A year of service reflection

June 2nd was my one year anniversary living in Mongolia. I’ll try to give a reflection of my first year working in the Peace Corps.

Lately, I’ve been traveling into Ulaanbaatar for various business activities. The summertime is the high tourist season in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar has been packed with foreign tourists. Just walking around the city and watching how the tourists act versus how ex-pats act calls for a bit of reflection. I’ve realized that I know quite a lot about Mongolian culture and how to act within it.

After10 months at my site, I feel like I’m very integrated into the community. I know the shop owners, bank tellers, children walking on the street. I’ve started doing more things socially with Mongolians, like cooking dinners together and playing cards. I’ve been teaching yoga lessons at the local gym. The yoga class attracts many new friends that I wouldn’t have otherwise met.

At my workplace, the Chamber of Commerce, I’ve become a lot more involved within the daily workings of things. I’m an integral part of all of the programs the Chamber of Commerce is working on. I’ve honed my project management skills, and successfully been able to adapt to a different communication style.

Recently, at the Chamber of Commerce, we’ve received a grant approval for 5 million tugrugs to update our business information room. We’re buying two new computers, a printer, a fax machine, a camera, scanner, etc… We’re also buying business-related magazine and newspaper subscriptions and business books in Mongolian language. We’re upgrading our meeting room, too. The CCI is trying to make it a one-stop place for small- and medium-sized businesses. Every business service those businesses will need is available within the CCI’s business information room. We’ll also have a full time staff member to monitor the room and answer questions. We’ll have “how-to” classes for using the Internet and Microsoft programs.

This summer, I’ve started a Mongolian-American culture club through the Chamber of Commerce. The other PCVs in town attend the classes when they’re in town. We talk about subjects like education, families, healthcare, etc…

Also, I’m in the information-gathering segment for an Ovorkhangai website. The website will be targeted towards foreign tourists who speak English. It will feature Arvaikheer, the aimag capital, and all of the other soums, especially Harhorin, Hujirt, and Bat-Ulzii. My counterparts and I are visiting all of the hotels, restaurants, and businesses in Arvaikheer, Harhorin, Hujirt, and Bat-Ulzii to gather information and take pictures. The smaller soums will tell us the business’ information over the telephone.  This summer will be used for information gathering, and writing the website will begin in the fall.

I’m working on a few other secondary projects at the moment, too. I’m teaching private English lessons to my counterparts and director. I’m working on a few health-related projects with World Vision. I’m finishing up a bank service English class. I’ve been assigned a classroom in America to correspond with, through the Worldwise schools program.

My mother will visit me this next week. We’ll travel around the Gobi, hang out at my site, and see the ancient capital, Harhorin.  Naadam will be held on July 10th and 11th in Arvaikheer. The national Naadam holiday is July 11, 12, 13.

After Naadam, it’s rumored that most Mongolians go on vacation, and work dwindles down. Hopefully, this isn’t so because lately I’ve been on a roll with fulfilling and interesting work.

Overall, I’m happy living here in Mongolia. I have good coworkers and contacts for secondary projects, which allows me to be productive at my work. I have Mongolian and American friends. I have access to the Internet and a wide variety of books to read.

I’ll give an update after my Gobi trip. Check out my newly updated pictures to my Flickr account.

M19 swearing-in ceremony Mongolian cultural performances

Here are some long-overdue videos from the M19 swearing-in performances in Darkhan, Mongolia on August 16, 2008. I finally have fast enough Internet to upload the videos.  This is just a sample of three performances, check out my YouTube channel to view the other five performances, and also three speeches in Mongolian by PCVs.

The cultural performances were the culmination of our summer of training. Each training site had at least one group to represent them in the show. In the show, there were dancers, singers, and instrument players. Each performer learned the traditional Mongolian act from someone at their training site… like an LCF or a host family member. Also, three volunteers, who had outstanding language skills, each gave a speech in Mongolian. Read my previous post about the swearing-in ceremony.

My dance performance

Nathan and Leslie singing; Check out their blog

Tysen playing the yatga with his host mother; Check out his blog

What do you think of the performances? My next blog post will be about the Tsaagan Sar holiday.

Weekend spa retreat to Hujirt with my co-workers

I just returned to Arvaikheer from a weekend spa retreat with my co-workers. The Uvurkhangai Chamber of Commerce received some money from the National CCI because we won the best Chamber for 2008, based upon our annual report. My director announced on Monday, that this Valentine’s Day weekend we would be going on an all-paid vacation! My co-workers each invited a few of their family members, and seeing as I don’t have any family in Mongolia – I was able to invite one of my friends.

