Happy 4th of July!!

7/4/2014

                Happy 4^th of July everyone! 4^th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the bbqs, boats and fireworks. Today, after  work, I will be going to the river with my site mate to layout, swim and “bbq” steaks and veggies. It is supposed to be 76 degrees day, so it should be a beautiful day for the river, if the rain and thunderstorms hold off.

                Yesterday, I had my kids’ English Club. It was such a gorgeous day, so I decided to take the kids outside for the day, once I introduced the new vocab and played two round of BINGO and a matching game. We then stopped for ice cream and headed out to Bulgan Mountain. Since the hike was a spur of the moment decision, I hiked in a pencil skirt and ballets flats. Luckily, this was not the first time I was hiking in a skirt or dress, so I have it down. The first time with my host family was a disaster. Two of the little girls had heels on and they hiked as though they were in boots. We reached a nice point about a 1/3 of the way up the mountain and decided to sit and relax. They started singing all the English songs they have learned, their favorite is Head Shoulder Knees and Toes, because it also comes with a dance. While we were sitting on the rocks, we spotted two teenage boys who were holding birds. We all walked over, as we got closer I realized they were holding pigeons and were also surrounded by at least 30 other birds. It was the strangest site. As we approached the other pigeons flew away, but they still held the two by their legs in their hands. The children all wanted to pet the pigeons and try holding them, the boys would not let them hold them, thank god, because I just had visions of their arms being pecked and trying to explain to their parents that they were attacked by pigeons. They settled on petting them, and kept signaling me to come touch them (I hate birds), I kept saying no, but finally went over and pet one of them (when is the next time I’ll be able to pet a pigeon?). The boys holding the pigeons, put them in their sweatshirts and then tried catching more. I tried asking why they were catching pigeons and how they learned to catch them, but they did not understand what I was asking, or just didn’t want to tell me. We hung out with them for a while until the kids got sick of the pigeons, and went back to our spot on the mountain, where all the other pigeons had flown. Once again as we approached they all immediately swooped away, this time it was amazing to watch them soar up against the bright blue sky. We then hiked back down the mountain and went to the river, where the kids brought me to a spot where I could sit on a big rock and told me to stay put, they needed to talk with out me there, they were planning a surprise. I half-jokingly told them, it didn’t matter if they were right next to me because I can’t understand when they speak Mongolian anyway. So off they went down the river and sat in a little circle, intently planning something, which turned out to be a camping trip. They were going to take me camping on Saturday morning. When we left, we parted at the main street, they were going to the market to shop for food for camping and I was going back to my work. They were so excited, I was weary about the idea. First of all, I have been camping  only twice in my life, therefore have no skills when it comes to starting a fire, putting up a tent and just surviving outside, second, I would be responsible for ten 10-12 year olds, who know very limited English and speak so fast in Mongolian that most of the time I have no idea what they are saying. But I went with it, thinking it would be a fun adventure and they were so happy, I couldn’t say no. So we shall see how it goes.

                When I got back to work, I learned that the training that I thought was going to happen at the end of August on Peer Education is actually going to take place at the end of July instead. Luckily, my main counterpart divvied up the tasks and gave them to other doctors to do, instead of just me and him, which is awesome. So now I am responsible for the Stress and Anger Management information portion, which I already made the presentation on and the most important part of the training, the activity book that we are going to give to all the schools, that contains activities and interactive games that I have been compiling dealing with the 21 subjects that they should be teaching in their schools. I think it will be a really great tool for them to use and it will make lesson planning easier for them, so hopefully they will teach the lessons and they will be more interesting for the kids. That is what I will be working on the for the next week and then giving it to my counterpart to translate and get it printed for the school social workers and hospital staff. Four health department staff just came back from a two day training on peer education and how to use it with behavior change methods, which I had no idea about and am so happy that they went and learned about peer education, because now Ariuk and I do not have to hold a training for them. Originally our plan had been to train the HD staff on Peer Education and how it pertains to Health Behavior, and then have them train the soum doctors and social workers, but now we can just go directly to the doctors and social workers, saving money and time. Although, I wish they told me about this training, because I had already spent hours making presentations to teach the doctors about Peer Ed. But in typical Mongolian fashion, everything is left to the last second, and apparently the doctors didn’t know they were going until the day before the training took place.

