Oh how summer vacation is the delight of students and teachers. I left my site on June 3rd to travel around Mongolia with Alona. When I left many of my teachers looked surprised at the length of my trip out of Uliastai, about two months, though now that it is over, it was not that long, though I did miss my site a little bit. The trip to UB was the same as the last time I went in, though it took 30 hours to get there verses 26, a slight but very noticeable difference. Alona met me in UB and we were there for a day. She came down so that we could pick up books from Books for Asia for her school. We did that the following day and then went back to Erdenet for a short spell.
We hung out and did not do much really. We went on a short hike up to the top of a mountain just outside of town from which we could see the entire city, I decided to walk without a shirt and got sun burned also… I did not realize how big the Erdenet ger district, it is HUGE. During this week I also finished studying for the wonderful Foreign Service Officers Test. We went back down to UB on that Thursday night so that I could meet the Ambassador for a talk on the Foreign Service and then take the test on that Saturday. The Ambassador and one entry level Foreign Service officer talked about what the Foreign Service is, about the test in a very general way, and the life of a Foreign Service officer. It looks very interesting to me. The next day I took the test, and four weeks later I got my results. The results were not what I hoped for; though when I received the detailed test breakdown I found out I almost passed. I scored 149, while the minimum to pass was 154 out of a number I am not sure of. Only the top 10% of test takers pass the written test. Next year I can take it again and hopefully should pass.
After I took the test we just hung out in UB. We stayed at our Mongolian friend Tuul’s apartment. There were numerous other PCV’s that stayed there, so it was kind of cramped but it was really nice to see people again. Each PCV is required to have a physical and a teeth cleaning done each year, I managed to get mine done the Monday after my test, I received a clean bill of health. Otherwise we just hung out in UB for about 4 more days before we started our traveling to our friend's sites.
One less than wonderful event happened when we were walking to a local restaurant to listen to a popular local band play. It was maybe a 30 minute walk from Tuul’s apartment, not too bad really. While we were walking by another bar/restaurant this Mongolian came up to us and said hi and shook my hand and then asked me for one dollar. I said no and we kept walking. He kept follow us and continued to ask us for one dollar. We said no again and he started to get angry. We started to walk faster and then he just started to swear at us and attempted to hit me, though he only managed a drunken slap. At this point we start running and he continues to follow us. Alona’s shoe fell off and she fell behind me a little bit, which I did not immediately notice. I looked back and she was taking her shoes off about 20 feet behind me. The drunk guy was not paying any attention to her I guess because he just ran by her and she tripped him. He gets up and is even angrier at us and drunkenly hits Alona’s head. We start running again and he still is following us. He is drunk so we can easily out run him, though he is screaming out in Mongolian something…I do not know what but the next thing I know this other Mongolian that is just walking along tries to trip me, though fails at his attempt. By this time we are far enough ahead of him that we just run to the restaurant we were going to and call our Peace Corps Safety and Security Officer. She came over and helped us out. We met another volunteer there and stayed and watched the band and then took a taxi home.
That is not that uncommon of an event though it seems. I have heard of other volunteers running into situations like this, and there is not much we can do to stop them. You have the options of run or stand and fight, yet either way you seem to lose. If you run you damage your pride though if you stand in fight you run the chance that the Mongolian could get help from other Mongolians and get beat up, robbed, or even killed. The police in UB are not that useful. One other volunteer was assaulted a week after we were and he went to the police and tried to file charges. He was in a store and had witnesses and the assailant had come to the police station with them, the police said that nothing could be done for some reason. I think I heard that they said they had no pen or something absurd like that. I have come to not like UB, and that is one major reason why.
After our incident we hung out in UB for a few more days more or less not doing anything. We went to see the national history museum of Mongolia, though otherwise we hung out at Tuul's apartment. From UB we went down to visit my former training mate, Amber, who is the business volunteer in Arvakheer, Overhangai Aimag. The city is about 25 thousand people, many of the roads are paved (I am used to only having one paved road), and there is a fairly nice variety of stuff in the market. It is a very nice, quiet small town. We took the bus down there; it was a short 8 hour trip. Amber met us at the bus stop and showed us around the town a little. She lives in a nice apartment. Last winter she lived in a ger, though moved into an apartment for personal reasons. She even has a cat to play with, it is so cute. We spent 3 nights there just hanging out; we also played a board game called Settlers of Cathan. We helped Amber with an American culture club meeting, though otherwise we just walked around and went on one hike.
The one short hike we went on was to a Mongolian-Russian friendship monument that is on a hill just outside of town. I started to notice a trend on our travels, whenever we travel the weather was not at its best. Of the three days we were there, two were overcast and kind of rainy, and the third was nice but very windy. We went on our hike on the nice, but windy day. The hike was not to far, maybe a 30 minute walk from Amber’s apartment. When we got to the top of the hill and to the monument, the wind was howling. We made a small picnic out of some snacks and hung out on the leeward side of the monument. While we were sitting on the hill we noticed a small herd was walking towards us, we did not think anything of it, but then this small group of children descended upon us. They were watching the herd, I think. We talked to them for a while and then went back to Amber’s apartment.
We took the bus back to UB and spent three more days at Tuul’s apartment, this time waiting on one of Alona’s old training mates, Jamie, so that we could go back to her site with her. Her site is in Sainshand, which is in the Gobi. We took the train down; it was a slow train, about 12 hours, though comfortable. Again the weather did not cooperate with us very well, it was very windy and sandy for most of the time we were there. For the most part we hung out in Jamie’s ger or a café just chatting and eating. We spent three days there, on the last day it was finally nice enough for us to go outside and for a very very short walk up to the ‘look out point’ which is a small monument that faces south and has a tank on top of it. We took some photos from there, though it was still kind of windy. It was nice to go to the Gobi I will say, though it is very flat. One the plus side we did not get hit by any bad dust/sand storms while we where there.
After the Gobi we went back to UB for our final stay at Tuul’s for the summer. Tuul left to study Environmental Science/Protection at Antioch in New Hampshire in mid August. We stayed at her place for a couple of nights. One the last night we gave her a thank you gift of red wine and bananas for letting us stay at her place for almost two weeks for free, she really liked them.
We took the bus up to Erdenet from UB, it is kind of irritating that all of the central and eastern aimags have nice new Korean buses and the western aimags have the old style Russian buses… Such is life. The bus ride from UB to Erdenet was only 6 hours, though we got stuck in the way back of the bus. We bought the last two tickets for the bus…we had luck with tickets I will say. We always got a ticket, even if it was the last ticket. We got to Erdenet and just hung out for a few days. Alona stayed in Erdenet, while I took a short trip to visit my host family and buy a Mongolian bow and arrow set.
I only stayed in Erdenet for maybe two days before I tracked down a mikr and went to Darkhan to meet Chris, the volunteer there, who was helping me buy my bow. It was my first time back in Darkhan since training and it brought back fond memories of training. I stayed at Chris’s apartment for one night and then we went to his old training site. Two of the volunteers in Darkhan came and hung out at Chris’s place also tht night. Chris’s host family knows the family that makes the bows in his soum. There are only a couple of workshops that make handmade bows anymore and one was in his training site.
We caught a mikr up to my old training site and got off half way and walked to his soum. His soum was really pretty and his host family was extremely nice. We got the bow and just hung out with his host family. The entire family was there or was coming in because it was their soum’s Naadam the following day. His host family runs a hushuur stand during Naadam, so they were super busy preparing to make, I think they said, about 1000 hushuur. That is a LOT of hushuur to make by hand. They had a really nice Naadam; I stayed for about half of the day of Naadam. It was very small, but it had that small town fair feel to it. I really enjoyed it. I also ran into some random tourists that were passing through the area. I left early afternoon to go and visit my host family.
