Post Office + Peanuts + Packers = Perfection

What's a dedicated Packers fan do in Mongolia? It's 10:58 a.m. I'm in the Darkhan Post Office computer lab tuned into nfl.com, eating trail mix and listening to my iPod. I got here at 7:00 a. m. The post office has the fastest Internet in the city.

Green Bay at Dallas. It's halftime. Dallas 27 Green Bay 17. Favre is out after hurting his elbow. I'm nervous.

For someone like me who hangs on every play, this is pretty difficult. The time delay and the fact that I can only see lines of movement and descriptions of each play make not being able to "watch" the game nerve-racking, especially when we are down and not playing well like today. But beggars can't be choosers. I love my Packers and I don't have to work today. Where else would I be?

So, now I nervoulsy await the second half. I am hopeful that Favre will come back into the game, that we will overcome the deficit and win the game.

Many people think that American football is too slow, has too many pauses. I've always said that it is a game of execution and anticipation. As fans, we are not waiting but anticipating. Well, this pretty much defines that. It's almost too much anticipation. Ahhhhhhhh!

GO PACKERS!

Happy Thanksgiving

Yesterday we had our big Thanksgiving celebration in UB. Lots of PCVs came in from around the country. We drank lots of wine and beer, ate good food (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn bread, etc.) and caught up on our lives these last few months. It was a great time.

So, following in Cady's footsteps:

I am thankful for:

- The Green Bay Packers 10-1 start!
- Making pizza at least once a week.
- Having a great host site that only seems to be getting better and better.
- A great first, and a little bit more, year of marriage.
- Packages from America.
- The best family and amazing friends (thank you all for being so good about communicating!)
- Students who answer test questions like this:
Q: What do you do at the end of a sentence when speaking English? (Correct answer (and we went over this many, many times): Pause.
Student Answer: I eat apple.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Small joys and things to be thankful for this year:
- My counterparts discovering a bag of holiday decorations and letting me decorate the whole office with tinsel!
- Family. No matter how far we go, they keep us close and are never more than a call away.
- Montou: The best steamed bread ever!
- Care packages!
- Learning new words and reading in Mongolian. I feel like a kid reading for the first time! It's a whole new world.
- Winter Silks long underwear. Wheeee! I feel slippery soft!
- Good friends, in Mongolia and halfway 'round the world.

Өвөл муухай хүн байдаггүй!

Өвөл муухай хүн байдаггүй! Or in English, "Winter Ugly Person Is Not There" -- or as it was interpreted for me, "In Winter, Everyone is Beautiful" is the new Mongolian phrase I've learned this past week. Since returning from my Pork Production Value Chain Adventure, or "Fall Break 2007 -- Pigs Gone Wild" as I've started calling it, my coworkers have decided that I am in fact a crazy person.

This started about a month ago, when the winter really began to settle in. I got a cold-- and to the shock and dismay of my counterparts, continued to drink my average 3 liters of "cold" (room temperature) water per day-- and even drank more than that during my worst days! Everyday I heard, "You will not get better if you drink that water! You need to drink hot tea, hot milk tea, and garlic soup!" Well, I did get better-- thanks to Mucinex and lots of water and rest. And if you ask them, that bowl of garlic soup I ate for lunch.

For IST (In-Service-Training) coming up in December, my counterparts were asked to fill out a questionnaire so that Peace Corps can tailor the training to our needs. One question asked was, "List 2-3 things your American counterpart has done that is confusing to you." Their answers were really interesting-- one of course, related to my avid water drinking habit, and the second was "Our American doesn't wear enough warm clothes! Doesn't she know that when she doesn't wear a hat and layers of long underwear her eggs will freeze?!"

The second was the most interesting to me, and we had a really good conversation about it. I explained that I am feeling pretty warm with the layers I have been wearing, and that in fact, I am more worried about the 30 and 40 below temperatures ahead, so I am adding layers as it gets colder, so I can actually feel warm when it's REALLY needed, especially the pants long underwear. I'm only wearing one layer right now (it's about 17 below, and I'm feeling pretty comfortable and thankful for smart wool!). During our conversation they explained that if I don't start wearing more layers even when I feel warm, my өндөг (or "eggs") will shrivel up and my kidneys will hurt. So, I brought that back to the first point, and said if I don't drink my 3 liters of water, THEN my kidneys will hurt! :) But, to appease them, and my ovaries, today I wore the full long underwear, my warmest hat, gloves, and scarf. I will just have to triple layer when it gets to be 30 below. Because like the Mongolians say-- it's not about fashion in the winter... It's about being warm, because in winter, everyone is beautiful.

Fall Break 2007: Pigs Gone Wild

I'm back to site now, getting settled back in, and continuing to finish up a little work on our Pork Production Value Chain Analysis. I've learned a lot about pork farming in Mongolia the last few weeks-- and I've learned a lot about the difference between "provider" and "facilitator" of development services. My placement agency has a lot of work to do in the next few years in terms of transitioning into a sustainable NGO, and this Value Chain analysis was a good first introduction into these ideas.