7/6/2014

                Friday afternoon, I went to my director’s house to teach her two daughters and their friend English. They had heard that I make cakes with the little kids’ group, and asked if we could make cakes at their house. So I went over to their house to make cakes and practice their English speaking skills. It was so much fun and they taught me Mongolian words too and laughed at my pronunciation of the word meaning to grow, because apparently the way I was saying it was the slang word that basically translates to boobs in English. They had just come back from an English summer camp, taught by a man from Afghanistan who is traveling around Mongolia teaching English to school children. It is really cool to see how many countries are involved in helping Mongolia grow stronger as a country. So far I have been introduced to organizations from Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Afghanistan, Finland, Australia, Russia and China, who are all here in Mongolia trying to help the new generations of Mongolians who are growing up in a country that is drastically different than the country their parents grew up in. Before coming here, I had no idea that Japan and Korea had their own versions of Peace Corps, that are basically the same exact entity. In my community, I have both. They are also here for two years and go through similar training as we did, the only difference is that they are more specialized, they come here with a specific job to do. The four Korean volunteers are teachers, one is a gym teacher, one is a Kindergarten teacher, another is a computer teacher and the last a music teacher. The Japanese volunteer is a physical therapist. What is cool though is that we all hang out and have the same feelings about our programs and being in Mongolia. Our experiences are so similar and all the emotions that we have been going through in Peace Corps, they have in their own organizations too.

                I was supposed to go to the river today after work, but the weather was terrible and the weather report said thunderstorms all evening, so instead we cooked the steak and veggies at Will’s house, celebrated and watched movies. I miss 4^th of July back at home, it is just not the same without watching fireworks on the river. Also, because of the weather, my camping trip with the kids got cancelled, so we will have to pick another weekend. They were so disappointed, on my lunch break on Friday, three of the girls had come over to my apartment to pick out my clothes to pack and bring over the bags of food they had purchased from the market. They were so proud of themselves and showed me every item that was in their bag and then chose my clothes for the trip. I think their mothers told them to do this, because last time I went camping with my HD doctors (the kids parents), they were all worried that I was cold and didn’t bring enough layers, which was so true but I kept telling them I was fine. I had no idea the temperature dropped so drastically at night, especially down near the river, it was freezing!! So this time to ensure my warmth, the kids were sent over to pack my bags. Too cute.

                Saturday, it was gorgeous out, so Will and I went to the river to lay out and swim. The water was pretty cold, but it felt great. It reminded me of our pool back at home. Because it was shaded by trees, it chilly most days, so the first step in made your teeth chatter, but then once you became fully submerged and swam around it was comfortable. I think the river is so cold here, because at night it gets so cold and it has been raining almost every day here. We decided that we are going to by motorcycle inner tube things to float down the river in next time we go. It has a pretty fast current and would be so much fun to tube down. Another thing I miss about home, tubing and river rafting down the river with friends and family. There is just so much to do in the summer in Upstate New York, I can’t wait to get back to it. Next summer I will be back in NY, it is so strange. As I was walking to river, I was thinking that this is the last summer I will be in Mongolia. This time next year I will be on a plane back to the States. Whenever I am missing home, I tell myself that this is the last time I will be in Mongolia doing this, and then all of a sudden I get sad about leaving Mongolia. It goes back and forth practically every day. I miss home so  much, but then I know when I leave I am going to miss Mongolia so much. The quote “You will never be completely home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”, sums up my feeling perfectly. Mongolia is going to be such a major part of my life, it already is, that it is going to be so hard to leave the country and all the people that have cause this major personal growth in myself. Most of the M23s have left the country and seeing all their posts on facebook about leaving Mongolia really makes it real that I am now on the downhill slide of my Peace Corps service. I am now counting down from one year. Insane! I hope to come back and visit after five years. I already,  cannot wait to come back and visit Mongolia and see how much it has changed. It is going to be just amazing. I have decided that when I get back to the states one of my goals is to start an NGO or some type of organization that supports healthcare in Mongolia, raises money and awareness for Mongolians. As I look up grants and do research for projects, it has become painfully obvious that the United States and many other countries do not recognize the problems and need for knowledge and supplies here. I could only find two grants that would support projects in Mongolia and Asia. Compared to the hundreds of organizations that supports projects in Africa (I support the projects and am not saying that they don’t deserve the help they receive, but I wish that other places received just as much aide). Also, there are no research findings ever from Mongolia. I will go to different websites that have statistics for almost every country, yet they have no information about Mongolia at all. I have talked about this a lot with my mom, that all the money goes to African countries, celebrities and businesses do charity work for African countries, but hardly ever do they support Asian countries. I think that people forget or just lack the knowledge that there are people in Asia who live in just as terrible conditions and need just as much help. But are not receiving any. Mongolians as a whole are so smart, they just lack the resources to truly become a strong country with a presence in the world. They are so driven to help their country and work so hard, that I hope that I can start a movement towards recognizing them and getting other to recognize the help they need and the potential they have if they were just helped along.