So to get to my host family I had to walk to the road and wave down a ride north. I thought I was going to have to wait for a while for something…nope. Right when I got to the road a mikr that was going north was there. I lucked out big time. It did not take long at all to get up to my old training site. I think it took longer to walk from where the mikr dropped me off to my family’s house, which is on the edge of town, than to get to my site from Chris’s. Now I have not really talked to my host family at all since I left training, I sent them a message saying that I was coming to visit soon…but I never gave the exact date. So when I got there they were not there… It was kind of awkward. My family owns the main store in the area so I just went there and the person that was running the store did not remember me…so I just kind of hung out for 2 or 3 hours waiting for my little host brother to get back. He was getting his test results for the college entrance exam, this fall he is going to start studying to become an English teacher at the school Alona works at. Once he got back he gave me a beer and some snacks and we hung out at the store until the rest of the family got back. We looked through some pictures and I used the internet, I was amazed they got it installed at their store. I feel asleep in the store…only to be woken up at midnight when the rest of the family got back from horse racing at a soum Naadam… They were happy to see me. I stayed there for 2 nights. We hung out and talked some, I explained what I was doing and everything. My host brother and I together got my bow strung and we shot that in the yard a little bit and after that randomly we went to the river. I did not know why at first…but they wanted to clean the car… Got to love random surprises, I just played with the kids until they were done…I am starting to get the hang of playing with children. I left the next day to go back to Erdenet. My host mother helped me find a car to Darkhan and had the driver help me find a car to Erdenet. I was nice; I did not have to hang out to long in Darkhan. I was missing Alona a good bit.
So I got back to Erdenet and we hung out there for a little over 2 weeks I think. Naadam occurred right after I got back. On the first day Dao, Alona and I went and hung out in the Naadam area. It was a fairly nice day. We watched some archery and wrestling, ate some hushuur and just hung out. In Erdenet there is this fares wheel that is kind of random, it was working though the line was really long…so needless to say we did not go on it. The next two days of Naadam were rainy and cloudy, so we decided just to hang out at the apartment. Otherwise for the next two week we just hung out and enjoyed resting in Erdenet (with its clubs, restaurants, stores, etc). A couple other volunteers came passing through Erdenet while we were there also which was nice.
One of the last places we went to was Orkhon soum, which is where Alona trained. It is maybe an hour and a half outside of Erdenet. It was in a really pretty place. Her host family was really nice. Also it happened to be the day before their Naadam so a lot of other volunteers were in. Alona’s Mongolian is not that great, which is not surprising given that she has 25 English speaking counterparts to work with…why would she ever need to speak the language. So I played (adequate) translator for her. We spent two nights in Orkhon, on the second day her host father took us to the ‘river’…which turned out to be the karaoke bar… that was amusing…sort of. Things like that happen all the time. The day that we left we spent the morning with the other volunteers that were visiting their host families. A couple of them were just back from Cambodia, so we got some of their stories and what not. It was nice to visit with people I have not seen in months, even though we had to leave quickly. Her host family seemed confused when we told them that we were leaving and not staying for Naadam, we had our reasons…mainly because we were going to Hovskol right after we got back to Erdenet. So we caught a car to a small town called Hutuul to meet Alona's younger host brother and to find a car to Erdenet, though there were no cars or mikrs to Erdenet. We ended up going to Darkhan and then finding a mikr back to Erdenet from there. It was a pain but hey that is life.
So the high point of our traveling was going to Hovskol Lake. It was awesome. I took a lot of pictures up there. Alona’s dean had gotten two three day tickets at a ger camp free from some alumni and gave them to us, which is why we went up there in the first place. So we took the bus from Erdenet to Moren, which is the capital of Hovskol Aimag. It took 18 hours or so, it was the first time Alona was on the Russian style bus and she did not like it…for me it was the same old self inflicted misery. The bus was slow but it did not really break down at all on the way, which was nice. We got to Moren and met Patrick my old training mate and the health volunteer in Moren. We stayed at his place for a night while we were figuring out what we were going to do. The following day we took a mikr up to Hatgal, the soum on the lake.
The day before we went up to Hatgal the volunteer that lives there got back from traveling with his family around Mongolia. We stayed at his place for one night and he helped us find a ger camp and find a ride to a ger camp. It was almost like he did all the planning for us, which was amazing. We stayed at the ger camp called Natures Door which was 25km from Hatgal. It was beautiful. It is probably one of the nicest ger camps on the lake. We had our own ger and they made three meals a day, three GOOD meals a day. We went hiking, I took a kayak out, and we went biking and just hung out. They had a shower house, with hot water… and it was all right on the lake. It was so nice. It was the high point of the summer I will say. We stayed there for three nights and then went back to Hatgal and found a ride (right away) back to Moren. We lucked out (again) because there was a mikr leaving to Erdenet right when we got in. It was not at all comfortable…though we got back to Erdenet all right.
We got back to Erdenet sore and tired, though safe. We spent five days in Erdenet waiting for the next ride to my site. I got all of the shopping done that I wanted and Alona got the break that she wanted. We hung out with the other volunteers a few times and then we were off again. It was really random how we found our ride. A mikr driver just called me in the morning and said that he was leaving at 12…this was at 9. So we had about 2 hours to get ready and to get to the mikr. I had a bad feeling about the mikr right from the start but ignored it. So we found the mikr and were the last ones in it and then we were off, Ok cool no problem. We were barely outside of town when the mikr veered off the road into a clearing. It turned out that most of the passengers were from one family who were heading back from a wedding. We spent two hours at least in this field while this family was saying their good bye and drinking probably 20 bottles of vodka. We were not impressed for now they were all drunk…which was not that bad except that they were singing nonstop for several hours. There were two mikrs that were going to Zavkan, the other was only people from that family, and in mine were 5 people (including Alona and I) that were not in the family. I will say this ride is probably the worst experience I have had in Mongolia. Since the mikr was mainly one family they just had the driver stop whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted (or so it seemed to me). The mikr broke several times. It seemed that they had problems with their suspension. We stopped randomly for 2 hours in the middle of nowhere so they could wrap the bow under the axle with rubber, and then we stopped for almost 4 hours for them to get something welded. We stopped a few other times on the way for an hour or two each.
We had left Erdenet at noon and got to Tosensengle at 11pm the next day. Tosensengle is 6 hours from Uliastai so I thought we would keep going…nope. We stopped in front of the normal guanz for a little while so the other people could eat. The area was crawling with drunks and police…it was so messed up I was seriously worried and kind of scared. I have heard bad stories about that place. We ended up staying the night in a motel of sorts above that same guanz. The driver asked if we had any valuable items in our bags, se we took them with us to our room. We slept there and then continued on the next morning to Uliastai. It took closer to 10 hours to get to Uliastai. We stopped for food once randomly which took a while and it had been raining all night so the road was bad to washed out. We had to drive on the side of the mountain for a while to get passed a washed out part…Alona thought it was going to flip while we were driving on the side of the mountain. We didn’t and we got to Uliastai safely…if very tired and worn. It took about 52 hours to get back…not fun at all.
And I was back to site…it feels so nice to be ‘home’ again. Alona stayed in Uliastai for two weeks. For the most part we just lounged about the house. We went for a couple of short hikes, and visited some friends houses but otherwise we just hung out and watched some movies and had some dance lessons…yes I am learning to dance a little…I know how shocking. She ended up leaving by bus to go to the Peace Corps training that I was skipping. It feels so weird now to be alone, we spent all summer together and now we will not see each other until December. I am sad about that.
That was my adventurous summer vacation. Now it is over and work starts again. Wish me luck
25.8.09
27.5.09
One Year Peace Corps Recap
Well as you all know, I hope, I am have been living in Mongolia for about a year now. This has been the longest I have been away from home. I will say I have missed some big event while I have been here, my nieces birth and brothers wedding being the main ones. Yet I will say I do not think I will ever be the same for coming here. This is my one year recap and reflection for those who have not read the rest of my random ramblings on this here blog.
