Cooking, Poland, Hiking and Buddha

8/23/13

        I love having site mates! Every night this week we have made dinner together in Jen's Ger because she is the only one with an oven, go figure. Both of the gers that my site mates live in are so pretty inside, I almost find myself wishing I had one, but then reality hits me, winter in a Ger is something I am looking forward to never experiencing! I'm okay with not having to wake up every couple of hours in the night to make a fire and I'm also okay with not having to bundle up in layers to go outside to go to the bathroom. I will enjoy visiting my friends' who live in them. We apartments dwellers, are living the Peace Corps “Posh Life” (that's what everyone in PC Mongolia calls it, the majority of PCVs live in gers), although I don't have an oven, refrigerator or running water, so it is not that much of a step up from Ger life.

       On Tuesday night we made pasta and “meatballs” (meatballs= sliced ham that comes in a tube shape), Wednesday night we made homemade Pizza, which turned out to be not like pizza at all, but resembled more of a taco like dish, yet, still delicious and then last night we decided we wanted to make garlic knots and tomato sauce. First we made the dough, and then we had the genius idea of putting cheese inside the knots (they only have their version of sliced American cheese here), it was the same cheese we put on the pizza. We sprinkled garlic, sea salt and pepper on them and put them in the oven to bake. The oven always causes her Ger to loose power, apparently the power is too much for the circuit, so it was a constant game of turning the oven on for 5 minutes, the power going off, flipping the fuse bag on, turning the oven on and etc. I think we went through that cycle 6-8 times before they were finally cooked. Were they the garlic knots we had pictured when we first got the idea to make them? No, but they still tasted pretty good even though all the cheese seeped out burned on the pan. Our tomato sauce turned out to be more of a salsa, but yet again still pretty tasty. We have come to the conclusion that it is pretty impossible to make American dishes in Mongolia, so we have lowered our expectations when cooking. As long as it tastes good it is a success. Tonight, we have decided to go out to eat at a place called “Fairfield's Cafe”. It is a restaurant/cafe run by an Australian couple who is here on a mission trip. They serve lasagna, hummus, veggie burgers, salads, hamburgers, soups and so many other “American/Australian” dishes. The past two days I have gone there for a Machiatto and an oatmeal cookie, a great way to end a day. It is a little piece of America/Heaven that is only 5 minutes down the road from me. They also rent out mountain bikes and do laundry for a small fee! I have really hit the jackpot. I'm planning on having them wash my clothes once a month, to get them nice and clean, and then I'll hand wash in between. They also have a really nice guest house/hostel attached to the cafe, which have showers we can use! Which I may need to start going to, since I have had no water in my apartment this whole week. Every time the water is turned on the pipes flood my bathroom. I have to catch the water from the pipe before it hits the floor whenever I need water.

       Yesterday, my supervisor came over and took a look at the place and said that I will probably be moving and that they are going to start to look for a new place. The maintenance man (who I'm pretty sure is a teenager) is here right now trying to figure out what is going wrong with all the pipes, but it doesn't sound promising. Hopefully I will be moved into a place with a refrigerator! My site mate who lives in the apartments near me has one. But I've already decided that I will be a “vegetarian” for the next two years because A) the meat here is sold in an open market, sitting out all day with flies (makes me nervous), B) I have no refrigerator to store meat in, C) I do not know how to cook lamb or goat and I'm afraid I will poison myself. So because of those three reasons, I will not be eating meat, unless someone cooks it for me/ I feel like eating it at a restaurant I trust. I am also giving up bread for the next couple months. I ate way too much of it during PST. And what I mean by a lot is, a minimum of 5 pieces a day, on top of the meals that were always rice based. I will still eat rice, since soon it will be winter and less vegetables and definitely way less fruit will be available to eat, but the loaves of bread are not necessary. I really need to learn how to cook. Another goal for the next two years: be able to cook meals other than pasta and stir fry.

       I am excited to start working on projects with the Health Department. It is still vacation time, so nothing is really being done, they are just in-putting their statistics and getting ready for the next coming months. I have decided to make a survey/questionnaire about the health situation in my community this weekend that I will give out to my co-workers. I will write the first draft and then have my main counterpart check it over to make sure the Mongolian is correct and then give it out to everyone on Tuesday or Wednesday. I have a couple questions in mind that I want to ask them, but since language is still a large obstacle, I think it will be easier to have them fill out a survey and then I can translate it into English to find out what their ideas and opinions are. This will be part one of my Needs Assessment. Depending on the feedback and number of responses I get back, I want to then take it to the hospital and family clinics for the staff their to fill out. This is the easiest way I can think of starting my Needs Assessment, since I lack the language skills to interview people and be able to really understand what they are saying without getting them frustrated or annoyed with me. I am very interested to see what their responses are! I am also working on my lesson plans to teach English to my coworkers. I am going to start having English lessons with them in September.

          Tonight, our other site mate is coming into town. He lives in a soum (small village) about 2 hours away from the rest of us. Our other soum-er, who is an M23 (on his 2^nd year), I am a M24 (the 24 group of volunteers to come to Mongolia), is coming in to stay with me Sunday-Wednesday. He is going to show us around and introduce us to people. He is also bringing me a pillow from UB. I have been without a pillow for the last week, they don't sell them here, so I am so excited to finally be getting one!