Summer time is slow time.

6/28/2014

                Nothing too exciting to report. The most exciting part of the past two weeks,involved objects flying through my windows. First, a bird flew into my apartment! I heard something hitting against my curtains and saw this shadow. Inside my heart skipped a beat and I realized that this was something I was going to have to solve on my own, no one was here to help me. So I through on my winter coat, put the hood up, I was convinced that as soon as I moved the curtain the bird would dive at my head and peck it. So i quickly moved my curtain which cause the bird to fly around my bedroom like crazy. I ran to open every window in my apartment and my door. I then stood in my bathroom putting on makeup with my hood up. I was terrified of it pecking me. Luckily, after like 10 minutes, the bird figured out how to get out and left via my apartment door into the stair well. The next object to fly into my window, was a paper airplane, which was really cool. I live on the 3rd floor and it first had to fly into my balcony and then through my door and land on my kitchen floor. I ran onto my balcony to see if the kid from upstairs through it down, it is impossible that someone through it up 3 floors. But no one was above or below me. I then got a feeling that it was a sign from my Uncle Tim, that he was watching over me and supporting me. It was such a wonderful feeling and a great way to start my day, although at first it did make me cry, but after the initial sadness, it was really uplifting.  I really miss him.
               The summer is a slow time in Mongolia, most people take off to the countryside for summer vacation, so little work gets done at this time. The past couple weeks, I have just been teaching English to my two HD classes, my kids group and  teaching a speaking class at a local summer camp for 10-11^th grade students. The summer camp class is really fun, I just play games with them that have them practice speaking out loud. In schools here, English class is taught in Mongolian. The whole class is in Mongolian, so they really only learn to read in their head (translating words) and write English words, based on memorization. A lot of words they do not know how to pronounce and they cannot really read out loud. If you write out sentences, they will be able to translate them and understand what they are supposed to do and can write stories in English, but they really lack speaking skills. So for the 6 days I volunteered at the camp, I had them speak for the 45 minutes I taught the English class. I tried to do as little writing on the board as possible and only speak English at them when giving instructions on an activity. I think their favorite was when we practiced directions and they each took turns being blindfolded and being led around the building by the other students who were yelling out directions to them. I also gave them pictures from magazines and told them they had 5 minutes to come up with a story about the picture. So they had to tell the story out loud to their peers, another activity was to describe a part of the building and the others had to guess. We also played Taboo and practiced pronunciation of the letters and common words. The teachers brought their young daughters to the camp, the first day, I did not know they were going to be there, so I saw the little girls just sitting in the back of the room, quietly sitting, watching the class. So I asked the lead teacher if they were going to be there every day and if they knew any English, I felt bad that they had nothing to do. So the next day I went to the camp with activities for the little girls, to help them begin to learn the English alphabet and numbers. They seemed to enjoy the little activities I gave them, and by the end of the camp, they knew most of the letters of the alphabet.

                On Friday, I baked cupcakes again with my kids group. I am proud to say that they now know all the kitchen equipment and can correctly read recipes and find the ingredients themselves. I had them make drawings of the kitchen and label all the furniture, and they did great. I then had them make flashcards of all the different types of equipment, so that they can study them at home and teach their parents. An elderly lady, who is a cook, was sitting in the kitchen, waiting for her meeting with the nutritionist and she was watching us, asking the kids questions about what we were making and when we sat down to go over our kitchen vocabulary, she took out a notebook and was writing down the words, and having one of the girls spell out the English words to her. It was awesome to see she was so interested in knowing the English words.

