State Dept. store and bought a few things. One of them was chili. It’s a regular size can that was a bit expensive, but it’s totally worth it. I love chili and I can’t seem to get mine to come out like I like it. Maybe I’m not putting some crucial ingredient in there. Hopefully, I’ll figure it out.

On Thursdays, Shuree has a radio show. Partly, it’s to promote her training centre. There is always a native English speaking guest, and for a whole hour, they speak English. Today, I was that guest. I talked about my name, hip-hop music, what a New Year’s resolution is, and why I decided to come to Mongolia. I was nervous at first, but I soon got used to it. I’d always wanted to be on the radio. Kind of cool that I got to experience that in Mongolia for the first time. We had called earlier in the day to tell them my name. I found out later that they’d ran out of forms they have to fill out for the front desk any time they have visitors. It’s a state-ran radio, so they don’t allow foreigners for some reason. At first, the guard was giving the lady a hard time, so she had to get special permission from the higher-ups, then get them to call the front desk. Kind of funny. When we left there, we had pizza for dinner. Did I tell you that they have Tabasco sauce there? They do, and I always put lots on my pizza. That kind of makes up for the lack of tomato sauce. I don’t know why they don’t put tomato sauce on their pizza.

January 2, 2009

This morning, I went to the Peace Corps office. I think I’ve told you before that all of us Volunteers have a box in the lounge. In my box was two letters from the kids at the school that I correspond with in the U.S. I’d forgotten to tell the teacher to send them directly to my address, not the one that she was given by One World Classrooms. It was good to finally get them. The first one was sent over two months ago. The first thing I did was to sit down and read all of the individual letters that the kids had written. They were cute, to say the least. I’ll write back to them soon.

While I was there, I met James. He’s a PCV that lives next to the Gobi desert. He was in town because he’d just gotten back from the U.S. He’d brought back two cases of Guiness, and he gave me one. I drank it later that evening and it was awesome. When we left there, we went for lunch at Cola & Kabob, where I had a doner kabob. It was pretty much the exact same thing as the shish kabob, but it was in a pita instead of a tortilla, and a lot messier. They are both delicious and messy. I told James about my grandfather always telling me that if it wasn’t messy, it wasn’t good. He got a kick out of that. When we left, we went to the State Dept. store and I bought a new clock. I used to have this sweet little clock that was perfect for traveling, but I somehow lost it the last time I was in UB. I think someone at the guesthouse I was staying in took it. Of course, when I asked the owners and cleaners, they knew nothing about it. The one I got isn’t quite as cool as the old one, but it will do what I need it for.

When we left there, we went to a place called Level and had a few drinks. That’s the first time I’ve had some whiskey since I had what I’d gotten for my host-dad’s birthday, back in the summer. It was good. The billiards was free, so we entertained ourselves with that. There was only one table, so we had to write our name on a board and play the winner of the current game. At first, there were only two other Mongolian guys there. They were pretty nice guys. They told us that this was their ninth day of drinking. It wasn’t long before one of the guys couldn’t do much more than sit on the couch and try to keep his head up. When we started talking about what we would do when we left, James suggested going to get a massage. Only this morning I had contemplated getting a massage, so I eagerly said agreed that that’s what we should do. He took me to a place a few blocks away that I’d not have noticed had he not led me there. When we went in, they gave us a menu and he ordered for us. We paid 30,000tg for an hour and a half of awesomeness. Man, I think I will have to visit that place again.

January 3, 2009

This afternoon, I went to a bookstore and found a calendar and a couple of kid’s books. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to improve my Mongolian, so I figure that kid’s books will be a good way to do that. One of them is like a comic book, so that’s kind of cool. After that, I went to Cola & Kabob, slammed a shish kabob, and then went to find a meeker. I waited for almost an hour for it to leave. Not long after getting home, Moogie brought “boats” that she had made, frozen, and eaten for days. She said she was tired of them. I told her I don’t think I will ever be tired of them. As I ate half of what she brought, we watched Flags of our Fathers. Have you ever seen that movie? It’s pretty good.

January 4, 2009

You know, it’s weird to be writing 2009. It always takes me forever to get used to writing the new year. I haven’t done much at all today. I’ve watched TV, washed dishes, watched Pan’s Labyrinth, and washed clothes. Tomorrow will start about a month of a semi-regular work schedule, so I’m trying to make sure that I don’t have anything else to worry about. At least for a little while. I say it’s for only a month because the big lunar holiday Tsagaan Sar (White Month) will be in February. People pretty much take off the whole month. I hope that you are good and had a good New Year’s. Write whenever you like. I always look forward to hearing from you.

Happy Holidays from Mongolia.

2008-12-25T22:54:00.002-06:00

December 19, 2008

I’ve already told you how I didn’t do much at work and how I went to lunch at the guanz (diner). Since it is Friday, I went to the Labour and Social Welfare office to teach English at 3 o’ clock. For whatever reason, none of my regular students were there. Oh well. I was served tea and wrote a few things out about the New Year’s celebration. They were all busy, so I went to the school for my usual Friday conversation with the students. About the same time that I was to begin, my boss called and asked where I was. I told her I was at the school and she asked me to come to her office. When I got there, she said, “We just wondered where our Trip was.” That was a little funny.

While I was there, I learned something that you definitely should not do in Mongolian culture. Many times, when I am with my friends, I will give them a piece of trash while making them think that it is something more. Often, I will give someone an empty candy wrapper or something like that. Today, I gave a piece of trash paper to Javkhaa, my co-worker who is pregnant. As soon as I gave it to her, her face changed, she handed it to Densmaa, my boss, and told her what I did. Densmaa told me how bad that was and that I should never do that to a pregnant woman because it will make her breasts hurt and make her sick. The way to make this egregious act better is to immediately give the pregnant woman a real gift. I was freaking out and had no idea what to do. When I asked Densmaa what to do, she ran into her office, saying she would help me. She gave me a piece of candy that I gave to Javkhaa. That, apparently, took care of things. Later, I found out that you are really supposed to give a fake gift first, endure some crying and cursing, then give a real gift. Either way, I felt like a total fool. I apologised profusely. As I’ve said before, I’m lucky that I make all these cultural mistakes amongst friends.

While I was at their office, I noticed that they had an obnoxious virus on their computer. There was a Christmasy box floating around the screen that said, “This computer is being attacked.” I was just watching and I was getting annoyed. They were working on end of the year reports that will go to the Mongolian government that had many pictures of stuff from our town. I asked if there was any pictures of me and they said no, then asked me for some pictures from IST. I took their flash drive and got some pictures from my computer. Well, I still haven’t gotten the virus protection that I purchased to work right, so this evening, the same stupid box is floating across my screen. Grr! I’m so mad about that. If I don’t get this taken care of in the next couple of days, I’m going to ask for my money back. At this point, I can’t even get some basic websites to open right.

