12/5/2013
On Tuesday, I got to
meet the Mongolian Prime Minister. He was in Arkhangai for the launch
of a new community kiosk machine that will be in the government
buildings. It is supposed to enable people to print out official
documents they need instantly instead of having to wait in a line ( I
think.). I was not entirely sure what was going on during the ribbon
cutting ceremony but from the little I understood and from what I
watched I am pretty sure that is what the purpose of the machine is.
I went over to the government building with the rest of the Health
Department employees who were invited to the launch and ribbon
cutting ceremony. We filed into the press conference along with the
other government employees and took our seats to listen to him speak.
The funny things is, that there were not enough seats for everyone
who was invited because the last two rows of bright orange 1960s
style seats had no cushions to sit on. They looked like chairs from
afar and everyone, including myself went to sit in them and then
realized there was no bottom to them, so people just ended up sitting
on the arm rests and laughing about it. Lucky for me my director is
seen as like a second governor basically and she made people who were
sitting next to her to move so that I could have a seat next to her.
She is such a powerful woman in the community, I am in awe of
everything she does and how she works and travel to France, Korea,
China, Japan at least twice a month, and yet still invites me over to
dinner with her and her family. Her daughter is so smart and really
great at English. She is 12 and knows more English than most of the
English teachers I have met at the schools. I would love to be the
head of a state health department one day. I realized that that is my
ultimate goal after I get my Masters and work my way up the ladder.
The Prime Minister was
really friendly and seemed very funny. Every time he spoke the
audience erupted in laughter. The Mongolian National Broadcasting
service was there, as well as every other TV station. They were live
broadcasting the event and in all the other Aimags there were ribbon
cutting ceremonies with their local government officials. They had
each Aimag broadcasted on a projection screen behind the Prime
Minister. SO we could see all the ceremonies at once and then the
Prime Minister talked to each Aimag governor via the national
broadcasting system. They all seemed funny to because everyone
laughed after they would speak. So either the government officials
here are all comedians, or everyone just laughed to be polite. I had
no idea what they were saying, so I couldn't judge it either way. It
was awesome to meet the Prime Minister and get to be involved in the
ceremony.
Yesterday, after work
I went to my favorite little Mongolian restaurant that has no name,
so we all just call it Yellow Shack, because that is precisely what
it looks like. It has seating for about 16 people and is just the
dingiest looking thing, but the food is delicious! It has this giant
poster of a blonde woman and her blonde child hugging and the world
love is over their heads. Why that is on the wall is beyond me, but
its hilarious. Right next to that poster is a framed picture of
Chinggis Khaan. The cook there knows us volunteers and what we
usually order, so as soon as I walk in she asks if I am having my
usual. The answer to that is always yes. One tea and one tsuivan
(noodle meal, kind of like a dry tasteless lomein with sheep meat),
sounds not that appetizing but when you add soy sauce or ketchup to
it, it is delicious. It is one of the few Mongolian foods I will
voluntarily eat. When I sat down to wait for my food, this little 7
year old girl sat across from me at the table. She told me that she
loves English people. I told her where I was from and had a little
conversation about our favorite colors, foods, and activities. I
remembered half way through my meal that I had a candy cane in my
purse that my mom and dad had sent me in my latest care package, so I
rummaged through my purse and found it and gave it to her. She was so
excited to have American candy. She ran to her mom, who was the
server and showed her. She then sat back down and began to chomp on
the candy cane which then led to singing and playing swords with the
candy canes. She was so adorable and I was able to have a full
conversation with her. Now I know that my Mongolian has increased
from toddler to a solid first grade level, since I left Suhkbataar. I
gave my self a mental pat on the back and my confidence was soaring
sky high for the rest of the evening. Haha. But for real, I felt so
accomplished!
Today, I have to go
get my picture taken for the wall in the Health Department. Every
employee has a picture on this wall and their name and title under
the picture. So today I will be added to the wall. I'm pretty
official now. Haha. I then have to go buy my bus ticket for tomorrow.
