IST, Lunch with Ambassador and Christmas

12/5/2013

         On Tuesday, I got to meet the Mongolian Prime Minister. He was in Arkhangai for the launch of a new community kiosk machine that will be in the government buildings. It is supposed to enable people to print out official documents they need instantly instead of having to wait in a line ( I think.). I was not entirely sure what was going on during the ribbon cutting ceremony but from the little I understood and from what I watched I am pretty sure that is what the purpose of the machine is. I went over to the government building with the rest of the Health Department employees who were invited to the launch and ribbon cutting ceremony. We filed into the press conference along with the other government employees and took our seats to listen to him speak. The funny things is, that there were not enough seats for everyone who was invited because the last two rows of bright orange 1960s style seats had no cushions to sit on. They looked like chairs from afar and everyone, including myself went to sit in them and then realized there was no bottom to them, so people just ended up sitting on the arm rests and laughing about it. Lucky for me my director is seen as like a second governor basically and she made people who were sitting next to her to move so that I could have a seat next to her. She is such a powerful woman in the community, I am in awe of everything she does and how she works and travel to France, Korea, China, Japan at least twice a month, and yet still invites me over to dinner with her and her family. Her daughter is so smart and really great at English. She is 12 and knows more English than most of the English teachers I have met at the schools. I would love to be the head of a state health department one day. I realized that that is my ultimate goal after I get my Masters and work my way up the ladder.

       The Prime Minister was really friendly and seemed very funny. Every time he spoke the audience erupted in laughter. The Mongolian National Broadcasting service was there, as well as every other TV station. They were live broadcasting the event and in all the other Aimags there were ribbon cutting ceremonies with their local government officials. They had each Aimag broadcasted on a projection screen behind the Prime Minister. SO we could see all the ceremonies at once and then the Prime Minister talked to each Aimag governor via the national broadcasting system. They all seemed funny to because everyone laughed after they would speak. So either the government officials here are all comedians, or everyone just laughed to be polite. I had no idea what they were saying, so I couldn't judge it either way. It was awesome to meet the Prime Minister and get to be involved in the ceremony.

          Yesterday, after work I went to my favorite little Mongolian restaurant that has no name, so we all just call it Yellow Shack, because that is precisely what it looks like. It has seating for about 16 people and is just the dingiest looking thing, but the food is delicious! It has this giant poster of a blonde woman and her blonde child hugging and the world love is over their heads. Why that is on the wall is beyond me, but its hilarious. Right next to that poster is a framed picture of Chinggis Khaan. The cook there knows us volunteers and what we usually order, so as soon as I walk in she asks if I am having my usual. The answer to that is always yes. One tea and one tsuivan (noodle meal, kind of like a dry tasteless lomein with sheep meat), sounds not that appetizing but when you add soy sauce or ketchup to it, it is delicious. It is one of the few Mongolian foods I will voluntarily eat. When I sat down to wait for my food, this little 7 year old girl sat across from me at the table. She told me that she loves English people. I told her where I was from and had a little conversation about our favorite colors, foods, and activities. I remembered half way through my meal that I had a candy cane in my purse that my mom and dad had sent me in my latest care package, so I rummaged through my purse and found it and gave it to her. She was so excited to have American candy. She ran to her mom, who was the server and showed her. She then sat back down and began to chomp on the candy cane which then led to singing and playing swords with the candy canes. She was so adorable and I was able to have a full conversation with her. Now I know that my Mongolian has increased from toddler to a solid first grade level, since I left Suhkbataar. I gave my self a mental pat on the back and my confidence was soaring sky high for the rest of the evening. Haha. But for real, I felt so accomplished!

         Today, I have to go get my picture taken for the wall in the Health Department. Every employee has a picture on this wall and their name and title under the picture. So today I will be added to the wall. I'm pretty official now. Haha. I then have to go buy my bus ticket for tomorrow. Tomorrow I leave for UB again for training with all the volunteers until Dec. 14 and to see the NP again to check on how my infection is doing. I am so excited to see everyone again! SO EXCITED! I am bringing my puppy to UB to get her shots and a check up and then she will be boarded there until the 14. I hope she behaves on the 7 hour bus ride, it should be interesting.

