Mindy in Mongolia: Thanksgiving

Two things I am tired of in Mongolia - people spitting and hawking lugies on the street and frozen vomit! No, I am not kidding.

I fell the other day and my knees are bruised and sore and I have scratches on my hand. No…I wasn’t drunk nor did I slip on the ice. I just tripped over the sidewalk I guess.

It has started to get cold here. This morning it was -11. It doesn’t feel too bad but then again I am wearing so many layers - tights, long underwear, jeans, wool socks, long underwear shirt, sweater, down coat, scarf and hat. I try to wear my gloves but usually I get too hot so I have to take them off. I’ll take the cold over heat any day though. I like being bundled up, but it does take so much longer when you arrive or leave a place.

Thanksgiving was so much fun! The Peace Corps rented out a hall and also bought turkeys for the volunteers. We all had to bring side dishes - I brought mash potatoes. It was good and I was craving leftovers the next morning but I didn’t have any. A lot of people came in town for the holiday and for a training we had the week after. After dinner, we had a skate party thrown by Rob the owner of AB&F. He is really nice and you will see a volunteer almost any time you go into his restaurant. Best burgers in UB.

The training was actually pretty good I thought. It was just the English teachers and we went to Nukht Resort - a hotel about 10 km outside of UB. We also took one of our counterparts with us. The hotel was very nice and the food was good too. Salad, chicken, even fried fish one afternoon! I roomed with my friend Joyce. We wanted to room with each other but didn’t want to hurt our counterparts’ feelings but telling them that. Then Joyce’s counterpart was checking in and she told Joyce she wanted to room with another Mongolian. It was funny how they didn’t want to room with us either! Our counterparts got along really well and they were so nice. One night they invited us to their room and my counterpart, Suvda, had her friend bring us ice cream, cherries, and yogurt from UB. We talked and watched tv. The OC was one (dubbed in Mongolian) and a Mongolian version of America’s Best Dance Crew. One of my students was on it! In class the week before, the other students said he was absent because he was dancing. They didn’t tell me he was on tv! He is so good and it was so cool to see someone I know on tv.

I got some good tips at the training and I’m trying to convince the teachers to let me team-teach with them. Peace Corps is all about sustainability. I’m supposed to work with the teachers and we can learn from each other. That way when I leave, they continue our projects on their own. Right now, I am teaching six classes on my own. I don’t mind it because I am used to it but I don’t feel like I am doing enough. We also talked about starting projects. I want to do something for the community that might not be TEFL based but it is so hard to come up with ideas for UB. The city already has so much! I guess I have time to think of something.

We did get a raise! We had to fill out a living allowance survey about what we spend each month and then the totals get sent to the government. But…they only get sent is 75% of the volunteers fill them out. The previous volunteers have not been filling them out, so this year we rallied! I went to the store and got prices for the things on the survey and sent them out to all the volunteers in UB to make it easier for them. We finally got the results back and people outside of UB will be making 250,100 tugrogs and people in UB will be making 300,100tugrogs! I’m so excited. We were making 196,400 tugrogs. This will really help a lot! I might be able to afford meat! The raise starts in January.

I’m planning a Christmas party for the volunteers in UB. It is at an Indian restaurant downtown. We will have it on Christmas Eve at 6:00. The Indian place is going to put out a variety of dishes and we have to pay a set price. I’m pretty excited. I am also planning a Dirty Santa gift exchange. Hannah (another volunteer) is coming over tomorrow and we are going to make Christmas decorations for the party and I printed out some Christmas trivia. I hope everyone comes and they have fun!

There are three Christmas trees up in Ulaanbaatar right now and they are really pretty. Mongolian celebrate Shin Jil (New Year’s) which they say is like Christmas but it’s really not. They have parties but do not exchange gifts nor are they visited by Santa. They have another holiday in February called Tsagaan Sar (White Star) where they exchange gifts with each other and eat a lot of buuz - meat-filled dumplings. Families usually make about a 1,000 buuz for this holiday and every guest is expected to eat at least 3 when they visit a house. I hope they make beef, chicken (yeah right) or vegetable buuz because I still do not like mutton!
These pictures are a little dark but you can still see the trees and decorations: