Catching up: First Semester at Site! (Part 1)

First off:  BIG APOLOGIES!  I know I've been terrible keeping up my blog, but it's a new semester ( I can't believe it!) at the college where I teach, so I have a clean slate!  My biggest enemy is the same one I had in the States:  time.  As you can expect, I'm keeping very busy here already, but I will try to make weekly to at least put in a brief entry.

For now, however, let me catch you up from the end of PST (Pre-Service Training) to the end of the first semester at the Teacher's College where I will work for the next two years.  Rather than give you a hideously long written entry, I'll share mainly through pictures!

As many of you know via e-mail, I received a new host family just a few weeks before the end of training due to unfortunate circumstances with my first host family.  It was hard starting over with a new family, but having better Mongolian language skills helped tremendously.  And my new family was wonderful.  I still keep in touch with them.

My newer host family had three children - a 14-year old girl, an 8-year old boy, and a 3-year old boy.  (The 3-year old may look like a girl in pictures with his long hair, but in Mongolian custom, children do not get their hair cut for the first time until about 3 years old.  Then, they go through a traditional Buddhist ceremony where the hair is cut; those who cut the hair are believed to blessed with good luck.)  I don't have any pictures of the 14-year old because I actually did not meet her until the week before I left training.  She was staying with relatives in another part of the country for the summer.

I still kept up with my former host mom and to a lesser extent the oldest of my first host brothers and his wife.  My first host mom actually came to our Host Family Appreciation Day picnic by the river in place of my newer family, who had to make an emergency trip to UB on that day.

Some pictures from Host Family Appreciation Day:

 

And our "official" training site group site, with our two LCFs (Language and Culture Facilitators...or language and culture teachers) Deegii and Orgio:

We printed and framed this picture each for Deegii and Orgio.

Finally came the time to leave our training sites, which was a bittersweet.  We were taken to the training hub in Darkhan, and that day, we were given our site announcements - the place we would spend the next two years, the rest of our time in Mongolia (for the most part).  All of the anticipation, the hopes, the dreams good and bad, culminated in this day.  We were taken to the children's park in Darkhan, where a large ground map of Mongolia is.  They started by calling out an aimag (province), a city or town, the specific host country agency (the place you would actually work), and lastly, our name.  Out of the 66 people in my group, my site and name were called second.  It was a little crazy and surreal.  I was lead to a point on the map that I did not know.  I only knew it was kind of in the middle of the country.

For the rest of the week, we learned about our sites, got lots of information ranging from policies and procedures to tips on how to continue learning and practicing Mongolian on our own.  And then, we met our supervisors.  I met Jackie, my supervisor at the teacher's college were I was to spent to work.  Jackie is not her real name, only the name that she has foreigners call her.  Her English is impressive, and she actually helped do some translating for other volunteers and their supervisors who spoke little or no English.

Then, at the end of the week, came the culminating event:  the Swearing-In Ceremony.  This event is a Peace Corps hallmark.  It is the event where one goes from being a trainee to an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV).  Each and every PCV worldwide goes through this ceremony, of which the climax is the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, essentially the same oath taken by the U.S. President and other government officials.

On that day, we all dressed in our dels, or traditional Mongolian outfits.  My del is a winter del, and on that 90-degree-or-so day in Darkhan, I about died of heat stroke in mine, at least the few times we had to go outside.

My swearing-in picture with our country director Ellen and the U.S. Ambassador Jonathan Addleton:

Then, it was off to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, for a quick tour before headed to site.  A few of us went and saw Harry Potter and the Death Hallows, Part 2, in 3-D (in English with Mongolian subtitles) while there:

Then, it was off to site!  My site is the capital of an aimag (province) in western central Mongolia.  It considered one of the most beautiful areas of the country, and my city is one of the most beautiful, surrounded by mountains on many sides:

Bulgan Mountain and the aimag museum:

 
  

A shamanist shrine, known as an ovoo: 

My apartment building (with the red roof and green stripes):

And, of course, some pictures of the inside of my apartment.  These were taken on the first day I moved in, so everything is a little bare:

Ciarra, my training site mate and my site mate now as well, and I met Lauren (left), a professor visiting from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.  Lauren and I are now trying to work on creating exchange programs between WWU and the Teacher's College here.

During my first two weeks here, I attended my first Mongolian wedding receptions.  The actual wedding ceremony is held in a ger and is really only for family.  But the receptions are big affairs here, with lots of food, dancing, singing, toasting, and, of course, vodka.  At the first wedding I went to, I was asked to make a toast and sing to the new couple, whom I didn't know (they were the son and daughter-in-law of one of my counterparts).  I obliged and said a little in Mongolian and the rest in English, with one of my counterparts translating.  Singing and toasting that anyone can do and is kind of expected.  Below are pictures from the reception of my counterpart Lkhagva (seen in a white Mongolian shirt and a hat), who recently got married.  The reception was held in his ger.

My sitemates:  Tim has been here for a year already, and Ciarra and I came with the same group.  J.J. (Jae Jun) and Jong Cheon (who is by the window) are volunteers from KOICA (Korean Overseas International Cooperation Agency), which is essentially like Korean Peace Corps.  We hang out with them a lot.  A third volunteer, HyeJin, a woman, arrived in October.  Here, we're hanging out at Tim's apartment with Lauren and having good food, including homemade chili, past salad, and an apple pie!

...Tim and I both like to cook.

Anyways, I hope to do Part 2 of this update by tomorrow!  Then you can be fully updated, and I can keep up a bit better!

Bayarte!  (Goodbye!)