Tomorrow I leave for UB again for training with all the volunteers
until Dec. 14 and to see the NP again to check on how my infection is
doing. I am so excited to see everyone again! SO EXCITED! I am
bringing my puppy to UB to get her shots and a check up and then she
will be boarded there until the 14. I hope she behaves on the 7 hour
bus ride, it should be interesting.
12/11/2013
I have been in
training from 8am-6pm for the past 5 days straight. Saturday and
Sunday were PEPFAR training. Which was a training on peer education
and HIV/AIDS. It was in UB and was very helpful for our counterparts,
but for the Health and CYD volunteers that had to attend it, it was
long and repetitive most of the time. The second day was all in
Mongolian with no translator, so it made for a long day of
understanding maybe 20% of what was being said. The hard part of
being in an all day training in another language is that after awhile
it all sounds the same and actually lulls you into sleep. It become
kind of like a white noise/ background noise that is just perfect for
napping, which two of the volunteers accidentally did during one of
the sessions. The first day did offer some interesting insight into
how Mongolia views peer to peer education. Right now, Mongolian
schools are trying to change over from a very soviet way of teaching
(lecturing at children without activities or their input) into a more
“westernized” way of doing projects and activities to help them
learn the material instead of lecturing at them for an hour and a
half. So because of this, they do no understand peer education and
its benefits. They brought in about 12 students who are involved in
peer education in their schools and we got to interview them about
their experiences. Every single one of them said that many teachers
and parents were upset with the fact that they were taking time out
of their studies to teach other children important life skills and
health education. Their families and teachers think that it is a
waste of time and that the ones who are teaching their classmates
about sex and other sensitive topics, are really just “free”,
which is the term Mongolians use to describe promiscuous girls. It
was so surprising to me to see teachers have negative attitudes
towards peer education, since in America, it is so common and an
honor in most schools to be picked as a “peer leader”. Here it is
seen as a hassle or that you are poisoning the other childrens'
minds. I was blown away when I asked “Why do you continue to do it
when you have so many people fighting against you and how do you
overcome all the challenges and ignore the rumors?” (keep in mind
that these are 14 year old girls) Both of the girls answers were “It
is something that needs to be done and I just keep pushing myself and
staying focused when teachers and families say things about me or try
to stop me from doing the educations.” One said that she wants to
be a doctor so that this is good experience for her. I look back on
when I was 14 years old and I would have never had that much courage
or drive to go against all those people. I was so inspired by hearing
their stories and the passion these young girls had. These are the
girls who are going to turn into such amazing women and the ones that
I would love to work with. At the end of the interviews with all the
girls, I stood up and told them how proud I was of them, how mature
they were for their fighting against all the adversity. It was such
an inspiring moment and these girls do not great enough credit for
what they do at such a young age. These girls are the future of
Mongolia and they need to be praised for what they do, not
stigmatized.
Another great moment,
was watching our counterparts facilitate HIV/AIDS lessons with local
school children. They were put in pairs and had an hour to come up
with a lesson plan on each topic they were given. My counterpart and
his partner got the two topics: friendship/love and condom use. For
the friendship/love lesson, they had them make up skits to show good
relationships and bad relationships, and then had them break into
groups to brainstorm how men and woman show their love. To compare
the two sexes and see how different/similar. My counterpart did an
amazing job and everyone noticed. From the minute he walked into the
training and began speaking fluent English, Peace Corps staff and
volunteers were all over him. Everyone was asking whose counterpart
he was, and when they found out he was mine they kept telling me how
lucky I was and all the girls thought he was extremely good looking.
I did hit the counterpart jack pot. He is so motivated and brilliant!
After the practice
facilitation we all sat down in a circle to discuss what went well
and what didn't go well during them. My counterpart had to act as
translator and even had to translate his own compliments and
critiques which he immediately became uncomfortable with. It was
funny to watch him talk about himself and react to the comments as he
read them. But he was a great sport and never complained. PEPFAR
training was done after a final thank you and closing remarks. We all
then went back to our guesthouses to get ready for dinner and going
out.
