River Adventure and Moving Into My New Apartment

11/18/2013

            This weekend flew by! On Friday night, Will, Lore and I went to Jen's to watch “The Shining” on her new couch. We munched on caramel popcorn that tasted just like Cracker Jacks and played with my puppy. Saturday morning, I met up with Lore and we went shopping at the Black Market. I got my boots fixed by the cobbler, who is just the cutest old woman who works in this little closet. She sits on the ground with all her supplies and makes and fixes shoes. I got my shoes restitched and it cost less than a dollar. The terrain here is so rough on shoes! This week when I have time I am going to bring my other pair of dress boots to her, so she can add some winter treads to the bottom of them. Whenever I wear that pair, I fall at least 3 times, never fails. While my shoes were being fixed, we walked around the market. I was in search of wood and nails. I want to make a bookshelf/cabinet unit for my apartment. I have just had this urge to build something. Unfortunately, there was no wood to be found. I have to ask my counterpart where I can buy lumbar, I did however buy a pack of nails. Semi-successful trip. I brought the puppy with me, and once again everyone wanted to pet her and talk about the fact that they wanted her to be a boy. I was even offered money for here before they found out she was female. One older man asked if he could walk her around the market, so I said sure and he just walked her along side of me while I searched for lumbar. Once we were done with the market I went back to get my boots and then headed off to hang out at Will's for the day. Will and I went shopping at the new supermarket to get food to make Chicken Alfredo Pasta, then headed back to his apartment to hang out. We invited my counterpart and his daughter over to eat and watch a movie with us. They came over around 7pm to eat and then left to meet his wife who had just gotten back from a training in UB. My counterpart came back over once his wife was home to watch a movie with us. We watched the new “Carrie”. It was pretty good, except my puppy peed on Will's bed. I was so shocked, she had never done that before. Luckily, after that she was fine for the rest of the night. Around midnight, Ariuk and Will walked me back to my guest house. I stayed up till 2am, talking to one of the missionary's nephew who came to visit his uncle for 3 months in Mongolia. He is from Florida and just with a degree in Sports Medicine. Unfortunately, he was leaving the next morning to go back to UB. Sunday morning, we chatted again before he left on the bus back to UB. The group of missionaries were so interesting to talk to! What a lief some of them have led. One of the families, has lived in Mongolia for almost 19 years. They have have had all but one of their children in Mongolia.

           Sunday afternoon, Lore and I met up with Jen for lunch at our favorite Yellow Shack (there is no name on the building, so we just call it Yellow Shack because that is exactly what it is. It has such great food though. I had kimche and milk tea, which as usual was delicious. Then Lore and I went back to my apartment to grab my dog, and went on a hike in search of the river we saw from the mountain we hiked before. We took to the never ending fields and trudged through mud and ice in search of the river. We walked for about 1.5 hours when we finally found what seemed like it could be a frozen river, but it ended up being a big reservoir, so we climbed over the fences into another field and began the search again. This field had giant mounds of grass and dirt. It looked like something out of a weird scifi book. Lore, the dog, and I jumped from pile to pile trying not to touch the ground, like we were in elementary school again. It was so much fun. The dog lost at that game. Haha. We kept seeing things that we thought were stream and rivers, but they just ended up being snow and ice on the ground. We kept joking that the river was just a figment of our imagination, like a mirage in the desert. We kept seeing it and then it would not be there once we reached the spot. We finally came up to what we think was the part of the river we saw, it was all frozen over so we decided to do a little skating on it. It was hilarious to watch the dog slipping and sliding all over the ice. So we are unsure of whether or not we actually found the river we saw, but we are going to take a trip up the mountain sometime this week to see if we can find the river (we actually drove by it on our way to the hot springs, so it does exist) and carefully find landmarks near it, so that next weekend we can really find it. We all want to buy blades to strap onto our boots so that we can go skating on the frozen water, like all the village kids do. We need to find someone that makes them.

