3/7/2015
I recently watched the movie and read the book “Wild” and
this line perfectly summed up what I have been feeling at this point in my
service.
“Dismal as it was, I
felt a spark of light travel through me that had everything
do with the fact that I’d be done hiking the
trail in about a week. I’d be in
Portland,
living like a normal person again. I’d get a job waiting tables in the
evenings and I’d write during the day. Ever
since the idea of living in Portland
had settled
into my mind, I’d spent hours imagining how it would feel to be
back in the
world where food and music, wine and coffee could be had.”
It’s sad to admit, but so much of my time here is spent
imagining what I’ll do when I get back to America – what I’ll eat, what I’ll
drink, where I’ll drive, what I’ll do. There are so many things that are out of
my control here, so it’s easy to daydream about what my life will be like when
I return. While being here, thanks to Pinterest, I have planned the new wardrobe
I will buy, the decorations and furniture I will buy for my apartment, made
lists of places I want to visit, things I want to do and new hobbies I would
like to try out. Every day I think about how great it will be to be back in the
USA with options, especially as I am going on the 7 month of winter here, where
the only thing you can do is sit in your home and watch movies. I have never
watched so much movies and TV in my life. I do enjoy all the reading I have
been able to do though.
Although, I miss homelike crazy, I have some pretty great
projects I am working on this month. The first one is an awareness campaign for
violence against women and children. Earlier this year, the UN started a
campaign called Orange Days, where one day every month, is committed to raising
awareness against domestic violence. The government in Mongolia is really
involved in this campaign. The president and prime minister, as well as their
staff, have made commercials and every Orange Day they wear orange ties. In the
capital city, every month at a coffee house or bar, UN workers have set up
small concerts, where local community members preform and speak about violence
against women. The concerts have become really popular and my counterpart went
to one the last time he was in the capital. He came back to Arkhangai with the
idea to have a large concert in our town square this May, where community
members can sing, dance or play an instrument. The health department will
sponsor the event and have booths set up with information about domestic
violence. We will also travel to the local schools and do short presentations
on violence and introduce the concert idea to the children. My health club kids
are going to do a small Zumba demonstration during the concert. We have been
learning a few dances to songs that are about women empowerment. They will also
make posters to hold up at the concert. So this coming week we have to write up
a media announcement for the TV and radio stations and then make flyers and
posters to advertise the event. March will be dedicated to coming up with
community trainings and getting everything lined up for the concert. In April
we will visit all the schools and educate the children about violence and
dealing with anger in healthy ways.
This past week, our town held a candle light vigil for a
young girl who was killed in a domestic dispute in her own home. Domestic
violence is an issue here and it is great to start seeing the country taking
action to prevent violence against children and women. They recently passed a
law saying that corporal punishment can no longer be used in schools, but
sadly, there is no enforcement of the law and it is just as prevalent as it was
before the law was passed. Corporal punishment is how students are disciplined
here, there is no suspension, detention or visit to the principal’s office; it
is a hard smack across the face or holding textbooks with your hands outreached
until your arms give out. It is really sad to see and really uncomfortable to
be in a classroom where it is happening in front of you and you cannot say
anything or do anything to stop it. But hopefully as more awareness is raised,
these things will change.
March 23-24 I am facilitating a nursing training with one of
my fellow volunteers. We will be training 50 nurses from our province on
various topics: Patient Assessments, Safe Injections, Antibiotic Safety,
Reducing Medicine errors, infection control, Medical Ethics, inpatient care,
neurovascular and neurological assessments and proper documentation. Luckily for
me, the volunteer who is helping me put on the training is a RN, so she can
train the nurses on the more clinical topics. My counterpart will be acting as
translator and helping us put on the training at the hospital. The Health
Ministry is in the beginning stages of creating a new nursing education program
in the country and has been asking PC volunteers for help in making the
curriculum and doing continuing education classes for the nurses in their
provinces.