When I first arrived
on Friday, I went on the hunt to find the Vet Clinic to bring my
puppy in to be boarded for the week while I was at training. I
arrived at the Vet and it was closed, even though they were supposed
to still be open for another hour. I called the number, but the phone
was off. So then I began to panic trying to find a guesthouse that
would take a dog for the night until I could bring her in the morning
when it reopened. No guesthouse would take her. I begged and begged,
but the answer was still no. I even said I would pay for her to stay
there as another guest for the night. So here I was in UB with
nowhere for her to stay. So I ended up making the hardest decision
that I have yet to make. I had to let her go. There was no where for
her to stay for the week and a half I would be in training. So
tearfully, I let her go as I walked into the restaurant for dinner.
Lore and I were so upset, but there was nothing I could have done. I
learned that having a puppy in the Peace Corps is a lot harder than
it seems. Mongolians do no like dogs and therefore are unwilling to
help you with yours. They don't see them as pets, they think it is
disgusting to have one in your home. Also, traveling while you have a
dog is impossible. Mongus was so good on the bus, she slept the whole
way like a baby in my lap. I loved it. And it is so sad going home to
an empty house now, not having her there, but I know it was the best
thing. She was not happy being locked up all the time and it wasn't
fair for me to keep leaving her alone all day and night as I worked
on projects. I am now done with having pets in Mongolia, it is just
not possible for me to give them the attention they need. Friday
night, we all met up to go to dinner at a Thai Restaurant. It was
delicious. I then tried to find the guesthouse I was staying in and
could not figure out where it was. Lore and I ran around from one
guest house to another asking if I had a reservation there. I called
what I thought was the place that I made a reservation and they said
yes I did have on there. So I walked the 20 minutes to the guesthouse
only to find out no I did not have one there. So I then asked them
why they said I did and they said that they didn't. I was then very
confused and called another guesthouse that had a similar name. They
said I had a reservation there and when I asked where it was located
they told me it was 45 minutes away from where I was currently. I
then told them I did not have a reservation there because the
guesthouse I paid for online was near the department store. So once
again I was lied to by a guesthouse in hopes of me paying for a room
there. Finally, I got a hold of one of my friends who was staying at
the same guesthouse as me and found where I was staying. But it
actually worked in my favor, because by the time I got there it was
so late in the night that they had given my bed away thinking I
wasn't coming, so they ended up giving me a private room to make up
for the fact that they gave my bed away.
On Saturday night,
Jerome, Ryan, Scott and I went to a Mexican restaurant called
Mexi-Khan. It was pricey but delicious. We had a Margarita Jug, which
was the best Margarita that I have ever tasted, or it has been so
long since I have had a drink other than Mongolian vodka and juice
that it just tasted that great. Either way I thoroughly enjoyed it. I
had bean burritos, that had real cheese and avocado in them! I wish I
could have had just a plate of avocados as my meal!! After dinner, we
went back to the guest house and met up with the rest of the group
and hung out there for the night. It was so much fun seeing everyone
again, we had Champagne to celebrate and then everyone brought their
favorite liquor that is not available in our Aimags, just in UB. A
lot of the guys favored scotch and whiskey, while us girls went for
Rum and gin. It was so much fun and the guest house workers were so
great about letting us party and enjoy ourselves all night. They
never complained once.
On Sunday evening,
Ryan, Jerome, Marylin and I went to dinner at Round Table Pizza,
which again was so good!! Being able to eat real food the whole
weekend was just so amazing, I can't even describe how good it was to
eat things other than potatoes, sheep, horse and carrots. I forgot
what it was like. I did not even care I was paying $20+ for 4 pieces
of pizza. It was so worth it. The whole weekend my stomach was so
full, I could barely move, but it was so worth it. Sunday night, us
four stayed in a played cards while the rest of the group went out to
a club. We were so drained from training that we just wanted a quiet
night in. The TEFL group didn't have training so they were all pumped
to be going out.