December 20, 2008

This evening, three couch surfers came on the meeker. Do you remember me telling you about CouchSurfing.com? I’d been talking to them independently for a couple of weeks and they finally arrived. Manu and Simon are from France and Chris is from Canada. Simon (pronounced “see-mone”) speaks very little English, so Manu had to translate almost everything that was said to him, or that he said to us. After a little more exploration in Mongolia, the two of them will go to Beijing, China and study kung-fu for several months, or until they run out of money, whichever happens first. Chris graduated from university a few years ago and other than a few breaks of going home to work odd jobs for more money, he has been traveling ever since. On this trip, he started over in Europe and has slowly made his way here, then will continue to Beijing and on to parts of Southeast Asia. Someone on his profile said he was shy, but I didn’t see much of that. Maybe his travels have fixed that. For dinner, we went to store and bought some meat and vegetables, cooked them all together, then put it all on top of some pasta. That’s one of the easiest Mongolian meals that I know how to cook. I don’t have anything to do tomorrow, so we are to bed a bit late.

December 21, 2008

The guys slept much later than I thought they might. Of course, I don’t mind, so I slept as long as they did. When we got up and got ready, we walked to the old military base, freezing the whole way. The wind was blowing something fierce, subtracting precious degrees from the already negative temperatures. Brrr!!! The base was neat. There were old Communist stars and propaganda painted and written on walls. Some of the buildings looked like they had simply been locked and left one day while some of them looked like they had suffered the effects of a bomb explosion. Looking inside all the old hangars, we could tell that someone was using them for barns. In one of them, we found some old Russian passport documents and mechanical drawings. I kept them and will give them to the governor to see if he thinks they might be important. If not, I’ll keep a couple as souvenirs. While on top of one of the hangars, we spotted a couple of gers that must be the home of whoever owns the animals that had left the prints and droppings we came across. Just to show the guys that it was socially acceptable, I poked my head in one, without knocking, and asked if we could come in. Of course, they said we could and found us all stools to sit on and served us tea. Surprisingly, I’d seen the family before. They sat and stared at us and asked the occasional question. I bet the proverbial fly on the wall was getting a kick out of seeing me talk to them in Mongolian and translate to English, then Manu translating to French for Simon. Since Mongolians will never ask a visitor to leave, and I didn’t want to impose on their forced hospitality, we left after that one cup of tea. It helped enormously to warm us a little before we had to make the trek back to my apartment.

When we got back, we bought some bread and sausage for our lunch and chowed down. We weren’t quite finished when Densmaa came and took us to a ger. Friday, I asked her if she would set up a visit for us. I don’t know the lady’s name, but she works at the Social Insurance Dept. I’m always surprised to find out who lives in gers. I always wonder if it's by choice or necessity. As soon as we got there, we were sat down and given tea, then she started pulling out all kinds of food. The main thing was a big pot of meat. Ha, I cut off a piece of something and gave it to the guys with a sly smile on my face. When they asked me what it was, I told them I would tell them after they ate it. It was innards. Somehow, those weren’t as bad as some I’ve had before. The guys made a face at the thought of what they’d just eaten, but they said it tasted alright. It was also their first time eating horse meat. The lady kept telling us to eat all of the food, but we just couldn’t. We didn’t expect to be fed and were regretting eating what we had before we got there. When we left there, we went to Densmaa’s place and she immediately started cooking. We had visions of being in Rome and needing to visit the vomitorium before we continued to gorge ourselves. While there, I totally embarrassed myself. I was reaching for some sugar for my tea and knocked the whole thing on the floor. Doh! Densmaa would not let me clean it, even though I got the broom and dustpan and asserted that it was my fault and I should clean it. People are very nice to their visitors here. Oh, and her apartment was awesome. It’s more than twice the size of mine and has all kinds of nice furnishings and decorations.

December 22, 2008

We were up much later than I wanted to be last night. The French guys found the French station on my TV and since it had English subtitles, we all watched the movie that was on. It wasn't very good. I woke up and went to work late today since I knew there was nothing pressing for me to do. For lunch I got the guys and went to the guanz, but no one was there. That sucked. I was kind of looking forward to it. Since we were kind of close, we walked to the top of yonder hill and I showed the guys the OBOO. That’s how it’s written in Mongolian. It sounds like “ah-wah.” That is the thing that I told you about before that looks like a pile of rocks, bones, and trash and is the place where you go to pray to the local god that watches over the town. There’s always a good view of the surrounding area up there, where ever you might be. The guys were freezing, so we didn’t stay long.

After going to work for a short while, I was told there would be another kindergarten play at the Culture Centre. I knew that most everyone in my building would be there, so got the guys and we all went to the play. They seemed to get as big a kick out of it as I did. I can’t really put into words the seeming lack of organisation there. It’s a frequent sight for a teacher to go on stage to move a kid around to the place where they should be; or to pull one off stage when they’re not supposed to be there; or the sound guy to have to stop the cassette and rewind it because he didn’t record the whole song and the dancers are standing on stage wondering what’s going on.

This evening, Moogie finally came over to cook the boats she said she would two days ago. This was the guys' lesson in Mongolian time. They didn’t quite understand at first. Two days later, they had a better idea. Moogie had to bring her steamer cause mine isn’t as big as hers. She made almost 90 boats!!! We ate every bit of them, too. I was helping cook, so I didn’t get but a couple of the first round. The guys were worried that we wouldn’t get any. I told them to eat as much as they could and we would have plenty. Sure enough, by the time we were finished cooking, they were finished eating. I don’t know how many I ate, but when everyone else was finished, there were still about 10 more. I ate them, too. I love those things. I think you’ll really like them, too. I’ll cook them for you when I see you next. Now, my kitchen is an absolute mess. I’m not going to worry about it tonight. I’ll take care of it tomorrow.

December 23, 2008

I woke up at my normal time and woke the guys up, too. They decided that they would leave this morning and I was kind of glad. They were alright guys, but I’ve been around people for the last three weeks. I need some time to myself, just to chill. Also, thought I still make all kinds of mistakes, I’d forgotten how much of the Mongolian culture I now take for granted. I felt like a parent with kids who keep doing things to embarrass them. Whenever we would be out it public, it seemed like I was always telling them to do something or not do something. At one point, one of them said, “We just can’t win, can we?” I told them that, no, they couldn’t. One of my Mongolian friends told me that if you were to not do everything that the Mongolian culture says you shouldn’t, you would never do anything. That’s almost true. I notice that younger people tend to be a little more lenient on the way they interpret the culture, though. That’s good for me.