One last thing, there are the biggest flies I have ever seen here. You can actually hear them flying around, it's crazy. I am on a killing spree with my fly swatter every morning. I am just thankful I don't have the millions of big spiders that the Ger dwellers seem to have right now. I can deal with flies, big spiders are whole different story. Yuck.

8/25/13

         Yesterday, our Soum-er Mike came in to spend the weekend with us. During the day we visited the active Monastery, which was in session already, so we weren't able to go in, but we listened to the Monks chant from the outside. The monastery and its grounds had such a peaceful presence to them. The chanting was so beautiful. The monastery itself is gorgeous and surrounded by gold prayer wheels and statues. When you walk around the monastery or even walk past it, you are supposed to turn all the prayer wheels as you walk by. I am so interested in learning about Buddhism, I am going to ask around to find out the schedule of the Monastery, so I can join in on the services. As a secondary project, I would love to work the Monastery that is next to my apartment. I was thinking about doing an English class for the Monks and in return they could teach me about the Buddhist culture. More and more tourists are coming to Mongolia, so learning English is very important to Mongolians. I would also love to help with the monastery museum. Once I know how much time I will have outside of the Health Department, I will start to go about setting this project up. After the monastery, we climbed what seemed like the endless stairs to the Bulgan Mountain Temple, which houses giant statues of Buddha and other Buddhist statues. At the top of the stairs is a large Buddha statue which is surrounded statues of the Chinese zodiac calendar. To the left of the Buddha is a large bell, which you are supposed to hit with a rock three times when passing. Then, up a couple more flights of stairs is the temple. Mongolian people come here to pray and give offerings. Inside the temple are huge statues, prayer wheels, incense, artwork and another large bell. When you enter the temple, you must circle the statues three times in silent prayer. The statues are stunning. They are painted with bright colors and intricate details. When I walked into the temple, there was an instant calming yet uplifting effect. It is hard to describe. Behind the temple is a large mountain, with its face covered in large rocks. On the rocks are bright and vivid paintings of Buddha and various other Buddhist symbols. They can be seen from anywhere in the city.

         After, visiting the Monastery and temple, we all went home for lunch. Lori came over to my apartment and we attempted to make grilled cheese and tomato soup. The grilled cheese came out amazing, but the tomato soup unfortunately did not. We thought we had all the ingredients to make a nice creamy delicious tomato soup, but instead it came out tasting like pickled tomato water. We bought a can of tomato paste, milk, salt and water. We mixed them up in a pot and cooked them. In our heads, these ingredients were what we needed to make tomato soup. As it cooked we tasted it several times and it just tasted like we had squeezed a tomato and were eating the juice from it. So we added more milk. By the time we were done cooking it, we had added salt, pepper, pickled vegetable in hope to give it some flavoring. It didn't work, but we ate it anyways. It wasn't tomato soup, but it wasn't bad. We are determined to make a proper tomato soup this winter. I think we just bought bad tomato paste. But I have now looked up a recipe, so there wont be anymore guessing.

        After dinner, we all met up again at one of the local pubs and then went to Neptune which is a dance club. At the pub we met up with two men that Will had met on the bus to Tsetserleg. The one man was from Poland and was traveling here on holiday. His name was Thomas and he was a photographer who is currently living in Shanghai. The other was a man, Reese, had recently moved to Tsetserleg from Kazakhstan. He is going to college for Public Health and found a job here in the public health inspection department. Both guys were so interesting to talk to. I of course had a soft spot for Thomas. Through out the night we talked about what it was like growing up in Poland and I threw out the random Polish words I knew, talked about Christmas Eve traditions and Polish foods. His favorite food is also Pierogies. He told me I need to try the fruit filled ones. He has such a passion for photography and art. He went to university in France, where he studied Art and Photography and now lives in Shanghai where he shoots music videos, photographs landscapes and fashion. I couldn't believe that here I was having drinks with a man from Poland, who knew people with my mom's maiden name (apparently there are a couple famous actors with the last name Lukasiewicz, pretty cool). I definitely think that he was sent by my Dziadzi (grandpa) to look over me. It is way to much of a coincidence! He and Reese were so much fun to dance with at the club. It was an awesome night!

         Today, Will, Reese, Thomas and I went on a hike. It was beautiful as always. I really enjoyed talking to Thomas about every where he has traveled, which is pretty much every country. He leave tomorrow to go back to Shanghai, but he will be returning in the winter. I admire people like him so much. He has done so many cool things and gone so many places already in his life, and he is only 32! I loved hearing about all the different cultures and countries. I can't wait to do some more traveling of my own! Reese is awesome to and throughout the hike was teaching me Kazakh. He is going to be a great person to work with. He is so passionate about Public Health and is currently working in a program with doctors from Johns Hopkins University. He wants to go to Johns Hopkins for his Master's Degree. So do I!

        After about 4 hours of hiking, we were at the bus station picking up the other Mike, who is staying with me till Wednesday. He lives in a soum about 4 hours away from us. He is going to show us around the city and introduce us to his contacts. We all made Tsuivan at my apartment, which is a noodle dish with vegetables and chicken steamed with some Mongolian seasonings on it and watched a scary movie called VHS-2. Super freaky, I recommend it to people who like sci-fi and scary movies. Each part of the movie was directed by a different person, it's pretty cool how it is put together.