Monday morning we had
to meet at the Peace Corps Office at 750am to get on the bus to go to
IST (in service training). We packed all our bags and jumped onto the
public bus or into a taxi to get there. The CPs were on one bus and
the volunteers on another. All of us were so exhausted that we slept
for the hour and half ride to the Peace Training Complex. Traffic
was awful, but once we got outside UB we made up time. We ended up
being an hour late, so all the sessions were pushed forward and tea
break was cut short. The place where our training was held, is where
the UN has a lot of their trainings and meetings. The rooms were like
American Hotel rooms with a toilet that you could flush toilet paper
down and showers with hots water!! After we were settled into our
rooms we went downstairs to the dining room for a quick bite to eat
and start putting as much coffee into our bodies as possible in order
to make it through the day of training. Most of us had been running
on less than 5 hours of sleep a night, so coffee was needed. When we
all are together we never want the fun times to stop, so we end up
giving up sleep in order to party and hang out with each other every
night. It is well worth the loss of sleep. The first three days we
had trainings with our counterparts. We were split into our sectors
and ushered into different rooms to begin our week long training. It
was so nice to be in trainings with all the healthies again, it was
just like PST again. We had trainings in Needs Assessments,
Developing Surveys, SWOT Analysis, International Medical Care,
BCC/IEC Charts and how to implement activities using them and most
importantly the trainings that had to deal with how to improve your
relationship with your Cps and launch successful projects. The most
helpful training I feel was the hour session we had where we split up
into two groups, volunteers and Cps. In our groups we made lists of
expectations we have of each other and then presented it to the other
group. It was interesting to see the overlap and differences in our
lists, but it really helped seeing what they wanted written down,
because a lot of the time the language barrier doesn't allow us to
directly say what we want from one another. One of the main things we
wanted to tell them, was to give us work. We don't know what is going
on in the hospitals and health departments all the time. We need
direction. So they ended up coming up with a list of subjects they
want to know more about that we could research and do mini trainings
on while we are in between projects. That list is awesome to have and
will come in handy! One surprising thing on their list was that they
would like to know how to fix their computers and other electronic
devices. We all kind of laughed and said well we are not computer
technicians but we can try, but to not get upset if we can not fix
it, because we all really have no idea about computers, so don't have
high hopes for us to run around fixing electronics. We also made sure
to tell them, that we do not feel comfortable trying to fix hospital
equipment, because that could really be a life or death matter, and
none of us are trained to fix those kinds of things. We said that
after one of the Cps suggested that we help fix their Oxygen and
blood pressure machines that are broken in the hospital. Another
great training was when we were given a 3 month calendar and sat down
with our CP an made a 3 month plan for trainings and projects. A lot
of these things, seem like no brainers and why didn't we do this
before, but the language and time restrictions don't allow a lot of
this to be done at work. Our Cps had jobs before us, and we are just
here to help them, not give them more work, so at times its hard to
find time in their busy schedule to sit down for 2 hours (that is how
long it would probably would take to get that calendar done using
limited language and a dictionary) and make a 3 month plan, but since
we had translators at the training, it only took about 30 minutes to
map out a plan. I really feel like I learned a lot at IST and so did
my counterpart. We now have a clear schedule and plan for the next
couple months and every 3 months, I think we should sit down and at
least get a rough idea of what we want to do for the next couple of
months.
After three days, the
Cps went back to their Aimags and we had 3 more days of training.
During these three days we had winter health/STI trainings, cultural
trainings, an accounting/business training, winter nutrition seminar,
language lessons and mental health sessions. We also got more
vaccinations and medications during med clinic hours. The mental
health sessions were great. We talked about ways to cope with sadness
during the holidays and the long dark days. We had to identify
triggers and then come up with a list of things we could do to
counteract them. Our medical staff is so great and so helpful! They
always have ideas for us and new ways for us to keep our
emotional/mental health as normal as possible. They are always saying
that “in Peace Corps you must learn/train your body to work and
thrive under extreme mental stress, it is really a test of mental
strength.”