11/19/2013

             After several panicky phone calls to numerous Peace Corps Mongolia Staff and two days of negotiations, I finally signed my rent agreement and will be moving into my new apartment tomorrow afternoon. Thank goodness for Naraa (Safety and Security Director) and Enkh ( IT man) driving 7 hours to Arkhangai to sit down with my HCA and new landlord. The apartment passed the safety inspection, but then the rent and utilities price kept changing depending on who we would talk to. But now after what feels like hours on the phone, everything is settled and agreed upon. Today, after work I will go pack up the rest of what is in my old apartment and get everything cleaned and in order to move into the new one.

Naraa and Enkh took us out to dinner last night at Chingis Pub. It was delicious and so nice to sit and have a conversation with them about our lives here in Arkhangai and how we are adjusting to it. They are both so caring and so interesting to talk to. Both are Mongolians who live in UB and work for Peace Corps. Their English is amazing and so are their personalities. Through out the whole two day process, a smile never left Naraa's faces. She said that she be able to fix it all and kept telling me not to worry and she was right she was able to negotiate not only with Peace Corps staff but most importantly with my landlord and HCA. She is a lifesaver! =) I can not wait to move in tomorrow!

            Another great thing about my apartment is that my new landlord is a Police Officer and said if I have any problems with anyone in the building that I should not hesitate to call to her. She will solve all problems regarding my safety and also introduced me to another Police officer who is in charge of keeping track of foreigners in Arkhangai and he said that he is looking out for my safety too. I got his number and he said that he will be coming over to my Health Department to talk and to get my information down so in case something happens he knows who to contact. He worries about us Peace Corps volunteers a lot he said, and wants to make sure that nothing happens to us while we are here for the next 2 years. Naraa was so happy to hear him say that and she got all his contact information so he can act as a liaison to us since she is so far away from our Aimag.

           I also just got the okay to start doing Health Classes in one of the kindergartens here in town. Ariuk said he talked to the director and she would love it if I came in and worked with the children on health topics (hand washing, hygiene and teeth brushing). So I am going to come up with a lesson plan to show her. I want to incorporate crafts, games and music into it, so they have fun while learning about these subjects! So excited to work with the younger kids, they are just too cute!

Top 10 things I miss, Moving into a Guesthouse and English Lessons

10 Things I Miss (other than family, friends and the English Language):

1) Subs from Subway. Really just cold turkey sandwiches in general. There is no cold deli meat (no turkey at all) or vegetables here that you can eat raw.

2) Reality TV and Talk Shows

3) Smoothies. No blenders here.

4) Spin Classes and kickboxing

5) Refridgeration

6) Sunday “soul” Mass in Buffalo

7) Hulu and Netflix

8) Watching NFL, NBA, NHL and college basketball games

9) Skiing

10) Urban Outfitters, GAP, Express and Victoria's Secret (I can't stand shopping in the unorganized, cramped Forever 21 stores but at this point I even miss Forever 21 and their cheap accessories and camis)

11/14/2013

            Now that I am moved out (for the most part) of my apartment and into a safe place, I can now talk about the issues I have been having living in my apartment. I have had issues with harassment and what the Peace Corps calls “stalking” (I have not been followed, that I know of, but the same men keep coming to my apartment trying to get in) for about a month and a half. Most nights, they would bang on my windows and then it became my door, yelling things that they want to do in English ( I'll spare the details, I'm sure you can figure out what I'm talking about). I am on the first floor, so this made me extremely uncomfortable but when I swore into the Peace Corps, I promised to serve whatever village they placed me and in hardship. So, I thought this is hardship, these men are just part of serving in a third world country. So I would ignore them and just put my headphones in to drown out their voices. But then it soon escalated to loud large brawls and arrests. By this time, it was hard to sleep at night, because I was afraid that they would break through my windows (one night the men resorted to throwing rocks at my windows). I quickly emailed Peace Corps, who immediately got on the telephone and told my landlord that the bars I was supposed to have on my windows the first day I Moved in were not optional and they need to be put on now. The next day I had bars. The Country Director and Safety and Security Director was forwarded my email and within a day I was on the phone with both of them. They had a meeting about my situation and decided that it was not safe for me to live there anymore, even with the newly added bars. I spent a couple days with my site mates and then they made the decision to move me into a guest house until a new apartment is found. The guest house is great and the people that run it are fantastic. I have a hot shower, a bed with a real mattress, breakfast served to me every morning (fresh fruit included). The first night I stayed there, there was a convention for missionaries and I fell asleep to the sounds of them playing guitars and singing, so much better than the yelling I am used to. It actually brought me to tears. The people are so nice too. At breakfast a couple of them came over to eat and talk with me. Most of them are from the US, but there is a couple from Canada. I talked about Tim Hortons and Buffalo with them. We both share a love for the Timbits. The husband also just started flying ultralight planes and was telling me about how he is going for his sport pilot license and wanted to start learning to fly helicopters as well. I felt at that moment that my Uncle Tim was there with me, watching over me and keeping me safe. =) I am so much more comfortable now and I am looking forward to getting a new apartment. So glad that, that whole ordeal is over. Peace Corps has been so wonderful and on the ball once they found out about my situation. I am so thankful for all the personnel that has called me 4-5 time a day seeing how I am and all the support they have offered to me. I am also thankful for the staff from Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington DC that has called to apologize and offer their support. Truly a wonderful community of people!