We came to Mongolia on June 2nd 2008. It was a long flight, yet it does not seem so bad now in retrospect, given I have to take a 30+ hour bus ride to get to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, on rough dirt roads. Our first three months were more or less spent in training, be that in Darkhan or our host communities in Selenge Aimag, which is in the northern part of the country. Peace Corps has some really good training, and some not so good training. The Peace Corps language programs is probably one of the best in the world. Being in a local community with a family along with four hours of class per day is a great way to acquire the language, though sometimes it is to much. On the same level learning about the culture is much easier, as you are in it. You are not just reading about it, or being told about it, you are in the culture. That along with specific classes on Mongolian culture we learned enough so as not make overly stupid cultural mistakes. That is what Peace Corps does best in training, teaching you how to survive in your host country. The rest was not overly impressive, though they do the best they can so no matter. During training we had little free time really, which is the opposite of real Peace Corps Service. Yet in the end, as a group we found plenty of time to hike in the surrounding mountains and spend time by the river. It was a very nice summer.
Peace Corps is two years of service plus three months of training, so it is really 27 months. While my first three months were spent in the northern most part of the country, my two years is being spent in one of the more western aimags of Zavkan. During training we were in groups of 12, my site in Uliastai was of 5, 3 M18 and 2 M19 volunteers (M means Mongolia and the number is the class, so 19 means 19th class or group of volunteers). I was told when I entered PC that I would be working with small businesses primarily, not so much really. I was placed at a vocational school to help with their basic business class, which is a good idea I think. In reality I have had more than a few problems trying to do anything, though in the end that is what PC is about, trying something new in a new country and to try and make it work. I have been keeping myself busy of course, though with more personal things than work things, which is fine I guess. Normally the first year of a volunteer is much slower than the second year as your language is so bad and you do not know many people. SO what personal things have I been doing, well I have been working on my Yoga, some meditation, and I have been studying for the Foreign Service Officers Test which I will take very soon. My work has been mainly teaching English, some computer classes, and I had a business club at my school. So not to bad.
So Mongolia. What is it like? I can almost hear that being the most common question when I get home, that or what did you do there… Well Mongolia is really nice, once you get used to it. Like any country it is a lot different than home. My house is really nice, I am on the central heat line so I do not have to start fires in the winter, though I get my water from the river (which is frozen in the winter… you get it from a whole in the ice) and use a squat outhouse. Food is the biggest difference outside of language. Here I have a lot less variety of food, less fruit and veggies and more grains and meat, which is fine. We have apples all year so that is nice. The language here is HARD, any language is hard though Mongolian is in a completely different language group than English so there was almost no direct similarity between the two. Since I got to site my language has improved, I am pleased with it so far, though it is still not very good.
Mongolia is a big country. It has many different types of areas, from the Gobi dessert, to the Steppe in the east and the mountains in the west. I am in the west, which is probably one of the most beautiful areas of Mongolia. I have heard many people say that Zavkan is one of the most beautiful places specifically, and also one of the coldest parts. Uliastai is either the coldest or second coldest city in Mongolia on average, which means the winter is cold. Yet I looked online at the weather back home and it was colder back home than here, I laughed at that. So Uliastai is located on two rivers which flow through town and there are mountains all around the city. It is really nice, it has a lot of good hiking really close. Along the river there is grass and some scattered trees, with more trees up in the mountains. On the whole it is really nice.
The culture is an odd blend of traditional and communist cultures. Here the holiday seasons starts with New Years, which has many similarities to Christmas (some similar music and the decorations). I will say I liked that the least, be it the decorations reminding me of Christmas, which does not exist here, or that it is a major drinking holiday. For each holiday the school has a party, which involves vodka, beer, dancing, silly games that are overtly sexual, bad music and food. Though in the end I survived. On New Years Eve though people tend to stay home and have a small family party, nothing to elaborate. Normally the evening is spent watching TV, and some of the stuff on Mongolian TV is pretty funny.
The biggest holiday is Tsaagan Sar or White Moon/Month. That was in February this year, it changes ever year as it is based on the lunar calendar. It is a three day holiday where you visit many peoples homes. Figuring out when to visit can be difficult but do able. At the homes you just hang out and eat small dumplings and drink. At every house a gift is given to all of the visitors, usually a small amount of cash or some candy or something on that line. I really enjoyed Tsaagan Sar.
There are many professional holidays in Mongolia, it is a hold over from Communism. There is Teachers Day, Soldiers Day (Men's day), Women's day, Doctors Day, etc. These follow a typical patter. Arrive at the place on time or not, does not matter. Once you get there you have some milk tea and some soup, then comes a vodka toast beer. Typically some games, dances, and singing occurred during the evening randomly. The main meals arrives eventually, and more vodka is passed around. Not much changes from party to party.
Early during the school year I attended a Hair Cutting Ceremony. This is similar to a Christian Baptism. When a child is born they do not get a hair cut until they are 3 to 5 years old. It is meant to symbolize washing away bad luck or something on that line. That party was mainly eating, drinking vodka, and listening to people sing. A nice small party.
For the most part I have really enjoyed my time in Peace Corps and in Mongolia. It is not what I thought it would be. In the end if everything would be just like you thought it would be, what would the fun be. What is different than I thought it would be? Well work was mentioned already. I thought it would try and force myself to be more social though I still I am kind of reclusive, I have a small circle of friends, though with my language being the way it is I do not visit as much as I was thinking I would. Transportation is different than I though, 30 hours on a small Russian bus…who would have thought. I think the biggest thing that was a surprise is that I have found my self in a relationship with another volunteer. She is in Erdenet, so we do not get to see each other, at the time of posting I will be getting ready for summer vacation which will be spent with her traveling about Mongolia. Her name is Alona and she teaches English, we met during training, she was in a different training group and we just starting talking and it grew from there. Works for me, I cannot complain. Things are not what I thought they would be, yet in the end that is why it is so much fun.
Most Americans have not lived over seas, and I will say it can be very stressful. The things I miss the most are the hobbies I cannot do and the family events I miss. The only hobby I can do here is yoga, and no I cannot touch my toes yet… I cannot practice Aikido, cannot mountain bike or ski. It is very hard to find new music or other media like that. It is hard to keep up on the news, hard to keep in touch with family and friends. Even if it were not a physically trying place to live in at times, it is hard emotionally to be away from home for two years. Most other development workers I have met go home at least once a year for a month or two for that reason. Peace Corps is not like that, we are here continuously, we can take vacation but it is on our dime not the agencies. It is hard to willingly give up being the best man in your brothers wedding or being at your nieces birth, or any of the other celebrations that we miss. Yet in the end how often do you have the opportunity for an adventure like this, to live in a country for two years, to learn the language and culture, and to be 'paid' for it. It is an amazing experience and there is never a good time for something like this, you will always miss something.
Being here and helping with some development project and seeing how others work has changed my opinion of development work on a level. Peace Corps is not a development agency it is a People to People program, we are here to learn about the people and for them to learn about us, while we do work here, it is of debatable value sometimes. Honestly the only way for development agencies to do work is to have people live abroad and work with people, like Peace Corps and missionaries agencies do. Many projects just give money to people and there is no follow up or even preplanning for it. Some projects do not even have much of an impact, though seem on the surface as interesting ideas. This is a hard idea to explain. One thing I am sure of is that just giving people things will not make a difference their lives. There are many school that I have seen that have received things from many agencies, books or computers or free training. Yet nothing has changed there. They do not use them effectively, they just put them in a room and have it for show. How could this be done better, the key is looking at their actual needs from their point of view. They may not need computers or advanced English books, they may not need anything. Development takes time, it take generations, education is key, and training the education staff is probably the most important thing that can be done. Training them in the best teaching methods, helping the country produce good education materials in the native language, and helping create a school system that encourages learning and not just the status quo is what is needed, not computers. Yet, that takes more time and more work. Which is why it is not really done. It is easier to give people computers and say that you are making a difference instead of helping them redesign their exam system. This is just education, business and every other sector has similar things that could be said about them, though I do not know about them as well. Just something I have noticed being here.
