9/19/2013
Well I survived my
first stomach virus in Mongolia. I had to take the day off from work
yesterday, to lay in bed and sleep all day. I am now on meds which
turn my tongue black. I look like an alien, but they really help with
the pain and nausea, so it's worth it. I had been feeling off for
couple weeks, but just thought it was just a cold or from lack of
sleep. I came into work this morning, feeling much better, still
sick, but no longer throwing up. Thank god the worst of it is over!
Tuesday night was full
of excitement, not the kind that you want though. The night ended in
4 people getting arrested in my apartment. When I came from work, I
noticed that there were two large “bubbles” on my bedroom
ceiling. It looked like my ceiling was caving in from water or
something, so I called me counterpart and told him what I was seeing.
He rushed over and his exact words were “Oh Not Good!”, I told
him that they have been doing construction upstairs, so maybe that
had something to do with it. He ran upstairs to talk to the
construction workers, while he is up there I can hear yelling. All of
a sudden, water starts pouring out of my ceiling in the kitchen now!
Big bubbles start forming on that ceiling now. My counterpart runs
down the stairs with a plumber and they start drilling holes in my
ceiling to relieve the pressure and let the water out. My kitchen was
flooded and we started quickly removing all the electronics and wires
out of the water. All of a sudden there is more yelling and screaming
and pounding down the stairs. The owners of the apartment and the
plumbers are now in an all out brawl outside my window. 3 women and 3
men are punching each other and screaming. My counterpart runs
outside to try to stop the fight, before he leaves he tells me to
watch his 5 year old daughter that he had brought over. I give her a
cookie and put on Little Mermaid, which she seems to enjoy. The
fighting goes on for about 10-15 minutes. My counterpart then comes
back into my room and says that things should be fine now and that
the ceiling may leak a little bit more, but they have pumps going
upstairs and they are shooting all the water out the windows (some of
the pipes broke upstairs and so all the water rushed out of them
while they were working on the heaters). He tells me he will be back
in 30 minutes to check on me. The ceilings appear to be fine and my
counterpart comes back and goes upstairs to see how the plumbers are
doing, everything seems to be fine now, so he leaves telling me to
call him if anything else happens. Well don't you know, 30 minutes
after he leaves, another fight breaks out between the owners and
plumbers, one of the plumbers is banging on my door, telling me to
open up so he can check my kitchen. I let him in and then he tells me
to call my mongolian friend so he can talk to him. I call my
counterpart and the plumber starts yelling at him and takes my phone
outside. I follow him outside, when 2 police cars drive up and the
officers try to stop the fight. Everyone is yelling, calling each
other drunk and lazy. A couple of the men are bleeding everywhere and
then everyone starts to get arrested. My counterpart tells me he is
on his way over and to get back into my apartment and lock the doors.
I quickly went back into my apartment and waited for him to show up.
When he does he goes upstairs to the apartment to talk with the
owners. He is up there for a good 40 minutes discussing things and
then comes back down and tells me my neighbors are crazy but
everything is worked out and there should be no more problems.
Luckily, there were no more.
9/20/2013
Today, I had my first
successful “mini-project” and what a great feeling it is! I will
be celebrating this small triumph tonight for sure! This past week 12
delegates from Mongolia took part in the UN International Conference
on Population and Development (ICPD). Here is the press release
explaining the conference:
Press Release
13th
of September 2013
Asia Pacific Population Conference Meets to Discuss
the Post 2015 Agenda on International Conference on Population and
Development
The UN
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in
Cairo in 1994 was a turning point in the way we approach population
issues. It firmly placed the needs and rights of the individual at
the heart of development policies and programmes and envisioned a
world where all people – women and men, young and old enjoy equal
opportunities and freedoms to make choices and pursue their own life
aspirations.
The
Programme of Action adopted by the ICPD established a firm link
between population, development and human rights, health and gender
equality and set an agenda that would:
- Respond to population dynamics within a human rights framework;
- Advance gender equality and empowerment of women; „
- Promote sexual and reproductive health, including maternal health;
- Increase access to education, especially for girls;
- Address issues of urbanization, migration and environment;
- Ensure that everyone experiences the benefit of sustainable economic development; „
- Promote participation of civil society.
ICPD Beyond 2014: Shaping
a future based on rights, dignity and health
As the 20-year deadline for
achieving the ICPD goals approaches, a global review of the state of
population and development is underway. The review will assess
achievements made since Cairo and identify outstanding issues and new
challenges. It will serve to renew political support for the
Programme of Action, which has been extended beyond 2014 by the UN
General Assembly, and will inform the post-2015 development agenda.
As part of this process,
the Sixth Asian and Pacific
Population Conference (APPC) will
be convened by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific,
in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), from
16 to 20 September 2013 in Bangkok. The Conference will serve
as an intergovernmental platform for the Asia-Pacific preparations
for the special session of the General Assembly on the International
Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014.
On behalf of Mongolia, 12 delegates will participate
in the high level Asian Pacific Population Conference, in Bangkok.
These ministerial delegates and delegates from civil society
organizations have an important role to play and will be push for an
agenda that includes gender equality, reproductive health
rights for women, comprehensive sexuality education, and access of
young people to reproductive health information and services.