 11/15/2013

         Yesterday afternoon, I went to see a possible new apartment. It is on the third floor and has two doors, including a steel safety door on the outside that has no handle. It can only be opened by a special key that I will have. It has a small balcony and the bedroom/living room has hard wood floors. The kitchen comes equipt with a sink. That is it, no cabinets or counter tops, but my counterpart says the handy man can do something about that. It also has a toilet (that works!!), heat and a shower with a hot water box! It is smaller than my old apartment, but I like it a lot! Peace Corps comes to check it out on Monday to see if it is up to PC standards which I'm pretty sure it is, since the one I used to live in somehow passed. It is also closer to my work and right behind Will's apartment. Fingers are crossed I can move in sometime next week!

Today, I received a ton of messages from school doctors who came to me training on Prevention of Non-communicable diseases. About 15 school doctors and nurses are interested in working with me to come up with a Health Class Curriculum that they can teach to kids ages 10-17 in the schools. I am so excited about this!

        On Wednesday, I had a great English Class with the community members at the Future and Child Adolescent Center. I taught them about the present continuous tense and adjectives to describe people. I gave them magazine pictures and had them write sentences describing the people and talk about what they were doing in the pictures. I then had them stand up and tell the rest of the class. They really enjoyed the pictures and looking up words in their dictionary to describe different details of the clothes. At the end of the class they asked if they could keep the pictures and were so excited when I said of course they could. I am currently working on making a grammar book for them, with all the grammar rules (so many!). I now know so much about the English Language. I had no idea about the names of all the different tenses and kind of words. Every Wednesday Will comes to the Health Department to help me with work, since he has no afternoon classes on Wednesdays. We are going to start teaching English classes at the Central Hospital for the doctors and nurses. We are going to split it up, where I will teach the beginner group and he will teach the more advanced, since he is a TEFL volunteer and an English professor at the Teachers' College here. We came up with the tentative lessons for the first 5 weeks of classes. We will probably start them mid December.

Halloween Party, Americans, My First Solo Training and A New Friend

*disclaimer. I am sure there are a billion and a half spelling and grammar errors in these posts. The longer I am in Mongolia, the more the English language eludes me. In the mongolian language there are no articles, ands, ors, buts, any punctuation other than the period and now that I am not writing things in English, my spelling of English words are off. In fact, I just had to rewrite that little paragraph several times before it sounded correct to me.Enjoy! xoxo

10/28/13

         We had our Halloween party for school 1 on Saturday. About 28 kids came for the decoration contest and made some really creative wall decorations with only recyclables and paint. I was really impressed and they seemed to have a fabulous time doing it. We had 6 games, dancing and the movie Hocus Pocus playing in the background of the party. We were told to expect 400 kids, but in reality the social worker forgot to tell all the teachers and failed to see that there was also a sports competition that night, that all the 10^th and 11^th graders were participating in (those were the two grades of the party), so in actuality, about 30 children came to the party. We all had a lot of fun and 30 children is much more manageable than 400, but we did feel a little bummed since we were expecting 400 and put all this work into it. But, it was not our fault, we hounded the social worker about telling the teaches and he told us he did. We made a sign that played on the tv in the entrance of the school to advertise it and met with several children about the party, but we had no idea about the competition. For our first party though, it was a success.