The west side of Hujirt Soum

The retreat was in Hujirt Soum, about 95 kilometers north of Arvaikheer, in Uvurkhangai Aimag. Hujirt is a city next to Harhorin, the ancient capitol of Mongolia. Hujirt is famous for its natural hot springs that feed into many spa houses.

The ancient story of Hujirt is that, many centuries ago, a hunter shot and injured a deer. The deer retreated to the hot springs for seven days. After seven days, the deer was fully recovered from its injuries. This is how Mongolians learned of the healing powers of the hot spring water. Now, more Mongolians than foreign tourists come to Hujirt to bathe in the healing waters.

CPs and I at the deer statue in Hujirt, Uvurkhangai

One of the spa resorts is a member of the Uvurkhangai Chamber of Commerce, so our company received massive discounts on services, food, and hotel costs. For example, a shower, bath, or mud wrap would normally cost 3,000 T, but we received a 50% discount for just 1,500 T. Massages and other spa treatments are also available in Hujirt.

Our group left Saturday morning in the director’s meeker. Her husband drove us to Hujirt and back. The trip only took about 2 and a half hours on an unpaved road. Usually driving on unpaved roads makes me quesy, so I shut my eyes and hold onto a ceiling handle.

When we arrived in Hujirt, first we ate lunch of soup and hosher. Then we drove to the mountain that has a statue dedicated to the surviving deer I mentioned above. I’ve noticed that Mongolians like to put many statues and dedications on the top of mountains. It’s usually a hike or drive to the top of the mountain. We drove, considering the very cold weather. Also, pictures MUST be taken in front of the said statue. We took our pictures, enjoyed the city view of the entire city, then went back to the car.

My hair froze in the cold weather

The afternoon was spent showering, getting mud-wrapped, and laying around. Dinner was served at 7pm, then we had a card game night. We played many Mongolian card games, one similar to spoons, and UNO. I always come prepared with my American card game of UNO. It is easy to teach because numbers and colors are a simple concept. UNO is a great game if there is a language barrier. My co-workers like UNO, like my Selenge host family did, therefore we played many rounds.

Sunday morning, my friend and I went to visit another PCV that lives in Hujirt. We chatted for a bit, then walked back to the spa resort. On the way back, we searched for bottled water at the food stores. None of the stores had bottled water… which was a bit strange. That made me feel like I was in the hudoo of the hudoo Mongolia.

Hujirt town center

Sunday afternoon, after lunch, the group loaded into the meeker and drove back to Arvaikheer.

It was nice to finally get a vacation, and one paid for at that. Being a CED volunteer is quite different from being a TEFL volunteer. In this vacation aspect, TEFL, or English teachers, get school holidays for weeks, or months at a time. The schedule varies between aimags, but I’ll use Arvaikheer as an example. In November, there is a week off, December-Jan. about three weeks, Feb. – Tsaagan Sar vacation, March – a week off, then the whole summer is free of classes and teaching. English-teaching volunteers are able to travel and rest during all of these school breaks, without it counting against their Peace Corps annual leave.

On the other hand, as a CED, CYD, or Health volunteer in Mongolia, we must be at work each day. In order to go on vacation, we should take days from our annual leave amount – equaling 24 for one year, 2 per month (unless it is work-related). I must use my annual leave wisely, therefore, I haven’t taken any annual leave days or vacation yet.

Introduction to my Mongolian friends

I will introduce you to my Mongolian friends. Most of my friends are related to my work or to the other PCVs’ work. In Mongolia, most peoples’ closest friends are their co-workers. There is no separation between private life and work life. Therefore, I am good friends with my co-workers. I am also good friends with other PCVs’ coworkers.

First, I will introduce you to my co-worker friends. In Peace Corps terminology, co-worker = counterpart. Counterpart = a person who a Peace Corps volunteer develops the capacity of.

Ganaa, my counterpart, and I

Ganaa is a manager at the Chamber of Commerce. She has a business degree from the Agricultural University in UB. Before working at the CCI, she was a secretary at the local airport. Ganaa’s English is limited, but she always does her English homework and tries hard in class. Ganaa is very bright and funny. Ganaa has three children and is married.

Aagii, my counterpart, and I

Aagii became my counterpart in November 2008. She used to work as a financial officer at Haas Bank. Aagii has a business degree from a UB business school. Now, Aagii is in charge of the business information room in our new building. I’m teaching Aagii how to find information on the Internet for clients. She and I, together, are writing a survey and proposal to get equipment for the information room. She is about 26 years old and not married. She lives in a ger, like me.