Below is a link to an article that is a critical analysis of one former country directors thoughts on PC. I found it very interesting. There are some things I do agree with and other s that I do not. I think it is worth reading, it is a different perspective of the agency I work for that deserves attention.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4295
We came to Mongolia on June 2nd 2008. It was a long flight, yet it does not seem so bad now in retrospect, given I have to take a 30+ hour bus ride to get to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, on rough dirt roads. Our first three months were more or less spent in training, be that in Darkhan or our host communities in Selenge Aimag, which is in the northern part of the country. Peace Corps has some really good training, and some not so good training. The Peace Corps language programs is probably one of the best in the world. Being in a local community with a family along with four hours of class per day is a great way to acquire the language, though sometimes it is to much. On the same level learning about the culture is much easier, as you are in it. You are not just reading about it, or being told about it, you are in the culture. That along with specific classes on Mongolian culture we learned enough so as not make overly stupid cultural mistakes. That is what Peace Corps does best in training, teaching you how to survive in your host country. The rest was not overly impressive, though they do the best they can so no matter. During training we had little free time really, which is the opposite of real Peace Corps Service. Yet in the end, as a group we found plenty of time to hike in the surrounding mountains and spend time by the river. It was a very nice summer.
Peace Corps is two years of service plus three months of training, so it is really 27 months. While my first three months were spent in the northern most part of the country, my two years is being spent in one of the more western aimags of Zavkan. During training we were in groups of 12, my site in Uliastai was of 5, 3 M18 and 2 M19 volunteers (M means Mongolia and the number is the class, so 19 means 19th class or group of volunteers). I was told when I entered PC that I would be working with small businesses primarily, not so much really. I was placed at a vocational school to help with their basic business class, which is a good idea I think. In reality I have had more than a few problems trying to do anything, though in the end that is what PC is about, trying something new in a new country and to try and make it work. I have been keeping myself busy of course, though with more personal things than work things, which is fine I guess. Normally the first year of a volunteer is much slower than the second year as your language is so bad and you do not know many people. SO what personal things have I been doing, well I have been working on my Yoga, some meditation, and I have been studying for the Foreign Service Officers Test which I will take very soon. My work has been mainly teaching English, some computer classes, and I had a business club at my school. So not to bad.
So Mongolia. What is it like? I can almost hear that being the most common question when I get home, that or what did you do there… Well Mongolia is really nice, once you get used to it. Like any country it is a lot different than home. My house is really nice, I am on the central heat line so I do not have to start fires in the winter, though I get my water from the river (which is frozen in the winter… you get it from a whole in the ice) and use a squat outhouse. Food is the biggest difference outside of language. Here I have a lot less variety of food, less fruit and veggies and more grains and meat, which is fine. We have apples all year so that is nice. The language here is HARD, any language is hard though Mongolian is in a completely different language group than English so there was almost no direct similarity between the two. Since I got to site my language has improved, I am pleased with it so far, though it is still not very good.
Mongolia is a big country. It has many different types of areas, from the Gobi dessert, to the Steppe in the east and the mountains in the west. I am in the west, which is probably one of the most beautiful areas of Mongolia. I have heard many people say that Zavkan is one of the most beautiful places specifically, and also one of the coldest parts. Uliastai is either the coldest or second coldest city in Mongolia on average, which means the winter is cold. Yet I looked online at the weather back home and it was colder back home than here, I laughed at that. So Uliastai is located on two rivers which flow through town and there are mountains all around the city. It is really nice, it has a lot of good hiking really close. Along the river there is grass and some scattered trees, with more trees up in the mountains. On the whole it is really nice.
The culture is an odd blend of traditional and communist cultures. Here the holiday seasons starts with New Years, which has many similarities to Christmas (some similar music and the decorations). I will say I liked that the least, be it the decorations reminding me of Christmas, which does not exist here, or that it is a major drinking holiday. For each holiday the school has a party, which involves vodka, beer, dancing, silly games that are overtly sexual, bad music and food. Though in the end I survived. On New Years Eve though people tend to stay home and have a small family party, nothing to elaborate. Normally the evening is spent watching TV, and some of the stuff on Mongolian TV is pretty funny.
The biggest holiday is Tsaagan Sar or White Moon/Month. That was in February this year, it changes ever year as it is based on the lunar calendar. It is a three day holiday where you visit many peoples homes. Figuring out when to visit can be difficult but do able. At the homes you just hang out and eat small dumplings and drink. At every house a gift is given to all of the visitors, usually a small amount of cash or some candy or something on that line. I really enjoyed Tsaagan Sar.
There are many professional holidays in Mongolia, it is a hold over from Communism. There is Teachers Day, Soldiers Day (Men's day), Women's day, Doctors Day, etc. These follow a typical patter. Arrive at the place on time or not, does not matter. Once you get there you have some milk tea and some soup, then comes a vodka toast beer. Typically some games, dances, and singing occurred during the evening randomly. The main meals arrives eventually, and more vodka is passed around. Not much changes from party to party.
Early during the school year I attended a Hair Cutting Ceremony. This is similar to a Christian Baptism. When a child is born they do not get a hair cut until they are 3 to 5 years old. It is meant to symbolize washing away bad luck or something on that line. That party was mainly eating, drinking vodka, and listening to people sing. A nice small party.
For the most part I have really enjoyed my time in Peace Corps and in Mongolia. It is not what I thought it would be. In the end if everything would be just like you thought it would be, what would the fun be. What is different than I thought it would be? Well work was mentioned already. I thought it would try and force myself to be more social though I still I am kind of reclusive, I have a small circle of friends, though with my language being the way it is I do not visit as much as I was thinking I would. Transportation is different than I though, 30 hours on a small Russian bus…who would have thought. I think the biggest thing that was a surprise is that I have found my self in a relationship with another volunteer. She is in Erdenet, so we do not get to see each other, at the time of posting I will be getting ready for summer vacation which will be spent with her traveling about Mongolia. Her name is Alona and she teaches English, we met during training, she was in a different training group and we just starting talking and it grew from there. Works for me, I cannot complain. Things are not what I thought they would be, yet in the end that is why it is so much fun.
Most Americans have not lived over seas, and I will say it can be very stressful. The things I miss the most are the hobbies I cannot do and the family events I miss. The only hobby I can do here is yoga, and no I cannot touch my toes yet… I cannot practice Aikido, cannot mountain bike or ski. It is very hard to find new music or other media like that. It is hard to keep up on the news, hard to keep in touch with family and friends. Even if it were not a physically trying place to live in at times, it is hard emotionally to be away from home for two years. Most other development workers I have met go home at least once a year for a month or two for that reason. Peace Corps is not like that, we are here continuously, we can take vacation but it is on our dime not the agencies. It is hard to willingly give up being the best man in your brothers wedding or being at your nieces birth, or any of the other celebrations that we miss. Yet in the end how often do you have the opportunity for an adventure like this, to live in a country for two years, to learn the language and culture, and to be 'paid' for it. It is an amazing experience and there is never a good time for something like this, you will always miss something.
Being here and helping with some development project and seeing how others work has changed my opinion of development work on a level. Peace Corps is not a development agency it is a People to People program, we are here to learn about the people and for them to learn about us, while we do work here, it is of debatable value sometimes. Honestly the only way for development agencies to do work is to have people live abroad and work with people, like Peace Corps and missionaries agencies do. Many projects just give money to people and there is no follow up or even preplanning for it. Some projects do not even have much of an impact, though seem on the surface as interesting ideas. This is a hard idea to explain. One thing I am sure of is that just giving people things will not make a difference their lives. There are many school that I have seen that have received things from many agencies, books or computers or free training. Yet nothing has changed there. They do not use them effectively, they just put them in a room and have it for show. How could this be done better, the key is looking at their actual needs from their point of view. They may not need computers or advanced English books, they may not need anything. Development takes time, it take generations, education is key, and training the education staff is probably the most important thing that can be done. Training them in the best teaching methods, helping the country produce good education materials in the native language, and helping create a school system that encourages learning and not just the status quo is what is needed, not computers. Yet, that takes more time and more work. Which is why it is not really done. It is easier to give people computers and say that you are making a difference instead of helping them redesign their exam system. This is just education, business and every other sector has similar things that could be said about them, though I do not know about them as well. Just something I have noticed being here.