       After the Halloween Party, we all went out for dinner and drinks, my counterpart and Jen's counterpart joined us. We then went to the dance club for a couple hours, where we met up with some teachers from school 1 who were celebrating one of the teacher's birthdays. So you know what happened...rounds and rounds of vodka shots. Luckily, I got away with out having to drink any of them, by staying on the dance floor and dancing all night. Good thing I love dancing!! I unfortunately lost my wallet at the club, so the next morning I had to cancel my cards. And then of course, 2 days after one of the teachers brought my wallet to Jen, saying she picked it up at the end of the night when she realized we had left it. So glad no one had it, but now I have no cards to get money out. I called Peace Corps and they gave me my account number so I can go into the bank with my Mongolian ID and get money out. At this point, it doesn't really matter because of the government shutdown, PC has no money to pay us, so we are waiting to get paid whenever they can get an advance from the bank. Come on government, come up with a budget already! A lot of people have only 50 Tugriks left in their account, which you can buy a piece of gum with. So we shall see how they get by until we get paid again. Thank goodness I have money in my account and have my American account I can dip into if I am desperate.

10/31/13

         Last night, I had my first English class with the government officials. They said I was a great teacher and really pretty. One man kept asking to date me. He asked me at least 5 times, I finally lied and told him I had a boyfriend back in America who would be really angry if I started dating someone else. He stopped asking after that.

         In today's class I taught them how to introduce themselves, simple continuous tense and numbers and colors. We played several games after each subject to really imprint the ideas in their minds. I used a lot of the techniques my Mongolian language teachers used with us during training. Next class, we are going to go over simple continuous tense and learn some new verbs and English sentence structure. It is surprising how fast 2 hours go bye. I was pleasantly surprised.

       Today, while I was walking home from lunch, a car stopped next to me and a woman yelled out hello. She asked if I was a doctor and I told her I was a Peace Corps Volunteer working at the Health Department. She said yes, that she had hear of me and would like my friendship and help with work. She is a gynecologist at the hospital and would like me to help her with trainings and just be my friend. In her words “I like to work together and then see each other when we are no busy. I would like a friendship with you”. This is what I love about Mongolians attitudes towards foreigners, they are not intimidated or think we are reeking havoc on their youth. Everyone just genuinely wants to be friends with you and practice their English whenever possible. What a great country! I can't imagine just driving up to someone on the street in the States and asking to be their friend, first you would think they are crazy, then they may be a rapist/kidnapper and definitely not someone you want to be friends with. But here, people are just nice and want your help and friendship. What a strange concept to ask for help when needed, in the States, I think that we are all so afraid of being inferior or seen as weak, that we often would rather suffer then ask for the help of others. We all have such big egos, that we do not seek help from others in fear of being seen as less fortunate or less able. It is all about who is on top and we are willing to trample over others and put aside our real desires to be seen as successful and independent in our communities eyes. Money, power, time and things run our lives, but here in Mongolia it is the exact opposite. None of these things are important, the governor is just as important as the people cleaning the streets. Everyone has their purpose and are respected for it. Age grants respect, not position, wealth or education. This is the one thing I wish that I could bring back to America. I wish that people would stop caring so much about wealth and power and just live in the moment. Be happy with what you have and where you are. Because in the end it is not going to matter how much money you have or how many cars you own, in the end the things that are going to comfort you on your last day, are not things at all. People and their love are going to comfort you and be there for you throughout your life. Relationships are important. If we all stopped running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to do everything all at once, I think that as a country we would be much happier. Life does not always have to be a competition, sometimes its nice to just sit back and enjoy it all. Breathe it all in and not worry. This is one of the most important things I have learned since being here.

       I am a completely different person regarding this. Before I came here, I was so uptight about schedules, overly competitive about everything, and worried about things that weren't going to happen for months. I was so worried about how I appeared to others that I wasn't really enjoying life. I was stressed and unhappy, yet on the outside I seemed like the happiest person ever. Being in Mongolia has taught me to relax and not be so worried about what everyone thinks and to stop planning things down to the minute detail. I have learned to just live in the moment (for the most part) and its a truly freeing feeling. I am so thankful for this experience and I think it is just what I needed at this time in my life.