8/26/13

       Today, Reese came to visit me at work on his lunch break. His English is so good for only studying it for a little more than two months. He has agreed to help me with my Mongolian and in return I will help him with English. He is going to teach me some Kazakh too! So far at work, I have finished my questionnaire that I am going to give out to my coworkers, hospital staff and family clinic doctors. I translated 8 questions into Mongolian, which took me hours, but Reese looked them over and said they were correct. The questions ask about health concerns, ways they would like to improve it, what projects are going on now to combat health issues, and how can I help them reach their goals. I am hoping it will give me insight into the health community here and will serve as the beginning part of my needs assessment. I also want to come up with questionnaires to give to community members and teachers. I feel a written questionnaire is the best way to go at this point of my service. My language skills are not good enough to conduct a proper interview, so having them fill out the questionnaires and then translating them will be the easiest way now to get the answers I want. I need to observe the community more.

Offically A Volunteer!

8/14/13

             I left my host family on 8/12/13. I was so happy to be finally gaining my independence but at the same time absolutely terrified to be on my own. I had grown used to living with them and they really felt like my family. On the meeker ride to Darkhan, I cried along with some of the other girls. Leaving Suhkbaatar meant I was leaving behind familiarity, and it was scary! But as soon as I got to Darkhan, I got an immediate adrenaline rush knowing in a couple hours I would know where my permanent site would be. After sitting through training sessions, we were finally led to the Children's Park, where there is a giant map of Mongolia on the ground. We were called out one by one and brought by our regional manager to our city on the map. It was so nerve wrecking, I remember holding hands and hugging the health group as we waited for our names to be called. Finally, my name was called and I was going to Tsetserleg City, Arhangai. I had no idea where this was. So my manager brought me out to the place on the map where I would stand until everyone else was at their place on the map. It was crazy to see everyone so spread out on the map and to really gauge how far I was from my health group that I had grown so close to. We stood on the map for awhile as former volunteers and Peace Corps staff came to greet us and tell us about each of our cities. Person after person kept telling me how beautiful it was; there were mountains, lakes, rivers, volcanoes, hot springs and forests. I was so excited! I also would have 4 site mates, which I was ecstatic about! After the placement ceremony, we went to regional dinners with the Peace Corps Volunteers that have been here for a year. I am in the northwest region of Mongolia. At the dinner, we learned more about out placements and helpful tips to survive the winter. That night we also went to a club in Darkhan with fellow PCVs. It was quite the experience. It was fun for the most part, but I really got a first hand account of how women are treated in Mongolia. It opened my eyes.

8/16/13

          On Thursday we had another ceremony, where we were introduced to our supervisors. We were once again called out one by one, by region and HCA (host country agency). It was all in Mongolian, so we had to listen carefully. Luckily, I am the only health volunteer in Arhangai, so it was easy to distinguish from the other jobs. After meeting our supervisors, we went to lunch with them and then had joint training sessions with them. My supervisor wasn't able to come because she was at a meeting in UB for all the directors of Health Departments, so a doctor who works for the Health Dept. came. She was very nice! The sessions were meant to familiarize ourselves with Mongolian customs and for the Mongolians to familiarize themselves with American ideas. We had to make list of things we wanted our HCA to know about Americans. First on our list, was time management, as a whole Americans like schedules and like to stick with them, we asked that they give us 24 hours notice before changing something so we have time to plan (this is a foreign concept to them), we also explained how Americans' like alone time and that we would like them to call and let us know they are coming over, not just stop by unannounced. Also, that Americans don't always drink to get drunk, we often enjoy just one beer with dinner. It was so interesting to see this ideas written down, I have never had to explain these things, they have always just been understood. But here in Mongolia, we had to actually write them out and explain why Americans like this things.

8/19/13

       On 8/17/13 we had our swearing in ceremony. Another emotional day. The Health Minister and US ambassador to Mongolia came and made speeches at it. The Health minister wants to work with my group of health volunteers. When we go back to UB, he wants to set up a meeting with us and talk about current health problems plaguing Mongolia and get our input on projects that are currently being run to combat them. He feels that we have a lot of valuable knowledge and opinions that he would love to hear. So cool! We did our Health group performance (song and dance) and said our oath. We were officially Peace Corps Volunteers, FINALLY! We then went back to the hotel for lunch with the Ambassador. She is from Buffalo, so we had a nice chat about Elmwood and how much she loved growing up in Buffalo. PST was over and we were now going to be heading off to our new site. Me, sooner than most. My HCA decided to send a private car to pick me up right after lunch to go to my new site. The M23s had rented out a club in UB and was throwing us a party there. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to go and because of the adrenaline roller coaster I had been riding the past week, I finally crashed into reality. 

           After lunch, I would be packing up all my belongings and heading out for my 11 hour drive to Arhangai. I said my tearful goodbyes to all my friends and trainers and after 15 minutes of the driver trying to figure out how o fit all my suitcases in the car, I was off to my new home. Exciting yet so frightening. I remember holding back tears; not wanting to cry in front of my supervisor who had just arrived in the car to pick me up. I wanted to be back with my safe group of friends and teachers. The 11 hour car ride was on unpaved roads and not on any roads at all. The driver was driving through meadows, up hills, through streams. We got stuck in the mud twice. The road was so bumpy that I smashed my head so many times off the ceiling and window, I had to take ibuprofen to get rid of the massive headache. It was an adventure, which I enjoyed for the first couple hours and then I was just really car sick. We finally arrived in Arkhangai at 1:30am. 