12/11/2013

           I have been in training from 8am-6pm for the past 5 days straight. Saturday and Sunday were PEPFAR training. Which was a training on peer education and HIV/AIDS. It was in UB and was very helpful for our counterparts, but for the Health and CYD volunteers that had to attend it, it was long and repetitive most of the time. The second day was all in Mongolian with no translator, so it made for a long day of understanding maybe 20% of what was being said. The hard part of being in an all day training in another language is that after awhile it all sounds the same and actually lulls you into sleep. It become kind of like a white noise/ background noise that is just perfect for napping, which two of the volunteers accidentally did during one of the sessions. The first day did offer some interesting insight into how Mongolia views peer to peer education. Right now, Mongolian schools are trying to change over from a very soviet way of teaching (lecturing at children without activities or their input) into a more “westernized” way of doing projects and activities to help them learn the material instead of lecturing at them for an hour and a half. So because of this, they do no understand peer education and its benefits. They brought in about 12 students who are involved in peer education in their schools and we got to interview them about their experiences. Every single one of them said that many teachers and parents were upset with the fact that they were taking time out of their studies to teach other children important life skills and health education. Their families and teachers think that it is a waste of time and that the ones who are teaching their classmates about sex and other sensitive topics, are really just “free”, which is the term Mongolians use to describe promiscuous girls. It was so surprising to me to see teachers have negative attitudes towards peer education, since in America, it is so common and an honor in most schools to be picked as a “peer leader”. Here it is seen as a hassle or that you are poisoning the other childrens' minds. I was blown away when I asked “Why do you continue to do it when you have so many people fighting against you and how do you overcome all the challenges and ignore the rumors?” (keep in mind that these are 14 year old girls) Both of the girls answers were “It is something that needs to be done and I just keep pushing myself and staying focused when teachers and families say things about me or try to stop me from doing the educations.” One said that she wants to be a doctor so that this is good experience for her. I look back on when I was 14 years old and I would have never had that much courage or drive to go against all those people. I was so inspired by hearing their stories and the passion these young girls had. These are the girls who are going to turn into such amazing women and the ones that I would love to work with. At the end of the interviews with all the girls, I stood up and told them how proud I was of them, how mature they were for their fighting against all the adversity. It was such an inspiring moment and these girls do not great enough credit for what they do at such a young age. These girls are the future of Mongolia and they need to be praised for what they do, not stigmatized.

        Another great moment, was watching our counterparts facilitate HIV/AIDS lessons with local school children. They were put in pairs and had an hour to come up with a lesson plan on each topic they were given. My counterpart and his partner got the two topics: friendship/love and condom use. For the friendship/love lesson, they had them make up skits to show good relationships and bad relationships, and then had them break into groups to brainstorm how men and woman show their love. To compare the two sexes and see how different/similar. My counterpart did an amazing job and everyone noticed. From the minute he walked into the training and began speaking fluent English, Peace Corps staff and volunteers were all over him. Everyone was asking whose counterpart he was, and when they found out he was mine they kept telling me how lucky I was and all the girls thought he was extremely good looking. I did hit the counterpart jack pot. He is so motivated and brilliant!

          After the practice facilitation we all sat down in a circle to discuss what went well and what didn't go well during them. My counterpart had to act as translator and even had to translate his own compliments and critiques which he immediately became uncomfortable with. It was funny to watch him talk about himself and react to the comments as he read them. But he was a great sport and never complained. PEPFAR training was done after a final thank you and closing remarks. We all then went back to our guesthouses to get ready for dinner and going out.

