Friday, August 27, 2010

End of Summer


Above is a picture of the M21s at their swearing in ceremony! There are now about 140 of us (including M19s, 20s and 21s) serving as Peace Corps volunteers in Mongolia. This M21 group is very talented and many came in with great experience. I think they will do big things in the next two years!
I am considering it the end of summer now, as it is starting to get colder... I am moving from the city back to my Soum... and now I feel energized and ready to start a new school year! This summer has been full of fun things. Last week we had 3 days of a seminar called MST (mid service training) where my group of M20s were reunited again after about a year of being in Mongolia. I loved this seminar because it was more laid back than ones we have had in the past; we got time to reflect on this past year and then look at the next year in front of us. I think we are in such a cool place right now being half-way through our service because I know so much more about everything than I did at the beginning of the last school year. So I am really hoping to use everything I've learned thus far to make this year that much better, while being realistic about everything. I will head back to my Soum tonight, back to the reality of no running water... haha, I could not be more excited though about seeing all my students and everyone again though.
While we were at MST a few friends and I went to a store to buy a few things and the boy working in the store happened to be in 10th grade. We were telling him what we wanted in Mongolian and then he would respond in English. So then I started talking with him (mixed English and Mongolian) and he studies in the 1oth grade and works at this store in the summer, then goes to school in UB during the school year. He went on to tell us that he wanted to involved in an English speaking club or something because they never practice speaking in school. Whenever his teachers give tests they are only writing, so they never really get to practice speaking in English. Some of our Peace Corps friends in UB (and actually most volunteers around the country do clubs like this) do a 'Monglish' speaking night every week for people to come and speak in Mongolian and English so we gave him their number so he can maybe participate in that during this next school year. It was just a really cool thing leaving the store and being like, "see that's why we are here..." for kids and people like that. And I have many students like this boy in my Soum, who are so excited to have me there because they have never had an opportunity to speak with a native English speaker ever before. I am going to try to always remember this fact during this next year. I think it can be really easy to get down if one of my classes doesn't go well because of classroom management, or to get frustrated because things get cancelled or moved around or something like that (these things happen often) and then I forget about this bigger picture and the day to day impact of us just being unique in that we are native speakers.

Anyway, I have a lot that I want to accomplish this year and feel lucky that most everyone I work with in my Soum is motivated and wanting the same things. I think we can make this a really good school year, and I am excited to get started.