And now for the most wonderful news of the week….. My
counterpart has been hired by Peace Corps to be the Health Coordinator for the
new volunteers!! I have been telling him to apply for a job with the Peace
Corps for months and then finally PC actually called me and inquired about my
counterpart. They sent him an email with a job description and asked him to
apply. He was so excited about the idea of working for PC. So we got right to
work, working on a resume and cover letter in English. He had never done either
before. In Mongolia, many people get jobs based on their family members and
quick little interviews. So I gave him examples of resumes and he sat down to
write his. After he was done I checked it. On top of his resume, he wrote his
religion, height, weight and many other demographics that were not necessary, I
laughed, and told him they were not needed. He kept asking me if I was sure
about that. I said yes, the American government does not need to know that kind
of information for this job. So we reworked the resume and moved onto the cover
letter. I wrote out how a cover letter should be written and what information
he should include in it. Again, when he was finished he gave it to me to check,
and once again the first paragraph was about his family and his religion. I
told him again, that information is not necessary to only write about his work
experiences and why he would be an excellent Health Coordinator. After a few
drafts, we had the prefect resume and cover letter. I felt confident that he
would get a call for an interview. Two days later he did!
On Friday, we practiced interview questions for two hours
before his phone interview. He was so nervous. I kept telling him that he is
the best candidate they have and he has so much experience, to not be nervous.
He told me he knows that, he is just worried about his English (which is
great!). So as he answered the questions, I wrote on post it notes, words I
thought he could use in his answers and we went over them, practicing their
pronunciation and how to use them during his interview. He ended up nailing the
interview and was offered the job on the spot! I am so excited for him!!! The
smile that was across his face when he told me they offered the job to him will
be an image I will never forget. He told me that he wanted the job in order to
give his daughters a better life and to make them proud of him. I am so proud
of him! This is such an amazing opportunity for him! He just needs to sit down
with our Health Department director now and discuss it. He would need to move
to the capital to train the new volunteers this summer, but then would come
back to Arkhangai to work after that. I am praying my director lets him leave
for the summer to train the new health volunteers.
3/8/2015
This afternoon I went to my director’s home to hang out with
her 14 year old daughter. I met her daughter at the local hair salon, she was
getting her hair washed and curled. I sat their watching the hair dressers cut,
color and style the customers’ hair. It was fun to sit there and listen to all
the ladies chit chatand sing. We then
did a little shopping and went back to her house to play cards, with her and
her two friends. I finally caught on to a game she has been trying to teach me
the past two times we have hung out. I came so close to winning. We made 500
tugrik bets (equivalent to about 25 cents), but can buy you a meal here, so
they were excited to win the money at the end. My director’s daughter ended up
winning. Since it was women’s day today, which is a national holiday in
Mongolia, my director was at a party, but she left me gifts. She gave me a new
scarf, Mongolian leather key chain and a chocolate bar. I brought blueberry
muffins for her, but the girls and I ended up snacking on them, but we left one
for my director. Everyone loves when I make cupcakes and muffins, they do not
have them here. They have a dessert they call a cake, but it is mostly
frosting, mouse-like inside with about 2cm of “flour cake”. I am not a fan of
it. We also ate buuz, since everyone is STILL eating them from Tsaagan Sar and
drank hot milk tea. It was a lot of fun to sit and chat with the girls in
Mongolian and English. They kept telling me that I had really long eye lashes
and a cute voice when I speak in Mongolian. The Mongolian language is harsh
sounding, it has been compared many times to sounding like fighting cats. There
is not a lot of intonation or changes in voice, but when I speak it, I still
use an American-esque accent, as in when
I ask a question I raise my voice, when I am excited I raise my voice, when I am
upset I speak in a lower tone, etc. They do not do any of this, so I am sure my
Mongolian sounds hilarious to them, they just use the word cute instead.
Every time I visit my director (and most of the health
department staff), I realize how different her family’s life is from most of
the community. She would be considered rich. Her apartment in terms of
Mongolian standards is very nice. Her daughter has her own room, a real rarity
in Mongolian homes, where everyone usually sleeps together in the same room.
They get their hair done frequently and go on vacations around Mongolia. Her
oldest daughter is going to college in America. My director has an Iphone and
she even has a dish washer! Her daughters never want for anything; it is such a
starch contrast to the rest of the community. When I leave I always realize
that by working for a health department, I have a different view then many
volunteers. Of course, I see the run down homes and hungry children when I walk
around town, but all of my Mongolian friends here live comfortable lives. I
hang out with the wealthy of people of my town. The people I work with are not
herders, shop owners or teachers; they are doctors who run the hospitals and
clinics in my provinces. I live in an apartment because my Health Department
has money and doesn’t want me living in a ger like many volunteers live in. I
get invited to parties and dinners with the head of the hospital, businessmen
and the governor, because I work in the health Department. I always think about
how different my experience would be if I was living in a tiny village of 300,
working at a family clinic, instead of working in my province’s capital. Boy am
I grateful!