I went to Water Company today for my regular lesson. They are the class that is the furthest ahead. They were supposed to have a test today, but when I got there, no one was there. Everyone is busy with end of the year stuff, so I guess they have better things to do. Oh well. It seems like I’m going to be doing my own thing until after the New Year. Not a problem with me.

I hung out at the social worker’s office for the rest of the day, doing a little bit of studying for my life-skills lessons and my language. I was totally ready to leave before I did. I still came home a little early. After cleaning my kitchen, which wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, I started watching Weeds. Have you ever heard of that show? It comes (came) on Showtime. It’s about a family where the dad died and the mom turns to selling marihuana in order to pay the bills. I know your first reaction might be, “Oh, what a terrible thing!” but the show is pretty good. It’s pretty funny at times. Check it out, if you have Showtime and it still comes on.

December 24, 2008

My BFFE Matt called first thing this morning!! I was sitting here, just about to get dressed for work when the phone rang. Whenever I get an international call, it only shows four random numbers, and I always forget that, so I had no idea who it was. I was happy to hear him and his family on the other end. They have unofficially adopted me. They like me for some reason. I bet if they knew all the trouble that Matt and I have been into together, they wouldn’t like me quite as much. So, don’t tell them!! When I was talking to his sister about her flight troubles on the way home, I was reminded of this time last year when I was having the same troubles. I was supposed to get back from Amsterdam on the 23rd, but something stupid happened and I was stuck overnight in Washington, D.C. I tried all kinds of stories to try to get them to put me on a different flight, even another carrier. I think one lady was about to do it for me, but when she saw that another guy had my ticket and was doing “something” she refused to even look at it. So, they put me up in a hotel room for the night and rescheduled my flight for the next day. Luckily, there were four other people in the same situation, and they were all cool. We had dinner together that night and sat on the plane the next day. I’ve not heard from any of them since then, but I think of them randomly.

This morning, when I was getting ready to go to the other part of town, I saw the people from over there were here. I took that to mean that there wasn’t any sense in my going over there. I just sat in my office working on some language stuff. I came home after lunch and haven’t done much. One of my Mongolian friends in UB that I talk to tells me that she likes my job. I do, too, but sometimes, it’s frustrating. I really enjoy being lazy, but I’d kind of like to have something to do.

December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!! I hope you have an awesome day.

This morning, I sent about 25 messages to various people across the country. The responses randomly came throughout the day. Once, I got five messages all at the same time. When I checked them, they were from MobiCom, saying that I’d gotten a free 5,050 units. Coincidence? I don’t really know why I got them, but I don’t turn away too many free things. Especially when I can put them to use.

My mom called this morning. It was good to hear from her. She had gotten a phone card that was either 350 state-to-state minutes, or 20 international minutes. That doesn’t really sound equivalent to me. Luckily, someone else gave it to her. Man, I need to start a phone company of my own. As soon as I got off the phone with her, it died. I knew that people would be messaging me for the rest of the day, so I came home for my charger. As I was walking out the door of my office building, the P.O. lady chased after me and said I had a package. I followed her to the P.O. and got the package my mom had sent about three weeks ago. Sweet! What good timing. In it were peanuts, sunflower seeds, Ranch, dry gravy mix, dry milk, couscous, dry buttermilk, garbanzo beans, red beans, lima beans, black beans, split peas, ham pieces, garlic powder, duct tape, my old phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and a new 150 GB flash drive. The first thing I did was try to get my old phone to work. I send a lot of text messages and I hate the way that the regular number pad works for texts. I was looking forward to not having to deal with that anymore. I got the SIM card switched over, typed in all the codes that AT&T said I would need to unlock my phone, and then didn’t have any signal. Drat!! I’ll take it to UB with me next week and see if MobiCom has any solutions for me. I sure hope so.

After that, I put everything from my laptop onto my new drive, and then proceeded to format my computer, AGAIN. It only took a few hours. As soon as I got things back to half-way normal, I re-downloaded the StopSign anti-virus software and got it to work. That made me happy. I’ve been dealing with them online for several weeks now and nothing they offer as a solution has helped. To make it worse, they have been experiencing bad weather and haven’t been able to get to work, so I haven’t heard anything from them. Now I don’t have to worry about that. My computer is like new again. I’m glad to be rid of that obnoxious virus that was floating around my screen.

This evening, I cooked and ate some good ol’ American food: biscuits, gravy, ham, and peanut butter cookies, and a few glasses of milk to wash it all down. Just like the last time I made a similar meal, I ate everything. It was so good. I wanted to continue my usual Christmas tradition and watch a new movie. Maybe I'll go to the theatre next week. Since I didn’t have any movies that I haven’t seen already, I watched Weeds some more. I really like that show. I’m almost finished with it. Good thing I have a few more shows to watch. I have almost every episode of Southpark. I don’t recommend that one, though. It’s got a crude sense of humour sometimes. If you think you can handle it, check it out. Otherwise, I advise you to stay away. It’ll corrupt you.

December 26, 2008

It’s Friday – my free day – so I’ve taken advantage of it. I woke up late and haven’t done much yet. At 1 o’ clock, there is supposed to be a New Year’s play put on by the high school students. I’ll go over there around 1:30 and hope that I’m not too early. Tonight, there will be a party for the government workers. That will be the first party of a week’s worth. Oh, the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia. Maybe I’ll survive it. I’ll keep you posted.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Years will be awesome. Try not to make any resolutions that you know you can’t keep; and try to stick to the ones you do make. I miss you. Talk to you later.

I hope you weren't holding your breath for this.

2008-12-19T00:50:00.000-06:00

December 5, 2008

So, for those of my regular readers, if you remember back to my first blog post, I talked about how music was one of those must haves for my trip to Mongolia. I can’t tell you how nice it’s been to turn my music up and walk around my apartment, doing whatever it is that I might be doing at the moment. Sometimes I’ll get a hankering for a piece of home and it can only be satisfied by some of the music I brought with me. I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but occasionally I’ll buy a new CD from Amazon. One of the benefits of having an account on Amazon is that I get an email every week or so saying that there is new, free music available. I always download it. Usually, it’s something that I’d never listen to otherwise, but there is sometimes something that I like. About 5 months ago, I put approximately ¾ of my songs into one play list. Sometimes I’d listen to just one or two songs per day, and sometimes I would listen to music practically all day. I just finished listening to them the other day. Wow! That’s a lot of music. I feel sorry for my buddy. Some of his students used his iPod and got a virus on it. He lost over 15,000 songs. Man, that sucks. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost all my music. I’ll see him this next week, so I’ll take my music and let him get what he wants. I think a few others will do the same. The lesson here is, be careful when you do anything involving the internet in Mongolia. Viruses here are ubiquitous and brutal.