         Although it was dark, I could make out the magnificent mountains from the moonlight. It was breathtaking even in the dark. The streets were lined with blue lights and their were pine and birch trees everywhere! Shortly after entering the city, I was being dropped off at my apartment.

         My apartment consists of a bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. It has a toilet and bathtub! But right now the water isn't working, hopefully it will be fixed within the next couple weeks. Whenever I turn on the water, it comes out the back of the toilet...strange. I found this out when I went to take a shower and flooded my apartment. I then tried the next day and flooded it again. I am now waiting to use it until it is fixed. I will take tumpins (baths in my large mixing bowl) and boil water until then.

        On Sunday, my counterpart's daughter came over and took me shopping. She speaks English very well. She showed me around town and helped me buy the necessities. She leaves for UB next week for university, I wish she was staying, she would be very helpful to have around. A couple hours later, there was a knock at my door, and it was another counterpart of mine, Ariunerdene (aka: Ariuk). He is the information and training specialist. He took me to more stores and helped me get things for my kitchen. He is really nice and speaks pretty good english. He then showed me where the Health Department was and told me to be there on Monday at 9am.

        When I got to work on Monday, I researched Mongolian healthcare system, since there as nothing for me to do yet. Then Ariuk took me on a tour of the city/town and showed me where the police department, black market, hospitals, banks and family clinics were. He then took me to the meat market. I ordered way to much (I have no refrigerator) and ended up having to throw out more than half of it. But, now I know how much to order. I am working on getting a refrigerator from one of my counterparts. I hope it works out! So far I have made myself beef and vegetable stir fry and omelets for my meals. I really need to learn how to cook. I don't have an oven, just a portable stove top. 

8/21/13

         My city is absolutely gorgeous. Their are mountains surrounding it and so many trees and gardens! I live right next to a Buddhist Monastery which sits upon this tall mountain. The face of the mountain is all rocks and the rocks have been painted with Mongolian pictures. I have never seen anything like it. We also have a fabulous market, with fresh vegetables, meat and fruit. It's amazing.

         Last night, I met up with two of my site mates. We did a little shopping for our homes. I bought plates, silverware, mugs and a blanket for my bed. I still have a list of things I need to buy this week. We then went back to one of the girl's ger to make pasta and watch “10 Things I Hate About You”. Her ger is so cute, it made me wish I had gotten one, but come winter I know I will be more than happy having an apartment that I don't have to heat with fire every couple hours and won't have to put layers on to walk outside to go to the bathroom.

        Today, I am on day 2 of working at the health department. I wouldn't consider it working, since I have yet to do anything, but observe people work. Everyone at the Health Department has been on vacation, so nothing has been happening. Today, we are supposed to have a meeting in which I will find out what projects are going to be going on and how I can help. I feel useless right now. But, I'm sure once everyone is back and everything starts up I will be busy. I'm not used to not having a task or least a direction of what to work on. I need to work on being more self directed, but it's hard when I have no idea what they are working on and what there needs are. Plus, its only me and two other people actually at the Health Department, the other 39 people are on vacation. Haha.

       I have already had to break out my winter coat and gloves. It is so cold here already! It starts to snow here next month! Summer is officially over and we apparently skip over fall and go straight to winter. Yikes! Bring it on!

       So I have internet at my work! So I will be able to update my blog more frequently. I am also planning on buying an internet modem for my apartment so I can Skype with everyone!

      Today, a lot of the Health Department staff came back! We had a staff meeting, where I tried to understand what was going on. Here is the full list of the words/statements I was able to understand in the 45 minute meeting:

South Korea and Mongolia Partnership

visited hopsital and doctors in South Korea

S.Korean Doctors are coming to Mongolia to preform surgeries and teach

agreement of understanding

schools, houses, families and health department involved

at National Medical Center

Eye doctor and eye exams

go to hospital

big organization

english presentation

pulse and blood pressure

blood room

World Health Organization

Peace Corps Boss

small dinner

bathroom

food menu

again

little

what kind of food?

Nutrition

2 workers were (doing something)

the numbers: 101,102,7,2,240,6,1,8,28,14,2067

tomorrow

to give

it said

children

I was very excited that I could understand bits and pieces of it. What I basically got from the presentation is that the director of the Health Department visited doctors in South Korea at the National Medical Center, which is a big organization. The had a presentation in English about an agreement. Doctors for S. Korea are now coming to Mongolia to help preform surgeries and teach Mongolian doctors things. After the presentation, they toured a hospital where they saw eye doctors and nurses. They saw a blood bank and new blood pressure machines. They then had dinner. Not to shabby for only 2.5 months of language training. I knew a lot more than I thought I would.