Below is a link to an article that is a critical analysis of one former country directors thoughts on PC. I found it very interesting. There are some things I do agree with and other s that I do not. I think it is worth reading, it is a different perspective of the agency I work for that deserves attention.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4295
11.5.09
Random Absurdities of Direct Translation
So anyone who has ever tried to learn a language knows it is hard. Living in and learning another culture while learning a language is even harder. For the European languages and cultures everything is fairly similar, the cultures have many similarities, there are many words that are derived from Latin in each language, and the grammar structures are similar to an extent. That is not to say that they are the same, they are not. German is a lot different from French or English or Russian, yet they are in the same Indo-European language group. Now Mongolian has almost no similarity to European culture or language, as it is a Asian culture and the language belongs to the Altaic language group, which included Japanese, Korean, Turkish and, oddly enough, Finish. Being a different language group and a very, very different culture, translating expressions directly word for word can create some entertaining sentences and questions. So I will give you some examples, most of these are everyday expressions, greetings and things on that line. I will write the Mongolian Cyrillic first, the literal translation and then the English equivalent.
Сайн байна үү? = Good is? = Hello. How are you?
Сайн . Сайн байна үү? = Good. Good is? = Fine. How are you?
Сайн . = Good = Fine.
Сайхан амарсан үү? = Good rested? = How was your evening?
Сайхан . Сайхан амарсан үү? = Good. Good Rested? = Good. How was your evening?
Сайхан амарсан. = Good rested = It was good.
Сонин Сайхан юу байна вэ = New good what is? = What is new?
Юмгуй тайван = Nothing peaceful = Not much.
юу байна = What is = what's up?
Юмгуй = Nothing = Nothing.
Баяртай = with happiness = Goodbye.
Сайхан амараарай = Good rest please = Good night.
Сайн яваарай = Goo go please = Have a safe trip.
Сайн суугаарай = Good sit please. = Stay well. (Not sure really on how it would be put in English)
Зүгээр = its ok = You are welcome
Юу гэнээ = what said = What did you say
Чи өөдгуй амьтан байна =You rise not animal are. = You are an asshole.
Those are just a few examples of why translation is hard. Most of these are everyday greetings or expressions, but the last one which is just for fun, but to actually be able to translate properly you cannot just translate the words, you need to translate the meaning of the words across the culture. Which makes learning the culture so important when you are trying to learn the language, you need to understand how context affects a sentence and it meaning. Either that or you need to have a really good language book or teacher that translates the expressions and words across the cultures very well.
Just a random comment on learning a language…and anther reason why it is really, really hard…
Сайн байна үү? = Good is? = Hello. How are you?
Сайн . Сайн байна үү? = Good. Good is? = Fine. How are you?
Сайн . = Good = Fine.
Сайхан амарсан үү? = Good rested? = How was your evening?
Сайхан . Сайхан амарсан үү? = Good. Good Rested? = Good. How was your evening?
Сайхан амарсан. = Good rested = It was good.
Сонин Сайхан юу байна вэ = New good what is? = What is new?
Юмгуй тайван = Nothing peaceful = Not much.
юу байна = What is = what's up?
Юмгуй = Nothing = Nothing.
Баяртай = with happiness = Goodbye.
Сайхан амараарай = Good rest please = Good night.
Сайн яваарай = Goo go please = Have a safe trip.
Сайн суугаарай = Good sit please. = Stay well. (Not sure really on how it would be put in English)
Зүгээр = its ok = You are welcome
Юу гэнээ = what said = What did you say
Чи өөдгуй амьтан байна =You rise not animal are. = You are an asshole.
Those are just a few examples of why translation is hard. Most of these are everyday greetings or expressions, but the last one which is just for fun, but to actually be able to translate properly you cannot just translate the words, you need to translate the meaning of the words across the culture. Which makes learning the culture so important when you are trying to learn the language, you need to understand how context affects a sentence and it meaning. Either that or you need to have a really good language book or teacher that translates the expressions and words across the cultures very well.
Just a random comment on learning a language…and anther reason why it is really, really hard…
1.3.09
Tsaagan Sar
Tsaagan Sar is Mongolians largest a holiday, it would be their equivalent of Americas Thanksgiving or Christians Christmas. During Tsaagan Sar, or White Month/Moon, people visit friends and families homes. Now I was gone for the 2 weeks before Tsaagan Sar so I did not get many invitations to visit peoples homes, though I have few Mongolian friends so that may be part of it.
Tsaagan Sar started on the 25th of February and ended on the 28th. Now the 24th was Tsaagan Sar Eve, it has a name that I cant remember. On the 24th I went over to my Hashaa families home for dinner, it was buuz, potato salad, candy and rice. I made some lemon bars and brought them over, they may have liked it I don’t know, they said it was good. I am sure they have never tasted anything like that. Hung out there for maybe 3 hours, ate and watched TV. Chatted a bit and then came home.
On Tsaagan Sar there are many traditions, I don’t know what they are and don’t understand them. So I didn’t do any of them. On the 25th I went over to my hashaa families again, this time in the morning. My hashaa mothers sister and her family came over to visit. The way visiting works is that you first greet everyone, it is an interesting greeting. You put your arms on the other persons arms and give them a sniff kiss on both cheeks. You start with the oldest and go down to the youngest. Ok fair enough. After that the males exchange snuff bottles, and you smell them. It is another greeting of sorts. So after that it is time to eat. Now we had boiled beef and salads and then bainsh, which are mini buuz, or dumplins. After we started to eat the vodka was brought out. Now each time you visit the host is obliged to offer you 3 shots of vodka, I just did the sip and give back, don’t want to drink. After that people don’t hang out that much, so the gifts are given, every guest gets a gift. Normally it is a haadock and something small like 1k or candy or something. I just got money. During the 3 days of Tsaagan Sar I only visit 4 or 5 homes and it was more or less the same. Some of the food was different, sometimes it was just me visiting or an entire family side, it had lots of variation.
On the 3rd day all of the teachers came to school and greeted each other. Now 50 people is a lot of people to greet and keep track of so it was kind of chaotic at the beginning. After the greeting the two youngest female Mongolian teachers served tea, then candy, then the vodka to everyone. The school had boiled mutton, two of the youngest males teachers carved that and gave it out, as I am the youngest by far but I am foreign so I got out of it. After the meat was given out, the Tsaagan Sar food was given out and that was the end of that. It was very short.
Over all it was a nice holiday, it is very family focused so being foreigner was kind of odd, but it was not as bad as I heard from some other volunteers.
Tsaagan Sar started on the 25th of February and ended on the 28th. Now the 24th was Tsaagan Sar Eve, it has a name that I cant remember. On the 24th I went over to my Hashaa families home for dinner, it was buuz, potato salad, candy and rice. I made some lemon bars and brought them over, they may have liked it I don’t know, they said it was good. I am sure they have never tasted anything like that. Hung out there for maybe 3 hours, ate and watched TV. Chatted a bit and then came home.
On Tsaagan Sar there are many traditions, I don’t know what they are and don’t understand them. So I didn’t do any of them. On the 25th I went over to my hashaa families again, this time in the morning. My hashaa mothers sister and her family came over to visit. The way visiting works is that you first greet everyone, it is an interesting greeting. You put your arms on the other persons arms and give them a sniff kiss on both cheeks. You start with the oldest and go down to the youngest. Ok fair enough. After that the males exchange snuff bottles, and you smell them. It is another greeting of sorts. So after that it is time to eat. Now we had boiled beef and salads and then bainsh, which are mini buuz, or dumplins. After we started to eat the vodka was brought out. Now each time you visit the host is obliged to offer you 3 shots of vodka, I just did the sip and give back, don’t want to drink. After that people don’t hang out that much, so the gifts are given, every guest gets a gift. Normally it is a haadock and something small like 1k or candy or something. I just got money. During the 3 days of Tsaagan Sar I only visit 4 or 5 homes and it was more or less the same. Some of the food was different, sometimes it was just me visiting or an entire family side, it had lots of variation.
On the 3rd day all of the teachers came to school and greeted each other. Now 50 people is a lot of people to greet and keep track of so it was kind of chaotic at the beginning. After the greeting the two youngest female Mongolian teachers served tea, then candy, then the vodka to everyone. The school had boiled mutton, two of the youngest males teachers carved that and gave it out, as I am the youngest by far but I am foreign so I got out of it. After the meat was given out, the Tsaagan Sar food was given out and that was the end of that. It was very short.
