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:

 That is my breath in the picture!  It was really cold that day...well...everyday it is cold now!

I made breakfast today with my neighbor Julia and it was delicious! French toast, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sautéed mushrooms and tomatoes! YUM!!!

Hope you enjoyed the blog and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Miss you and love you! 
~M

12.9.2010

More pictures are posted and a blog is coming soon I promise!


http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2225482021/a=151443402_151443402/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

More Pictures

I have posted more pictures on Facebook and Spapfish: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2225482021/a=151443402_151443402/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Enjoy!

Weekend in the Countryside

I went to the hodoo last weekend with my counterpart Tamira, her husband Bayar, and a couple he works with - Batbold and Oyunaa.  We left at 9:00 p.m. on Friday and didn’t get to their friend’s ger until 3:00a.m.!  His name was Poinsic and his wife’s name was Nergui, which means “no name”.  It is a common name in Mongolia.  I was so tired and I know I was snoring in the car.  We walked in and the husband offered us fermented mare’s milk to drink and his tobacco to smell.  I like smelling the tobacco, you can sniff it or rub a little on your nostrils.  The mare’s milk tastes sour!  I just pretend to take a sip which you do even if you don’t like it, but I try to really act like I’m doing it.  I wonder if they know!?  I found out that you have to milk the horses every 2 hours!  How annoying!  Tamira and Bayar bought 60 liters of mare’s milk to take home!  So when we got there Friday night, I asked where the outhouse was and they told me to go just anywhere outside.  I was peeing in the middle of a snow-covered field!  It was just funny.  Then the dog was trying to come near me so I had to finish quickly!  They also had about 100 goats and sheep.  When I would walk out at night to go to the bathroom, all I saw were eyes in the darkness staring at me!  It was a little frightening at first!
    The next day, we went hiking after breakfast and the boys went to try and hunt some birds.  They didn’t catch any, so we didn’t eat lunch.  It was ok, I was reading a good book that Liz sent me (yes…it’s about vampires) and didn’t really care.  For dinner, we had goat.  Goat meat is actually pretty good!  But listen to how Poinsic cooked it…In our ger, we had a stove with a dung fire (because it was so cold!) and he put hot coals in there to heat them up.  Then on the top of the stove, he put on a pan with onions, garlic, and the goat meat.  He then took the coals out of the dung fire and pushed them into the pieces of goat meat to sear it!  I probably ate a little bit of poop!  We also peeled potatoes and put them in there and let it all steam with some water.  It was so good!!!!!!!!!  Goat = good, mutton = terrible.  After that, we played a Mongolian card game. I know the rules, but I am so slow and really have to think about the moves I’m making!  On Sunday, the family was having some tourists stay with them for a couple days but they were staying in their winter ger.  So we had to move everything from their summer ger to their winter ger!  It was 10:45 and I said, “When are the tourists coming?  When should we be ready?”  They were coming at 11!  Oh well, they were late and we were running behind also.  They were a nice family though from London.  They didn’t want us to go home because they didn’t speak any Mongolian! 

Poinsic making the goat on top of the stove

Me taking a picture with the grandparents

They made me put on the dung basket so my family would think I had picked up dung.  You guys know me better than that!  I tried to sling it in the basket but it went about 15 feet behind me.  I was afraid it would fall on my head!

They had the cutest children and they were so happy! 

Group picture!

Student Outing

We had a student outing on 2 weeks ago on Saturday. They told me that we were going to have competitions for the different classes and to meet at 9:30 a.m. downtown in front of the national theatre. I got there at 9:15 and there were a lot of students there which surprised me because Mongolians are always late! Anyway, the other teachers showed up at 10:00. My students yelled at them saying, “Don’t be late! Be on time!” I taught them that. It was really funny. Then we walked an hour and a half to this big field on the outside of town. The competitions were really fun! There was a dancing competition and a version of Simon Says. They also had to take things from nature and glue them on a piece of poster board to make a picture. Well since Mongolians litter, most of them had trash and cigarette butts on their posters! Things I or most Americans would never touch! It was definitely interesting. There was another game where they picked 5 people from every class and made them stand in a line. When they said go, the students had to take whatever items or clothing they had on them and make a line. Whoever made the longest line won. People were taking out and off everything - hair ties, phones, money, bra straps, pants, shirts… I saw 3 boys in just their underwear and one of my girl students without her shirt. I felt kind of strange but no one else seemed to mind. I guess it was normal. We would all be fired if that happened in the states.

Aren't they pretty?!



Me with girls from my 2C class





Me with boys from my 2C class.  They speak English really well!



They are my favorite class but don’t tell anyone!

Alcohol Awareness Week Update

Our alcohol awareness week went really well!  But a lot of the other volunteers didn’t do anything with it.  It was frustrating because I made all the handouts for everyone and Hannah (the other girl in charge) got food and prizes donated.  How easy was it for people to post some signs and bring some students?  Oh well.  But I think the students really enjoyed themselves!  Talk Talk English (an English school here) donated 60,000 tugrogs which is about $50 and 20 free hours of English tutoring for prizes!!!  All we had to do was show a small commercial of theirs.  I made a flyer for the week that says “Alcohol Awareness Week” at the top with the dates and then has each day listed.  We had a essay contest due on Monday, poster contest on Tuesday, students had to look at flyers and brochures hung around school on Wednesday, and Thursday was our party.  The bottom is a Mongolian saying about alcohol.  It says something like alcohol affects everything - you, your family and friends, job, school, etc except the bottle.  All in all for our first alcohol week, I’d say it was a success. 

Hannah and Tamira

Students watching the alcohol video

Group Picture

Alcohol Awareness Week

The Peace Corps wants us to start an alcohol awareness week so I am one of the lucky ones that gets to head it up in UB. Yay me!  I’m a sub-warden.  Hannah, who I love, is the warden.  She has a lot contacts so I said that I would head up the essay and poster contests.  They seemed easy to organize and my counterpart, Tamira, helped me a lot.  I felt bad for her because I had to have her translate so many things into Mongolian.  We are also doing this a little late but for the first ever alcohol awareness week I don’t really care.  On Thursday next week (10/16), we are having a get-together at my school with an alcohol documentary, activities, a band, and food.  We will also announce the winners of the contest.  We got two sponsors (because the Peace Corps certainly didn’t give us any money) - Khas Bank and the American Embassy.