Today, when I was at the school, Moogie asked if I would cook dinner for her. At first, I was concerned that she didn’t have any money. Her brother has something wrong with his liver, so she’s spending a lot of money on medicine for him. I asked her what happened to his liver and she told me it’s cause his feet got cold. She said the doctor told them that. Have any of you ever heard of anything like this happening? Is it possible to get your liver messed up because your feet are cold? I told her I’d never heard of that. When I asked her why she wanted me to cook, she told me that she just didn’t feel like cooking. She was just being a lazy bum. I told her I wouldn’t, but I had cooked pinto beans and had some extra, so I told her she could come and eat some. When I gave her a bowl full, she sipped some juice, snarled her nose, and said it tasted like mushrooms. I ignored her for a few minutes and when I looked back, she had quit eating altogether. She didn’t like them. I put some of my infamous Ranch dressing in them and told her to try that, and she liked it even less. Oh well. I like them just fine. I guess she either found something of her own when she went home, or went hungry.

December 6, 2008

Last night, I bought eAccelerations Stop Sign virus protection. I had it a few years ago and really like their security. Something wasn’t working right, though, cause I couldn’t get one of the things to turn on. So, the first part of my day was spent in bed, trying to stay warm, and talking to their online help guy. I fooled with it for a few hours and still didn’t get it right. Of course, with the time difference, their day had finished and I couldn’t talk to them anymore.

This afternoon, there was a karaoke thing that was to start at 3 o’ clock. Knowing that it probably wouldn’t start on time, I went there at 3:45. I sat there for over an hour before it finally started at 5 after 5. It turned out to be different groups of workers from town, competing for prizes. I saw about four or five before they started having computer problems. I don’t know why, but Mongolians seem to have trouble with computers in general. I’ve watched one girl right-click something by left-clicking it first, then right-clicking it. I saw the same girl delete a full folder of stuff by clicking and dragging one item at a time. I showed her how to group select things. Today, the guy kept right-clicking on the desktop and hitting refresh. I saw him do that more than 10 times in a row and nothing happened. I watched for about 10 minutes before getting fed up and leaving.

When I came home, I washed dishes and clothes. Have I told you that I have to dry them by finding somewhere to drape them in my living room? It doesn’t take much before I run out of room. Well, the part of this story that I’m writing this for is that I’d washed some sport shorts and the tie-string was pulled out of the waist band. Dang it, man!! When they were dry, I started threading the string through. Have you ever tried to do that? It’s quite tedious. When I got half-way around, I couldn’t get the string to go any more. I had to undo it and start over from the other direction. Now my thumbs are sore. I’ll be sure to tie the string next time I put them in the wash.

Ha, I just thought of a funny story. I’m watching TV and there is an “Eskimo” on there. I put it in quotes cause I know that isn’t the politically correct term for them now, but I don’t know if this guy is Inuit or whatever other ethnicity that are usually grouped under the name “Eskimo.” Anyway, last year, when I was at the annual baseball picnic that my law firm used to do for us, I asked one of the guys where his wife was. I had never met her and wondered why she never came with him to anything. I asked him if he didn’t tell her about them, or was he ashamed of her, or what? He smiled wryly and said, “She’s an Eskimo.” Incredulously, I said, “No way! Like an Inuit?” He said, “No: she’s fat and cold.” I laughed heartily and told him if I ever met her I was going to tell her he said that. I knew he was kidding, but I couldn’t help myself. Well, it was about four months later before I finally met her. Our office building was really big, and I saw him walking away with a woman I’d never met before. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was his wife, so I hurried after them, ready for some mischief. When I caught up to them, I said hi and he introduced me to his wife. I said, “Oh, you don’t look like an Eskimo.” She looked at him, then at me with a puzzled look and said, “Huh?” The guy shot a look over her shoulder full of daggers and vehemently shook his head no. I just laughed hard and said I was just messing with her husband and left him to do the explaining. I don’t know how he got out of that. After he left, he came and found me and told me that he owed me one. Good stuff. I laughed out loud just now when I saw that on the TV and remembered that story. I hope you get a giggle out of it.

December 7, 2008

Today was an easy day of preparing for this coming week. Mostly, that’s consisted of washing a few more things that I’ll want and getting things ready to go in my bag. I’m almost packed. I just have the last minute things. You know, toiletries and such that I’ll use in the morning before I go. Oh, and I washed all the dishes. The last thing I want is to come home tired, after a week of training, and not have any clean dishes. It’s such a hassle to wash dishes here. I have to boil water, take all the dishes out of the sink, put the pot of hot, soapy water in the sink, wash a few dishes at a time, then take the wash water out and rinse the dishes. I only have one sink basin, so it makes things timely. And to cook, it’s not hard to use a sink full of dishes. Such a hassle. Ha, Tsegii hasn’t been here in a while, so I’ve been washing my own dishes. Oh, woe is me!

Tonight, I was talking to my buddy that is way out west, in the Kazakh part of the country. His name is Matt – just like my BFFE back home – and he is one of a few people who are my favourite here. He’s finally decided to write a blog of his own. For your reading pleasure, I put his link on my blog. Enjoy. If you’ve ever heard about the Mongolian/Kazakh Eagle Festival, it happens over there where he is. He’s got pictures of some of the birds. He’ll have them up eventually. In the meantime, write a comment and tell him he’s a ding-dong, and that I told you to do so. He’ll appreciate it as much as I would. He’s got that goofy sense of humour that most of my friends do.

December 8, 2008

I woke up this morning at my regular time for work, but instead of going to the office, I got on the meeker for UB. I thought that my co-worker was coming with me, but as they were waiting on me to get in, I had my other co-worker call her. She had decided that she was going to go later in the day. Um, okay. I found out that she wasn’t going to stay at the same guesthouse with me, also, even though she knew that I’d called and made reservations over two weeks ago. Later, I found out that Mongolians weren’t allowed to stay at the guesthouses. Did she know that already? Why didn’t she or anyone else tell me that? So, when I got into the city, I dropped my bag off and set off on my day’s tasks.