Over all it was a nice holiday, it is very family focused so being foreigner was kind of odd, but it was not as bad as I heard from some other volunteers.
Trip To Erdenet
The Trip to Erdenet:
Ok so transportation in Mongolia is not that fun when it is over long distances and involves something other than the train or airplane… So I left for UB on the Feb 4th on the postal bus. Like everything in Mongolia it did not leave on time, it was supposed to leave at noon but I left at 1:45pm. Though I am told that is fairly early still. So we left the post office and start going…just to stop on the other side of town to pick up a couple of other people. Ok I guess that is common. So then we were off.
So the postal buses are the best form of land transportation I am told. I know why now. So this bus was a 29 person bus, it was fairly old but kept in better shape than most vehicles. The seats had some cushion but where not very comfortable, the worst part of the bus is that the backs of the seats are not very high and that they are fairly close together, so a person that is taller than the average Mongolian, like me, have a cramped time.
So we were off, the oddest part of the bus is that like all forms of transports people get on and get off randomly, we picked up probably like 8 people and dropped off 10 on the way to UB at different points, really odd. They just pay the driver and get on… Also while there is a heater, some people do not want it to get that warm, because they are hauling frozen meat and other goods that should remain frozen. We had at least two sheep carcasses on the bus that started to thaw enroute. Joyful.
The best part of the bus is that while there is day light you get to see the country side. Zavkan is beautiful. The mountains are amazing. Though at this time of year it gets dark early so I was not able to compare it to much else but the steppe closer to UB.
We stopped twice for food. Once in Tocensengle, which is the second largest town in Zavkan. Had some Tsoiven and then the other time is in a random soum that I cant remember the name of. It is cheap food at least. After we left Tosensengle the young couple that was sitting behind me started to talk to me for a little bit. I guess the girl is working on her masters of some sort of engineering, she is working at the APU company in UB, which is the main drink producer. Talked with them for a bit and then went to sleep, or tried to anyways. One of my site mates recommended to eat a bunch of Benadryl, though I didn’t as I am not a fan of taking medicine, though I now understand why… .
So trying to sleep worked a little, got maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep total, not very comfortable. After we got to Tsetserleg I couldn’t sleep the rest of the trip. Also at tsetserleg I got a seat mate, a guy just moved over and fell asleep. Now here in Mongolia there is no idea of personal space so yup he fell asleep on me more or less, he slept for maybe 5 or 6 hours. O well, it wasn’t that bad. So as it got light out I found myself in the Steppe, or plains. It is very very dull. The mountains are pretty and I am sure the Steppe is also in the summer but right now it is kind of dull. The rest of the bus ride was dull and uneventful. We got to UB at 3Pm, so it only took about 26 hours to get in, which is insanely fast I am told. It is usually more like 30+ hours. Works for me.
I did not stay in UB for very long. I went to the office to get some mail and other miscellaneous stuff that I needed and then went to the train station. Got to the train station and bought my ticket and then waited there for a few hours for the train to leave. The train is by far the nicest way to travel. It is warm, they have half sleeper cars, you can sleep…ya a lot nicer. The train took 12 hours to get from UB to Erdenet, so while it is nice it is slow. Slept most of the way at least. Got into Erdenet and grabbed a taxi to go to Dao's house to get the key to my friends house. I stayed at Alona apartment, though she was at a school activity until that evening, so I got to relax, take a hot shower, get some movies and nap until she arrived.
Erdenet
Erdenet is the second largest city in Mongolia. It has about 80-100k people that live there. The city itself was built by the Soviets to exploit the large copper deposit that was developed there. The mine at Erdenet is the 4th largest copper mine in the world. It is a massive open pit mine. There are two distinct areas in Erdenet, the city center and the ger district. The city center consists of 6 districts of soviet era block apartments, there are maybe 20k people that live in those max. This is that area that has all of the shopping and nice restaurants. The rest of the people live in the Ger district. There is only one major ger district, and it is huge. It reminded me of the slums you would see outside of Mumbai or San Paulo for some reason. But on the whole it is a very clean, nice city. I think I like it the best out of the three main cities in Mongolia.
So I spent 12 days in Erdenet. What did I do? Well I stayed at Alona's apartment. One the whole Alona and I just hung out for the 12 days. Did a little bit of shopping, ate out a few times, hung out at a few cafes, and walked around the city a bit. We went out to the club Gravi twice, once just because, the other time it was for Bradley's birthday. While we didn’t do that much, it was a real nice break from the countryside and not really doing anything in the countryside. What else did we do? Humm…well hung out and chat a lot…. O ya and we watched Dexter seasons 3 and some Sex and the City. Yup. Lazy vacation.
Well the other thing that happened while I was there was Valentines Day. Now this was the first year I could not dislike Valentines' day. Why you may ask, well because I have found myself in a relationship with another volunteer. Yes It is with Alona, who would have guessed that right? But ya. Valentines day was nice. During the day it was the same old, hang out, watch Dexter, chat. But the evening was were it was at. We went out to eat at Cecily, this was our third choice. Our first choice was a nice restaurant on the fifth floor of a bank, but when we went to order we found out that they had no food for some reason….strange. So we went to a Chinese place, that was also closed. So we ended up at Cecily. We had a meal of sorts, cant really describe it, it was Mongolian. After that we went to a café called Jungle, it was a very green café. It was kind of interesting, it had a bunch of animals in cages, like turtles and rabbits. Was nice. After that we went to Gravi for Bradley's birthday bash. That was just another night at the club.
On the whole that is about all we did. Lazy and relaxing. Really nice vacation.
Trip back to Uliastai.
So I took the night train back from Erdenet to UB on the night of the 18th, so I got into UB at 7am on the 19th. Grabbed a taxi to the office and hung out there for 2 hours until the Dragon center opened. The dragon center is where the long distance buses leave from, and where you buy the tickets for them . I decided to walk there instead of taking a taxi, took about an hour to walk. It was a lot farther than I thought it would be. Got my bus ticket and then walked back to the city center. I did my shopping at that amazing store called Mercury, it has everything almost…
That is about all I did. I hung out at the office and watched the BBC, then I met up with some friends and had dinner with them, went to Tse for a beer and then crashed at Sam's apartment.
My bus left on the 20th at noon, so I had the morning to waste watching tv. Grabbed a taxi to the dragon center this time, to much work to carry my luggage. Got there a little early, but of course the bus didn’t leave until about 1pm, which is normal. The seat that I had was 21, it was ok seat. It was facing with my back to driver and inline with the isle, so I could stretch my legs out, a little. The isle was FULL of luggage. The bus was really full. The bus ride was uneventful, it took 30 hours to get back to site, people sitting around me played some cards games and I just zoned out and tried to sleep. While the bus is the best way to travel long distance probably unless you own your own car, that is to say it the least uncomfortable… it is not fun at all. But o well. Next up is Tsagaan Sar...
Ok so transportation in Mongolia is not that fun when it is over long distances and involves something other than the train or airplane… So I left for UB on the Feb 4th on the postal bus. Like everything in Mongolia it did not leave on time, it was supposed to leave at noon but I left at 1:45pm. Though I am told that is fairly early still. So we left the post office and start going…just to stop on the other side of town to pick up a couple of other people. Ok I guess that is common. So then we were off.
So the postal buses are the best form of land transportation I am told. I know why now. So this bus was a 29 person bus, it was fairly old but kept in better shape than most vehicles. The seats had some cushion but where not very comfortable, the worst part of the bus is that the backs of the seats are not very high and that they are fairly close together, so a person that is taller than the average Mongolian, like me, have a cramped time.
So we were off, the oddest part of the bus is that like all forms of transports people get on and get off randomly, we picked up probably like 8 people and dropped off 10 on the way to UB at different points, really odd. They just pay the driver and get on… Also while there is a heater, some people do not want it to get that warm, because they are hauling frozen meat and other goods that should remain frozen. We had at least two sheep carcasses on the bus that started to thaw enroute. Joyful.