End of PST (Pre-Service Training), Part 1

It’s very strange to think that PST (Pre-Service Training) is done.  Had there been more reliable access to the Internet – and we actually had WiFi at my site…most of the time – and had we not been kept quite so busy, I would have kept this blog better updated.  Now it’s the end of PST and there are almost too many thoughts and experiences to sum up.  But I will try.

Reflecting back, what comes to mind most prominently is simply the wide range of unique experiences I’ve had so far in Mongolia.  I remember sitting and milking a cow at my friend and sitemate Caitlin’s host family’s khashaa (yard) and thinking to myself, “When in my life would I, a self-confessed city boy, do something like milk a cow?  What would be doing with myself right now back home in the U.S.?  Probably something far less interesting or unique.” 

In addition to milking a cow, I’ve had numerous other unique experiences, among which include:

*Attending Naadam, one of Mongolia’s two great national holidays (the other one, Tsagaan Sar, is in February) in my training soum (village) of Dulaankhaan in July.  There we watched the Three Manly Sports of wrestling, archery, and horse racing.  (I actually only was able to see the first two.)  We also tried Mongol airag, Mongolian’s famed fermented mare’s milk drink.  A truly uniquely Mongolian experience.

*Learning a traditional Mongolian dance with my sitemates that we performed at the swearing-in ceremony (more on that later).

*Learning the Mongolian waltz and having the opportunity to dance it at community dances.  Also, I had the opportunity to learn a few popular Mongolian songs.  Mongolians love to sing and sing with no reservations, which I love.  Singing is a major part of any celebration, and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to sing.

*Learning to cook traditional Mongolian food, including my favorites buuz (steamed dumplings) and khushuur (fried dumplings).  Perhaps my favorite cooking experience was cooking a traditional meat roast with hot stones in a pot over an open fire, usually by the river.  This is a tradition I hope to take home with me to the U.S.

*Going swimming in the beautiful local river at least once a week on hot days and relaxing on the sandy beach on the river’s shore.

*Going hiking with sitemates and seeing the beauty of Dulaankhaan and northern Mongolia from high places.

*Hitting up the local karaoke bar with sitemates and some of our host siblings to celebrate birthdays – those of Marikaa and Daniel – or just to celebrate the end of a particularly arduous week.

*Teaching English to local children and adults and not only receiving great practice but building relationships in the process.

*Cooking American food with our host families and having a huge food party to celebrate as part of a Peace Corps project.  I gorged myself that night. 

*Doing seemingly mundane activities that I would have little opportunity to do in the U.S., such as drawing water from a well with a bucket and rope or becoming completely accustomed to using an outhouse.  Activities such as doing laundry and bathing become triumphal when you wash your clothes by hand and when you bathe in a bucket using water you boiled yourself. 

*Getting to know the local children, who always wanted to play and practice their limited English.  On numerous occasions, I turned into a human jungle gym.  We often played tag and laughed until it hurt.

*Perhaps most of all, getting to know the local people on a personal level.  I cherish all of the memories of visiting the ger of a family that I was able to get to know multiple times and often going to the river to go swimming with them.  I loved going over to Caitlin’s very cool host family’s house and cooking spaghetti for them and having a dance party in the house.  Tungaa, the youngest of the family at 17 years old, decided to try on my size 14 running shoes sitting by the door, and we all laughed for about 10 minutes straight.  I remember going over to my sitemate Sam’s house to chat and ended up being included in his host mother’s birthday party along with my host mom and several other host moms and sitemates.  I can’t count how many times I visited various peoples’ homes and was given food and tea until I could eat no more.   We ended the summer with our host families by having a giant picnic with them and having even more memorable times together.

Of course, there were trials too.  I had to experience an unfortunate problem with my host family, specifically my host father, that forced me to move to another family.  I was never mad and felt bad that I had to leave my host mother, brother, and sister-in-law, as well as their baby, as I had formed good relationships with them.  Luckily, my new host family was wonderful.  My new host parents were so gracious as to take me in only a few weeks before the end of training, and I had a wonderful time with their three children, my new host siblings, a 14-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, and a 3-year-old boy.

I also was unfortunately bitten by a dog twice after entering a sitemate’s khashaa.  Luckily, the bites were through my jeans and were not bad.   I definitely now have battle wounds from my time in Mongolia.

But all-in-all, training was a wonderful experience.  I feel so grateful for the experiences I’ve had and for the new relationships I formed with both Mongolians and Americans.

On the morning we left Dulaankhaan at the end of training, I remember pulling away from the house of my sitemate Ciarra’s host family.  As we left, her host mother was chanting a Buddhist prayer and throwing milk into the air behind us, as Mongolians have done for centuries to say goodbye to loved ones.  As she did, a few tears trickled down her face. 

More to come…

One Month in Mongolia, via pictures!

I can't believe I've been here one month!  (Incidentally, I started this post several days ago, but the Internet connection is not great, so it takes a while.)

Arrival at Chinggis Khan (yep, that would be the Mongolian name for Genghis Khan) International Airport in Ulaanbaatar!

First night in Mongolia.  A bunch of us trainees hiked to the top of a nearby hill by our ger camp for beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.

Brittney and I model our new tumpens - bucket/pot for bathing and washing - which also double as top hats.  ;-)

Buddhist shrine

Shamanist shrine

The Land of the Eternal Blue Sky

My bedroom at my host family's house.  =)

A view behind our hashaa (yard).

My one-year-old host niece.  So cute!

My host brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  And our house!

My host parents and me.

Visiting my host uncle's ger.

Outside of the ger.

Horseback riding!

This place is often quite magical.