         During the meeting the director introduced me to the rest of the staff and gave me a gift. She gave me a cashmere scarf (Mongolia is known for its cashmere), a statue of the national boot and a really nice pen. They then had a table full of candy, pastries, vodka, beer, and black berries. It was 11am. I politely declined the vodka and beer telling them it was too early, but I would celebrate with them later. Peace Corps taught us to refuse in the beginning so they understand you aren't a heavy drinker looking to party all the time. In the past there has been numerous volunteers who have come back from Peace Corps Mongolia alcoholics because of all the drinking that goes on in the country.

         My first job here at the Health Department is to translate some Mongolian handouts into English. My translator and coworker Ariuk is going to help me, since I obviously do not have the capabilities of translating medical information quickly and most importantly correctly. I am also going to begin teaching the staff English. I need to make a schedule and begin planning my lessons.

Parties, Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Surviving PST

 8/8/2013

I am officially done with PST (preservice training) and wow do I feel exhilarated (and incredibly anxious). I can't believe that 2.5 months have passed by and I am less than a week away from swearing in and officially being a Peace Corps Volunteer. I feel like I have been waiting forever for this day and now its over. My language test went way better than I could have hoped. I had so much I wanted to say, she kept cutting me off and moving onto new questions. I wanted to yell out "Wait Stop, I know so much more vocabulary, wait till you hear me conjugate and put together the next sentence, it will blow your mind". I had prepared so much all this week, that I wanted to keep going and going. I'll find out my score in the next coming days. We are supposed to test out at, at least Novice High, which I know I did (well here's hoping I did), I want to know if I got higher than that though!
My final evaluation went extremely well. They are convinced that I am going to be a great volunteer and that my personality is going to get me very far. They said that everyone loves my energy and looks forward to having me in training. They don't for see me having any problems adjusting to my new community and as long as I keep up my positive attitude and my smile, I will do great things! It was so nice to hear. They said I had such a positive,strong,confident energy about me, which was so nice to hear, because that is one of things I wanted to gain here: to be more confident in crowds and public speaking. I can check that off my list. Yeah!
We had two volunteers come to our technical training yesterday and talk about their experiences last year, and it was so nice to hear the "real" story. They were so open and real with us,it was great to hear, that they still struggle with the language and yet they have done amazing projects so far in their first year. I learned so much from them and they brought us Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, as well as cliff bars and a cake! The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were out of this world. The best surprise ever. I had two! I am going to really miss my trainer Bolgi, she is a Mongolian doctor, she was amazing and such a great person. She has so much experience in the medical world and has so many connections with World Visions, WHO and Red Cross, I will definitely be utilizing here in the the coming years. She is an amazing woman.

8/4/2013

This weekend has been full of celebrations. Last night, I went to a get together in the country with my friend Cidell and her family. Seven of us piled into a small car with bags of meat, vegetables and drinks. We drove through a field, a forest, another field and then a forest where we reached our destination. What we arrived at, looked just like a little resort motel that your would find in Luzerne or Lake George, NY. There was a row of three A-Frame Log cabins, a gigantic picnic table made out of the same wood the cabins were and a big fire pit. It was fantastic. The Mongolian man that owned the place is a forest engineer and he said that he made the log cabins out of the trees he grew; the purpose of them were to house his friends after late night parties. Each one came came equipped with a mattress and little stove. He then showed us the huge plot of land where the new trees were being grown and his irrigation system. It was so cool. He had rows of 4 year old pine trees growing, who knew pine trees even existed in Mongolia, let alone have the same name. We helped get water from the well and then it was time to start the fire.

We were having Horhook, which is when the sheep is cooked, usually underground in a hole with these special hot rocks. You stuff in the cabbage, potatoes and carrots and then cook inside the animal. The only thing I can compare it to is a pig roast, only with a sheep. It is absolutely delicious. While it cooked, we had the usual three shots of vodka. First, a shot is thrown into the air as an offering to the land and then you sit in a circle and a shot glass is passed around. It is customary to have the shot glass go around three times, so everyone receives three shots. They do this at almost every gathering (Mongolians love vodka and drinking, alcoholism is a huge problem here because so much of their life revolves around celebrations and vodka. It's not uncommon to walk around the town and pass people passed out on the side of the road. They sell IV fluids in stores, to “cure” hangovers here). After the third shot, Cidell and I looked at each other and were happy to have made it through the rounds and to be done with the vodka, but no the Mongolians began chanting and clapping at us to drink more. Finally after proving we were worthy people, we got to eat the food that had been prepared. They again clapped for us and told us we were good Americans. Next time I am in this situation I will refuse to drink the first shot, so that they understand I won't be drinking anything that night. It's so hard to refuse, they make it extremely hard and you want to so badly integrate with the community. We actually just had a whole training on how to properly refuse and how in some situations you may have to make up an excuse, like saying you are sick or allergic in order to get them to stop hounding you about drinking. They don't understand that people don't drink until they pass out. Here (not everyone) but most Mongolians when celebrating drink heavily and assume that you will too. Lesson learned go prepared with an excuse to a party.

The Horhook was simply amazing. Before you can eat it, you must pass around the hot stones from hand to hand until they cool. Doing this brings good health and luck, but really it just brings me burns on my hands. I then had to put the stones to my ears, for more luck. It's painful, but I am not going to bring bad luck upon myself by not doing it. I did however decline when they wanted to put them under my shirt on my back (even better good luck) for an extended amount of time. Finally it was time to eat and I sat their like a cave women, tearing the meat and fat off the bone with my teeth and eating the vegetables with my hands. Back in the US I wouldn't even eat chicken wings because I didn't like having to chew meat from a bone and there I was gnawing sheep meat from a big bone. And let me tell you I enjoyed every second of it. So delicious.

