August E-mails!

Here's a batch of our e-mails from August!


August 2, 2007

I have time for a bit of an email (and a little extra tugriks burning a whole in my pocket right now... yay!) so I thought i would sneak away before traditional mongolian dance class and shoot you an email.

We have exactly a week left before we leave our host sites, and then we'll be in Darkhan and UB, and then swear in on August 18 as official Peace Corps Volunteers. My schedule has been crazy. In true Mongolian and PC fashion, they waited until last minute to tell us about these "cultural" performances we have to do, and speeches to give, etc.etc. so now not only are we scrambling to study, we have insane volleyball practice, dance practice, etc. on top of our normal schedules. Peter's bagh was more organized I think and have been learning to sing and dance the whole time. I love playing volleyball with them, and my host family calls me MONDUCK (champion) when we play because i somehow can still serve the ball pretty well! (well, honestly the net sags a bit, so it's pretty easy to hit it over hard).

It finally cooled off and rained for 2 days straight. They say winter starts in a couple weeks to a month depending on where you live, so I imagine we are in for a shock!

We still have no idea about placement... I guess we'll find out next Thursday and then run to the internet and write an email! Also on August 18 or 20 we will get cell phones, so you will be able to call us!!

I'm terribly homesick today. Reading emails has been hard, because I just wish I could be sharing my experiences with you all. I feel very proud of what I have accomplished (I was chosen to give a speech in Mongolian at our Host Family Closing Appreciation Event next Sunday!!), and I think that I have learned quite a bit, but I am very ready to be in control of my own life again in terms of food, water, refrigeration, food processing, schedule, planning, etc. Honestly today I think what maybe set me off was I also searched all over town for a delgor that had cold coke to no avail. :(

I have been going to the seamstress with my family lately because they are giving me a fancy dell!!! I am so excited. I'll show pictures.

Love you guys--- more later!
Cady

August 3, 2007

Yeah! Free Internet at the PC PST HQ rocks! I am in Darkhan today preping for our seminar tomorrow. Seeing as how they have free Internet, I jumped at the chance!

Well, the BIG BIG news here is that our slice of Mongolia has cooled off. The rain cometh and so doth the cool air! I feel human again!

I am also done practice teaching now. Yesterday was my last day. It ended nicely.

Monday is our language test. No worries.

Wednesday we all go together with our families to the countryside.

Thursday we leave our families and head back here to Darkhan and then a few days later we're off to UB for a week. Then, off we go to who knows where!

So, there's the run down.

It sounds like everything is going well with everyone. I'm very happy to hear that. I'm sorry to hear that it is so hot in the states. I can relate. I don't know how long this coolocity (not a real word) will last here, but for now, I am really enjoying it. I hope it comes for all of you, too.

I've got to run for now!
Love,
Peter


August 13, 2007

We have a home!



Training is almost complete and we have some great news to share! We have been placed in Darkhan, Mongolia for the next two years! We also passed our language tests with Intermediate-Low level scores (you only need a Novice-High to pass!).

Cady was placed in the CHF International Office at the GER Initiative (Growing Entrepreneurship Rapidly) as a Business Advisor in Darkhan. She will work with local clients to improve local business practices as well as work with CHF on its larger mission within Mongolia. CHF's GER Initiative is funded as a joint project by the US Department of Agriculture and USAID. It's a great program, great location.

Peter has been placed as an English Instructor at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in Darkhan. MUST is one of the largest universities systems within Mongolia. The Darkhan University has 1500 students, and is within walking distance of our new home.

Speaking of homes, we have been placed in an an old Soviet block style apartment on the 4th floor of a 5 floor building (No elevators!!). The apartment buildings on the outside are not much to look at, but have plenty of character on the inside. We move in after swearing in on the 18th, so we can send pictures or finally put something on our blog later.

We said goodbye to our very gracious and hospitable host families for the last time, and they are grateful we are so close (about 1 hour) so we can see them on holidays. We were so ecstatic about our placement, and we can't wait to come back to Darkhan and get settled in!

We're off to UB (UlaanBataar) for a week of PC events and swearing-in as official Peace Corps volunteers on August 18th. We will recieve a new mailing address (the old one won't work as of Aug 18) and cell phones on the 19th. We'll send out our new contact info as we have it! We'd love to hear from you, and miss you all dearly.

Love,
Cady and Peter


Here's a Photo of Swearing In -- Cady and Emily in Mongolian Dells.