                As far as health projects go, the summer is a slow time for work. Most people are on vacation in the countryside, so little work gets done, plus a lot of power outages, so their computers don’t work, which is where all their work is. So I have just been working on my Peer Education Workshop and doing research on Trafficking in Persons. My main counterpart was in UB for the past week, so he wasn’t there to work on projects with. But, since I have so many English classes to plan for it works out well that I don’t have a ton of health work to do. I am looking forward to the fall though, when I can dive back into community health projects. The 2^nd week of July, I do get to go to UB with my director and counterpart to welcome the Korean  Doctors who are going to be working in our Health Department and Hospital for the next couple months, so that will be fun!

                It has been raining for the past week and a half, so I haven’t been able to get outside and hike or run, which is driving me crazy. Last week, we had the most intense thunderstorms I have ever witnessed (other than being in the Tornado in SC). One of them woke me up and for a solid hour it was lightning and thunder. I wasn’t going to fall back asleep, so I went into my kitchen to watch it from my picture window. It was so eerie, but beautiful in a way. The next day, there was a double rainbow over. Because of the storms most days I have not had power during most of the mornings. Today, I was out of power from 8am-4pm. It is supposed to be nice out during the day tomorrow (thunderstorms at night); I hope the weather report is correct. I need sunshine. Today, I went for a walk in the rain, because I just needed to do something outside. (I had watched all the Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl episodes I had left to watch. My guilty pleasures.) I hate being cooped up in my apartment, especially with no power, but I did get a lot of reading and studying done. Luckily, I received my BUTI fitness DVDs in my last package, so I have been able to do them every day. They are so fun, it is a mixture or yoga, African tribal dance and plyo. I am obsessed with it.

 I just finished the book “The Happiness Project” by Gretchin Rubin. It was about the author’s resolution to do a year of monthly resolutions to have a happier life. She was already happy, but felt like she could be happier, so she made a chart of things she wanted to change or accomplish and the book followed her on her year long journey to a happier life. It is about setting small goals and changing small things in your life in order to be your happiest self. Nothing drastic, some of her resolutions were to clean for 10 minutes before bed, clean out her closet, sing in the shower every morning, stop expecting praise for everything she did, fight “nicer”, eat brunch with her friends every weekend and run every day. It was a great book, and now I am going to start my own happiness project. I am working on my goals now and breaking them down into steps over the next 12 months. By this time next year, I will be going back to the States and want to have a clear idea about what I want my future to be like and how to accomplish it. This past year I have grown so much and I think this next year will prove to be even more important and life changing, so it is a perfect time to try out this “Happiness Project”.

Mongolian Concert, Sports Competition and the Health Minister Visits

6/1/2014

            Last night, I went to a local club with my counterpart. There was a famous Mongolian singer preforming there, and he was able to get us VIP tickets for the event. We met some of our other coworkers there and their friends. It ended up being a group of about 12. We had a VIP booth and received a complimentary drink and big bowl of peanuts. The night was so much fun, the singer was really entertaining and kept coming over to our table to sing and invited us up to the stage to dance during one of his songs that was called “My Friends”. I met so many new people, who all wanted to instantly chat with me and practice their English. We chatted in Mongolian and English the whole night, intermixed with dancing. By the end of the night, I had made 6 new girlfriends, who are journalists at the government building and the local TV station. They all spoke beginner English and were really close friends with my two coworkers at the HD. We decided to form a girls’ group. There will be 10 of us in it and we will meet on Wednesday evenings at 7pm and do various fun activities. They wanted me to teach them English, so I took the opportunity to form a group, where we can talk about different topics and problems facing young women in Mongolia. They thought it was a great idea. They said they wanted it to be a “friend free time”, aka: just hanging out, so I said that sounded great. They said we will cook, exercise, watch movies, chat about problems and go out together. They also promised to teach me Mongolian as well. I am excited to have this new group to hang out with, since both my site mates will be gone most of the summer and the friends I made from the Teacher’s College leave to go to the countryside to their families, so this way I have people to go out with on weekends now. 