11/2/13

        We were told we should get paid today! We shall see. =) This past week has been super busy at work. Usually I work 9-5 everyday, but this week I have been working at the office till 6pm and then going to tutor the government officials from 630pm-8pm. I also have volleyball league on Wednesdays from 8pm-10pm and then basketball league from 10pm-11pm. So my Wednesdays are jam packed from 9am-11pm. I absolutely love the business though. I wake up most days at 6am to go for a run with the puppy for an hour, then I come home to boil water for the day and shower/get ready for work. I walk over to work and am straight busy till 1pm, when I go on my hour lunch break, which consists of a mug full of soup and going on another long walk with the puppy. At 2pm, its back to work until 6pm, when I run home to let the dog out before tutoring. Once I'm done with tutoring, I cook dinner and then take the puppy out on another long night walk. She loves the walks, and I really enjoy them too. I am surrounded by such a beautiful landscape, that I love just being in the crisp air, exploring all the mountains and paths near my apartment. The morning walks are my favorite, because at 6am it is still pitch black out, so we walk with a flashlight around town, coffee in hand, and by 630/645am the sun is rising and it is absolutely breathtaking. The pink and blue colors combining over the mountains is like something I've never seen before. I will never get used to it.

       Over the weekend, Will's mom and Aunt came to visit. His mom brought me a big bag of banana chips (my favorite snack), which I ate in 3 days. That seems to happen when I receive food, I try to conserve it, but having the new delicious options right in front of my face doesn't allow for conservation. They took us out to dinner twice during the week and got us Christmas presents, which we can't open until Christmas. They were so sweet and it was so nice having other people to talk to. They came to visit each of our works and homes. When they went to the school, they read books to the children and gave them gifts. Will's mom was a teacher for 35 years, and had her old school write letters and make a book (the kids wrote and illustrated it) to give to the students here. When they visited my Health Department, they met all my coworkers and discussed the difference of health care here and back home. They seemed genuinely interested in each one of our jobs and my coworkers loved them. We went back to the guesthouse with them and stayed up talking for hours. It was so nice to have a mom and aunt here, even if they weren't mine. Each night ended with a giant hug. It made me miss my family so much, but they were great substitutes for the week. They are coming back to visit again, along with his dad and brother. Marc, Jen's boyfriend also came to visit for the weekend. He is from England and is working in Ulaanbaatar. He is really sweet and has that great dry sense of humor I love. He fit in well in our group and will be visiting again in a couple weeks. We went to the black market for shopping with him. I brought my puppy with me, who was exhausted from our morning run. I ended up carrying her in my arms for most of the day. The Mongolians loved her. Everyone wanted to pet her and talk to me about her. About 15 people checked to see if she was a boy or girl. Everyone of them disappointed she was female. Thank god she is, if not everyone and their mother would be trying to steal her. Twice I was offered money for her. I kept telling people she was my little child. They would laugh and just follow me around the market. She was a hit. Every time I take her for a walk, people point and come up to me asking to pet her. They think it is so funny that I walk her on a leash (belt), people in Mongolian do not do that. I've decided that I am buying her a little winter Mongolian dell to keep her warm on our walks. AHH! She will be so cute in one!

11/4/13

         Today I had the day off from work! It is Chingiis Khaan's 851^st birthday. Woah does it feel so great to just do nothing. We are all going over to Jen's for a movie marathon day and make grilled cheese and french fries, our go to lazy meal. Jen and Lore have the whole week off due to a winter break at school. So lucky!

At work, I am working on making a database for discharge papers for the hospitals here in Tsetserleg. The hospitals here currently have no way of giving discharge instructions to there patients, they just rely on verbally telling them, which we all know when sick or just coming out of surgery, we are not keen on the idea of memorizing instructions, let alone even having the ability to remember anything that is being said when in that mind set. My director came to me with this dilemma and asked what we did in the US. I told her about discharge instructions and she now wants to implement that idea. With the help of the internet and Mrs. Briner's suggestions (thank you!), I have compiled a bunch of information about the most common diseases and injuries here in Tsetserleg to begin translating into Mongolian with my counterpart's help (a lot of help). I am also writing to the Health Minister and making visits to the hospitals in the capital to get more information on the programs they use when discharging patients and to see if the Health Minister can help us to buy a real software program that is already in Mongolian and will have all diseases and injuries in the database, without having to translate everything word for word from English. I know that the hospitals in UB use these types of programs, but the problem is the hospitals and health department here in Tsetserleg have no money. It was also suggested that I write to the software people themselves and see if I can get a free copy of the database in order to spread information to the countryside, as a donation. Once I find out the names of the software the capital is using I then plan on doing that as well.

