Home Sweet Soum

Traveled to the big city this past weekend for Thanksgiving. A few facts about Ulaanbaatar the capital (and by facts I mean approximate facts based on what I've heard). We all call it UB, which is way quicker than saying Ulaabaatar everytime! Most Mongolians though just call it the city. It's kind of like New York City, New York I would say. Somewhere between 50-60% of Mongolia's population lives in UB. In UB you can find most any type of thing you would want. There are outdoor markets, a big mall called the State Department Store (though any clothes or shoes in there are wayyyyy too expensive for me and my Peace Corps issued salary!), tons of small shops that sell every type of thing just depending on the store. Then there is a wide variety of restaurants and cafes. The restaurants we went to look the same as any nice one in the US would. I ate pancakes, a wide array of veggies, pizza... I drank coffee and had real red wine (any of the wine that my school has had at events.... I'm not a fan! I would rather have the vodka! let's just leave it at that!) So UB has a lot of appeal, and I really like the city. Plus I stayed at my friend Cassandra's apartment (which I can't even talk about how nice it is or I will start crying in my ger!) with a bunch of other volunteers, and that was just so good to see all my friends again and catch up on things and swap stories. It's also so encouraging to see all these other people enthusiastic about what they are doing, but at the same time all having different very challenging stories. We just relate to each other on so many levels living here together. The downside of the whole trip though was that it was slightly overwhelming. I have been alone here in my Soum for awhile now and love being the only one amongst all Mongolians. So to have all these people I wanted to meet with and catch up was almost too much! It sounds weird... but that's how I felt. And I had this big list of things to buy, and I did buy a lot, but shopping here is different. It's true you can get most everything, but I'm still new, so knowing exactly where and how is still a little tricky for me. Maggie and I were shopping for clothes and we wanted to try on pants. Now I don't know how to describe where we were shopping. It was a big market (inside) so there are just rows and rows of little stands kind of, each one selling different things. So when we wanted to try on pants (yes I know how to ask to do that in Mongolian, pretty proud of myself) what they do is just hold up a little sheet around you and you just do it! So the lady held up the sheet then Maggie and I added a coat on the other side to help each other out. Trust me, you are still not totally covered! So trying on things could be a bit awkward with people all around.... I will get better as time goes on here I think! All in all UB was great, just a big overwhelming.

I was really happy to get back to my Soum, though I've spent quite a bit of time getting my ger to be back in the swing of things! Just getting water again and washing everthing and cleaning out my stove so I can get a fire going so things will thaw out.... it just is a lot to do when you just get back and honestly just want to lay down and sleep! Or eat something because your starving, but all the dishes are dirty so you need to wash them first, which requires water, which you don't have..... not that that happened to me or anything! I'm just saying... haha. School continues to be challenging. They are re-doing my schedule for the second quarter so things are kind of up in the air right now again with when exactly I'm teaching what. I still have my two seventh grades though and my eleventh grade elective. I love the eleventh graders; it is an elective so they are all really motivated to learn English and just really well behaved. Almost to the point where they are so quite and good during my class that I feel awkward with them all staring intently at me the whole time.... Then my seventh graders.... the one class has actually been exceptionally good lately. We play hangman at the end of almost every class because we get through all the material because they are so good. They like to go up and be the teacher and I sit and pretend I'm a student to get in on the guessing of letters. It's funny though because they like me and me only to guess, a kind of "try and stump the teacher" deal, and they have stumped me quite a few times! I gotta watch myself, can't have them thinking I don't know every single English word there ever was.... Then there is my other seventh grade class. Wow, they are like the ultimate test to a person's patience. It's like every class period there comes a time when I just give up, most all of them are not listening, half are not writing anything I'm teaching down, and a select few are so disruptive I'm pretty sure other teachers would hurt them for how they are behaving in my class..... So I am trying to think how I can do better for this class; there has got to be a way, I just haven't figured it out yet.

This class caused me to really think about the question, "What am I doing here?" and not in a way, like I don't like it and want to go home. But just in a way that I need to think about that question and really examine to myself why I am here, and how I can make a difference here. I feel so lucky to have been placed in Mongolia, and the country, culture, and people are beautiful. I really love Mongolia. So that is what makes me think, "How can I help Mongolia?" How can I help my students, thus help the country develop..... That is what I'm trying to figure out.

5 Months in Mongolia

It's really strange to think I have been here for 5 months already. So far the time has gone by so fast that I can't believe that it has already been 5 months... then again, this is the longest I have ever been away from home I think, because even in college I would get home for all major holidays and everything. I am missing people back home, and some things (like my almost daily caribou coffee ~though thanks to my mom I do have caribou beans for my french press :) but I don't miss home to the point that it makes me sad or anything. My Mongolian counterparts will often ask me if I miss home... and I tell them exactly that, yes I miss people, but I am very happy here. Who knows, maybe the miserably missing home will hit in a month or two... will keep you posted!

So this past week was the third week of not having students at school, and next week school is again cancelled for students because of H1N1. Now I know what you are thinking, "Wow, you never work... I'm joining the Peace Corps and going to Mongolia." In truth though I have been working! This past week all teachers went into school. I did English lessons for the teachers, which was a lot of fun for me to teach people English that aren't like hitting each other as I'm talking, and they take notes so well, and repeat after me so well... it was strange! haha Though I am starting to miss my students I have to admit... The other really nice thing about this week was that I met with three new teachers to work on my Mongolian language. This is extremely helpful to me, just to be able to one on one get tutored, and it's also a nice way for me to meet more of my counterparts. So far I know my fellow English teachers pretty well, Tamir very well, but not many teachers beyond that. I mean all the teachers are very nice to me, I say hi to them and all that, but it's not like I can communicate too much with too many of them beyond that because they don't speak English, and my Mongolian... well let's just say it's not at their level yet! haha So anyway, this past week was really fun for me to just study Mongolian and get to know more people that I work with.

Where the real work comes in though is the ger maintainence! Let me tell you, it's a good thing we have not had students so I have not had to prep. any lessons for them because living in a ger is time consuming! haha It is typically like 10 degrees or so outside right now, and into the negatives at night, so keeping my ger warm is constant work. After a week or so of asking my director, my supervisor, my counterparts, etc. they finally did send school workers to my house to saw some wood for me so I can chop it. So I've been chopping wood like it's my job! I feel so good when I get my ambar (little doorway thing they built for the front of my ger) full of wood and coal, only to have the supply dwindled down to nothing in a few days! haha So the basic upkeep of my ger takes some time. At this point I still really like chopping wood and re-stocking everything, taking my dirty water, ashes, etc. out, getting new water and all that... though at some point I'm sure once school is back on and I just don't have time for everthing, I can see myself being like... hmmm an apartment in UB sounds pretty appealing right now! I was helping some guys try to apply for their green cards the other day, and they told me if I can make it through the winter living in a ger then I must be a descendent of Chingghis Khaan... that makes me a little nervous!

Other than that not too much is new... have just been catching up on my reading, studying, cooking a little bit, and cleaning my ger a lot.