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!
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