July E-mails

Here's our batch of emails from July -- so you can catch up on what's been happening!

July 3, 2007

Hello!


The first thing I miss, besides YOU guys of course, is ICE CUBES. You have no idea what life is like without ice cubes. I used to think I was living a hard life in DC when we actually had to use ice cube trays. I can't wait til we have our own place and I can use our distiller to make ice cubes in our freezer. The other things I miss include: Iced ANYTHING, COLD anything, and meat that is 99% lean. I want to just make ice cubes in my families freezer but the meat here is just kept open in the freezer, so it may not be the best setting for pure water! Our fridge looks like it is from the 1800s and whirrs like kitten, I mean, like a lion being nuetered.


We have had a "mongolian life skills" lesson on Saturday where we learned to saw wood from a log, split those logs into fire wood, build a fire in an old wood stove, and then cook traditional MOngolian foods on it! It was so nice to hack with that ax. I had no idea how good it was to hack wood with an axe! LOVED IT.


We just took our halfway point LPI (language exam) and so far so good! Tomorrow we meet up again in Darkhan for a couple of days and then it's back to Sukbaatar for Nadaam, the national festival.

I remember needing to tell you about the food and our houses a little more. Our families are required by Peace Corps to have electricity and a fridge and freezer to stop food spoilage. They are even required to have one outlet in our private rooms in order to plug in our Water Distillers in order for us to have safe drinking water. The food is very bland and somewhat greasy (lots of fried foods) but pretty decent! Basically each meal consists of the same 6-7 ingredients used in different ways. Cabbage, Carrots, Potatoes, Onions, Meat (with lots of fat), Flour (either used to make noodles, fried dough, or dumplings, and/or rice. If they add yeast to the flour it makes whatever we are eating more "bready" :) Sometimes there are cabbage salads with oil and vinegar, or Xiam (Heeyamm), which tastes like bologna or if we're lucky, some of the Xiam tastes like Summer Sausage.

Money here is very odd. Their money is called "tugriks" and the conversion is approx. 1000 Tugs to 1 US Dollar. Most heads of cabbage cost 700-800 tugs, or 80 cents. Milk isn't really bought in a store, it mostly comes from someone who knows someone who has a mare or cow! :) A box of cookies, for example, costs just over 1200 tugs, or 1.20 , which is very expensive! An apple is 300 tugs, or 30 cents. Once we get to our site, we will recieve 250,000 tugs (about 125K each) totalpermonth to live on, but our families right now recieve 38000 T per week to feed us and house us.

Milk products here are a little smelly and not very appetizing. They eat yogurt that is pretty watery and tastes more like sour cream, cheese that is like a brick, and then they drink airag, a clear fermented mare's milk. THAT tastes like Saki, and as long as you don't get any fat chunks floating in it, you're good to go. :)


Safety here hasn't been to much to worry about except for drunk dodging, and making sure you look oout for open manholes. SERIOUSLY. Our biggest safety concern besides dodging crazy drunks are these massive open sewer manholes that you could fall in with one misstep! (That and Rabid wild dogs)

So far, so good. I'm very happy in terms of my decision to join the PC... the timing has been right for me and Peter and our lives/careers, and I am just ready to get to our site and figure out what our lives will be like for the next 2 years!

If you guys are thinking (or you hear someone else is) of sending a package.... maybe rechargeable AA batteries with a recharger and more books? I can pretty much find everything here that we need in terms of toilet paper (aka crepe paper) and other necessities.

More later from Darkhan, and hopefully some pictures!!!

Love you both!
Cady


July 7, 2007

Sounds like everyone had a great 4th of July. We wish we were there. We had a bit of a celebration here. We went to Darkhan on the 4th. There was a basketball game, pretty competitive, that both Cady and I played in. She was one of 3 women to play for our team. I finally got to see The Enforcer in action. Lol. I told her that now that I have seen her skills that she and I will have to play more often. After the game, we had a mock barbeque. We had "pizza," "hot dogs," watermelon, juice and desserts. It was a good time. The food was suspect, but when isn't it?

Well, we are back from Darkhan, after a mid-training 2 day training session. It was great to see everyone, and I think that might be the reason they schedule those days. We did have fun though. Cady felt a little sick from the shots we were given yesterday, but is slowly starting to feel better.

You asked about cultural differences. Well, the short of it is that they are much like what I thought they would be like. They are very accepting and very open-minded (for the most part, that is). There are the bad seeds like there are everywhere. As you might imagine, we are very noticable and we recieve a lot of stares. I think, however, that they are largely curious more than anything thing else. We are different. We do have iPods, digital cameras, video cameras, nice clothing, etc., but we are also trying very hard (I think I can say that about most all of us) to really fit in and live like they do, speak their language, follow their customs.