My first stop was the Peace Corps office, where I got a flu shot and a hepatitis A shot. Later in the day, I realised that they made my arm a little sore. As long as they keep me from getting both of those things, I guess I can handle it. From there, I went with some friends and ate lunch at a Korean place. It wasn’t extra good, but it was different, so I really liked it. While eating, they convinced me to stay at the guesthouse where they were, so when we finished, I got my bag from the first place and went to their place. For dinner, a bunch of us met at a Japanese place for one of the guy’s birthday. It was really ritzy, and just a little bit pricey, but well worth it. I had some kind of awesome chicken pasta dish. As you might be wondering, I took pictures of all of it for you to see. Oh, and have I ever mentioned the random porn that shows up in Mongolia? Near the restroom, there was a cartoonish poster displaying a 60-day plan for all different sex positions. I don’t know if it’s still like that, but before, there was a small newspaper that would come to my town called the Morning News – in Mongolian, of course. At first, I didn’t pay attention to it, but while I was sitting there with the social workers as they flipped through it, I saw that there was a naked woman on page five. What!? They didn’t even act like they noticed it. There were two or three editions there, so I flipped through all of them and confirmed that they all had different pictures of naked women on page five. This amazed me. First of all, porn is “officially” illegal in Mongolia. Second of all, this was a newspaper! Sheesh! I don’t think there will be a day when I’m not amazed at something here.

When we left there, we went to a bar that has 1,200tg beer. Now that, my friends, is a steal. I just checked the exchange rate at the bank the other day, and $1 will get you 1,217 tugrogs. That makes the beers $0.986 ~ $0.99. Who doesn’t like cheap draft beer. The brand was Mustanger, a locally made lager. As I’ve said, I’m pretty tired of lagers, but this one was a lot smoother than normal. It was lighter than a full-bodied beer, but heavier than a light-beer. We started out with the full group of 15 from dinner there, then it dwindled down to only nine of us. Oh, and do you remember the French guy I told you about last week? He was with us, along with a really cool Mongolian lady that we’d met last week, also. We were all having a really good time. Then, when I went to the bathroom, a Mongolian told me to go out and wait. Usually, I'd be like I would back home and shoot the guy a dirty look as I busted on in and not worry about the consequences. Being in the Peace Corps, I have to be much more careful about stuff like that. Especially in Mongolia. Have you ever heard about the concept of "machismo" in Latino culture. Well, in Mongolia, they have the same thing. If a male feels threatened in any way, he will buck up and want to fight. It was very hard for me to go out of the bathroom and wait; but I did, with a patient smirk on my face. When he finished talking to the other guy, he pulled me in the bathroom and tried talking to me in English. He was very drunk. I talked to him in Mongolian and he was impressed. Later, he came to my table and pulled me away from my friends. They were watching, so I wasn't too worried, but I was a little. He was even drunker than before, so he was very hard to understand. He kept saying, "I'm sorry. Yesterday. To lunch." I don't know what he was talking about, but I told him to wait a minute, then I got up and went back to my friends. Eventually, he came over there. I finally figured out that he was hitting on me. In Mongolia, being gay is not something to be open about. In fact, most Mongolians will tell you that there are no homosexual Mongolians. As one of my friends put it, he was having some definite conflicts with his sexuality. He started pushing one of my friend's head and I pulled him away. Then, he acted like he was going to push another friend's head, and that friend wasn't quite so nice. When my friend stood up with the meanest look I’ve ever seen, the drunk guy tried to act big. He was only about half the size of my friend. He spoke very little English, but he knew how to throw the middle finger and say the accompanying phrase, though it wasn’t exactly right. The "guard" tried to make him leave, but he came back and started more. We finally decided to leave. My friend that stood up was in the Marines before, so I'm sure you can imagine how hard it was for him to back down. It kind of sucks that we can’t go out and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about something like that.

When we got back to the guesthouse, my friend and I hung out for a few minutes, then an American living in Siberia and two Britons that are traveling came in. I met the American last week (she’s the one I told you that said it was like we were multiplying at the club). The Britons were in their early 20’s, and they were really cool, too. We stayed up a long time talking to them, laughing the whole time. Once, I noticed a sign on the wall that said we weren’t supposed to watch TV after 11:00. I suppose that was so the other guests wouldn’t be disturbed. They didn’t say anything about us hee-hawing like some donkeys out in the common room, though. The Britons and we Americans made fun of each others’ accents and differences in cultures. I’ve already you how the American “Z” sounds like “zed” when coming out of the mouth of a Briton, but did you know they pronounce their “H’s” different, too? Instead of it sounding like “aytch,” it sounds like “haytch.” We were sure to tease them about that. Their best comeback was, “It’s called English because we invented the language. You guys are the ones saying it wrong.”

December 9, 2008

I finally got in the bed at 3:45 last night and woke up at 6:30, wanting to sleep more. After hauling my packed bag about a kilometre to the Peace Corps office and getting on the bus, we arrived at Nukht Hotel. It’s in the mountains, by a forest outside the city, and is really nice. I took several pictures of the area. For the first day, we all expected to have breakfast, so none of us ate. That didn’t happen and we started our first session at 9 and was in and out of different ones all day. The quality and quantity of food is awesome. Before, we would have buffet-style meals. This time, we had three-course meals. We were all surprised. This evening, I hung out with Oko and random people. Surprisingly, this first night, not everyone was out partying. There were still a few, though, and I was sure to find them. I think we’ve figured out that the TEFLers (English teachers) are the partiers of our group. After getting in bed late last night, and getting up early, I’m super tired.

December 10, 2008

What a long day, full of sessions!!! We went straight from one to another, from 9-6:45. Though they were probably as tired as we were, it was good for Mongolians, though. Many of the things were review for all the Volunteers, but most of it was new for the Mongolians. I know it will be good for them to know all this stuff and then take it back to their job.

This evening, a few of us started to walk to the nearby village for cheap alcohol. Everything here at the hotel is pricey. On the way, we met a guy who told us there was no store. Well, shoot. We just went back to the hotel and dug a little deeper in our pockets. I hung out with random groups of Americans and Mongolians, all who were being idiots and having a good time. At one point, another guy and I were the only Americans with a large group of Mongolians. We decided to split a bottle of vodka for the group and pour out the shots Mongolian style, where you go one by one, around the table. We didn’t know any better, so we handed the shot to the lady sitting next to us. Someone across the table spoke up and told us that we were supposed to start with the oldest male. We were embarrassed as we quickly took the shot back and went to the oldest male. We were glad to find out amongst a group of people who knew that we didn’t know any better. Though I got back to my room at a decent time, Evan and I stayed up til past 3, talking. It’s been a long time since we have seen each other, so it was cool.

December 16, 2008

Well, somewhere along the way, I got distracted. I stayed up late every night and was on the move everyday, so I haven’t written regularly. To my regular readers, I’m sorry. I’ve have been told by some that they’ve missed my usual, weekly posting. I’ll try to make up for that here. Maybe I won’t leave anything out. If so, I’m sure I’ll tell the story eventually.