6/3/2014

           Today the town celebrated "No Smoking Day". Ariuk and I planned a competition that the local schools competed in. Each school had a week to come up with a dance/skit about smoking and then preform it at the competition. The team leader, either a school social worker or school doctor, had to set up activities and trainings at their schools about the dangers of smoking. At the competition, they would have to present what their schools did to celebrate "No Smoking Day" and then the children would participate in a No Smoking themed Jeopardy game, to test the knowledge they learned over the past week. It was a success and everyone involved seem to have a lot of fun! The dances were great and the students really knew most of the answers to the Jeopardy questions, which was awesome! There were three judges of the competition, all doctors from the Health Department (NCD specialist, pediatrician and adolescent center adviser). World Vision sponsored the competition, giving us prizes to give out to the students and a gift for the winning school's teacher. The prizes were goody bags containing, headphones, notebooks, mp3 players, pens, highlighters and other school supplies. Overall a big success. Next year, we plan on making the competition a week long, where we would go to all the schools and watch their no smoking activities. The schools will also present to the community next year, and be responsible for making posters and tri-folds about their schools activities to present in the town square and at the government building. We want to make it a larger event in the community.

6/9/2014

This past weekend I participated in a sports competition, on the Health Department team against other government organizations. In total, there were 20 teams who participated in the competition; each team was made up of six people, three boys and three girls. Originally, I was told the first part of the competition was a 20km run, but what it turned out to be was a 20km endurance hike. I was told that I needed a large backpack, to pack camping gear in, sleeping bag, a cup and bowl and various other random items like a needle and thread. Part of the competition was being prepared for camping; they would check our bags randomly to make sure we had all the items that were on a list they gave out to the team captains. I found this out about 3 hours before I was supposed to meet at the government building. I do not own a back pack, I was the one Peace Corps volunteer that packed my life into a matching luggage set, while the others came with huge camping backpacks and army duffel, I was there with my stylish set. I am still happy with my decision to go with the luggage, stay true to myself, no need to pretend I was an outdoorsy camper when I wasn’t. But at this point, I was trying to figure out how I would hike with my carry-on size suitcase on wheels. My counterpart told me absolutely not, I would be hiking almost 13 miles, I needed a comfortable backpack. So off to the black market I went, in search of a camping pack. There were none. So I decided to go for a large duffel bag that I would somehow make into a back pack. The walk home I ran into my counterpart and showed him my bag, disgusted he said “Britt, that will not work, you are going to be hiking for 8 hours; you cannot hold a duffel bag”. I told him not to doubt me, that I had an idea. I borrowed a small back pack from a friend and attached the duffel bag to it, using a belt and the straps of the backpack. And just like that, a large camping back pack was formed, which worked perfectly for the entire hike and activities! My coworkers laughed at me at first but then once they realized it was actually going to work out, they complimented me on my creativeness.