As for food, there is a little bit of most things. If you are thinking American standards about anything, stop now! Lol. Things here are just different. Many PCTs have gotten sick. The most common reason is the change in what we intake. The preparation methods and taste are exceedlingly better than I thought, however, that does not mean that we aren't very susceptable to getting sick. So far (knock on wood) Cady and I have not been affected. They do refrigerate some things, but a lot of things sit out. They do have spices, but these are limited. I couldn't tell you exactly what they are and they really vary from location to location and by household. Food in the winter? I'll tell you about that in a few months.

Placement sites? Hmmm. The big question. THE biggest question. We all wonder and information is beginning to make its way to us from PCVs who know a little here and there about their own locations. The problem is that rumors are as common as "reliable" (notice the quotes) information, so what is actually true and what is not is hard to judge. We will find out on August 9th for sure. After that, about a week or two later we will leave for site. I hope that is somewhat helpful.

sign bine oooh is how you say hello, Sain Bain Uu.

Naadam begins tomorrow night. We are all looking forward to it and our academic schedule has been altered because of it. Wrestling and horse riding are on our horizon. We are told that we will not get archery here. I hope that's not true. Cady and I will have to let you know how it all shakes out.

Pictures. We've taken a few hundred so far. Video. We've taken some. We're thinking now that we will send those when we get to site. As you've noticed, I'm sure, we've done little in the way of blogging. There is just so little time and we haven't the motivation.

Well, that's enough talking about us.

I love you all,
Peter

P.S. We've recieved some mail. We've gotten letters from Mama and Papa, Bettina, Al and Joanna. If there is more coming, we are always on the lookout. We will get our new address to you as soon as we can! Letters get to UB after about 10-12 days.

P.P.S. We've seen a fair number of people recieving un-opened packages from home. So, that is good. I thought it would be harder than that. As for contents, rechargable batteries would be wonderful. I think Peanut Butter is always great. Or maybe Nutella. Lol. Really anything American tasting that you remember us liking will be highly coveted. So, if you can have a hot, fresh pizza delivered here, DON'T HESITATE!

July 18, 2007

Hello!

I am finally back at the internet after 5 unsuccessful attempts the last few days and I'm hopefully going to still have internet connection when the time comes to hit send on this message! Weather, schedules, and electricity permitting seem to be the major factors in determining my communication these days.

All is well here, Peter had a happy and celebrated 27th birthday here this Sunday! Since he isn't going to be back in town on the internet for awhile (i think?), he said I can go ahead and pass along the details. Friday night, Peter and his training site mates had an impromptu birthday party at a current volunteer's house, and from the pictures and stories, it sounded like fun! One trainee's host parents wouldn't let her leave for the party without a gift for Peter, so they gave her an XXL (american sized Medium!) Flannel Wrangler shirt. It's pretty funny, but actually a nice shirt! They had it in their closet, and I'm sure were just WAITING for a time when a "taller than average" birthday came along!

Saturday, my friend Emily and I walked the 3.5 miles from Sukbaatar city to Peter's bagh in the hudoo (country). On the way, we picked up my "supplies" for Peter's birthday and a cake and got some nice farmer tan lines along the way. While Peter finished working on his TEFL lesson with another University Teacher, Emily and I walked ANOTHER 3 miles to the river to go swimming. After we returned, Peter's mom of course fed us "tea" (where the 4 of us all share one teabag and basically drink brownish teaish tasting water. We could all have our own, they are just so darn expensive for them to buy, so we try and "do as the romans do" and share a teabag) and ate some hiam (close to sausage or bologna I guess?) sushi rolls she had made.

Emily and Julie left, and so Peter, Peter's host mother, and I shared dinner, where she asked us what we like to do, and then she proceeded to ask me if I like to cook, clean, etc. (like a good Mongolian woman!!) and if Peter liked to work with his hands. And from out of NOWHERE, she asks if I like to milk animals. (I suppose like a good Mongolian woman would!) I said yes, and she swooped us over to the other family's hashaa next door, where we played with farm animals for an hour, and yes, I milked a cow and played around with goats. Peter was our official "photographer" (I think he might be afraid of animals!!)

The next day I suprised him with his birthday "trip" -- we hiked to a sacred Mongolian Owoo (I think after this weekend I hiked/walked 12 miles total!!!) and I gave him 5 or 6 sacred "offerings" to present at the Owoo. This owoo was the "mother tree" a GIANT owoo -- absolutely enormous and very special and a spiritual birthday I think for Peter! (He'll have to give all the details).

