7/4/2014
Happy 4th
of July everyone! 4th 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 4th
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.
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