So at 2pm we all met at the government building, where the 20km hike would start. We formed a huge parade, 2 by 2, and marched through the streets into the mountains, beginning our 8 hour journey to a nearby town. Ariuk and I were partners for the competitions, so we marched along next to each other, chatting and singing Britney Spears songs (the only English songs that they all really knew). He had just watched a movie about World War II, so one of our conversations was about the war, Hitler, concentration camps, other movies about WWII and Anne Frank. For a solid hour we talked about this. It was really interesting to hear his opinion on it, since Mongolia and its people were not affected by the war; he really had an unbiased opinion. Every time I talk to him, he surprises me, he pretty much knows more than me on every topic. I learn something new every time I talk to him, it’s amazing. He knows more about what is currently going on in the US, than I do. Ariuk is literally the smartest person I have ever met in my life. I am in awe of him. Our conversation then moved to guns and gun laws in the US and then marijuana laws (Mongolia has really strict laws, prohibiting the use of marijuana; it is treated as a hard drug here). We also talked about lighter subjects, like The Rock and Vin Diesel (he is a big fan of both men) and Nirvana (one of his favorite bands). He also told me his opinion on the Ukraine/Russia problems and we shared stories about our college experiences. After walking and talking for about 2 hours, we stopped to do our first competition, a race up the side of one of the mountains. The mountain was extremely steep, staring up at it, we were all nervous and anticipating pain. As we stretched out, we watched the teams before us running up the mountain. My Health Department, really wanted us to win, so we really wanted to get a good time on this race. We were the fourth team to go, as we lined up on the start line, we decided that our tactic would be to all start out sprinting and then the guys would grab the girls hands and basically drag us up the mountain, if we started to fall behind them. We inevitably fell behind; my health department men are all extremely athletic and super-fast. My counterpart Ariuk paid his way through college by being a MMA fighter. So halfway up the mountain Ariuk grabbed my hand and the other guys grabbed the other two girls and pulled us up as they ran. My legs were going so fast trying to keep up with Ariuk, I thought they would either cramp up or I would just fall flat on my face. Luckily, neither happened, I powered through the finish line hand in hand with Ariuk, the first pair of our group to finish and cheered as the other four crossed right behind us. We all collapsed to the ground, massaging our legs and trying to regain strength to stand up and walk back down the mountain. Our time was 46.28 seconds. Once we got back down the mountain, we watched the rest of the teams complete the race up the mountain. When everyone was done, we had to get back into the parade formation and begin marching again. This time, everyone was chatting to different groups, and many people came up to me wanting to practice their English, or just asked me questions in Mongolian about myself.  Eventually, a Mongolian- English lesson started. I taught them words that had to do with what we were doing, so like tree, mountain, rocks, hiking, sports, etc and then they would teach me the words in Mongolian. Once that got old, I went back to Ariuk and we complained to each other about how much our backs and butt hurt from our bags and the hiking. Since it was an endurance test, we were not allowed to take our bags off, even when they would give us 5 minute breaks, or we would stop for pictures with the News crew who was following us. We could only bend over to release some of the weight from our backs. It was killer. A 20k run would have been easier, but it was a great time! We walked through rain and eventually into darkness. At one point one of the men came up to me and asked if I spoke Spanish, in Spanish. I told him I knew a little and we ended up chatting in Spanish and Mongolian for a good 20 minutes. When I started learning Mongolian, all my Spanish started to come back to me and it was so surprising to be able to carry on a short conversation in Spanish with this Mongolian man. He had spent several years as an adventure guide in Spain; he is an avid hiker. We had to get out our flashlights and finally around 10pm, we reached Ih Tamiir, the town we would be camping in. Since it was pitch black, some of the people rounded of cars from houses nearby to drive over and shine their lights at the field, so that we could set up our tents and cook dinner. Around 11pm, we were huddled around the fire, eating rice and drinking River Tea. River Tea is exactly what it sounds like, tea made from river water and couple teaspoons of salt, and the added bonuses of pieces of wood and rocks. Yes, it tastes like salty dirt. But, I was so thirsty, that I drank at least cups of the river tea. After the first cup, the taste is no longer unpleasant. After dinner, we played a couple rounds of Mongolian card games in the tent and around 230am we all finally climbed into our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

We were woken up at 630am to the sounds of whistles being blown, our wake up call. It was time to quickly bathe in the river (yes, the very river we had just made tea out of earlier and would make throughout the rest of the day) and get dressed. The whistle blew again, letting us know we needed to run over to the Taikhar Chuluu where we had to do a couple laps around it and then get in horizontal lines. (According to Mongolian legend, a serpent waged many wars in the world, scarring the Mongolian people. The people asked Bukhbilegt, who was a great wrestler and warrior, to destroy the beast. Bukhbilegt took a rock from Bulgan Mountain and went to the snake. They battled each other and the wrestler through this rock on the head of the serpent, killing it. The rock is named Taikhar Chuluu.) It was time for military exercises and stretching. They had us marching in different formations, doing pushups, jumping jacks, squat jumps and various other exercises for about 30 minutes. We then had a short stretching session and were dismissed back to our campsites to make breakfast and get ready for the rest of the day. For breakfast we had river tea, bread and this meat spread and sardines. The things I eat here are some of the things I would have refused to eat back at home. Mystery meat spread and sardines are now on my list of foods I like, thank you Mongolia. Once breakfast was over, we all hung out outside, playing volleyball, limbo and cards. This time, cards became really competitive and if you lost, you had to perform a dare. At first, I lost five times in a row, because I had no idea how to play the card game and could not catch on to save my life. So they kept giving me a break saying, after losses I would have to do a dare, and then finally after the fifth straight loss, they gave me my task. I had to go around to the different campsites asking for food. I had to come back to our tent, with two plates full of different foods. So I went over to the different tents, being followed by Ariuk and Tuyaa and her camera, telling the other organizations that “My Health Department doesn’t have any food and I am really hungry. Please give me food.” I had to repeat myself numerous times, because most of the time, Mongolians don’t know that I can speak Mongolian, so they don’t listen or for some reason they thing I am speaking another language at them and don’t realize that it is actually Mongolian, or maybe my pronunciation is just terrible so it doesn’t sound like Mongolian. haha. Eventually, I had two plates of food and was allowed to return back to my campsite and we began playing cards again. This time we played a game that I was actually familiar with (Mongolian version of Spoons) and never lost again. When the others lost, two of them had to get on top of one of the cars and preform a “strip tease”, switch clothes with someone of the opposite sex and two of the girls had to wear the same shirt for the rest of the day, so they were stuck together until the competitions started. It was so much fun. At 12pm, the rest of the competitions began.