         When I first arrived on Friday, I went on the hunt to find the Vet Clinic to bring my puppy in to be boarded for the week while I was at training. I arrived at the Vet and it was closed, even though they were supposed to still be open for another hour. I called the number, but the phone was off. So then I began to panic trying to find a guesthouse that would take a dog for the night until I could bring her in the morning when it reopened. No guesthouse would take her. I begged and begged, but the answer was still no. I even said I would pay for her to stay there as another guest for the night. So here I was in UB with nowhere for her to stay. So I ended up making the hardest decision that I have yet to make. I had to let her go. There was no where for her to stay for the week and a half I would be in training. So tearfully, I let her go as I walked into the restaurant for dinner. Lore and I were so upset, but there was nothing I could have done. I learned that having a puppy in the Peace Corps is a lot harder than it seems. Mongolians do no like dogs and therefore are unwilling to help you with yours. They don't see them as pets, they think it is disgusting to have one in your home. Also, traveling while you have a dog is impossible. Mongus was so good on the bus, she slept the whole way like a baby in my lap. I loved it. And it is so sad going home to an empty house now, not having her there, but I know it was the best thing. She was not happy being locked up all the time and it wasn't fair for me to keep leaving her alone all day and night as I worked on projects. I am now done with having pets in Mongolia, it is just not possible for me to give them the attention they need. Friday night, we all met up to go to dinner at a Thai Restaurant. It was delicious. I then tried to find the guesthouse I was staying in and could not figure out where it was. Lore and I ran around from one guest house to another asking if I had a reservation there. I called what I thought was the place that I made a reservation and they said yes I did have on there. So I walked the 20 minutes to the guesthouse only to find out no I did not have one there. So I then asked them why they said I did and they said that they didn't. I was then very confused and called another guesthouse that had a similar name. They said I had a reservation there and when I asked where it was located they told me it was 45 minutes away from where I was currently. I then told them I did not have a reservation there because the guesthouse I paid for online was near the department store. So once again I was lied to by a guesthouse in hopes of me paying for a room there. Finally, I got a hold of one of my friends who was staying at the same guesthouse as me and found where I was staying. But it actually worked in my favor, because by the time I got there it was so late in the night that they had given my bed away thinking I wasn't coming, so they ended up giving me a private room to make up for the fact that they gave my bed away.

        On Saturday night, Jerome, Ryan, Scott and I went to a Mexican restaurant called Mexi-Khan. It was pricey but delicious. We had a Margarita Jug, which was the best Margarita that I have ever tasted, or it has been so long since I have had a drink other than Mongolian vodka and juice that it just tasted that great. Either way I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had bean burritos, that had real cheese and avocado in them! I wish I could have had just a plate of avocados as my meal!! After dinner, we went back to the guest house and met up with the rest of the group and hung out there for the night. It was so much fun seeing everyone again, we had Champagne to celebrate and then everyone brought their favorite liquor that is not available in our Aimags, just in UB. A lot of the guys favored scotch and whiskey, while us girls went for Rum and gin. It was so much fun and the guest house workers were so great about letting us party and enjoy ourselves all night. They never complained once.

         On Sunday evening, Ryan, Jerome, Marylin and I went to dinner at Round Table Pizza, which again was so good!! Being able to eat real food the whole weekend was just so amazing, I can't even describe how good it was to eat things other than potatoes, sheep, horse and carrots. I forgot what it was like. I did not even care I was paying $20+ for 4 pieces of pizza. It was so worth it. The whole weekend my stomach was so full, I could barely move, but it was so worth it. Sunday night, us four stayed in a played cards while the rest of the group went out to a club. We were so drained from training that we just wanted a quiet night in. The TEFL group didn't have training so they were all pumped to be going out.

