Expectations: Mongolia

When we first found out that we were going to be going to Mongolia, Cady and I were excited. We opened our Welcome Packet in the lobby of the International Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC. It helped, of course, they we lived in the city. We gave each other a high five and then fervently read the enclosed information, sparse as it was, about our host country and our jobs. We were to leave in a month and a half. Needless to say, not much time.

For the next 40 or so days I read about Mongolia. I read what I could about the people, the culture, the landscape, the history, the language. I practiced, I realize now, more so than I would need to have, the Mongolian language.

I was almost always never nervous, only excited. I’d done the nervous, apprehensive thing 5 years prior. It was a different time and I was a different person. It didn’t work out then, but this time, this time it was going to work out.

What I discovered was that Mongolia, of all places that I could be sent, was, for all intents and purposed, a “perfect” (note the quotes) location for me. It is much like Colorado in that it is at a higher elevation. Therefore, the skies are almost always blue and sunny. The air is thinner. The landscape is covered with hills and mountains. Also, Mongolia is infamous for its cold winters. Unlike Thailand and Cambodia (other potential Eastern Asian Peace Corps locations), Mongolia would not have the heat and humidity, the bugs. And after growing up in Wisconsin, the cold is no big deal.


Mongolia

The national religion in Mongolia is Buddhism, a religion which I already interested in learning more about. Beyond that, though, and more interestingly, most Mongolians, I read, believe that nature is as true a religion, as true a spiritual being as any that exists. How perfect. For as I believe, I am no closer to God than I am when I am at the summit of a mountain.

The people of Mongolia, I read, are welcoming, respectful, peaceful and genuinely interested in cultures beyond their own. Because Mongolians are so, they also do not pose a likely disruptive political instability for which PCVs would have to evacuate. Who wouldn’t like this?

Mongolia, as I read, has a formal culture. People like to look their best. They may not have as many outfit options as Americans, but when the occasion calls for it their personal presentation is second to none. I can relate. I generally prefer to go to work in a dress shirt. I like to throw on the ole suit and dress to impress.

The best thing about Mongolia, I knew, was my attitude about it. I was going to have no real expectations. I wasn’t going to decide how things were going to be. I wasn’t even going to guess. I was just going to take things as they came. My excitement alone was enough to keep me going. Well, that and the fact that we only had a month and a half until our entire lives were going to completely change.
I expected only that this experience would make me a better, smarter, more capable person. To be so I would be challenged in ways I could not think of at the time. I would meet new people, see new places and learn new things.

One of my closest friends once told me something that I will never forget. In fact, it has become one of the philosophies by which I live my life. I had only recently arrived in Colorado and would soon begin my graduate work. We were driving to Rocky Mountain National Park. As we wound our way up higher and higher we talked about what we thought was most important in life. On one point we were in complete agreement. Justin said to me: “Just think of all those things that you are most proud of in your life. I’d bet that they were things that you took a chance on, things that you had to take a risk for, things that weren’t easy, things that might have been scary, things that you knew weren’t going to be easy and things that took a lot of work to get through. The things that we are most proud of in our lives are the things that challenged us the most.”