Each night, there were
parties in a couple hotel rooms. We would all (volunteers and
counterparts) go back and forth between the rooms, luckily we had the
whole hotel to ourselves, so we could really do whatever we wanted.
Once night we had a game night where we played various board and card
games, other nights we danced and ran around on the roof. The roof
was flat and full of snow, so we all went out one night and danced on
the roof. It was an amazing week! The last night we our counterparts,
we had a big snowball fight. Volunteers verse Cps. It was hilarious
and so much fun! People were sliding and falling everywhere and many
times tackled and faces smashed in the mounds of snow. It was so
awesome to just relax with our Cps and have fun. I think it really
brought a lot of us closer to them. I have always had a great
relationship with mine, we hang out all the time, but for those who
didn't have that relationship going in, I think that IST really
helped. We were able to hang out with our Cps without the rest of the
town watching and gossiping about what was going on. My counterpart
the last night came over to me and said “Americans are good at
drinking. They know when to stop and go to bed. Mongolians do not
know that. They must drink until all the alcohol is gone and until
they they no longer can stay awake.” I was surprised that he said
that because I thought we were a pretty rowdy group, but when I
thought about it, we really did all stop and go to bed each night
knowing we had a full day of training the next day so we had to get
at least a couple hours of sleep in and no one got sick or was late
to any of the sessions, although many Mongolians were late and had
“rough mornings”.
Friday afternoon, we
were done with training and we all headed back to the city. Will,
Ryan, Jerome, Cal and I decided to stay for the rest of the weekend
in UB and head back to our towns on Sunday. So we found a nice
guesthouse and got a couple rooms. We went to checkout the kitchen
and living room and were surprised by two large cow carcasses on the
floor. They were thawing them. So each day we had to step around the
cows to get to the kitchen. I can only imagine if that happened in
the US. The place would be shut down. Here we all just stepped over
the meat and went about our day. A new surprise every day. Firday
night, Ryan and I went out for pizza again. I am pretty sure I had
pizza every day I was in UB, which is unlike me, because I never ate
pizza in the states. But now that I am in Mongolia, its the only
thing I want to eat when I visit UB and can get real food. We then
watched a couple episodes of duck dynasty and waited for the others
to get back. Once the other boys were back, we played Cards Against
Humanity and listened to music till we fell asleep. On Saturday I met
up with Kelbe and Laura and went shopping at the black market and
Sunday Plaza. I got a new pair of boots and a bunch of yak wool
socks. It was so cold! My body actually hurt. We were told it was
-29. After a couple of hours of shopping we had to leave the market
and go back to Laura's apartment to warm up. We ordered pizza and
caught up on funny youtube videos and new dances. The pizza was
delicious. I then went back to the guest house to meet up with the
boys. We were all going to a Hip Hop club that night. So we got
dressed and headed off to celebrate one of the volunteer's (Angela)
birthday at the club. We walked into the middle of a spray
paint/graffiti competition, which then turned into a dance
competition and ended with a rap battle. It was awesome. The
Mongolians loved that we were there and kept wanting to dance with
all of us. They were awesome hip hop dancers. It was so cool to
watch. UB is a totally different world than the rest of Mongolia.
Here we are in Mongolia, watching hip hop dances and listening to
rap. I did not want the night to end!
Sunday morning, I did
some last minute shopping and then Will and I went to the bus center
to get tickets for that afternoon. We then met up with a couple other
volunteers for brunch. I had pancakes and eggs, with a warm wine
drink. After brunch, we ran back to the guest house to pack and get
ready to leave. Lore, Jen, Will and I caught cabs to the bus center
and got on our bus back to Arkhangai at 2pm. I slept most of the way,
but the last couple hours Will and I watched movie. Finally, we were
back in Tseteserleg around 10pm and I was walking as quickly as I
could back to m apartment to crash. I had to be at work at 9am Monday
morning after a week of no sleep.