The rest of the Health Department staff drove up in the HD meeker and their own cars to cheer us on and cook us lunch. When they first arrived they all came over to wish us luck and give us hugs before they went to watch the first competition. First, was a relay race that consisted of 7 different parts. Each of the six team members had to do one part and the last the whole team had to do together. The first leg of the race was riding a bike through an obstacle course to the 2^nd team mate who was waiting near the river. The 2^nd person had to trudge across the river, which was moving very quickly, to the other side, where they then had to fill up two containers of water and carry them back across the river and hand the baton to the next teammate who had to run across a field to a station where he/she had to run back and forth carrying five rocks, one at a time to a designated area, then that person had to run and give the baton to the next team mate who was waiting to climb a rope, once at the top had to blow a whistle and then climb back down, where they handed off the baton to the next (my part), where that team mate had to run across a series of fallen trees, without falling, or they had to start over and then sprint across a field and kick a soccer ball through a goal, then hand the baton to the last teammate who had to shimmy across a rope hung between two trees upside down. All the teammates had to meet at the last spot, where all the girls had to hop on the guys backs and they had to run up a hill and across another field with the girls on their backs to the finish line. It was so much fun! We won. Next, we played volleyball. After volleyball, we got a lunch break and went into the woods for shade, where the HD had cooked us lunch. River water, rice and meat soup. It was really delicious. We then had our customary 3 shots of vodka (I got out of the last one because I was playing with the kids, so I only had to do 2) and a glass of beer. As soon as we were done eating, we were ushered over to the next competition, Tug of War. At this point, we were all a little tipsy and tired, so I was unsure of what to expect from my team as far as strength goes, but after 5 rounds, it was us against the hospital. In a tug of war that seemed to last an eternity, we unfortunately lost to the hospital team, coming in 2^nd place. In between each round, the HD doctors would massage out our fore arms and biceps. One of the best parts of the day. They were in it to win it and were not going to let our arms cramp up. Tug of war is my favorite activity to do here with Mongolians. They have serious strategies and did not shy away from telling me when my form was slipping or showing me how they think I should hold the rope. At one point, one of the doctors was yelling at me to just lean back more, so I leaned back as far as I could and ended up falling backwards, I blame it on the vodka.

The last competition was a competition among the team captains. It was a map orienteering race. They had to read a map to figure out where they were supposed to go and do different activities at each checkpoint. I did not really pay attention to this competition; I just played with the HD doctors’ children. Running around the fields and playing in the river. Most of my time was spent catching grass hoppers for this little boy, who would then proceed to crush them in his hands and wipe their guts all over the rocks, over and over again. I don’t know why, but I didn’t stop catching them for him, it was really funny to watch him talk to them and then just crush them. Sick I know. But it gave him such joy, am pretty sure that it is an early sign of a murderer. But right now he was only 5 so I just let him go on doing what he was doing. Once the competition was over, we had to pack up all of our stuff and put it into the Health Department vehicles. Luckily, we did not have to walk back. The closing ceremony was at the Taikhar Chuluu. We ended up winning first place in the competition. The HD was so excited; they were screaming and clapping for us. I won a gold medal, gym membership and another gift card to a local restaurant. Once they handed out all the awards, we then had 2 celebratory shots of vodka and candy. The head of the Sports Center, the organization that ran the event, made a speech thanking me for participating in the competition. It was really sweet. We then all piled into the meeker which drove us back to the HD. I was exhausted and went to sleep as soon as I got home.