August 14, 2007

Hello! We are safe and sound in UB after surviving a flat tire blowout in the bus and sitting in an extremely hot bus ride for 4 hours frmo Darkhan to UB. We've spent the day here with our sectors (business, tefl) and exploring the city. It is a little overwhelming at first, but I think it's slowly growing on me. Darkhan is just so much more relaxed and quieter than UB-- UB is very bustling and loud and over 1/3 to 1/2 of the population lives here, so it's insanely busy.

Things are happening fast-- we'll be officially at our sites in a week! Hopefully then, things will settle down-- we hear there is boredom that sets in then, so I can use the time to catch up on emails and study more Mongolian :)

Love,
Cady


August 20, 2007

HOLY QUESTIONS, BATMAN! AHHHHH!

Ready for the answers - follow along:

She got to be on TV.
It was awesome.
Pizza Pringles.
Everything new.
Yes.
There is so much time to do a little bit of everything.
I can do just about all the things you can do there.
No Internet.
Yes cell phone (inside and out).
The weather is perfect now.
Yes, we will get snow in Darkhan.
Yes, there are vehicles.
No, camel riding. People only really do that in the Gobi.
People are VERY interested in us.
Darkhan is known for being the little brother to UB (a better, safer, smaller version, most Mongolians agree.)
Generalization statements: Most Mongolians do not get to travel out of Mongolia.
I hear a lot of English in UB, not really anywhere else.
Russian is spoken a fair amount here.
There are very few exchange programs.
Yes, they think all of us are funny-looking to some degree. That is, we don't look Mongolian.
Yes, we will be busy.
Yes, weekends off from work, sort of.
Work hours vary, especially for me.
There are a few U's in Darkhan.
Schools are okay here/.
Most U students are women. Most men work at home, etc.
School days vary.
Cady should tell you about her job as I still know little about my own.
We have a TV.
There is American TV here.
There are international stations here (primarily Russia).
Health care here is horrendous for the most part. You wouldn't want to see the inside of a "hospital."
I love to eat Tsoivan (phonetically spelled, of course).
I love to drink Juice (different brands, same general concept.)
Not sure how to say, "We miss you."

Love,
Peter


August 28, 2007

We'll send out an email update to friends and family soon with the address once we go to the post office one more time and confirm!!!

Things have been really busy here this week so far—well, my 3 days of work :)

Friday I spent the day getting to know the office and business advisors. Most of them speak English, and my direct counterpart speaks PERFECT English. I have a translator who is also the information officer of the office, and so far, because they are all so good at English, my Mongolian has suffered a bit! Yesterday I worked on my first "training" I will give the office on "Critical Thinking". Should be interesting!! Today we visited clients all day with the HQ linkage coordinator (the person who matches our supplier clients up with the larger corporations) and wow. Some are so engaged and really excited to do everything that they can to improve their situations and their businesses—full of ideas, etc. Others are not quite as excited, and want others to solve their dilemmas—but fortunately CHF/GER Initiative is focused primarily on sustainable development and capacity building, helping the clients to come up with ideas to solve their own issues, basically their goal is to "work themselves out of a job" because the ultimate goal is to finish the program and allow a sustainable Mongolian business fill these needs or have the clients fill them themselves.


Some clients and their products are interesting—the first one I met today sells smoked pork products—and now she seems to think I am going to give her a great BBQ recipe so she can walk around town at lunch and sell pulled pork sandwiches. So, yeah, I better google that one. Another has the most amazing crops—she grows broccoli and she is so frustrated because she knows how healthy it is to eat, and no Mongolians will buy her products (only restaurants, generally) because they have no idea what to do with it! She even harvests her own seeds—including the broccoli. She was quite proud as she told me today, because all of the books and experts told her that broccoli seed harvesting wasn't possible—but she did it anyway, and ended up growing the best crop yet! I am going to start work on a Value Chain Survey for CHF Mongolia pretty soon. We're picking 6-8 industries/clients to survey, and from that, pick one industry to complete the survey on. Value Chains are apparently the "new" thing in development work, and I'm excited to get started. I'll get to travel a bit around central Mongolia, and back to UB for the training portion, so I am looking forward to getting to see more of the country!


Things are good here though—busy and new, and it's starting to get chilly already (at least at night). I need to get back on the emails and start writing people back now that I have regular access. That's my goal for the slow times! :)


Love you!!
Cady