12/26/2013
This whole week we are
celebrating New Years. Last week, we were given teams that we had to
work with to come up with a way to welcome in the New Year. I was on
team one, which consisted of me, the pediatrician, HD Director, the
nutritionist, two of the accountants, one of the assistants and the
communicable disease doctor. Since we were team one, we had to
welcome in the New Year on Monday. We decided we would dress in red
and wear Santa hats (they think that Santa is a New Years symbol, I
had to explain the difference between New Years and Christmas to
them, because they thought that Christmas was just the American
version of New Years) and we would get to work early and be there to
great everyone as they walked into work. We made a music play list of
Christmas and New Years songs and lined up in front of the door to
welcome the rest of the staff. We shook everyones hand and gave them
chocolate. Once everyone was greeted, I got busy to work in the
kitchen. It was my job to make 50 cupcakes that would be given to
everyone in the afternoon. It was the first time I had ever made a
cake and frosting from scratch and surprisingly even though, I had no
vanilla, baking soda or measuring cups, it came out really well.
Luckily, when we swore in as volunteers, we were given a Peace Corps
Mongolia recipe book that gives you different substitutions for
ingredients we can't get here and gives us recipes we can make from
what is available to us. Also, another handy element of the book is
that it has pictures of different bowls/ kitchen items that equal
different measurements since there are also no measuring cups here.
So after about 2 hours, my cupcakes were made and frosted. I then got
the other woman in my group to help me plate them and hand them out.
Each plate had a New Years candle on it too. The cupcakes were a hit!
Tuesday, was group two's turn. They prepared a power point
presentation that had pictures of all the staff's heads put onto
funny bodies with jokes around them and then gave us all energy
drinks and candy bars. I'm not sure what the presentation was about,
but the pictures were hilarious and everyone laughed the whole time.
The director's head was put onto Beyonce's body on the cover of Cosmo
magazine, next to the words Best Tantric Sex Moves. I busted out
laughing at the fact that they put her on that cover and had no idea
what is said around her. Wednesday, the third group dressed up like
Angels (what looked like angels, not sure if that is what they
actually were) and went around singing and giving out little bags of
candy and New Years cards.
On Tuesday, I baked
140 sugar cookies to give the staff at the HD for Christmas. Will
came over and baked cookies for his teachers also. We listened to
Christmas music and baked away. The whole time the HD drivers watched
us and chatted. One of them invited to his house this weekend to have
donkey with him and his family. At first, I thought he meant horse,
but when I said horse in Mongolian to him he started laughing and
said “NO!” and then proceeded to make the donkey noise and draw
me a picture of one. So indeed I will be eating donkey this weekend.
I can't wait to try it. Back in the States, I only at chicken and
turkey, but here I am just eating all kinds of meat. I am so
surprised that I actually like it!
Yesterday, they had
one of the drivers dress up like Santa and give me gifts. He is just
the sweetest man and he learned how to say “Merry Christmas” and
“We love you” in English. The minute the words we love you came
out of his mouth, I started crying and he kept hugging me and calling
me his beautiful daughter (a lot of the men here are very protective
of me and call me their daughter, it is so sweet). It was so sweet of
them to do! It was so strange being away from my family on Christmas.
It did not even feel like Christmas, which is a blessing in a way,
because I just treated it like another day. Since they don't
celebrate Christmas here, I still went to work and went on with my
day. I got to skype with my family which was so great! It was so nice
to talk to everyone and see them all dressed up for Christmas Eve.
Everyone looked gorgeous!