Every day of training was packed. We had just enough time to wake up, eat breakfast, then make it to our first session. We had to hurry, though. If you were late, they made you stand by the wall, took your picture, then made you sing some silly song. There was a good mix of Americans and Mongolians everyday. I made sure that I wasn’t one of them. I would hate to stand in front of everyone and sing. The pictures went on the Wall of Shame so everyone could give them a hard time later. It was a little bit funny. Though it was long and tiresome, I got some good ideas started with Oko. It was hard to get things straight, but with a little help from a translator, we got it done. Oh, and my mom asked why I took someone who couldn’t speak English. Well, cause my boss wasn’t allowed to go, and neither of my counterparts speak English. There were only a handful of Volunteers who had English speaking counterparts. Among them were Tunga and Usukhuu. Tunga lived in the U.S. for 6 years, so about the only thing she didn’t understand was a few slang phrases. I don’t know where Usukhuu learned English, but it’s quite good. Ha, they were a hit for all the guys who nick-named them Apple Bottom Jeans and Boots McGee. You’ll have to email me to find out how those nick-names came about.

We didn’t have a chance to go outside once during the days. That sucked, cause it was really pretty there. We really wanted to sled and have a snowball fight. In the evenings, we found plenty to entertain ourselves with. The last night, we had a talent-show. I skipped the first part of it, cause my CYD buddies were trying to force me to perform, and I had absolutely no interest in that. Instead, I had a meeting with the PC Language Facilitator. I will start working on editing the language book for the next group of Volunteers. It’s something I’ve been interested in since training. After the talent show, we played the “snort game.” Everyone gets in a circle, then one person snorts like a pig at the person to their left or right. That person can return the snort or pass it to the next person. If you are one of the two in the middle of snorting, and you laugh, you are out. It’s very funny. It’s always fun to see who gets out right off the bat and who ends up being the winner. The game went on for so long that one guy almost threw up from snorting so much. Oh my, I laughed so hard. They finally called a truce when it was down to 8 people. After that, we “danced our pants off,” to put it in the words of one of the guys. For some reason, there were only about 4-6 of us in there at any given time. It was fun.

We were glad when IST (In-Service Training) was over and we headed back to the city. I had a wonderful time in UB, staying awake late every night and spending too much money. Friday evening, some of us went to eat at Broadway Pizza. That’s the first time I’ve had pizza since being in Mongolia. One of the guys who has been there before said it was alright, but I thought it was awesome. Especially since they had Tabasco, that I put on everything. Shuree (the cool Mongolian I wrote about last week) met us there. When we finished, the Americans wanted to go back to the guesthouse to drink, but since Mongolians aren’t allowed there, I felt guilty for asking her to join us and then ditching her. So, I went with her to Tse for 1,200tg beer. When we walked in, we were told that all the tables were full and that we could sit at a table with someone else, if we didn’t mind. Of course I didn’t mind. I always enjoy meeting new people. We sat at a table with two Mongolian guys and talked to them for a while, and I promoted the 2nd PC goal of teaching Mongolians about Americans. They asked me all kinds of questions. It was cool. We sat there for a while after they left, then met everyone at Oasis. I think I’ve written this before, but the best part about that place is that PCVs get in for free. The music is pretty good, too. On top of that, it is a definite ego booster for the guys. All the Mongolian chicks there seem to be trying to get a green card. Once, when Shuree went to a bar, the lady behind her started talking to me, smiling really big. Shuree came back for a second to tell me she’d seen her friend and the lady quickly shut up and turned back around. When Shuree went back to the bar, the lady turned back and started talking to me again. She saw Shuree coming back the second time and turned away. When I told my guy friends, they all started laughing. Ah, too bad I can’t put that attention down to my good looks.

Saturday, I had a couple of TEFLer friends coming in on the bus, so I made my way across the city to the station. The previous several days had seen snow and all the people walking on it packed it down into ice. I saw that Mongolians – all except the elderly – love to slide across it. You can almost skate across the whole city. It’s very fun. If you’re not sliding, you can’t take full steps, and you have to watch where you step. Most all the sidewalks are paved, but there are very uneven. Just a few blocks after I’d set out across town, I crossed the street and turned right. As soon as I did, my left leg slipped out from under me and I fell on my butt. Doh!! I was a bit embarrassed as I picked myself up. Of course, no one around me offered to help. I had on my long, thermal underwear, a big, thick fleece shirt, scarf, gloves, and a hat. I really was warm enough. I knew that Mongolians didn’t think so, though. The first guy to say something said, “No coat, friend?” I told him that I was fine and he told me that maybe I would be sick later because I was too cold. I assured him I would be okay as I continued on. Later, I passed at least three other people who muttered “stupid” as they passed me. I just smiled and kept walking. I finally made it to Mendee’s place. I made sure I left with some extra time to spend with him. He’s really cool. Then I met Toy at the bus-station and took her to our guesthouse. It was almost full from all the PCVs there.

That night, everyone continued their usual UB activities. We wanted to go to Oasis, but it was closed for some reason, so we went to Face Club instead. It costs 5,000tg to get in. I hate paying a cover charge. Back in the U.S., I would hardly ever go somewhere that had a cover charge. My friends always gave me a hard time about that. I would go if they wanted me to go bad enough to pay my cover. I feel like the place is making enough money off jacking the prices up on alcohol and food that they shouldn’t have a cover charge, too. But, Face was alright. It was bigger than Oasis and the music was a little different. Also, the Mongolian girls weren’t all over us. Not that we would’ve minded the attention, but we know better. There was a hip-hop group that performed a few songs. Their first song was House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” I knew it instantly. That is the first hip-hop song that I ever heard, so I kind of like it. Their second song was Mariah Carey and Busta Rhymes’ “I Know What You Want.” Though all the words were in Mongolian, I recognised them easily. After those guys finished, they had some silly contests. The first thing they did was to get some people on stage and then send them into the crowd on a scavenger hunt. One girl ran to me and asked for my right boot. After she got that off, she asked me for my other one, cause she’d misunderstood the first time. Later, she came and gave me a gushing thank you for being nice and helping her. The next thing was a dance competition between some girls. One of the PCVs got in on that. After seeing some of her moves, we started questioning just exactly where she’d learned her moves. To put it nicely, they are the kind that you might have to pay for normally. She won second place and a bottle of vodka. Somewhere during all that, I found that I’d lost one of my gloves. I searched all around the area we were sitting and concluded that I must have dropped it outside when I met some people who’d lost their way. I was very happy when I found it out by the road. I took a picture for you and I to commemorate the moment. Afterwards, a couple of us went to Cola and Kabob. I’d known about that place but had never been there before dinner that evening. It was awesome. It might be my new favourite place. Especially since it is open 24 hours.

