Host community walks to the Russian border and falls in a manhole

News travels fast around a small Mongolian town! I’ll fill you in on what the Mongolians in Sukhbaatar are talking about this summer: The Americans. Anything and everything we do, including where we walk and who we visit, is observed by the Mongolian townspeople. The gossip going around is that Bagh 5 Americans had a party and Bagh 1 Americans accidentally walked to the Russian border.

Bagh 5 had a get together this past weekend. The big news from the Bagh 5 party is that an American woman fell into a manhole. How does this happen, you may ask? Well… in Mongolia, especially in Darkhan and Ulaanbaatar, the manhole covers are stolen and sold as scrap metal. You have to be careful not to trip and fall into one, no joke. The manholes are quite deep, usually filled with trash and sewage. In Darkhan, on the way to training sessions, I would pass two dozen manholes without covers. If you spot a manhole with a cover on it, you wonder why it’s still there. Back to the gossip… the American woman that fell into the manhole last weekend is alright. One leg fell into the manhole, and then she caught herself and obtained a few deep cuts.

Hanging out at the local store before the hike

Bagh 1 Americans, including myself, went on a leisurely hike last Sunday to search for a green park that has a view of the Russian border. The morning started off with beautiful weather, blue skies and a nice breeze. We were instructed by one of our PC trainers if we hiked north about 2.5 miles, we could find this “so-called” park. The hike north was very pleasant: we walked through herds of shoats (herd with goats and sheep), walked through a herd of cows, and stopped every so often to take a photograph or two.

Shoats grazing in the forefront of an old Soviet factory

An hour and a half into the hike the group decided that we had to be getting close to something at that point. Low and behold – we spotted a tall, white building amongst the forestry. The building didn’t look like a park; nevertheless, we decided to check it out. We were motioned by guards to enter the area. The guards began questioning us in Mongolian – we didn’t exactly know what was going on.

The group just stood there trying to speak in broken Mongolian, while the guards leisurely perused our Mongolian-English phrasebooks. For 30 minutes, we stood there – not knowing at all what was happening. It was stressful for some people in the group, but I wasn’t really worried during the situation.

Finally, the guards let us turn around and hike back to Sukhbaatar.

We stopped on the way home for a lunch break in a field. On Monday, we found out that where we were was the Russian border and there is a park around that area. However, we never got to the park. After the ordeal with the guards, the whole group just wanted to go home. It turns out the guards just wanted to see identification to enter the nearby park. Yet, no one in the group could figure out what the guards wanted.

A view of the hike

Last week on Thursday, it was my first time to get sick in Mongolia. I didn’t want to tell my host family that I was feeling sick. My family might’ve been offended, thinking that I got sick from their food. However, my little brother noticed I felt bad because I went to the outhouse 2 times in a row, with just a two minute interval. Plus, I was wearing my Northface fleece, jeans, a baseball cap, and two layers of socks – while all of my family was wearing shorts and t-shirts. I had a pounding headache and the chills.

My little brother started asking if I felt sick and if it was an emergency. We communicate with this Mongolian/English phrase book that the Peace Corps gave both the family and me. My mom made me hot tea and massaged my scalp. Then she gave me an extra winter blanket and made a fire for me in the wood-burning stove. They tried to give me some medicine, but I had some Aleve gel caps that seemed to do the trick. Peace Corps restricts volunteers from accepting any sort of medicine from our families. All of our medicine has to be from our PC medical kit or from what we choose at the store. We can’t have any random herbal concoctions if we don’t know what’s in it.

I’ll have more news for you this weekend. Maybe, I’ll write something about Mongolian food or the Community Economic Development program. How is everyone at home? Please send me any interesting news.