Sunday morning I woke up with the stiffest body ever. So I did some yoga and then met up with Will to go on a hike. We laid out on top of the mountain reading for most of the day. Then on Monday, I went to work for half of the day. I took the afternoon off to relax. I ran to the river and hung out there for a couple hours, reading and writing postcards. I am now officially dark brown. Everyone who sees me comments on how dark I am.  Finally! No more pasty skin. 

6/10/2014

            In ten minutes, I will be calling my host family to talk to them! I am so nervous. I have been texting my host parents since I have moved, but I have yet to talk to them on the phone. Talking on the phone in Mongolian is the hardest thing for me. Every time I do it, I realize how much I rely on hand gestures when I speak in Mongolian. I think the reason I am most nervous is because I want to show them that I have improved since last summer, which I feel like I have, but it is hard to tell, since most of the people I work with speak a little English, so our conversations will be a mix of English and Mongolian, with random Russian words thrown in that I have picked up (most Mongolians speak Russian as well, since Russians occupied their country for so long), Peace Corps likes to call it Monglish. Monglish-the official language of Peace Corps Volunteers in Mongolia. Hopefully, I will be able to carry on this conversation for at least a couple minutes! I don’t want a whole conversation of me saying “I don’t know” every time they ask me a question. Please let them ask me questions I know how to answer!

            Update: I was able to speak to my Mongolian family for 15 minutes. I actually understood most of what was said and was able to ask questions back and answer their questions correctly. It was so cute to hear my little host sister yell Britt-na-na in the phone. I have missed hearing their little voices. I will be visiting them July 17-19. I am very excited. I saw pictures of my host sisters and brother, they have gotten so big in the past year, it really is amazing how fast children grow! Talking to them on the phone for that little time has really made me want to start studying Mongolian again. I want to be able to really speak with them when I visit in July.

6/11/2014

                The Health Minister of Mongolia came to visit today. She was here to take part in our opening ceremony for the reveal of our new 21 health initiatives for this fiscal year. The ceremony included giving the province hospitals new medical equipment, such as an infant incubator, oxygen machines, and some other medical supplies. The ceremony was held in the town square, where my director, the hospital director and the Health minister gave speeches and recognized outstanding hospitals. After, some of the doctors from the hospital and HD preformed a Zumba dance to show the community a fun way to exercise. Then the reveal of the new health initiatives took place. They had 21 large canvas posters on stands around the perimeter of the square explaining the new goals and information about them. A staff from the Health Department stood at each poster, explaining it to all and giving out brochures the social workers and doctors. The posters were really nice and a big hit with the doctors. The Health Minister’s assistant asked me to explain the healthy eating poster to him, so I looked at him, laughed, dramatically pointed at the poster like Vana White and said “this poster is about healthy eating”. Then read the servings for each food group from the poster and then just names a bunch of fruits and vegetables. That was the extent of my Mongolian on the subject. He laughed and told me good job.

                I then was asked to write out the official invitations to the Korean doctors who will be coming to our Health Department and Central Hospital in July to preform surgeries and teach new surgery techniques to the doctors at the hospital. Two plastic surgeons, two ophthalmologists and two general surgeons from Korea will be coming for a week. I had to write the invitation that they will use to get their VISAs to come to Mongolia. After that I just worked on my VRF (volunteer reporting form) for Peace Corps and my peer education power points.

                When I got home, I got a surprise phone call from Peace Corps saying that I have been nominated by PC staff to be one of the two leaders for the TIP taskforce (trafficking in persons) and that I will be going to Darkhan July 2-4 to run some trainings on the subject with the new volunteers. Peace Corps has different taskforces, which are groups of people who work together to raise awareness and present trainings on problems that are affecting Mongolians. So the group comes up with ways to get information out to the whole country and activities to raise awareness in the country as a whole, not just in the town that you are working in. So a third year volunteer and I will be heading it. I am really excited to help train the new volunteers and be in charge of the task force. I have wanted to do something with Women’s Rights/Women’s Empowerment in Mongolia, so this is a perfect way to do it on a larger scale.