Sunday, one of the PCVLs (PC Volunteer Leader) had a brunch at his place for all the people who were in town for the holidays. He had a bucket o’ Bloody Mary and people brought food and cooked lots of American food. All of it was delicious. We all had plenty to drink, but he kicked us out before the last of the Bloody Marys were gone. I haven’t had those in years, so I really enjoyed them. When I left there, I met Shuree and we went to her aunt’s for dinner. When I walked in, I saw that boats were on the menu. Yum! How did she know those are my favourite? Shuree’s cousins were there, too. The teenage boy and the 6 year old girl were both cool. They had done some modeling and were in some magazines that I got to look at. After dinner, we drank the two bottles of wine that we’d picked up on the way. Surprisingly, it was okay. I usually don’t like wine. I got a big, silver bowl of milk tea, too. The others had regular cups. When I asked why I got the silver, I was told that it was a great sign of respect for guests to get that. Because of the season, I was also given a fortune telling kit. It’s a small cashmere bag and mat, with four sheep ankle bones and a guide to what they mean. You roll them out, and depending on how they end up, you figure out what you’re fortune is. Shuree was given earrings and a necklace. They were really pretty. When we left, we were going to meet everyone else, but where they were had just closed and they were going to bed early. So, we went across town to a part that I’d never been to before, to Boston club. I had a new beer called Mongol. It was a really nice pub. At first, the place was packed with people having a work Christmas party. Before long, though, we were two of only about six people in there. I took a picture of the neat tables for you.

Monday, after an early meeting, I met Jason at the guesthouse. He had a bottle, so we started drinking vodka around 11:30. It was from an aimag (province) in the west of the country and tasted a lot different than the usual. He and the owner of the guesthouse told me that I need to work on the face I make after I take a shot. I just can’t help it!! For lunch, we met Tuul at Broadway Pizza for lunch and beers. She is the girlfriend of a guy who just finished his PC service. Her English is very good, and she’s very cool. Like Jason said, “She is a ray of sunshine.” She gets our stupid humour and teases us right back. For example, she lives in UB but works in a town about 200 kilometres away. When I asked her why, she said, “Because it is a part of Mongolia, too. When we left there, we went to the Grand Khan Irish Pub for more beers and Nachos that were made with cheese flavoured Doritos. While there, Tuul looked around and saw her favourite Mongolian actor. She is a little bit shy, so I got a piece of paper, gave her my pen, and we practically pushed her over to talk to him and ask for his autograph. She found out that the other two guys with him were a famous director and a famous poet. I was sure to take her picture with them.

This morning, I woke up and went to the Peace Corps office and had the last shower of a week’s worth of awesome ones. I will really miss that. My boss has told me several times since living here that she would get mine taken care of, but that is yet to happen. Maybe one sunny day, as the Mongolians say. Just to help me out, Shuree went with me in the cab to the meeker station. On the way, right before we got there, she heard on the radio that the place was closed for their “holiday.” Apparently, that’s an every Tuesday thing. The cabbie said that he just thought we were going somewhere near there and that’s why he didn’t say anything. He pulled over while we called my boss and the meeker drivers to find out where they were. I waited in the meeker for about an hour before we finally left. I took a few short naps on the way home and have had a hard time staying awake this evening.

I talked to my buddy Evan and he told me his everything froze. He lives in a wooden house, where there is no heat except what he makes in the fire place. One of his bottles of hot sauce busted and got on everything in the immediate area. I didn’t ask, but since it was frozen, maybe it was easier to clean. A couple days later, he was using his brand new space heater and extension cord with internal breakers. Apparently, the heater was too much for the 220V and it caught on fire. He said that he didn’t lose anything, but now his place smells like smoke and has fire extinguisher dust everywhere. Have you ever sprayed one of those? Once in university, when I lived in the dorms, one of my so-called buddies sprayed one under my door, into my room. It was a short burst, but it covered absolutely everything. When I left, a couple years later, there were still corners that had the dust in it. I still owe him for that. Ryan, if you’re reading this, I’m going to get you back one day. You just wait. I’ll get you!

I have a few special shout-outs. First is to Elaine, for water. I meant to do this after the Thanksgiving weekend – and maybe I did – but I forgot. I was really thirsty, didn’t want beer, and had run out of tugrogs. She bought me a water and said, “Everyone deserves water.” Thanks Elaine. Second is to Nathan’s dad, for beer. Nathan went for beers with us guys one night while his wife went to dinner with the girls. They had originally decided that they would use the credit card for his wife’s dinner, but that place didn’t take cards. So, he paid for our beers, saying it was on his dad. Thanks Nathan’s dad. Third is to Julia’s mom, for Q-tips that I’ll get eventually. Julia told me that she reads my blog regularly and when she sent Julia a package, she put something in there for me. Sweet!!! Thanks Julia’s mom. I’ll be doing something at work soon. Last, and not least, is to Alex’s mom, who reads my blog and tells her what I’m up to. Just want to say hi.

December 17, 2008

Today was my day to go to the other part of town and work with the social workers. When I got there, they were still working on the population statistics that they were working on two weeks ago. To get the day started, some random guy came in the office and started saying something. He argued with one lady first, then the social worker and he started really going at it. All I got out of the whole thing was something about Saturday. After about five minutes of escalating volumes, she stomped out of the room crying. I was the only one who just stared, wide-eyed. Everyone else went about their counting like there wasn’t a huge argument going on over their heads. Crazy. Other than that, it was a slow day where I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I worked on my own thing, figuring out an “action plan” for the life-skills lessons that I’ll start next month. I’ll talk more about them then. I also went to the school to talk to the English teacher. The one that used to be there is the lady who married the PCV that was here before me. When she left a few weeks ago, the one that works in my part of town started going over there on Wednesday s. I was just bored and wanted to alleviate that somehow. When I got there, I found out that there was a new English teacher, so I met her. She just graduated university in the spring, so she’s fairly young. Her English is a bit shaky, and she’s a little shy – like most Mongolians – but I think she’ll be alright. When I thought I was going to go home, I was taken to watch a children’s Christmas play. The kids were cute. Did you know that they combine Christmas and New Years here? I didn’t. I found out a few days ago, so I don’t know their reason for it.