Today was Host Family Appreciation Day, so we invited all of our families to our school where we had cake and were supposed to have coffee and tea but we have been experiencing a black out for the past two days and the electricity will be off for another four days. So we each prepared a little speech in Mongolian to read out loud to our families and then preformed two Mongolian songs for them. They seemed to really like it. They also, received their certificates for completing the summer as Peace Corps host families. At the end of the party, one of the mom's stood up (a known partier) and began passionately talking about something which seemed to get all the host families going. We volunteers just sat their wondering what was going on, at first we thought it was an argument, we could only make out a couple words. One thing we were at first sure of was that something important was happening today or tomorrow. Then we began to hear food and beer being thrown out as ideas. So we put it together that they wanted to have another party. Thirty minutes into the discussion they began writing on the whiteboard food, drinks and other things they would need for this second party. It was then decided that we would all meet at 3pm (its was then 12:30pm) for a party at the river. Each family had items to buy and then we would all meet up. It was so funny how they just through this big party together in 30 minutes and it was to happen in 2 hours. And by god everyone showed up at the river in 2 hours. Back in the US with my family, parties are planned weeks in advance, it is a whole gigantic process where schedules have to be considered and location, no not in Mongolia. Everyone drops what they were doing and plans a party that will be held in 2 hours.

It turned out to be such a fun time. We had sausage sandwiches, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples candy, chips, beer and pop. It was all set out on a picnic blanket and arranged so beautifully by the mothers. We all played soccer and Frisbee and a Mongolian game where they yell out an article of clothing or accessory and it is a race to get the articles. If you are the last one back to the line, you are out. And you keep going until one person is left. So the Mongolians lined up in a line and we lined up about 100 feet away from them. Our teacher yelled out an article of clothing and we had to run to the Mongolians get it and then run back to our original position. At first we were all a little weird out by the game, stealing clothes and people stripping, but we went along with it. Our teacher yelled out shoes, glasses, shorts, etc. and we would have to run and get that from one of the Mongolians. It was hilarious when they all started taking their shorts off to give to us. Literally giving the clothes of their back to us so that we could win the game.

As we drove to the river we passed several people who were running around the river naked. They don't think anything of it. In a way its nice, everyone is just so comfortable in their bodies here. They are proud and confident, no matter what they look like, no shame and no one is inappropriate about it. One Mongolian women stated “I'm women. You women.” when asked about nudity and bathing with other women such as friends or sisters in the room. I think that there is something to be said about that. In America, when you go to a gym and its just the one big shower room, everyone is embarrassed and self conscious, you wait until everyone leaves and jump in quickly hoping no one else walks in or awkwardly try to shower without exposing yourself too much. But here women are proud of their bodies, large or small, and other women do not judge them or talk about bodies in a negative way. They are so respectful and just really proud to be a women, there is no shame in showing their body. It's very empowering to hear and we need more of that confidence in the United States (Emily, I think we already have this covered..."no pants are the best pants"..hahaha miss you) .

8/3/2013

Yesterday was Ombra's 2^nd Birthday. A lot of family and friends came over for hosier, kimbob, apples and candy. After about 30 minutes of playing with the kids (twirling them around so much that ombra actually puked. Ooops), I sat down and began to celebrate with the adults. A lot of fun and craziness. We took about a trillion pictures. I want to have a few printed out before I leave and give them a photo album of the pictures as a thank you gift. That is my task for this week.

American Vs. Mongolian Culture

 8/2/2013

Today, a second Nadaam was thrown. The wrestler who won the wrestling championship title in Mongolia was from our aimag.He won a couple million Tugriks and decided to throw a second Nadaam for the community. That speaks a lot about Mongolians, in America, when an athlete wins a championship and money, they go out and spend it on new cars or another mansion, here, they spend it on others. He is throwing another Nadaam with his money, so the community can enjoy it. And enjoy it we did! This time I hung out at the horse races all day with our group of PCVs. It was awesome!

It's weird how quickly things become normal. What shocked me about Mongolians when I first got here, no longer seems all that weird to me. We have to complete our second Cross Culture Journal this week for the Peace Crops. The journal is this big packet of open ended questions, which we have to reflect on and write about. One of the questions was: “What things have shocked you in your time in your host community and why do you think Mongolians do these activities?”. We were asked this same exact question in our first CC Journal and I had a whole page dedicated to answering this question. This time when asked, I wrote maybe a paragraph, talking about how nothing really shocks me anymore and that some of the things that at first shocked me about Mongolians, actually now seems practical and makes a lot of sense. I realized a lot of the things that initially shocked me was due to the way I was raised. I was brought up in the US and told how to act in terms of what is considered proper and civilized in the US, but a lot of things we do/have are unnecessary. I remember the initial shock of moving into my first apartment and realizing I had no dish washer, how on earth was I supposed to wash dishes?!?! Now I bathe, do my laundry, and wash dishes in my tumpin, with about a fiftieth of the water I would have used in the US using a shower, sink, dish washer and washing machine. But don't get me wrong, I do really miss showers even if they do waste water. The only thing that continues to surprise me is the lack of car accidents (I have seen zero since being here), compared to the amount of insane driving going on. The car of choice seems to be jeeps (when people actually own a car),which are known for their roll overs, there are no speed limits, stop signs, road signs, stop lights or even paved roads. They must just be better defensive drivers than Americans. I am hoping to get a video of it soon.