Oyunaa, my main counterpart, and I

Oyunaa was the first co-worker that I met. She picked me up in Darkhan at Final Center Days. Oyunaa has an accouting degree from the School of Technology and Science in Arvaikheer, Uvurkhangai. Last year, she studied   English in India for 5 months. Oyunaa is the counterpart that I go to if I have any problems with my ger or in my life. Oyunaa attended IST training with me. We learned how to effectively work together on projects.

Oyunaa always writes me texts like “How are you. How is your body. How is your weekend.” She is always looking after me. She always says, “If you have problem, just tell to me and I will help to you.” She’s great!

Nasilmaa and her husband

Nasilmaa is one of my counterparts. She had a baby girl in October. “Nasaa” worked as the director of the CCI until she had her baby. I have visited Nasaa’s ger three different times. She loves having people over. Now she is on maternity leave, and I haven’t seen her in a while.

Zolzaya, my director

Zolzaya, or Zoloo, is the director of the CCI. Her English is almost flawless, besides the fact that she leaves out articles. Zoloo worked in Germany for 2 years, and knows German fluently. Zoloo is married and has 3 children. She has a Masters degree in Accounting. She also does auditing work alongside her CCI position. She is a very smart woman, and I am very lucky to have her as my director. She always sees the business side of things. She is a very hard worker and a go-getter!

Choka and Tonga

Last year, Choka and Tonga were students at the University of Technology and Science. They’ve graduated now and both are working as English teachers. I hang out with them on the weekends.

Erika, my Mongolian language tutor, and I

Erika is my Mongolian lauguage tutor. She likes cats, just like me.

Mongoo and I

Mongoo is my best Mongolian friend, outside of my workplace. She is 21 years old and is a student in UB. She is interning at a tourism company in Arvaikheer until May 2009. She and I hang out a couple of times a week. She has traveled to Russia, China, and Korea. She loves learning languages! Her ultimate goal is to be a flight attendant… believe it or not, they get paid a lot of money! In order to be a flight attendant in Mongolia, you must know 5 languages. Her next language in Mandarin. It is nice to have someone to talk about clothes, makeup and boys with. I still don’t feel exactly right about telling my co-workers all about my personal life.

Patrick (not Mongolian), Uugana, and I

Uugana is awesome! She is an English teacher as the University of Technology and Science. She has been a PCV counterpart for about 10 years. She understands Americans more than anybody else in Arvaikheer. Her ultimate goal is to open her own children’s center in Arvaikheer. Last summer, she was the CYD Peace Corps coordinator.

These are my main Mongolian friends. I have others, though, that I hang out with through other PCVs. Many other Mongolians want to be my friend, just simply because I am American. Many people know nothing about me, but want to hang out because I am foreign and those people want to learn English.

Mongolians approach friendship in a different way than I would normally would. For example, the other day I got a text that said, “Sain u? Amber I want to know to you. I took your mobile’s number my friend. I heared your voice. I enjoyed your intonation.”

Or… My counterpart getting a text message at 2 a.m. saying, “I need your volunteer’s phone number. I want to be her friend. PLEASE SEND ME PHONE NUMBER.“

Or… a text message last fall that said, “Where do you live? I want meet to you. I want being your friend.“

Back in America, I would think…. “Wow, creepy. I am not responding to that text message.” But here, the ideas that I would normally think of as stalker-ish don’t exist. Luckily, the people I am friends with protect my privacy and don’t give out my information, unless they ask me first.

I also have several American friends at my site. Some TEFL volunteers are the only American within a 2 or 3 hour radius. Mongolia is difficult for many volunteers because of the isolation. Some Peace Corps countries can place all volunteers within a 2 or 3 hour drive of the capitol city. But because Mongolia is such a big country, volunteers are spread out all over, and normally don’t get to see one another on a regular basis.

I’m very lucky for all of my Mongolian and American friends in Arvaikheer, Uvurkhangai!

How to clean a ger stove

Living in a ger requires me to do many chores that I wouldn’t normally do in America. I have everyday tasks, like making a fire with wood and coal. And weekly tasks, like fetching water, dumping out dirty water, washing dishes, and cleaning my stove. Now, I will tell you how I clean my stove.

I usually make one small and one big fire each day. In the mornings, when I wake up to below freezing temperatures inside of my ger, I make a small fire to last about 2 hours. I’m usually only awake at my ger from 8:30-9 am. I make the small morning fire to keep my cat warm. Also, I make this fire so that my water doesn’t freeze in the daytime.

I make a big fire when I get home from work. This fire must last me until 11 pm or midnight, the time when I usually go to sleep. Throughout the evening, I keep feeding wood and coal to the stove. In the evenings, my goal temperature is from 70-85 degrees F. Luckily, I have a few nice thermometers that my parents sent me from America. The thermometers help me regulate when I add more fuel to the fire.

