A Countryside Wedding

As I walked home after work, I thought about what I might be getting myself into. Only weeks earlier had I told my counterparts that I really wanted to see a real Mongolian wedding, a countryside affair. Jokingly, I had told the only single female of the group, Uyangaa that she has only 10 months to wed before time was up, before I’d be on my way back to America. Now one of my students was getting married. What luck! And Khugjmaa, a sort of surrogate mother figure to me, made, on my behalf, unbeknownst to me, a request for invitation to the nuptials. How fortuitous! I could not help but wonder, though, what does a traditional countryside Mongolian wedding look like? What part would I take in it? I knew that many Mongolians were now getting married at wedding palaces, either in Darkhan, or, more likely, in Ulaanbaatar (UB). That, however, was an option generally reserved for those with money and an interest in celebrating in a more “western” style, an option I guessed Dulamsuren’s (Allie’s) family never once considered. The only thing that I was sure of was that the wedding I would be attending tomorrow morning would likely be nothing like my own and that my living in Mongolia only opened the limitlessness of possibilities. As for the rest, I’d just have to wait and see.

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One YEAR!

Well, we made it! It's been a year (TODAY!), and we're so happy to share with all of you that we are happy, healthy, and time has been flying by! It's hard to believe that only one year ago we knew very little about our future home, spoke no Mongolian, and were flying by the seat of our pants. Today, we speak a little more Mongolian, know more about our current home of Mongolia, although we're still flying by the seat of our pants!

Trafficking In Persons

One secondary project I spend a lot of my time on is "Trafficking in Persons," or "TIP", related issues. I sit on the TIP committee for Peace Corps Mongolia, put together training materials for other PCVs to use, give trainings around town to different groups, and work with Mongolian NGOs focused on TIP issues to improve PCV collaboration.

In March, another PCV, our Mongolian counterpart, and I had a hugely successful event-- over 600 high school students attended a training at the local theater, sponsored by the Darkhan Student Union and Women's Union. There was the traditional Mongolian pomp and circumstance, many speeches preceeding our training, a giant sign with logos, and all the traditional Mongolian "event" makings. It was fantastic to see such a large audience reached and awesome to think about making that many people aware of the topic and increasing their awareness of TIP, travelling abroad, and making smart decisions about work/study abroad opportunities.


One of the many speeches preeceding our training

But today, on a smaller, but possibly more effective scale, today I gave a training to 50 college students studying to be social workers. There was no stage, no bright lights, and certainly no speeches by the aimag governor. But these social workers will be the people placed in local government houses, local schools, and hospitals. These women and men will be the ones who can have a direct and real impact on the people and communities they will serve. They were engaged, interested, and feverishly taking notes. They will be the people who can identify vulnerable and at-risk youth, and now armed with the information about TIP issues in Mongolia, hopefully they can make a difference.

It's times like today when I realize scale isn't important-- it's the quality and capacity for development and improvement of those involved.

It's like playing a game of Oregon Trail...

Remember Oregon Trail? The old Apple IIE game, where you got to be a pioneer on the Oregon Trail? Hunting for your food, fording the Mississippi with your oxen? The funniest part of the game was how along the way (it never failed) you would inevitably lose some of your traveling party to diseases we had never even heard of, or thought were only back in the 1800s... like Cholera, the Plague, Dysentary, and other countless odd diseases. We'd laugh and laugh, "Oh Jennifer, you got Dystentary!! Haha!" Little did I know that one day I would be living this game.



I've decided living in Mongolia is like playing a game of Oregon Trail. We still have diseases like Cholera, Bacillary and Amoebic Dystentary, Giardia, Tuberculosis, and the Bubonic Plague here-- we have to "hunt" for our food in delgors (try making dinner out of Russian cookies, onions, and white rice!) and traveling to UB, it wouldn't suprise me if we had to ford the Xaraa River in our mikr bus.

For the last two weeks, I've been out of commission-- got a really bad bout of food poisoning that turned into a bacterial infection bordering on Dysentary. I never thought in my lifetime I would ever see these diseases, but unfortunately, in Mongolia, I have. I know multiple PCVs that have had Giardia MORE than one time, people that have had Dystentary and Cholera. It's literally like playing a game of Oregon Trail here, where you slowly lose members of your travel party to odd diseases. Fortunately, I'm not one of them! I'm on some good antbiotics now, and it seems to be on it's way out. Slowly, but surely. It's always an adventure here.