The best part of the bus is that while there is day light you get to see the country side. Zavkan is beautiful. The mountains are amazing. Though at this time of year it gets dark early so I was not able to compare it to much else but the steppe closer to UB.
We stopped twice for food. Once in Tocensengle, which is the second largest town in Zavkan. Had some Tsoiven and then the other time is in a random soum that I cant remember the name of. It is cheap food at least. After we left Tosensengle the young couple that was sitting behind me started to talk to me for a little bit. I guess the girl is working on her masters of some sort of engineering, she is working at the APU company in UB, which is the main drink producer. Talked with them for a bit and then went to sleep, or tried to anyways. One of my site mates recommended to eat a bunch of Benadryl, though I didn’t as I am not a fan of taking medicine, though I now understand why… .
So trying to sleep worked a little, got maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep total, not very comfortable. After we got to Tsetserleg I couldn’t sleep the rest of the trip. Also at tsetserleg I got a seat mate, a guy just moved over and fell asleep. Now here in Mongolia there is no idea of personal space so yup he fell asleep on me more or less, he slept for maybe 5 or 6 hours. O well, it wasn’t that bad. So as it got light out I found myself in the Steppe, or plains. It is very very dull. The mountains are pretty and I am sure the Steppe is also in the summer but right now it is kind of dull. The rest of the bus ride was dull and uneventful. We got to UB at 3Pm, so it only took about 26 hours to get in, which is insanely fast I am told. It is usually more like 30+ hours. Works for me.
I did not stay in UB for very long. I went to the office to get some mail and other miscellaneous stuff that I needed and then went to the train station. Got to the train station and bought my ticket and then waited there for a few hours for the train to leave. The train is by far the nicest way to travel. It is warm, they have half sleeper cars, you can sleep…ya a lot nicer. The train took 12 hours to get from UB to Erdenet, so while it is nice it is slow. Slept most of the way at least. Got into Erdenet and grabbed a taxi to go to Dao's house to get the key to my friends house. I stayed at Alona apartment, though she was at a school activity until that evening, so I got to relax, take a hot shower, get some movies and nap until she arrived.
Erdenet
Erdenet is the second largest city in Mongolia. It has about 80-100k people that live there. The city itself was built by the Soviets to exploit the large copper deposit that was developed there. The mine at Erdenet is the 4th largest copper mine in the world. It is a massive open pit mine. There are two distinct areas in Erdenet, the city center and the ger district. The city center consists of 6 districts of soviet era block apartments, there are maybe 20k people that live in those max. This is that area that has all of the shopping and nice restaurants. The rest of the people live in the Ger district. There is only one major ger district, and it is huge. It reminded me of the slums you would see outside of Mumbai or San Paulo for some reason. But on the whole it is a very clean, nice city. I think I like it the best out of the three main cities in Mongolia.
So I spent 12 days in Erdenet. What did I do? Well I stayed at Alona's apartment. One the whole Alona and I just hung out for the 12 days. Did a little bit of shopping, ate out a few times, hung out at a few cafes, and walked around the city a bit. We went out to the club Gravi twice, once just because, the other time it was for Bradley's birthday. While we didn’t do that much, it was a real nice break from the countryside and not really doing anything in the countryside. What else did we do? Humm…well hung out and chat a lot…. O ya and we watched Dexter seasons 3 and some Sex and the City. Yup. Lazy vacation.
Well the other thing that happened while I was there was Valentines Day. Now this was the first year I could not dislike Valentines' day. Why you may ask, well because I have found myself in a relationship with another volunteer. Yes It is with Alona, who would have guessed that right? But ya. Valentines day was nice. During the day it was the same old, hang out, watch Dexter, chat. But the evening was were it was at. We went out to eat at Cecily, this was our third choice. Our first choice was a nice restaurant on the fifth floor of a bank, but when we went to order we found out that they had no food for some reason….strange. So we went to a Chinese place, that was also closed. So we ended up at Cecily. We had a meal of sorts, cant really describe it, it was Mongolian. After that we went to a café called Jungle, it was a very green café. It was kind of interesting, it had a bunch of animals in cages, like turtles and rabbits. Was nice. After that we went to Gravi for Bradley's birthday bash. That was just another night at the club.
On the whole that is about all we did. Lazy and relaxing. Really nice vacation.
Trip back to Uliastai.
So I took the night train back from Erdenet to UB on the night of the 18th, so I got into UB at 7am on the 19th. Grabbed a taxi to the office and hung out there for 2 hours until the Dragon center opened. The dragon center is where the long distance buses leave from, and where you buy the tickets for them . I decided to walk there instead of taking a taxi, took about an hour to walk. It was a lot farther than I thought it would be. Got my bus ticket and then walked back to the city center. I did my shopping at that amazing store called Mercury, it has everything almost…
That is about all I did. I hung out at the office and watched the BBC, then I met up with some friends and had dinner with them, went to Tse for a beer and then crashed at Sam's apartment.
My bus left on the 20th at noon, so I had the morning to waste watching tv. Grabbed a taxi to the dragon center this time, to much work to carry my luggage. Got there a little early, but of course the bus didn’t leave until about 1pm, which is normal. The seat that I had was 21, it was ok seat. It was facing with my back to driver and inline with the isle, so I could stretch my legs out, a little. The isle was FULL of luggage. The bus was really full. The bus ride was uneventful, it took 30 hours to get back to site, people sitting around me played some cards games and I just zoned out and tried to sleep. While the bus is the best way to travel long distance probably unless you own your own car, that is to say it the least uncomfortable… it is not fun at all. But o well. Next up is Tsagaan Sar...
19.2.09
Teachers day
So I the wonderful world of post-soviet Mongolia there are these wonderful professional holidays. While I am business volunteer and thought I would be able to avoid them, I am at a school. So I got teachers day stuff.
Well teachers day is the first Sunday in February. Our school did three different things. The first was on the Jan 29th, which was a volleyball competition and relay race. I participated in the relay race and then watched a little of the volleyball. It was Bens birthday so I went and hung out at his place. My team won the relay race but we lost the volleyball I think…
The next wonderful thing was the party… More or less the same thing as for New Years. It was held at Crystal, though it started at 3 and not at 6 for whatever reason. So it was a short night at least. I showed up one time, like always. Why I still do that I don’t know, no one else was there on time. People trickled in and most were there at about 4ish. Fair enough. Now I decided to not sit by my translator and instead to sit by the part time English teacher and the other part time teachers that I have never talked to. Now since I am quiet and cant talk in Mongolian, I really didn’t talk much I just…you guessed it, drank and zoned out. Early in the party we all did the walk around and wish everyone a happy teachers day… yup just like new years. Then it was time for speeches, signing, vodka toasts, some dancing, some games etc. Same old same old. Badmagi the part time English teacher tried to teach me the other Mongolian dance that I don’t know, didn’t work so well. But she tried. Let see there were two games that were played. One was that each table had to have 6 people come up and try to make words out of 6 random letters, my team lost we only had 3 words. The other was something about pretending that a monkey was your child and you had to say something to it and give it a kiss. Now the people that didn’t do it the first time were forced to come up and do it. This was a partner game so those that were forced to come up had to give a kiss on their partner where they kissed the monkey. At least I was in the first group I guess…
Ya on the whole that was about it… horrible circle dancing, food, alcohol, etc. Same old same old.