If I end up not going home after work, but to a friends house – I either stop by my house in the afternoon to make a small fire, or I arrive home around 10 or 11 pm to a freezing cold ger. I’d prefer not to arrive home at 11 pm to a freezing ger because at that time, it just seems a little pointless to start a fire if I am just going to go to bed. However, if I do arrive home to a freezing cold ger, I’ve come up with some tactics to keep me warm within my sleeping bag.

Last night, I boiled some water and then put it in water bottles. I put the heated water bottles inside of my sleeping bag. The bottles helped my sleeping bag heat up pretty quickly. (Remember, I have a cold weather-regulated sleeping bag – issued by the Peace Corps. It just takes a little while for my own body heat to make the sleeping bag warm.)

Everyday, I must empty the ashes from the previous fire. My stove has six, very small holes at the bottom of it to allow the ashes to fall into a bin. Usually I just poke around the stove for 30mins to an hour, trying to get the warm ashes to fall into the bin underneath. I’ve tried quicker ways to get the ashes out through the top of the stove, but the warm ashes usually melt anything that it touches – including old jam jars and cloth coal bags.

I take the ashes into my ping and dump them into a container. I’ve learned to cover-up the container before dumping the ashes. Before, the ashes used to fly up into my face and get my clothes very dirty. Luckily, I’ve learned better.

Another, very important task to do when cleaning the stove, is to clean the stove pipe. Soot will begin to build up within the pipe, if you don’t clean it weekly, or twice a week. The soot could start to shoot out of the top of the pipe, and onto the cloth covering of the ger. What do you think hot soot landing on a cloth could cause? A FIRE! My whole ger could burn down in 15 minutes, if I don’t consistently clean the stove pipe.

Here is a series of photos that shows you how to clean a ger stove pipe:

Step 1 - Take the stove pipe out of the stove and ceiling

Step 2 - Take the pipe outside and throw rocks in it

Step 3 - Roll the pipe on the ground, with the rocks inside

Step 4 - Dump the soot and rocks out; Repeat step 2-4 until clean

Step 5 - Place pipe back into the ceiling window and in the top of the stove

These steps take a lot of time. Usually I just hit the stove pipe with a piece of wood and the soot falls back down into the stove. Then it eventually falls through the bottom holes, where the ashes go. Maybe once a month, I take my stove pipe outside to throw rocks in it.

Winter holidays – Christmas and Shin Jil (New Years)

Happy belated holidays from Mongolia! I haven’t updated in quite  a while. Now, I will tell you about the past couple of weeks during the Mongolian holiday season.

Most Mongolians don’t celebrate Christmas, yet UB and the countryside are covered with tinsel and lights. If Mongolians don’t celebrate Christmas, why are there Xmas decorations everywhere? Because Mongolians celebrate New Years for up to two weeks before Jan 1st. The last two weeks of December are filled with parties and celebrations. I came back to Arvaikheer from UB on Dec. 16th and the city had been transformed into a tacky winter wonderland.

As I walked through the market from the bus stop to my ger, I saw half a dozen makeshift stalls selling plastic Christmas trees, strings of lights, ornaments, Santa Claus hats, elf costumes, etc… For the first half of Dec I had been in UB at Peace Corps trainings, where I saw the same Christmas extreme, if not more. In UB a huge Christmas tree was put up in both Sukbaatar Square and in front of the State Dept. Store. However, I thought it was just the major western influence in the capitol city that caused the throw up of glitter everywhere.

I was very surprised to see Christmas decorations available in my town halfway through December. But I guess the timing is typical Mongolian fashion. The goods are available just when or after they are needed. In contrast, in America, many people begin decorating around Thanksgiving, sometimes before that, for the holiday season. In my opinion, way too early. Although, I do like to have the holiday feeling for over a month in America.

Even with all of the tacky tinsel hanging from the ceilings, it didn’t feel like Christmas to me until I got a package from home with my grandmother’s holiday cookies and hot chocolate mix with marshmellows. On Friday, Dec. 19th I received four packages from the post office. Most of them were filled with Christmas-y things and food goods. Once I got the packages, I was able to cook some Christmas-y American food.

The week leading up to Christmas, my work was busy planning “Entrepreneur 2008,” otherwise known as our New Year party. Many organizations use their party to celebrate their successes from the previous year, with the mandatory Mongolian awards ceremony. Also, it is a reason to have a party and see friends.