Mongolia's
participation in the conference was so important, because Mongolia
and a few more developed countries will be facing off against the
conservative Muslim countries. The conservative Islamic states have
something else in mind for the agenda (limited rights for women,
sexuality, etc.). This is why Mongolia's voice is so important, yes,
it has some ways to go regarding human rights itself, but we want to
move forward not backward. Mongolia's delegates are pushing for an
agenda that includes gender equality, reproductive health rights for
women, comprehensive sexuality education, and access of young people
to reproductive health information and services. It is imperative to
get sexual education in schools in Mongolia. Health classes need to
me established, so that the Mongolian youth have access to
information dealing with sexual health, reproduction and
relationships. The STD rate is as high as 50% in some areas, which
could be easily prevented through the use of condoms , if the
children were taught about these things. It is a large problem in my
aimag and something that I am going to really focus on during my two
years here.
The reason I am going
on about this conference is that Jen and I were approached to take
part in a discussion with delegates from the UN, UNFPA (United
Nations Population Fund). It would be a great way to get our ideas
out and to here about what others are saying on these topics. What
ended up taking place was a Twitter interactive session, with the
UNFPA Representative and 400 delegates. The largest ever! Jen and I
had gotten a group of twelve 11th grade students together
to come up with questions and concerns they wanted addressed during
this session. They all were very embarrassed at first to be talking
about sex and pregnancy (especially the boys), but soon they started
getting into it and began to voice their opinions. Although, what
they said was slightly alarming. They told me that there was no need
for sexual education in schools, because they are still “babies”
and do not need to know that information yet. Which is contradictory
to the fact that once they graduate high school they become mothers
and start families. I, at 22, should already have been married and
have children according to my neighbors. But, here are 16 year olds
telling me that they don't need to learn about sex and pregnancy yet.
So our brainstorming of questions quickly turned into me explaining
how important it is to learn about this subjects in order to keep
their bodies healthy and free of disease. This is going to be my top
priority, getting teachers to sit down with me and come up with a
lesson plan that will delve into all these topics. I can't stress
enough how important it is for the youth to become educated on sexual
health and healthy relationships! I made several points to tell them
that no one will know who they are, so they can feel comfortable
asking any questions they have on the topic, even if they are about
things that people in Mongolia don't usually talk about in public. I
feel like that at the end of the hour, they felt more comfortable and
started getting interested in the matter (the beginning was a little
shaky). Jen and I got to put in a lot of our opinions and thoughts on
the matter with the delegates and UNFPA representative, which was
great. It was such an awesome thing to be involved in! There were a
lot of great points made by the delegates and I feel as though
Mongolia, now, has a strong grasp on the importance of sexual
education and women's rights and I am so excited to see the change
that comes out of that!
9/23/2013
Friday night, I went
to Jen's Ger to start making decorations for the Halloween party.
Halloscream Masquerade Ball theme won. We decided that all our
decorations will be made from recyclables (except we will be using
spray paint on them). So Friday night, we went on the hunt for cans,
bottles, wood, metal, etc around the community. So far we have made
masks and lumineers with halloween cutouts from beer cans, bats from
plastics soda bottles, tombstones from wood, witches hats from paper
and soda bottles, spiders from melted wire ( melted and molded in
Jen's Ger stove) and ghosts from plastic bags and other materials we
found laying around. Everything is coming together and looking really
good! It is so much fun to just sit and craft all night. We were up
till 230am coming up with ideas on how to make the decorations and
starting on some of them.
Saturday
night, the four of us had planned on going camping in the mountains.
We rented a tent and had all our bags packed, when it started to
freezing rain. For awhile, we thought we could brave the hike and
still go camping, but then we realized we would be soaking wet the
whole night and unable to make a fire. So, we came up with another
great idea. We will camp in the tent, in Jen's Ger. We tried to set
up the tent, but since it needed to be staked into the ground, it
wouldn't stay up in the Ger. We then had the brilliant idea of making
a fort in the Ger out of sheets and having a sleepover in it! And
that is exactly what we did. We also watched the Great Gatsby, made
dinner and played night crawlers. A game based off of a game in the
TV show “It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia”. Basically, the game
consists of people crawling around in the night on the floor of a
dark room in sleeping bags likes worms. You put your head at the end
of the sleeping bag where your feet usually go and then just start
crawling. What happens is you start crawling and rolling on top of
people, get tangled and have a lot of fun trying to get untangled and
find your way around the room. Next time we do it, we are doing it at
my apartment and making a maze/obstacle course around the rooms of
apartment and having timed races. Oh the things you come up with when
its winter in Mongolia. It was hysterical and so much fun. Next time
we are going to try to record the mayhem.
On Sunday, Will, Jen
and I organized Jen's Ger. Jen and I made some very nice shelves out
of scrap wood and bent nails we pulled out of the wood, which we
hammered with wire cutters. They came out surprisingly well
considering we had no tools. We were very proud of ourselves. I then
went back to my place and organized and decorated, although I am
moving out at the end of the month. I couldn't stand staring at blank
walls any longer. Will and Jen then came over for dinner and we made
Chicken Alfredo (so good) and watched World War Z.
On a sad note, Gigi
ran away on Friday. I am hoping she comes back, but I have not seen
her since Friday afternoon, when she was frolicking around the field
near my apartment. But, she was getting increasingly unhappier as the
days went by, not being able to go outside. So she is probably
happier now. Next time I get a cat, it needs to be a young kitten who
was not used to living outside and will not want to go outside all
the time.
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