A great way to begin the week.

8/3/2014

I didn’t go camping with the Health Department this weekend because on Friday it was badly thunder storming and the weather reports said it would last all weekend, which luckily it did not, but we were forced to cancel the trip. Hopefully they we reschedule it for another weekend!

I went on a lovely walk/hike today. I don’t know why I had never thought about walking north towards the outskirts of town before. It was absolutely gorgeous. By the far the most beautiful part of my town. It was just fields and fields of wildflowers, red, blue, yellow, purple and white as far as the eye could see. Also, there is a great running/ biking path along the river that goes up into the mountains, which had the coolest rock formations on top of them. There were herds of cows grazing in the fields and not a person in sight. It was so peaceful. I cannot wait to get back out there and explore more.

On Saturday, I went for a hike too. I picked a mountain I had yet to climb and picked out a peak I wanted to reach. Eventually I reached the top of it and saw that there was an even taller mountain behind it and decided to keep going and climb the next one, which I am so happy I did. Once I reached the top there were these giant rocks in a half circle formation. I decided to climb upon them and once I reached the highest level, I sat and had lunch. The view was spectacular. I could see the town next to Tsetserleg, and herds upon herds of goats and sheep scattered the fields below like little black and white ants.

                 

8/4/2014

                Today was a really nice and relaxing day at work. The morning started off by going for a walk with my counterpart around town, chatting about random news (no one is really at the Health Department this month, due to their annual vacation, so not a lot of work is going on) and eventually we went to the Internet store to see why my internet modem is not working. It turns out that the internet service provider is not working anywhere in Mongolia and they are trying to fix the problem, but they are unsure how long that will take. I am hoping they fix it soon!

                When we got back to the Health Department, we were surprised to find that the Health Minister and some of the ministry workers came to the Health Department to do hospital inspections and to conduct a survey with a worker from an American international aid organization. I love that no one really has a clue when things are happening. When I asked Ariuk if he knew they were coming, he said no, I had no idea, I heard they may come sometime this week, but no idea it was today. It is so funny, the Health Minister is like the Surgeon General of the United States; the head honcho of the health care industry. In the US, they would have planned for a visit by the surgeon general and everyone would be expected to dress and behave a certain way. But not here, here, the Health Minister comes and it is mass confusion. No one was even at the Health Department to speak with. My counterpart told me to go upstairs and basically entertain them, while a survey was being conducted. It actually turned into wonderful time. So, I ended up having tea with the ministry workers and the American man, who was a recent med school graduate, who is now working for an organization that is trying to set up a medical data base and different medical trainings in Mongolia, similar to Doctors without Borders. He was super nice and it was a lot of fun chatting about his experiences in Mongolia so far. He has been here for 2 weeks and will be here for another two conducting this survey. He actually spent every summer in Saratoga Springs, family friends owned race horses, so he would visit from Pennsylvania often. His translator said my Mongolian was really great and was surprised to hear that Peace Corps doesn’t provide us with translators at work. She was blown away that we were able to communicate effectively enough to get work done in our communities. We chatted about Mongolian Health Insurance, the level of care at the hospitals and how she is doing in dentistry school. The translator was actually the daughter of the health minister so I made sure to get her contact information as well and when I go to UB at the end of this month, she has invited me to her home for lunch and then to go to the National Park outside of UB. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. I have been alone in town for most of the summer, so it was great to have another American to talk to, especially one that was familiar with upstate NY! We exchanged numbers and emails so we can collaborate on projects.

                As far as work goes, my latest project is coming up with an activity book that will be handed out to all the school social workers and school doctors. The book will contain games and lesson ideas to be used with the new peer education system that is supposed to be set up in all the schools this year. In September I will travel around to all the soums, and speak with the social workers and doctors about peer education and how to use the activity book. I will also be conducting a needs assessment survey in the schools. One for the Director of the school and school doctor, another for students. The Health Department conducts hospital inspections in September, so I will go around with them, while they do their inspections, I will meet with the local schools. Also, I am working on writing a grant proposal for a Peer Education Summer camp next summer. The camp would invite the new peer educators from each school for the upcoming school year and they would be trained by Health Department and hospital staff on different subjects, learn how to facilitate peer education groups, planning lesson, time management, and becoming strong leaders in their schools. Sort of like a student empowerment conference for students in all schools. I am still working on the logistics of it all, but I think it would be a fun way to get children involved in their schools and excited about health and life skills.
             It is now officially autumn here in Mongolia (according to my counterpart) and the temperature shows it. This weekend the temperature dropped and the past couple days it has been in the low 50s. In some places of Mongolia it has already snowed! I pray it doesn’t snow until November here. Apparently, this autumn is predicted to be extremely cold, much colder than last year. I hope who ever predicted that is wrong. I shall see soon enough. Knowing that cold weather is upon me, I have been daydreaming and looking at pictures of Greece and Turkey everyday. Last month I  booked my plane tickets to both places and today I booked the hotel I will be staying in for the first two days, before Emily gets into Athens. I decided to treat myself to a nice resort Aquis Mare Nostrum Hotel Thalasso (http://www.booking.com/hotel/gr/mare-nostrum.html   for  pictures of the hotel)  , which is on the beach, has a rally nice pool, water sports, a spa and a couple restaurants on location. The real point that won me over was the amazing looking Greek brunch they serve poolside. Brunch with mimosas was all I needed to see to book the room. It will be nice to relax for a couple days on the beach before all the fun starts once Emily arrives!