Another question in our journal was: “What differences have you observed in terms of values (time, individualism, privacy, friendship, family, age, equality and authority)? Do you feel comfortable making generalizations about American and Mongolian cultural values?”. I thought that I would be able to answer this question easily and feel pretty confident in making generalizations on the two cultures, but as I really began to think about it, and we had a discussion group on the topic with Mongolians and my fellow PCVs, I realized they weren't so black and white. What I have noticed is that there are pretty large differences between the two cultures with the values of time, individualism and privacy. Mongolians seem to be the exact opposite of Americans on these three values. Where in America we value punctuality, individualism and privacy, here in Mongolia, time is of no importance, it is actually bad luck to ask for a specific time on when something is supposed to start and end, individualism and privacy are not understood. Mongolians value time spent together and think that something is wrong if you want to spend time alone. One of the Mongolians in our discussion group actually went to the length of saying that when traveling for business, Mongolians try to find room mates for hotel rooms, because they do not like having a room by themselves, being alone makes them uncomfortable. This has been the hardest thing to get used to, is all the together time with my host family. They think something is wrong if I go to my room and read or watch a movie alone. To them this means depression and unhappiness, in America it's called “alone time” and we value it a lot. When it comes to age, family, equality, authority and friendship, I think that they vary with individual people in America. It depends on a persons back ground and upbringing whether or not that value the ideals. The United States is based on “equality”, but it is not really practiced in my opinion. People of different SES, different races and intellects are treated differently and have different opportunities. In essence we believe in equality for all, but we have yet to find a way, if ever for it to exist. When looking at these values in a Mongolian society, they are easier to generalize. Mongolians value their elderly, family comes first no matter what, when it comes to authority, people tend to make decisions themselves, there are not many authority figures and the Mongolian's view on equality, is that people's opportunities are based on status and financial possibilities, not everyone has the same rights to better themselves (people just except what they are, and from what I have observed, they are happy with what they have). This discussion was one of the most interesting ones we had, it went on for about two hours, we all had so much to say on the subject.

tornados,handwashing and birthdays

8/1/2013

I've finally figured out how to get my computer to type in Cyrillic. I now have an English and Mongolian keyboard. I bought a key board cover that fits over my keyboard that has the Cyrillic letters on them, so it is not much easier and faster to type in Cyrillic. Great investment, I think it will come in handy when I have to write out projects, grants and trainings in Mongolian for my counterparts. So now I am going to include some Mongolian words in my posts. =)

This morning I woke up at 4am to the most intense wind. I went out several times to check for funnel clouds (paranoid I know). The sky was so dark and things were blowing everywhere. I was convinced there was going to be a tornado and began coming up with my escape/safety plan, I quickly realized I was doomed if a tornado did touch down. The only thought that crossed my mind was that I could try to hide in the hole that is in my backyard that leads to a water pipe (our well), that was my only hope, hiding in a pipe tunnel. Mongolia is landlocked and is mostly made up of the Gobi Desert and hundreds of miles of flat grasslands/steppe. I don't really know what makes a tornado, but based of geography, a tornado would have a field day in Mongolia. It could pick up so much speed, there is nothing here that would stop one.

Today, my mom made a big batch of my favorite drink сүүтэй цай (pronounced suu-tai tsai), which translates to milk tea in English. It's a mixture of milk, tea brick, salt, flour, butter and a little mutton fat. When listing the ingredients, it actually sounds repulsive, but it is actually delicious! For lunch she made ногоотой шөл (pronounced nogootoi shul), which is vegetable soup. It contained the most vegetables I have ever seen in Mongolia in the past 2 months: cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets and broccoli (which I didn't even know they had here); it was heaven on Earth! I'm hoping we have the left overs for dinner.

We celebrated my Mongolian teacher's birthday today in class. We had kimbop, Mongolian cake, Russian cake and chocolates, with of course tea and coffee. She is also a Russian teacher and loves all things Russian, hence the Russian cake and chocolates. For some reason she thinks that I speak Russian and at least 3 times a week tries to have conversations with me in it. It has also gotten to the point where she tries to explain Mongolian concepts to me in Russian so I can explain it in English to the rest of the class. Haha, even though every time I remind her that I do not know Russian. I can now pick up on when she is speaking Russian and when she is speaking Mongolian at me. In the beginning both languages sounded like jibberish, so I had no idea she was even speaking Russian at me, I probably just kept shaking my head and yes-ing her so much she thought I was understanding the Russian. Haha. I do know a few words in Russian now though because of it. Most people in this part of Mongolia also speak Russian because we are at the border of Russia and Mongolia. I have been mistaken for a Russian numerous times. The party was fun and for the last hour of class we just went over different situations that may be thrown at us during the LPI and practiced acting them out. Our LPI is next Thursday, we are supposed to test at at least Novice High/Intermediate Low. Which I would say we are all at, but with the pressure of the test and it being given by someone whose accent may be different than our teachers, it will be tough. I plan on studying 2-3 hours every night until the test. I really want to test well on it, if we don't test at that level we must get a Mongolian tutor at our permanent site.