         Monday morning we had to meet at the Peace Corps Office at 750am to get on the bus to go to IST (in service training). We packed all our bags and jumped onto the public bus or into a taxi to get there. The CPs were on one bus and the volunteers on another. All of us were so exhausted that we slept for the hour and half ride to the Peace Training Complex. Traffic was awful, but once we got outside UB we made up time. We ended up being an hour late, so all the sessions were pushed forward and tea break was cut short. The place where our training was held, is where the UN has a lot of their trainings and meetings. The rooms were like American Hotel rooms with a toilet that you could flush toilet paper down and showers with hots water!! After we were settled into our rooms we went downstairs to the dining room for a quick bite to eat and start putting as much coffee into our bodies as possible in order to make it through the day of training. Most of us had been running on less than 5 hours of sleep a night, so coffee was needed. When we all are together we never want the fun times to stop, so we end up giving up sleep in order to party and hang out with each other every night. It is well worth the loss of sleep. The first three days we had trainings with our counterparts. We were split into our sectors and ushered into different rooms to begin our week long training. It was so nice to be in trainings with all the healthies again, it was just like PST again. We had trainings in Needs Assessments, Developing Surveys, SWOT Analysis, International Medical Care, BCC/IEC Charts and how to implement activities using them and most importantly the trainings that had to deal with how to improve your relationship with your Cps and launch successful projects. The most helpful training I feel was the hour session we had where we split up into two groups, volunteers and Cps. In our groups we made lists of expectations we have of each other and then presented it to the other group. It was interesting to see the overlap and differences in our lists, but it really helped seeing what they wanted written down, because a lot of the time the language barrier doesn't allow us to directly say what we want from one another. One of the main things we wanted to tell them, was to give us work. We don't know what is going on in the hospitals and health departments all the time. We need direction. So they ended up coming up with a list of subjects they want to know more about that we could research and do mini trainings on while we are in between projects. That list is awesome to have and will come in handy! One surprising thing on their list was that they would like to know how to fix their computers and other electronic devices. We all kind of laughed and said well we are not computer technicians but we can try, but to not get upset if we can not fix it, because we all really have no idea about computers, so don't have high hopes for us to run around fixing electronics. We also made sure to tell them, that we do not feel comfortable trying to fix hospital equipment, because that could really be a life or death matter, and none of us are trained to fix those kinds of things. We said that after one of the Cps suggested that we help fix their Oxygen and blood pressure machines that are broken in the hospital. Another great training was when we were given a 3 month calendar and sat down with our CP an made a 3 month plan for trainings and projects. A lot of these things, seem like no brainers and why didn't we do this before, but the language and time restrictions don't allow a lot of this to be done at work. Our Cps had jobs before us, and we are just here to help them, not give them more work, so at times its hard to find time in their busy schedule to sit down for 2 hours (that is how long it would probably would take to get that calendar done using limited language and a dictionary) and make a 3 month plan, but since we had translators at the training, it only took about 30 minutes to map out a plan. I really feel like I learned a lot at IST and so did my counterpart. We now have a clear schedule and plan for the next couple months and every 3 months, I think we should sit down and at least get a rough idea of what we want to do for the next couple of months.

          After three days, the Cps went back to their Aimags and we had 3 more days of training. During these three days we had winter health/STI trainings, cultural trainings, an accounting/business training, winter nutrition seminar, language lessons and mental health sessions. We also got more vaccinations and medications during med clinic hours. The mental health sessions were great. We talked about ways to cope with sadness during the holidays and the long dark days. We had to identify triggers and then come up with a list of things we could do to counteract them. Our medical staff is so great and so helpful! They always have ideas for us and new ways for us to keep our emotional/mental health as normal as possible. They are always saying that “in Peace Corps you must learn/train your body to work and thrive under extreme mental stress, it is really a test of mental strength.”

       Each night, there were parties in a couple hotel rooms. We would all (volunteers and counterparts) go back and forth between the rooms, luckily we had the whole hotel to ourselves, so we could really do whatever we wanted. Once night we had a game night where we played various board and card games, other nights we danced and ran around on the roof. The roof was flat and full of snow, so we all went out one night and danced on the roof. It was an amazing week! The last night we our counterparts, we had a big snowball fight. Volunteers verse Cps. It was hilarious and so much fun! People were sliding and falling everywhere and many times tackled and faces smashed in the mounds of snow. It was so awesome to just relax with our Cps and have fun. I think it really brought a lot of us closer to them. I have always had a great relationship with mine, we hang out all the time, but for those who didn't have that relationship going in, I think that IST really helped. We were able to hang out with our Cps without the rest of the town watching and gossiping about what was going on. My counterpart the last night came over to me and said “Americans are good at drinking. They know when to stop and go to bed. Mongolians do not know that. They must drink until all the alcohol is gone and until they they no longer can stay awake.” I was surprised that he said that because I thought we were a pretty rowdy group, but when I thought about it, we really did all stop and go to bed each night knowing we had a full day of training the next day so we had to get at least a couple hours of sleep in and no one got sick or was late to any of the sessions, although many Mongolians were late and had “rough mornings”.

