2/18/2014
On
Thursday, Will and I had dinner with the new JICA volunteer (Japan's
Version of the Peace Corps). I had met him earlier in the day at the
Pediatric Clinic Opening. He is a physical therapist working in the
central hospital here. There are less than 40 physical therapists in
all of Mongolia, and most of them are in the capital. Arkhangai
province does not have a PT, so he is here for two years to teach the
doctors and nurses PT techniques and is working with patients as
well. I told him about the English classes Will and I teach on
Thursdays for the hospital staff and told him he should come to them.
So he ended up coming that night to the class and then we decided to
all grab dinner at one of the nearby restaurants. He is super nice
and really interesting to talk to. He is an avid runner and mountain
bike rider and is trying to get one of his five bikes shipped here
for the summer. After dinner, we invited him to come to our
Valentines Day dinner the next night.
For
Valentines Day, Will, Akira (JICA volunteer) and I went to Jen's Ger
for dinner and movies. We made spaghetti and garlic bread; since the
meat markets are not open, we had to use this kielbasa like meat as
meatballs, which ended up tasting fine. We had wine, champagne and
chocolates while we watched “Valentine's Day” and “Think Like a
Man”. It was a nice relaxing evening.
2/19/2014
On
Sunday, Jen and I went for a hike. The temperature was at a nice
-10F, so we decided to take advantage of it and get out into the
fresh air. So we bundled up and picked a random mountain that we had
yet to climb. We picked the side of the mountain that was mostly
rocks, for a nice challenge and thought it would be fun to see how
high we could get up it. We grabbed trees and branched to pull
ourselves up the steep parts of the rocks. The cold air made it hard
to breath, so we took many breaks to sit and chat on the boulders
that lined the face of the mountain. It was so gorgeous out, despite
the temperature. The sky (like always) was blue and without clouds,
the sun was shining and there was no wind. It was an exhilarating
feeling making it to the top. It was our first “rock” climbing
experience. There were many points, as we were scaling the rocks,
with only bushes to pull ourselves up the steep incline of smooth
slippery rock where I thought, okay that's enough, let's just stop
here before one of us picks the wrong weed to pull ourselves up and
we tumble backwards down the rocks. But I really wanted to get to the
top, so we would carefully choose our paths, looking for rocks we
could grip onto and pull ourselves up on, instead of the weeds that
were in the ground coming out of the rocks. Once we got to the top, I
was so glad that I did not just give up out of fear half way up it.
We took tons of pictures and hung out until our faces were frozen and
we needed to start moving again. Going down was a challenge in
itself. Going up you have things to pull on, going down, there is
nothing, so most of the time was spent sitting down, sliding down and
shuffling until we got to rocks that were not so vertical. We each
took more than a couple tumbles and trips, but that was part of the
fun. I was laughing so hard by the time we finally made it down, that
my stomach was aching. On our walk back from the mountain we stopped
at the ruins of an old monastery. I had seen children playing on it a
couple days before, so I thought, why not. Let's get up there and
walk around. We climbed from brick to wood beams until we made it on
top of the monastery. We quickly realized that it wasn't the safest
thing to be doing, the wood was no stable and definitely should not
be walked on, so we took a couple pictures and then climbed back
down. The bottom floor had these huge windows, that we decided would
be a perfect back drop for a photo shoot. We took turns taking
pictures in funny poses and once again I was left with a stomach
hurting from laughing so hard. We then went back to my apartment to
watch a movie and eat dinner. We attempted to make mac and cheese,
using this spreadable cheese (the only cheese that can be found
here), but it did not turn out so well.
Yesterday,
I had my English class with the Health Department staff. I run my
classes in this format:
1)
work as partners on a worksheet reviewing the previous weeks material
2)
Activity/Game which reviews everything we have covered up until this
point
3)
New vocabulary
4)
Activity that goes over the new vocabulary
5)
2 New Verbs and 2 new questions which they practice asking each other
and answering
6)
a game to wrap up the class
Yesterday,
they did a worksheet about the foods, questions and corresponding
verbs they had learned the previous weeks. So on the worksheet their
was a part where they had to translate the Mongolian food words into
English, answer the two questions: What food do you like to eat? Do
you like meat? The last part they had to match the Mongolian verbs to
the English verbs : to eat, to drink, to cook and to like. They all
did really well on answering the questions and matching the verbs,
but had some troubles with the food names, so I reviewed the foods
again and had them come up with sentences involving the verbs, food
names, colors and numbers. For example, I drink four black coffees.
They also took turns asking each other what food they like.
I
then had them play a game, where I would yell out a color and they
would have to run around the room and point to objects that were that
color. I try to get them up and moving during the class, so they
don't get bored. I find that I learn better when I do activities and
games, so I try to incorporate fun things into my lessons, instead of
just writing vocab on the board and having them copy it down word for
word.