The third and final activity for teachers day was an afternoon out at Tsasni Batz. This is an area that people go to go sledding and hangout. So we left the house a little after 12 and went to get my hashaa fathers Russian jeep to go out there in. Now these jeep are not the best quality but are easy to fix. Now when they tried to start it. it wouldn’t, the battery is not holding a charge it seems so they switch out a battery to start it with and we headed out. So we got there and maybe half of the teachers were there. When I look around I saw that it was an area that I have wanted to go hiking in for a while, so I set off to scale the peak. I also noticed that I am getting out of shape… o well. So walking up the mountain and looking around, the beauty of Mongolia is very odd, it is a very harsh beauty. Not like a rain forest or the ocean. So walking up the rocks and looking around, it was beautiful but sadly I did not bring my camera. It took maybe 45 to 60 minutes to get to the peak that I choose, though it was not as far as I would needed to have hiked to get where I wanted to. That will be summer hike I think. By the time I was on top my feet were getting a bit cold. It was not a difficult walk, though some parts were a bit slick… So on top I decided to take a different way down. I went straight down, about half sliding on my boots and the other half walking. That was fun, sliding down the hard snow… though on the walking parts I ended up getting snow in my boots, so my feet were cold the rest of the afternoon… joyful. So when I got back down the rest of the teachers were doing some sumo wrestling in the snow, I did not take part in that, though I got some food. After the sumo there was a foot race up the hill about halfway. I got forced into doing that, though I won it by a large margin. I really am getting out of shape. Though running up a hill and through snow is HARD work. So finish that and we all just milled around for bit. Then comes the gifts for the winners… beer. I got a two liter of borgio that I don’t want… o well. And then the vodka got passed around, did not drink any of it, just did the lip touch. Drank enough the day before… After that we all went home. For teachers activities this was probably the best one because while it was still horribly structured it was outside and was less drinking based.
I have come to have much more respect for those immigrants that come to the US and actually are able to become part of the culture. I guess in the US it may not be as hard in some ways, as you can do whatever you want within bounds. What are some requirement, well be on time, but otherwise people don’t care what you do… But honestly, if they speech half ways decent English, that is impressive. Many places don’t have that great of English programs, like Mongolia. It is a shame that many people don’t cut them some slack, it is really hard to try to become part of culture that has a lot of things you don’t care for in it, and then having it forced on you. For many of the people coming into the US, the current immigrants are not from Europe, they come from the nonwhite world where the culture is so different, in so many more fundamental ways than if you are Polish or Irish… Cut them some slack. We all came from someplace else...
Well teachers day is the first Sunday in February. Our school did three different things. The first was on the Jan 29th, which was a volleyball competition and relay race. I participated in the relay race and then watched a little of the volleyball. It was Bens birthday so I went and hung out at his place. My team won the relay race but we lost the volleyball I think…
The next wonderful thing was the party… More or less the same thing as for New Years. It was held at Crystal, though it started at 3 and not at 6 for whatever reason. So it was a short night at least. I showed up one time, like always. Why I still do that I don’t know, no one else was there on time. People trickled in and most were there at about 4ish. Fair enough. Now I decided to not sit by my translator and instead to sit by the part time English teacher and the other part time teachers that I have never talked to. Now since I am quiet and cant talk in Mongolian, I really didn’t talk much I just…you guessed it, drank and zoned out. Early in the party we all did the walk around and wish everyone a happy teachers day… yup just like new years. Then it was time for speeches, signing, vodka toasts, some dancing, some games etc. Same old same old. Badmagi the part time English teacher tried to teach me the other Mongolian dance that I don’t know, didn’t work so well. But she tried. Let see there were two games that were played. One was that each table had to have 6 people come up and try to make words out of 6 random letters, my team lost we only had 3 words. The other was something about pretending that a monkey was your child and you had to say something to it and give it a kiss. Now the people that didn’t do it the first time were forced to come up and do it. This was a partner game so those that were forced to come up had to give a kiss on their partner where they kissed the monkey. At least I was in the first group I guess…
Ya on the whole that was about it… horrible circle dancing, food, alcohol, etc. Same old same old.
The third and final activity for teachers day was an afternoon out at Tsasni Batz. This is an area that people go to go sledding and hangout. So we left the house a little after 12 and went to get my hashaa fathers Russian jeep to go out there in. Now these jeep are not the best quality but are easy to fix. Now when they tried to start it. it wouldn’t, the battery is not holding a charge it seems so they switch out a battery to start it with and we headed out. So we got there and maybe half of the teachers were there. When I look around I saw that it was an area that I have wanted to go hiking in for a while, so I set off to scale the peak. I also noticed that I am getting out of shape… o well. So walking up the mountain and looking around, the beauty of Mongolia is very odd, it is a very harsh beauty. Not like a rain forest or the ocean. So walking up the rocks and looking around, it was beautiful but sadly I did not bring my camera. It took maybe 45 to 60 minutes to get to the peak that I choose, though it was not as far as I would needed to have hiked to get where I wanted to. That will be summer hike I think. By the time I was on top my feet were getting a bit cold. It was not a difficult walk, though some parts were a bit slick… So on top I decided to take a different way down. I went straight down, about half sliding on my boots and the other half walking. That was fun, sliding down the hard snow… though on the walking parts I ended up getting snow in my boots, so my feet were cold the rest of the afternoon… joyful. So when I got back down the rest of the teachers were doing some sumo wrestling in the snow, I did not take part in that, though I got some food. After the sumo there was a foot race up the hill about halfway. I got forced into doing that, though I won it by a large margin. I really am getting out of shape. Though running up a hill and through snow is HARD work. So finish that and we all just milled around for bit. Then comes the gifts for the winners… beer. I got a two liter of borgio that I don’t want… o well. And then the vodka got passed around, did not drink any of it, just did the lip touch. Drank enough the day before… After that we all went home. For teachers activities this was probably the best one because while it was still horribly structured it was outside and was less drinking based.
I have come to have much more respect for those immigrants that come to the US and actually are able to become part of the culture. I guess in the US it may not be as hard in some ways, as you can do whatever you want within bounds. What are some requirement, well be on time, but otherwise people don’t care what you do… But honestly, if they speech half ways decent English, that is impressive. Many places don’t have that great of English programs, like Mongolia. It is a shame that many people don’t cut them some slack, it is really hard to try to become part of culture that has a lot of things you don’t care for in it, and then having it forced on you. For many of the people coming into the US, the current immigrants are not from Europe, they come from the nonwhite world where the culture is so different, in so many more fundamental ways than if you are Polish or Irish… Cut them some slack. We all came from someplace else...
Visiting in Mongolia
There are few things about Mongolian culture that I truly like. One of them is their hospitality, the other is their patience. Though they are too patient on some levels. So what is visiting in Mongolia like? Well on some levels it is really odd, but very hospitable. For visiting in Mongolia you just show up, you don’t have to call or notify them ahead of time. Though in normally do, just because I feel it is odd to just show up on someone. Traditionally on the first time you visit you should bring a gift of some sort, I don’t, but I guess that is traditionally proper. Being a foreigner you can get away with stuff easier. So when you arrive at a house you are given tea, either milk tea or just basic tea, and some candy. That is the minimum they will give you. If they have it they will give you bread and jam, or if they are cooking a full meal. Now they don’t ask you if you want any of this. They give it to you and just tell you to drink or eat, very direct and commanding. In grammar terms it would be called the imperative form of the verb.
The odd parts of visiting sometimes is that when you show up, if they are dong something they will give you tea and candy, and then go about doing whatever they were doing and set you in front of the TV or something. I have always found that really odd. If other people happen to be over and they are drinking , well you are drinking now also. Drinking in odd here, being drunk is socially unacceptable, but people drink a lot. You cannot refuse alcohol, it is highly rude if you do. What you do is accept it and then either touch it to your lips or do a ceremonial toast with it if you don’t want to drink. Now being male you get more pressure to drink, but they don’t force it down your throat or anything. One other kind of odd thing is that they will never ask you to leave, they will keep giving you stuff and trying to keep you there. That is considered polite. Asking someone to leave is highly rude. But you just leave when you want to.
The odd parts of visiting sometimes is that when you show up, if they are dong something they will give you tea and candy, and then go about doing whatever they were doing and set you in front of the TV or something. I have always found that really odd. If other people happen to be over and they are drinking , well you are drinking now also. Drinking in odd here, being drunk is socially unacceptable, but people drink a lot. You cannot refuse alcohol, it is highly rude if you do. What you do is accept it and then either touch it to your lips or do a ceremonial toast with it if you don’t want to drink. Now being male you get more pressure to drink, but they don’t force it down your throat or anything. One other kind of odd thing is that they will never ask you to leave, they will keep giving you stuff and trying to keep you there. That is considered polite. Asking someone to leave is highly rude. But you just leave when you want to.
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