Wegetables Gone Wild

We're getting out of Darkhan lately, enjoying the warming weather, wind, and beautiful countryside. Last weekend, a small group of us headed out to a small (maybe the smallest I have ever seen!) soum/village to visit another PCV who was having a birthday. It was wonderful to relax and see the Mongolian "hudoo" (countryside) again, and he may have the most beautiful view from his ger door in all of Peace Corps. You step out of his ger, look across the valley filled with trees and a river to a gorgeous mountain. He wins the prize of best view. Not counting our view off the balcony of the old Soviet apartment blocs in Darkhan, of course! There were livestock and herding action a plenty, including recent calf-births and live action castration. Not such a pretty sight. We enjoyed our trip though, and had fun attempting to cook as a large group in a ger with very few electrical outlets and no running water.


Today I travelled to the Selenge aimag to conduct a training on "Uncommon Vegetables" for some of our agriculture clients. We spent the morning discussing composting, broccoli health benefits, and how to plant Catnip to deter pests (Catnip translates into Mongolian as "Cat's Green Vegetable"). I love travelling with my counterparts, as they are always quick to share stories and Mongolian folklore. This trip we stopped at the "Eej Mod" or Mother Tree to leave some offerings and well wishes for our friends and families. Apparently Eej Mod has proven quite powerful, since you can see her spirit shaking the tree branches every dawn, and when the Socialist police came to burn down all Buddhist relics and altars in the early to mid 1900s the officer's family that burned the Mother Tree all came down with a sickness and passed away. Not a spirit you want to mess with! It's a phenomenal sight with altars all over, ceremonious scarves, with milk products and vodka scattered among the tea leaf and candy offerings. It's one of my favorite places in Mongolia to visit, and I hope to keep giving the Mother Tree offerings over the next year and a half so she can keep blessing us with such a wonderful experience.



The Mother Tree

Foolish Day!

April started with a bang in Mongolia, yesterday! Mongolians celebrate "Foolish Day" or "Joke Day" (Hodlaa Odor) pretty similar to how it's celebrated in the US... by playing jokes and teasing each other all day!

We had a great time setting up pranks with, for, and on our counterparts and fellow PCVs yesterday. I say we, but mostly I mean, I did it, and Peter was a victim in our plots! :) The best part was at the end of one of my "pranks" my counterparts were cracking up, and telling me that I should "go to Hollywood" and the best question I got was "How did you know about this great Mongolian holiday?" So it ended up being a cross-cultural exchange about how lots of cultures and countries do practice some form of April Fools' Day.

Happy Spring!

33 Million Livestock...

Interesting article about the Mongolian herding lifestyle-- attributing one of the country's major issues (urban migration) to climate change.

National Geographic Article


"There are 33 million livestock in Mongolia today, more than ten times the number of people."

Wind....

We've decided that the Mongolians are right. There ARE 4 seasons in Mongolia! Really Hot, Rainy and Dreary, Really Cold, and Really Windy. We don't mean to complain-- the weather's really not that unbareable... but it'd be nice to have some more "moderate" weather days... but since arriving, there have been 3. June 4, September 18, and March 9.

All weather issues aside, life has been good. We're busy with work projects, community projects, and the like. The days seem to fly by pretty quickly, and there is never enough time to accomplish what we want to do!

Advice?

I'm starting to get some emails from "incoming" Mongolia Peace Corps Trainees! How exciting, and astounding, actually to think we've been living here for almost a year!

Some answers to commonly asked questions and things I wished they had told us!

1) Yes, you do need to pack the VERY best long underwear money can buy.

2) If you're taller than 5'10 -- bring ALL the clothes and shoes you could possibly need for 2 years. You'll be wearing capri pants with 3/4 length shirts and plastic house shoes otherwise.

3) Don't spend your time at home studying the language. Peace Corps language training is pretty comprehensive and intense your first 3 months. Spend your time eating salad and deli subs and drinking slurpees and visiting with family and friends!

4) Prepare to be stared/gawked at. You will stand out here, regardless of how well you try to integrate. Babies will cry when they see you (ok, this only happened to me once), and women and children will want to touch your hair. It's endearing at first, gets a touch annoying at times, and eventually you grow to accept it as an everyday part of your Mongolian existence.

English Homework

I spend anywhere from 1-5 hours per week with my coworkers working on English, business English, everyday English, and just practicing pronounciation and spelling. They are all so interested in learning new expressions, and learning more English so they can communicate and most especially, use the internet!

Here's a small glimpse into what one of my counterparts did for homework. I find the answers really telling about how committed they are to the work we do and how it helps Mongolia. Some are just really great to read and make you smile.

"Expressions About Me"

I worry about for my country's development
I dreamt about my country is rich country
I am proud of my country's big land
I am interested in sport
I am afraid of China annexation Mongolia.
I don't believe in China
I am good at Basketball
I am poor at machine
I have to develop my country.

---

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…