But back to the good stuff! Pigs! I met some of the most interesting people in the last few weeks! My favorite is one of the small scale pork farmers I met in our first round of interviews. We visited her farm, and after we got over the initial "oh my gosh, your hair is blonde!" discussions, she taught me about how she makes her pigs "smarter" buy playing them classical music. They love it she says, and they are much smarter than other farmer's pigs. I felt bad that those smarties ended up the same place as the "less than average IQ" pigs from down the road, but it was interesting none the less. We also uncovered what seemed to be something that resembled a pork mafia -- one wholesaler seemed to have a monopoly of sales channels between the farmers and processors, and kept it that way (or so we heard).

Pork production is a growing industry in Mongolia-- and hopefully will continue to grow, especially with some of the market solutions we've begun to help facilitate. I'll keep you posted, but in the mean time, please continue to only eat pork that has the "This Pig Listened to Mozart" stamp of approval.

On the Road Again...

I'm still out traveling-- and have been since late October! I just learned that I will finally be back to site by November 12 or 13th. I feel very lucky to be seeing so much while we're here in Mongolia, and as a CED volunteer, I've gotten to travel a fair amount!

This trip has been a little different than my past hudoo adventures-- I have an international NGO as a Host Country Agency (HCA as Peace Corps calls them), and they've been so generous. I've been in a very nice hotel-- with a fuzzy wonderful robe, and EVEN American TV shows! The seasons are one behind American seasons-- but beggars can't be choosers, and I'll watch it! It's a very traditional Peace Corps experience, you know-- sitting in my terry cloth robe, eating bon bons, and watching The Office. I'm not sure what bon bons even are though. The other two are true!

Completely aside from working -- I have had so many "small world" experiences lately. I found a laundromat in UB this weekend (WITH DRYERS!!!) and the machines they used were none other than Speed Queen out of Ripon, Wisconsin. After a little nostalgia for Ripon which lead to nostalgia for home, I realized how clean and wonderful smelling my clothes were! It has been at least 6 months since my clothes have been this clean and fresh.

I've been working with the GER Initiative country-wide team to develop a Value Chain Analysis. The team of business advisors working on the analysis are top notch in their field, and I feel lucky to be learning so much from them! Recently, after learning about how to conduct the selection and analysis process, we've begun our analysis on the Pork value chain in Mongolia. If I never eat processed pork ever again, it may be too soon.



Cady at the Darkhan Crossroads

I put up a picture that my counterparts took of me at the Darkhan-Uul Aimag border crossroads. This is the border you cross to go anywhere outside of the Darkhan aimag-- our CHF drivers drop me off there, pick me up, shuffle me into other vehicles, and I feel like I've seen those crossroads these past few months than I have my bed! Whenever I see that billboard, I strangely feel more relaxed and I can finally breathe deeply. It's starting to feel like home!

I'm holding up well though, enjoying the adventures as they come, and learning a lot about Mongolian businesses and how important they are for the development of Mongolia. When I return to site, it'll be time to get ready to head back to UB for Thanksgiving, a short return back to site, and then back again for our In-Service Training. Maybe next year I'll get all those ideas turned into secondary projects. . . the two years are just flying by too quickly!

баяртай, Lucy!

17 days after little Lucy came into our lives she is gone. Last night, I took Lucy to her new owners, the parents of the boyfriend of one my counterparts. She will live in a ger haasha very near the Haara River. There she will have two older male dogs to protect her and to show her the way. The parents seem very nice, especially the mother. I was told today by my counterpart that Lucy is a welcomed addition to the ger, that they are happy to have new entertainment in their home. Also, the family has decided to keep calling her Lucy.

A text message (a very popular mode of communication here, much cheaper than making calls) last night from Lucy’s new mom: “Hi. Lucy is good. I will feed her in the mornings and at night. I have a pretty dog. Thank you for your present.” The best part about this message is that she didn’t have to send it. I think we can confidently say that we have found Lucy a good home.

Over the last two and a half weeks the three of us had our ups and our downs, but Cady and I are better people having known her. She leaves us a happy puppy and we know she will live a happy life and grow to be a happy dog in the countryside. So as they say goodbye in Mongolia-- Bayartai! (or more like баяртай!).


Her last photo!

A Mid-Morning Off-the-Balcony Snow-Swept Mountain View

Darkhan after the first real snowfall!

Zza-licious Indeed!

The days of eating only sandwiches are over. Tonight’s dinner: pepperoni and diced onion pizza topped with oregano and other Italian seasonings.


Never fear, pizza is here!

Let's speak English

My 3rd course students are my best students. As a class, they have a lot of potential. They are active. They are interested. They are quick learners. They continually surprise me.