        Friday afternoon, we were done with training and we all headed back to the city. Will, Ryan, Jerome, Cal and I decided to stay for the rest of the weekend in UB and head back to our towns on Sunday. So we found a nice guesthouse and got a couple rooms. We went to checkout the kitchen and living room and were surprised by two large cow carcasses on the floor. They were thawing them. So each day we had to step around the cows to get to the kitchen. I can only imagine if that happened in the US. The place would be shut down. Here we all just stepped over the meat and went about our day. A new surprise every day. Firday night, Ryan and I went out for pizza again. I am pretty sure I had pizza every day I was in UB, which is unlike me, because I never ate pizza in the states. But now that I am in Mongolia, its the only thing I want to eat when I visit UB and can get real food. We then watched a couple episodes of duck dynasty and waited for the others to get back. Once the other boys were back, we played Cards Against Humanity and listened to music till we fell asleep. On Saturday I met up with Kelbe and Laura and went shopping at the black market and Sunday Plaza. I got a new pair of boots and a bunch of yak wool socks. It was so cold! My body actually hurt. We were told it was -29. After a couple of hours of shopping we had to leave the market and go back to Laura's apartment to warm up. We ordered pizza and caught up on funny youtube videos and new dances. The pizza was delicious. I then went back to the guest house to meet up with the boys. We were all going to a Hip Hop club that night. So we got dressed and headed off to celebrate one of the volunteer's (Angela) birthday at the club. We walked into the middle of a spray paint/graffiti competition, which then turned into a dance competition and ended with a rap battle. It was awesome. The Mongolians loved that we were there and kept wanting to dance with all of us. They were awesome hip hop dancers. It was so cool to watch. UB is a totally different world than the rest of Mongolia. Here we are in Mongolia, watching hip hop dances and listening to rap. I did not want the night to end!

        Sunday morning, I did some last minute shopping and then Will and I went to the bus center to get tickets for that afternoon. We then met up with a couple other volunteers for brunch. I had pancakes and eggs, with a warm wine drink. After brunch, we ran back to the guest house to pack and get ready to leave. Lore, Jen, Will and I caught cabs to the bus center and got on our bus back to Arkhangai at 2pm. I slept most of the way, but the last couple hours Will and I watched movie. Finally, we were back in Tseteserleg around 10pm and I was walking as quickly as I could back to m apartment to crash. I had to be at work at 9am Monday morning after a week of no sleep.

12/26/2013

       This whole week we are celebrating New Years. Last week, we were given teams that we had to work with to come up with a way to welcome in the New Year. I was on team one, which consisted of me, the pediatrician, HD Director, the nutritionist, two of the accountants, one of the assistants and the communicable disease doctor. Since we were team one, we had to welcome in the New Year on Monday. We decided we would dress in red and wear Santa hats (they think that Santa is a New Years symbol, I had to explain the difference between New Years and Christmas to them, because they thought that Christmas was just the American version of New Years) and we would get to work early and be there to great everyone as they walked into work. We made a music play list of Christmas and New Years songs and lined up in front of the door to welcome the rest of the staff. We shook everyones hand and gave them chocolate. Once everyone was greeted, I got busy to work in the kitchen. It was my job to make 50 cupcakes that would be given to everyone in the afternoon. It was the first time I had ever made a cake and frosting from scratch and surprisingly even though, I had no vanilla, baking soda or measuring cups, it came out really well. Luckily, when we swore in as volunteers, we were given a Peace Corps Mongolia recipe book that gives you different substitutions for ingredients we can't get here and gives us recipes we can make from what is available to us. Also, another handy element of the book is that it has pictures of different bowls/ kitchen items that equal different measurements since there are also no measuring cups here. So after about 2 hours, my cupcakes were made and frosted. I then got the other woman in my group to help me plate them and hand them out. Each plate had a New Years candle on it too. The cupcakes were a hit! Tuesday, was group two's turn. They prepared a power point presentation that had pictures of all the staff's heads put onto funny bodies with jokes around them and then gave us all energy drinks and candy bars. I'm not sure what the presentation was about, but the pictures were hilarious and everyone laughed the whole time. The director's head was put onto Beyonce's body on the cover of Cosmo magazine, next to the words Best Tantric Sex Moves. I busted out laughing at the fact that they put her on that cover and had no idea what is said around her. Wednesday, the third group dressed up like Angels (what looked like angels, not sure if that is what they actually were) and went around singing and giving out little bags of candy and New Years cards.