It is also an excuse to get a New Year’s dress made… THE NEW YEAR’S DRESS. That’s all I could hear about for a week. New Year’s dresses are a big deal for the ladies. The men just wear a regular suit, but the women get a new dress every year. My opinion of most Mongolian New Year’s dresses is that they look a little like an 80’s prom dress, with a few elegant exceptions.

My counterparts began asking me about my New Year’s dress around Thanksgiving. I kept telling them that I wasn’t going to get a New Year’s dress because the Peace Corps budget doesn’t leave any room for New Year’s dresses. Also, I have plenty of dresses in America. I figured if they really wanted me to wear a sparkly New Year’s dress, they’d purchase it for me. It turns out that they didn’t want me to wear a dress that bad.

Many of my Mongolian friends had 3-7 New Year’s parties to attend! They usually wear the same dress to all of the parties. Along with getting their hair done everyday and slathering glitter lotion all over themselves. For some reason, I find it really odd that I’ve typed this much about a dress… moving on…

On Christmas Eve, all of the American PCVs and some of our Mongolian friends gathered at a ger. We cooked a horhog, which is goat meat cooked with vegetables in a container with rocks. The rocks make the meat taste very good, along with our American meat spices. We learned that Mongolians typically don’t eat horhog in the wintertime, only in the summer. We shared a few Christmas traditions with our Mongolian friends, sang songs, and talked about the holidays.

The horhog container with goat meat and vegetables

Eating goat meat and fat on Christmas Eve

On Christmas morning, the Americans were supposed to gather at 11am to have a brunch. However, I didn’t feel like waking up too early on Christmas day, so I got out of bed around 10am. Then, I had to prepare chicken enchiladas for the brunch. This ended up taking 6 hours. Why? Making the tortillas from scratch took about 1.5 hours. And also having a limited supply of cooking utensils made the process long. I ended up at the “brunch” around 4pm.

The “brunch” didn’t begin until 5pm, when all of the food was finally prepared. The food consisted of chicken enchiladas, egg nog, potato pancakes, biscuits and gravy, horse meat curry, pumpkin bread, ginger bread. Yum! Somehow we pulled our resources to make a semi-Christmas-y meal.

All throughout the day my coworkers and director were calling to ask where I was and why I wasn’t at work. I was very confused because I told them multiple times about Christmas and why I wasn’t going to be at work that day. After working out the situation, I figured out that they thought that Christmas and New Years were the same thing and didn’t realize that Christmas was an actual day.

We watched Home Alone on Christmas. My mom recorded the movie from America and mailed it to me. We even watched all of the commercials, to find out new things from America. We began How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but some of the volunteers had New Years parties to attend – including me.

Food coma after eating Christmas brunch, while watching Home Alone

I had very little desire to attend my work’s New Year’s party, just because it was on Christmas and I wanted to be around my American friends to share the holiday. Once I arrived at the New Year’s party, I was seated next to the new aimag governor. That evening, I wasn’t in the mood to put on the “show” of being an “American,” because I was wanting to be at home in America with my family.

The CCI’s Entrepreneur 2008 was quite a scripted party, as most are. We had emcees with overly exaggerated voices hosting the event. There was an agenda with singers from the community, a couple of waltz numbers, a skit by Father Christmas and the Snow Girls, etc… The evening was filled with the awards ceremony and toasts and speeches. Between the awards, the Rocky theme song was played. Between every other event, the “New Year” song by ABBA played.

Me, Zoloo (my director), Aagii, Ganaa, and Oyunaa at Entrepreneur 2008

My counterparts and I in front of the stage decorations

In conclusion of New Year celebrations, I would say that “Happy New Year” by ABBA and “Last Christmas” (I gave you my heart, the very next day, you gave it away) are the most popular songs during the month of December.

During the last couple of weeks in December, I didn’t do much work because my coworkers went to a party almost every night and then were tired the next day.

Dec 31st, my Mongolian friend, Uugana had all of the PCVs over to her apartment for a lunch. We ate boats and made a champagne toast.

Champagne toast for the new year

On the actual New Year’s Eve, most Mongolians stay in with their families. The PCVs in Arvaikheer gathered at a ger, with plans to go to a disco. The disco plans fell through, but we walked to the town square around midnight.

Surprisingly, my community sets off its own fireworks show around midnight. It is all the work of many families. The fireworks show doesn’t come from one central location, like I’m used to in the U.S. It comes from many hashaas setting off fireworks all around the town. Being in the square at midnight, you just turn around in a circle and see fireworks across the whole town. It was amazing!

New Year's Eve in the Arvaikheer square "Shin Jil 2009"

I hope all of you had a good holiday season. Now, I have Internet on my own computer at work – so I promise to update more often. Good luck in 2009!