Next,
I taught them the new vocabulary: Furniture. I walked around the room
pointing at different pieces of furniture and telling them the
English words for it. I then had them repeat the words and tell me
what colors the furniture was. After, we had gone over the words for
20 minutes, I then had them pick up pieces of paper in which I had
typed out the names of the furniture and work together to label the
office. I had them label the one office I run classes in, so that
every time they look at the piece of furniture they read the label. I
then played a game, where I would show them a picture of a piece of
furniture and they had to hold up the corresponding name of the
object that I wrote on index cards and gave to them to help them
study. We then sat back down to learn 2 new verbs: to want and to
need and the questions What do you need? What do you want?. I used
the vocabulary we have learned in previous classes to answer the
questions. They practiced asking each other and then I went around
the room, asking each person the questions. To wrap up class, we went
over numbers (they have problems with 13,30,14,40, 15,50,16,60, etc.
it is hard for them to differentiate the sounds) and practiced asking
how old people are, what year they were born in and what year it is
now. The classes are so much fun and after each one, I feel so good,
like I actually am helping them. My class has grown in size from 5
staff members to 13 over the weeks! The new staff members said they
started coming because they heard how fun it was, which made me feel
so good. I really try to make the classes as interesting and fun as
possible, so I am glad they are enjoying them! Each week, between
mine and Will's class we have about 20 staff members learning English
from the Health Department, which is awesome. I know that a lot of
them were afraid to join the classes in fear of being embarrassed
because they do not know any, but now more and more keep joining. I
am so happy!
Yesterday,
I went to School 2 to talk to the teacher I work with about the
International Creative Writing Competition that I am helping host. On
March 15, all the students interested will join at one school and be
given the subject they have to write about. They get one hour to come
up with an essay and then we judge them based on a rubric from the
competition. We send the winners of our province to UB where there is
than a nation competition, those winners go onto the international
competition. The winners win scholarships and awards. So starting
next week, Jen and I will be holding creative writing classes to help
the students prepare for the competition. It is for grades 6th and
up, including university students. After I was done discussing the
competition, she asked if I would help her write a grant so that she
could hold a summer camp for students in the aimag. She had done this
previously with a Peace Corps volunteer before me and wanted to do it
again. The kids will play sports, have life skill sessions, learn
English and learn about nutrition, exercise and hygiene practices. It
sounds like a lot of fun and I am so grateful that she asked me to
help her put it on. I wish that I worked with more children, and this
will give me an opportunity to work with them during the summer. Most
of my work is done with adults who have high ranking jobs (doctors,
HD staff, government officials and World Vision), teaching them new
training techniques to teach the other community members and children
at schools, but with this I will get to directly work with the
children. I am very excited. It will be a lot of work, but so worth
it.
Today,
the power is out, which means no internet and no computers for the
staff. So they have been playing ping pong all morning. I played in
one game, we lost because of me. HaHa. I am terrible at it, so I am
more than happy to just watch the tournament and cheer for them. I
need to practice more before I play in a tournament here. They are
intense and really good. That part of me has still not changed. I
must perfect something before I start competing/playing with others.
I can not stand not being good at something, let alone being the
worst at it. So I will recruit one of my coworkers to teach me and
practice until I feel like I am worthy enough to play in front of
them. Hopefully over the course of the next 15 or so months (can you
believe I have already been here for 9 months! If I get into a
Masters program that starts in the Fall of 2015, I am able to leave
after 24 months instead of 27 months, which I am planning on doing),
this personality trait will change, and I will be able to just enjoy
playing something even if I am terrible at it, but until then, I will
perfect the game in private. HaHa.
Today
is also Jen's 29th
birthday, so Will and I are going to take her out to dinner and then
depending on the time, I may go to play volleyball with my coworkers.
It is a pretty smoggy day out, and there is no wind, so the coal
smoke from the apartments and wood smoke from the gers, are just
lingering in the air, so I most likely will not be going for a run
this evening to save my lungs from unnecessary abuse. Most of the
people here in Tsetserleg primarily use wood to heat their gers
(there are no coal mines here), which is nice because it keeps the
pollution from coal lower than most places, but the apartments,
schools and other big buildings all use coal, which lends itself to
huge smoke stacks that black smoke bellows out of all day and night.
When there is no breeze the smoke just hangs in the air and casts an
ugly shadow over the whole town. The beautiful blue sky turns into a
grey and black cloud. Speaking of gers, I have had a couple friends
ask me how Ger is pronounced. It sounds like care, only with a g in
front of it, like gare, for those of you who were wondering. Ger like
care.
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