We returned home and made Pizza (yes pizza!! well, fried bread and then topped it with veggies and hiam!) and his family hosted a family birthday party for him where they served the cake I brought for them/him.

All in all things are going very well for us, we're happy, we're tired, we're busy as all get out, and we've been working our tushes off (literally our pants are starting to fall down).

Love to you all, and we'll catch up more this weekend once we get paid another $20 for the month and then we can use the internet more!!!

Love you!
Cady

PS-- MORE KISS KISS THE CAT DRAMA.... (well Hamar Har, the new black nose cat I brought to replace the one that was murdered!) The other morning, I woke up and he was yowling. He had stuck his whiskers in the electrical socket and was frying his face off (seriously!!) When he finally pulled it out, his face has been charred from side to side, and now his back legs don't work at all. Terrible! Hopefully this cat lives..... we'll see. I'lll keep you posted on the Mongolian Cat Drama as it develops.


July 27, 2007
Hope this finds you well! I have been having a terrible time finding any reliable internet and hopefully this reaches you without too much clicking and re-clicking...

It's miserably hot here. Just absolutely suffocating, and I'm not sure how Peace Corps countries along the equator do it. I assume come winter, Peter and I will be thankful, but until then, I will continue to complain, because we will have the cold to complain about! :)

Training is going well-- we're as busy as ever, gearing up to head out to site on August 20. We will have a new address at that point, so we can notify you then of what our address and location are. Our new site placement will have on August 9, and we'll have 9 days closing up pre-service training before then ship the two of us off into whatever sunset they have in mind...

Our family cat healed magically... i think it might be the raw mutton patty it ate every morning!!

We miss you all terribly. Getting a little homesick now and then, but coming into emails after a long absence is really helpful even if we have no time to write back. Once we get to site, we'll be more communicative, hopefully. Unless we're in the Gobi with a camel to send messages by. From our job indications however, I find that pretty unlikely. I have been told my job placement will probably have a computer WITH the internet for me to use ALL BY MYSELF! :) Not too bad as Peace Corps goes I suppose! Once we get to site we'll have more pictures, some blog postings, and actual information to give you. At this point, we're in the dark.

We'll also get cell phones come mid-August so I hope you'll be able to call us from time to time. There are some very good phone card rates to Mongolia.

Tomorrow we head to Amarbaysalant, a monastary, as part of our Culture training... 6 hour "meeker" ( micro bus that seats 8 but they shove in 24) ride... 90million degrees... not so fun!! Peter will be in Darkhan all weekend, so he may have better internet access....

This may be my last email access for awhile, but I will try my best, so please keep your letters and emails coming :) They have meant a lot to us! We'll make sure to email once we have our site!!

Love,
Cady


July 30, 2007

Okay, so I have a lot of emails today, and, as usual, not enough time. So, hello, I love you all!

As far as sending stuff here, I'd wait until we can figure out how to get things to our families. It's more complicated than you'd think. So, stand by for further information.

I'm sorry to hear that some of the contents of the package will not make it here. Those cheese crackers would have been awesome. I fantasize about eating Doritos about twice a week. Lol. I know, though, that we will LOVE to open up what you sent. I have been itching to get the package!

As Cady noted last weekend, it has been oppressively hot here...for about 2 weeks now. I really hope that it will let down soon. I think that I might be melting. It's been tough to get motivated to learn and teach. I will also be giving a presentation about writing a personal essay during a seminar for Mongolian teachers this Friday. Needless to say, it will probably still be hot. Darkhan, where the seminar is and where I was this past weekend was also very hot. It's sad that that is what is coloring this last part of our host stay. Right now it looks like it might rain and cool us off a little. about 20 degrees would be nice.

Other than that, there really isn't a whole lot to report. We are coming to the end of things here in SB. Our langauge test is on Monday next week. We leave here that next Thursday and find out where we will be going. We will go to UB for about a week and then we are off! Right now I am just trying to end PST strongly. I'm feel so so about it. My language study has suffered becuase of the heat and because I am spending the time I would be studying lesson planning. But, that is all coming to an end. It's really starting to get exciting.

Like Cady said, we will try to communicate more and better when we get to site!

Please keep sending us lots of emails. Even though we cannot respond to them all or even a lot of the details or questions, we really love hearing about everything that is going on with all of you. It's such a breath of fresh air. Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping us so much in the loop! I spend almost all of my time at the computer reading. And I don't think that my organization of thought or grammar and sentence structure has been any worse. Lol. I love it!

Love,
Peter