The whole week we
volunteers have been watching Christmas movies and making dinner with
each other, which has been great. Yesterday, Christmas Day, Lore and
Will came to hang out with me at work, because they had nothing going
on at their schools. We went out for lunch at our favorite little
yellow shack. On my way to lunch, I heard m name called repeatedly,
so I turned around and there was one of the girls I tutor. She ran up
to me and asked what I was doing at 2 o'clock and I said nothing, I
would just be at work. She asked if I would do her make up for her
school New Years party and if I could bring my cosmetics because she
doesn't own any. She is in the 10th grade at one of the
local schools. Her English is great! I said of course, I would love
to do her make up. After lunch, I met up with her at the HD and did
her makeup and then gave her some dance lessons, because she said she
didn't know how to dance. I can not wait to see pictures from the
party! Later in the afternoon, the Director called me up to her
office and presented me with New Years gifts. She had gotten me a
beautiful handcrafted leather journal, a nice bedazzled pen and a big
bottle of champagne. She is such a lovely woman! At night, we went to
Lore's Ger to watch Christmas movies for the final time. I can not
believe that Christmas is over already!
HERE IS A LITTLE
HISTORY ABOUT THE MONGOLIAN WINTER:
The Mongolian winter
“lasts for 81 days.” It is divided into nine periods of nine
days, and each period has a meaning attached of the various things
that will freeze during that period. Winter starts on the Winter
Solstice, which is usually around Dec 22, although it has felt like
winter for over a month now.
1st: Mongolian vodka made from mare's milk will freeze
2nd: A different type of Mongolian vodka made from mare's milk will freeze (or Russian vodka, depending on who you talk to)
3rd: The horns of 3 year old bulls will freeze
4th: The horns of 4 year old bulls will freeze
5th: Rice will not freeze
6th: Some snow will melt and you will be able to see the lines on the road (that is, if there is a road and it has lines....)
7th: The snow will melt from the top of little mountains
8th: The road will be slushy
9th: It will be warm (relative)
We have received many emails from the Peace Corps telling us it would be really cold, and basically "make sure you don't die." I knew before I came to Mongolia that it would be cold in the winter, but I have never experienced such extreme cold. And I live in one of the warmest places in the country. Everyone says that in Mongolia it's dry cold, so it's not that bad. I have to disagree, dry cold is worse. It is hard to breathe when you walk outside, I find myself winded after walking the 7 minute walk to my work. Every body part must be covered, if not, they begin to burn and ache (just a little frostbite setting in). And this is only the first nine! The 4 nine is supposed to be the coldest!
1st: Mongolian vodka made from mare's milk will freeze
2nd: A different type of Mongolian vodka made from mare's milk will freeze (or Russian vodka, depending on who you talk to)
3rd: The horns of 3 year old bulls will freeze
4th: The horns of 4 year old bulls will freeze
5th: Rice will not freeze
6th: Some snow will melt and you will be able to see the lines on the road (that is, if there is a road and it has lines....)
7th: The snow will melt from the top of little mountains
8th: The road will be slushy
9th: It will be warm (relative)
We have received many emails from the Peace Corps telling us it would be really cold, and basically "make sure you don't die." I knew before I came to Mongolia that it would be cold in the winter, but I have never experienced such extreme cold. And I live in one of the warmest places in the country. Everyone says that in Mongolia it's dry cold, so it's not that bad. I have to disagree, dry cold is worse. It is hard to breathe when you walk outside, I find myself winded after walking the 7 minute walk to my work. Every body part must be covered, if not, they begin to burn and ache (just a little frostbite setting in). And this is only the first nine! The 4 nine is supposed to be the coldest!
Some
fun observations thus far, which prove I live in a country that is
colder than a freezer:
1)
Nostril hairs stick together and it hurts!
2)
Hair that is not covered freezes, even when dry and turns a grey
color. It is susceptible to snapping off
3)
Eyelashes stick together and that also hurts and leaves you unable to
see.
4)
One pair of gloves is not sufficient.
5)
Your face and jaw feel like you have gotten a face lift whenever you
walk outside.
6)
Your thighs and but become numb and turn bright red, even with
numerous layers on when walking outside.
7)
Food freezes immediately when carried outside or left outside.