Today, was my last time at Practicum. I went to the hospital this time and interned with a woman эмч (emch), which means doctor. I watched a bunch of people receive injections and IV fluids. Mongolians practice medicine so differently than we do in America. I was shocked. Doctors in Mongolia in a sense are also pharmacists. Most medicines are given as injections, you don't see a lot of pills being given or sold. The doctors mix the liquid medicines themselves and give the injections. What is surprising is that the patient's buy all the supplies, they go to an эмийн сан (emiin san), which essentially is a pharmacy, where they buy the medications, syringes, band-aids, and any other supplies their treatment calls for. They then bring their supplies to the doctor who then mixes the different amounts of liquid medicines with this white powder (the only thing she supplies) into the syringes and injects it into the patient. Another surprising practice is that when a patient comes in complaining of stomach pain, headache, virtually anything, the first thing they do is give them IV fluids. Even more shocking is that you can buy IV fluids over the counter and administer it yourselves. My home, as well as a lot of the other volunteers, have IV bag hangers in the living room, and its not uncommon to see family members hooked to an IV bag. They administer the fluids when they have been out drinking, feel sick, feel tired and other numerous things they feel IV fluids can help with. Also, I've observed many doctors do not wash their hands between patients and even eat lunch after seeing a patient without washing their hands before eating. No wonder why there is such a strong push for hand washing campaigns, not even the doctors wash their hands.

soap operas and thoughts on the future

7/30/2013

Right now, I am watching a Korean soap opera with my parents. I watch it almost every night with them. I'm addicted. Its dubbed over in Mongolian and is actually really helping with my Mongolian. I am picking out words and am able to get the basic gist of what is going on in the scenes. My other favorite show is this Russian prank show, which basically is just practical jokes played on pediatricians who are walking the streets in some Russian city. It's hilarious. They also have a Mongolian version of “Lost”, which I can't really figure out, but I could never figure out the American version either. It's basically Lost, only with drunk Mongolians who crashed their boat. So kind of like Lost meets Gilligan's Island.

Language has been going really well this week, granted it is only Tuesday, but I'll take it. One of the M23s (volunteers who started last year), Katie came to observe; she comes every two weeks to clear up any questions we have, since our Language Teachers speak no English. When she was leaving she said that our group was getting really good at Mongolian. It was so nice to hear that from someone who had been in our place last year. She is really good at Mongolian, one of the high scorers on the LPI, so the compliment meant even more to me. During technical training we had an introduction to project management and got into a discussion about possible grants we can write for to get funding for our projects. Apparently, because the mines in Mongolia have been causing so many problems (pollution, poor working conditions, prostitutes and sex trafficking) they are trying to reconstruct their image, so they have been giving out generous amounts of money for public aid and volunteer work.

We get our flash drive at final center days, which contains all the information we will need to be successful and healthy for the next two years. For the past two months we have heard of this Flash Drive, it has been like a myth, an all knowing piece of technology, that we will finally be receiving. All our questions will be answered, well hopefully. It has recipes and tips for cooking food, how to winterize a Ger, budget and receipt templates, movies, music, books and most importantly, PB Works (the mecca of all things Peace Corps). PB works is a data base of information about Mongolia, former projects, lesson plans, information on grant writing, list of grants and aid we can receive, organizations that have worked with PC is the past, and anything else you can imagine needing to have successful projects. I am still praying for an apartment or log house, the more and more we talk about gers the more and more aware I become of my lack of outdoors/mechanics skills.

Yesterday, we had our last Cross Culture Training, which consisted of learning about the different types of transportation to get around Mongolia and how to survive our first winter. Key lessons I learned about the winter: one must wake up in the middle of the night to keep their fire going during the winter months, burning coal lasts longer than wood and dung (pollution verse warmth), one must sleep with their electronics so they do not freeze during the night, stuff the bottom of your sleeping bag with all your summer clothes to lock in heat, during the month of February Mongolia shuts down (you will get no work done during this month, as well as most of the other winter months, aka: sounds like the perfect time to plan a vacation to Thailand and China), where 3 base layers under all clothes at all times, it will hit -50 F, and most buildings are not heated well and lastly, buy socks and boots insulated with camel felt (apparently it's very warm). They say your first winter is the hardest time of your entire PC service, so if you make it through that you will make it through the whole 2 years. We have already had people early terminated and there are rumors of others leaving from our group and we haven't even gotten out of training yet! It's hard to believe that soon it will be well below zero, when the past couple days have been in the high eighties.

This evening I got to skype with Ash and my dad! They were on their way to the Buffalo Bills training camp in Rochester, NY. It still baffles me that I, while in Mongolia, a day ahead, was able to skype with them as they were driving down the thruway to Rochester. iphones all the way! Who knows what kind of technology will be out in the States when I get back in two years. They are still using Track phones and dial up internet for the most part, here in Mongolia. I can't wait to buy my own modem in Darkhan, right now I have to walk 25 minutes to find internet.