         On Tuesday, I baked 140 sugar cookies to give the staff at the HD for Christmas. Will came over and baked cookies for his teachers also. We listened to Christmas music and baked away. The whole time the HD drivers watched us and chatted. One of them invited to his house this weekend to have donkey with him and his family. At first, I thought he meant horse, but when I said horse in Mongolian to him he started laughing and said “NO!” and then proceeded to make the donkey noise and draw me a picture of one. So indeed I will be eating donkey this weekend. I can't wait to try it. Back in the States, I only at chicken and turkey, but here I am just eating all kinds of meat. I am so surprised that I actually like it!

        Yesterday, they had one of the drivers dress up like Santa and give me gifts. He is just the sweetest man and he learned how to say “Merry Christmas” and “We love you” in English. The minute the words we love you came out of his mouth, I started crying and he kept hugging me and calling me his beautiful daughter (a lot of the men here are very protective of me and call me their daughter, it is so sweet). It was so sweet of them to do! It was so strange being away from my family on Christmas. It did not even feel like Christmas, which is a blessing in a way, because I just treated it like another day. Since they don't celebrate Christmas here, I still went to work and went on with my day. I got to skype with my family which was so great! It was so nice to talk to everyone and see them all dressed up for Christmas Eve. Everyone looked gorgeous!

The whole week we volunteers have been watching Christmas movies and making dinner with each other, which has been great. Yesterday, Christmas Day, Lore and Will came to hang out with me at work, because they had nothing going on at their schools. We went out for lunch at our favorite little yellow shack. On my way to lunch, I heard m name called repeatedly, so I turned around and there was one of the girls I tutor. She ran up to me and asked what I was doing at 2 o'clock and I said nothing, I would just be at work. She asked if I would do her make up for her school New Years party and if I could bring my cosmetics because she doesn't own any. She is in the 10^th grade at one of the local schools. Her English is great! I said of course, I would love to do her make up. After lunch, I met up with her at the HD and did her makeup and then gave her some dance lessons, because she said she didn't know how to dance. I can not wait to see pictures from the party! Later in the afternoon, the Director called me up to her office and presented me with New Years gifts. She had gotten me a beautiful handcrafted leather journal, a nice bedazzled pen and a big bottle of champagne. She is such a lovely woman! At night, we went to Lore's Ger to watch Christmas movies for the final time. I can not believe that Christmas is over already!

HERE IS A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT THE MONGOLIAN WINTER:

The Mongolian winter “lasts for 81 days.” It is divided into nine periods of nine days, and each period has a meaning attached of the various things that will freeze during that period. Winter starts on the Winter Solstice, which is usually around Dec 22, although it has felt like winter for over a month now.

1st: Mongolian vodka made from mare's milk will freeze

2nd: A different type of Mongolian vodka made from mare's milk will freeze (or Russian vodka, depending on who you talk to)

3rd: The horns of 3 year old bulls will freeze

4th: The horns of 4 year old bulls will freeze

5th: Rice will not freeze

6th: Some snow will melt and you will be able to see the lines on the road (that is, if there is a road and it has lines....)

7th: The snow will melt from the top of little mountains

8th: The road will be slushy

9th: It will be warm (relative)

We have received many emails from the Peace Corps telling us it would be really cold, and basically "make sure you don't die." I knew before I came to Mongolia that it would be cold in the winter, but I have never experienced such extreme cold. And I live in one of the warmest places in the country. Everyone says that in Mongolia it's dry cold, so it's not that bad. I have to disagree, dry cold is worse. It is hard to breathe when you walk outside, I find myself winded after walking the 7 minute walk to my work. Every body part must be covered, if not, they begin to burn and ache (just a little frostbite setting in). And this is only the first nine! The 4 nine is supposed to be the coldest!

Some fun observations thus far, which prove I live in a country that is colder than a freezer:

1) Nostril hairs stick together and it hurts!

2) Hair that is not covered freezes, even when dry and turns a grey color. It is susceptible to snapping off

3) Eyelashes stick together and that also hurts and leaves you unable to see.

4) One pair of gloves is not sufficient.

5) Your face and jaw feel like you have gotten a face lift whenever you walk outside.

6) Your thighs and but become numb and turn bright red, even with numerous layers on when walking outside.

7) Food freezes immediately when carried outside or left outside.