Yesterday, as I was prepping the blackboard for class, a few students entered the room. One of them, Holly (her English name, of course), held a rolled up blue sheet of paper, held rolled by purple ribbon. When she saw that I noticed what was in her hand, she quickly hid it beneath her jacket, saying: “Teacher, will you stand outside for a minute?” As the rest of the class came in behind her, I, confused and chuckling, asked: “You want me to go outside?” Excitedly she replied: “Yes! Yes!” So, I exited the room. I stood outside for a good 2 minutes wondering what it was they were up to.

“Okay, come in!” said Holly grinning from ear to ear opening the door. As I looked ahead I saw a rolled up blue sheet of paper tied closed with a piece of purple ribbon, held to a strand of black string hanging from the ceiling. Hmmm.
“What is this? Is this for me?” I asked them, all sitting, giggling, anticipating. “Yes. Yes. Read, Teacher!” So I pulled the paper from the ribbon, the ribbon now dangling at my shoulder, and I read:

Thursday,
November01,
2007

Dear Teacher
Well, we are happy to write this letter to you. We always admire you. So we are very lucky students. We have known a lot since you began to teach us. We really aim to speak English fluently. So we are organizing the curriculum named “Let’s speak English” after lesson. We would like to learn more. We want to cooperate with you closely. We are expecting that you will promote this new, important outdoor activity and it would become efficiently to study English.

* This activity has the following goals:

- To improve speaking ability. To express own opinion precisely.
- To cooperate with you closely. To strengthen cooperation between teach and students.
- To exchange bilateral culture of two cultures.
- To improve listening ability. To pronounce right and to learn from civilized cultural communication.

* There are organizing procedure and operation:

- By the rule of questions and answers.
- To use pictures, photos and books.
- To collect and prepare interesting news…
- Unexpected surprising from a teacher and from a students every week
- To ask any information what everyone wants to know.

This activity will be held for out class. So please promote this activity. We are expecting we can cooperate with you and we hope you will devote us your leisure time. Can you write your reply in three days? We are looking forward to hearing you as possible as.

Sincerely, Your students



“Who wrote this? Did you all write this together?” I asked. “Yes, Teacher, we did. You will tell us what you think?” Today I was told by one of their Mongolian teachers, one of my counterparts whose English is quite good, that the only instruction she knows they were given was her own, a few words of advice in Mongolian, nothing in English.

What can I say? I’ve never once mentioned the idea of an English club.

What can I say? They continually impress me.

What can I say? Yes, let’s speak English…

Teacher and Now "Administrator"

I recently wrote an entry about my duties here at the university. Well, as of today I can add something along the lines of "administration advisor."

I had a meeting today with the director of the school. I met with her to discuss several issues, personal and professional. The bulk of our time was spent discussing two very serious school issues: early semester attendance problems and student fees problems. The last 15 minutes we discussed the terms of my involvement with such larger institutional issues. I asked if I could attend weekly director/department head meetings. My weekly department meetings just aren’t enough. I would like to be in the room with the people that make the decisions and hopefully take part in some of the decision-making. She (the director) was very willing to extend an invitation.

After an hour and a half of discussing various topics, I began to realize that I want to do more. I want to be more active. In addition to wanting to improve the quality of English instruction at my school I also want to join in on discussions of how the school is run, to talk about what the real needs are. After all, if certain administrative problems are not addressed and/or corrected, it makes teaching English, teaching in general, extremely difficult.

I really feel that being a good Peace Corps volunteer is more than just teaching English classes. Being a good TEFL UT PCV is improving the quality of education at my school, in and out of the classroom. If I did any less I’d leave here after two years thinking I did less than my best. The experience of working with the administration is mutually beneficial. These new challenges are both overwhelming and invigorating.

From my meeting, then, with the director today, we have begun problem-solving steps to correct current issues. I have already written one proposal: "A Proposal to Remedy Early Semester Attendance Problems." Because the director had already approved the document, we've moved to the next step. A committee has been formed, people selected by myself and the director. Leaders from the administration, of the teachers and the student organization, myself and a translator will all meet as many times as is necessary to have a draft ready for the start of next semester. Our first meeting will be next week. We will prepare a proposal that is ready for discussion during the director/department head meeting on the 14th. Many of the same people, including myself and my translator, will be at that meeting as well. From there we will discuss the attendance committee’s proposal for a document that will be ready for the beginning of the spring semester. A copy of this document (as well as other new school policies and general university information (all projects I will be a part of) will then be sent home to the students' families. A second copy (along with information regarding new student fees regulations (for which I must now write a proposal) will be given to every student at the beginning of the spring semester during a mandatory all-school meeting.

It appears as though all of the initiatives I have begun are in full swing. Partnership, change and progress after only 2 months is a pretty good start.

A commitment like this means more of everything. More hours at school. More work outside of school. More work in general. The thought is exhausting as I already feel I am working a lot of hours and investing a lot of myself in this school. On the other hand, I know that I am only here for two short years and this is an opportunity I can’t pass up. It’s why I am here. It’s why I love my job. It’s yet another reason to love the ivory tower, Mongolian or otherwise.

Proposals. Committees. Meetings. All in a day’s work for an English teacher.