When I got back here, I made a quick trip to the store before coming home. Right as I was about to walk into my building, I said hi to a guy that walked passed me. He didn’t say anything until he was several steps past. He is the assistant to the fire chief and was pretty drunk. He started asking me if I wanted to drink with him and I told him I didn’t have any beer or money, thinking that would be enough to get him to leave me alone. He showed me that he had beer, so he came to my place and gave me one. It turns out that he was way worse than I’d first judged. Once, he went into my kitchen and grabbed a pot of water that I had sitting on the table, sloshing it on him and the floor. I told him to be careful, but he thought I was just saying that cause he spilled the water. He didn’t realise that I had that pot soaking with vinegar water, to get rid of tea stains. He took a big ol’ gulp and sat it down before he knew what it was. Boy, you should’ve seen the look on his face. It was a little funny. I was talking to one of my Mongolian friends on the internet and I finally asked them to call me and talk to him with the hopes that he would leave. It was another 15 minutes before he did. Yanaaaah!!! That basically means shoot, dang, shucks, or whatever other kid friendly swear word you can think of. Whenever I say it, people always giggle at me. I thought it was just cause I said it funny, since I did act like an idiot when I said it. Come to find out, that is what women say. Tuul was the one to tell me about it. I know a few not at all nice words to say, but she didn’t suggest those, either. She just told me to not say it like a woman. Now how in the heck am I supposed to do that?

I added another blog to mine, if you’re interested. It is by a married couple that is in the group that came before mine. I just thought you might like a different perspective on the life of a PCV in Mongolia.

December 18, 2008

I met with Densmaa, my boss, today. I gave her a quick telling of what we did during IST, then we went over my plan to begin life-skills lessons for peer-educators. First, we’ll have to meet with the school social worker to find respected, motivated 10th and 11th graders; then we’ll prepare the lessons and teach it to the students; we’ll have a big break for practically the whole month of February; we’ll have a refresher course for the students; then we’ll have them give the same lessons to their peers and report back to us on what works and what doesn’t. After we get that down and make sure it’s working, I’ll add a different lesson to their repertoire. Life-skills are things like critical thinking, decision making, relationship communication, and the like. I will also teach these same things to the social workers so they can do these same trainings later. Then, when all the students advance a grade, or graduate, we will start over with new ones. I’ll let you know how it goes.

As soon as the meeting finished, I went to a kindergarten Christmas play. Have I told you that kindergartens here are really pre-schools? They have classes for ages from kids aged six months to five years. The play was supposed to start at 10. I was on my way out of the office at 10:45, worried that I’d missed it. What was I thinking? When I got there, it was still another 30 minutes before they got started. I think (hope) that I’ll never get used to Mongolian time. The kids were all dressed in animal and angel costumes. There was a Mongolian Santa Claus, too. I think the kids were three and four years old. Some of them were crying and all of them were herded from and to their places with the help of the teachers and all the parents. I laughed out loud several times. I couldn’t imagine something like that ever happening in the U.S. Parents would stand up and block everyone’s view so they could get that optimal shot of their kid and no one seemed to mind. At the end, Santa gave out big bags of candy and snacks to all the kids, who immediately opened them and started chowing down.

And that was about it for my day. I spent most of the rest of my day writing some of the above. I’ve added at least five pages worth. You will have to set aside a large chunk of time if you want to read it all at once. In the afternoon, Densmaa called me to her office. When I got there, she told me that the PO had called and said I had mail. Why didn’t she just tell me that when she called me? When I got to the PO, there was a big package from MCG, my old work place!! I wasn’t expecting it and was very surprised. I immediately brought it home and ripped it open. It was a paper box full of all kinds of stuff. As I was going through it, there was a plastic container of cotton candy that had broken. That was my excuse to eat most of it all at once. The nutrition facts say that there are about two servings in there. I made it into about one. There was a card, duct tape, men’s magazines, Cheetos, Pez, wasabi peanuts, Ghirardelli chocolates, macaroni and cheese, dry milk, fruit snacks, snakc bars, peppermint patties, Jelly Belly jelly beans, Peeps, gum, individual drink mix, extra-crunchy peanut butter, and microwave meals. Did you know that I have a Pez collection? I don’t know how many I have, but I have a big bag of them back in the U.S. And Peeps might be another of my preferred candies. I’ll never forget getting those for Easter. My mom always made sure there were some in my Easter basket when I was a kiddo. Ha, the microwavable meals were frozen. I know they weren’t like that when they were bought, but they were when I opened the box. What does that tell you about how cold Mongolia is? I was sure to write MCG and tell them all how much I appreciated them as I ate some of the stuff for my dinner.

This evening, I watched American Gangster. Have you seen that movie? It’s about three hours long and very good. It is one of the many movies and TV shows that I got from Evan this last week. They should give me plenty of entertainment for at least a few weeks.

December 19, 2008

Well, I’m trying to upload some pictures for you, but the stupid thing doesn’t work like it used to anymore. I don’t know what the problem is with leaving something half-way like it was in the first place so the user can easily figure out the new things. I hate it when websites change their whole everything and don’t give good directions on what they did and how to work with it. I have over 200 photos from the last couple of weeks for you, but it might be a little while longer before you get to see them. I’ll let you know when I figure it out. There is a super slow way to do it that I might try.

I woke up later than normal this morning and didn’t go into my office until about 11 o’ clock. I was told that Friday’s are my free day, so I’ve been taking that quite literally lately. At work, I just typed up something that I had written out that I needed to write in Mongolian, then I went to lunch at the guanz (diner). Just as I was walking in, three guys from my office building got there. They are about my age and are pretty cool. They like to give me a hard time. If you know me, I like that kind of thing. They always speak Mongolian and whenever I say something in Mongolian, they always “repeat” what I said, but say a different word that sounds very similar. There are a lot of words like that, so they have plenty of chances. I mess with them in English, but there is no one else there to laugh with me, so it doesn’t work as well. I don’t have someone there to slap me on the back when I say something particularly funny, like they do. All’s good. I still find ways to mess with them. I rode in the car with them back to the office. The guy sitting next to me said something about wrestling with him. When I asked him when, he smiled and said right then. I jumped on top of him in the back seat and started pummeling him. He barely held me off as he caught a case of the giggles. Ah, good stuff.

About two weeks ago, I had tried to redo the music on my mp3 player. When I plugged it into my computer, it wasn’t recognised. Dang it! I looked everywhere and couldn’t find the installation disc, so I asked my mom to look for it. I had her looking all over the place for it and she couldn’t find it either. It wasn’t that big of a deal yet, so I kind of forgot about it. Wouldn’t you know it, I was moving some things around today and found it where it shouldn’t have been. Doesn’t it always happen like that? Okay, never mind. The disc drawer keeps spitting the CD back at me. Maybe I’ll figure this out one day.

I hope this takes care of you blog fix. Take care. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!