11/5/2013

        Today, when picking up my laundry from Fairfields ( I waited to long and had way too much to do by hand, so I brought half of it to Fairfields to be washed for me) my friend, Saraa, who is the manager at Fairfields told me a funny story. She said that when in a cab a man told her that lately he has been seeing 3 foreign girls walking around town and wondered if she knew who they were. She pretended she didn't know us to see what we would say about us. She asked what we looked like. He said one girl is black and the other two are yellow. She then asked where he thought we were from. He said well the black girl is obviously from Africa and the two yellow ones are from Russia, especially the taller one (me), she is definitely from Russia, completely Russian. She said oh wow I will have to meet them and got out of the cab. So funny. Everyone always thinks I am Russian and tries speaking to me in Russian. Whenever I say I am American they are surprised. Saraa said this is a good thing, because Mongolians think that Russian women are the most beautiful women in the world. Haha.

11/7/2013

       Yesterday, I went shopping with Jen. She met me at the Health Department, and we went to the Black Market and the new super market. I bought more camel socks, fleece lined leggings, a dog collar, and some vegetables and other food items. While at the market, we got to practice our street Mongolian. The vendors never think we know Mongolian, even when we ask them the price for things in Mongolian, they will take out their calculator to show us the price. So now whenever they go for their calculators we tell them that we speak Mongolian and we can understand them. This always pleases them and they then try to show us everything at their stand and ask us all sorts of questions about our age, where we are from, what we do and if we are married. It is so much fun to see the looks on their faces when we speak Mongolian to them. Every person tells us that we are excellent at Mongolian (although we know otherwise) and that they hope we visit them soon.

       I made the most delicious beet soup for dinner. It was made with beets, cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes. I boiled it all together and added in some spices. My host mother always made it and I loved it, so I tried to replicate it. It is definitely something I will be making again.

       Today, I had my first solo training. I was supposed to have my counterpart Ariuka be my translator, but he had to go to a training in UB. So, I made my power point in English and then he translated it into Mongolian. I gave the training in English with the Mongolian power point behind me. It was more like a word document on slides, because since I had no translator I wanted to make sure they understood everything I was saying. The presentation came out like a Mongolian one. Slides full of words with pictures and charts thrown in every now and then. But I really wanted them to get it all, so bullet points would not work in this case. My presentation was on how to prevent Non-Communicable diseases among the younger generation. The people who came to the training were doctors at the hospital and school doctors and nurses. I had to give the presentation based on American standards, campaigns, laws and trainings. They seemed really interested when I talked about our ID policy for drinking and buying tobacco products and the fact that American children receive physicals from their doctors once a year and visit the dentist twice a year. At the end of the presentation, I asked them all to critique my presentation, write what they liked and disliked, what they thought was helpful and interesting. I also had them write down if they were interested in having me teach health classes at their schools and hospitals and whether or not they would be interested in helping me come up with a health class curriculum for schools, since there is none. I am excited to read their responses, once Ariuka translates them for me. Haha. I can not read Mongolian cursive, only print and of course everyone always writes in cursive when I hand out surveys or questionnaires. I always forget to tell them to please print. But overall for my first solo training I think it went well. =)

      I really like making trainings and presentations for the community, I hope that this is what my job will consist of when I get back to America. I found a program that I think is perfect for me at the University of New England. It is a Master's in Public Health: Health Education Specialist. With this degree, I could work in Health Departments, Hospitals, NGOS, WHO, CDC, and various other government organizations planning community trainings and events to spread awareness about various health subjects. I am starting to take online classes in January that the Peace Corps offers us for free through various colleges, Conflict Resolution and Journalism. Also, I started an online class to learn Spanish. I really need to start studying Mongolian, but when immersed in it all day long, its hard to want to learn more.