H1N1 craze comes to Mongolia

Hello faithful readers… I’d like to fill you in on the current H1N1 happenings in Mongolia. According to the Mongolian government, 8 people have died from swine flu and over 1,000 cases have been reported so far. The first cases were reported just over 3 weeks ago. Currently in Arvaikheer, we have around 200 cases, with 120 on the university campus. Please see the status of H1N1 in Mongolia here.

The original national school break was scheduled to be November 9-14. However, with the outbreak of a few swine flu cases, the government decided to move up the school break to the week of October 26. The school break naturally causes the large concentration of students in Ulaanbaatar to travel to the countryside to see their families, in turn, spreading the flu to the countryside. Because the flu situation worsened during the newly scheduled school break, the government decided to prolong the school break by an additional week, until November 7.

At that time, the national council, created to analyze H1N1, decided to create a 14 day “high state of alert.” See a brief article about it here and here. In summary, all public places, such as cultural centers, theaters, entertainment venues, big markets, etc., should be closed from November 3. From November 7, all public and most private transportation in and out of Ulaanbaatar to the countryside is canceled for one week! No trains, no public buses, no meekers. Basically the only cars that can get in and out of UB are small family cars with a couple of people in them.

All seminars,  trainings, and unneeded gatherings are canceled. Hospital facilities have been expanded, adding extra beds and increased hours for nurses and doctors. The government will contribute about 70 thousand USD in nutritious food for vulnerable groups, such as street people, poor families, and pregnant women. Also, during this 14 day emergency status, colleges and universities will not be closed – in order to discourage students from traveling to the countryside (even though many students were already at home for the moved school break).

Peace Corps Mongolia has called a “standfast,” which is the second step on the four step emergency plan. During standfast, PCVs are not allowed to leave their site, and according to the PCV handbook, should have an emergency bag packed in case the third stage is called. Also during standfast, the PCV should prepare their belongings in case they must evacuate the country. However, we must also go about our daily routines as normal. Interesting…

The next stage is consolidation, then the fourth stage is evacuation. I’ve searched on the internet and found that a few other PC countries have been put on standfast for the swine flu: Mexico, Honduras, and Ecuador. From what I could find, all of those countries were on standfast during the summer, and are no longer in that status – now back to work as normal.

The 14 day “high state of alert” and the expected 4 weeks of school break have greatly impacted many PCVs work in Mongolia. 70% of PC Mongolia volunteers are TEFL, teaching English in schools. With the school break, the English teachers can’t teach English. Also, many CYD (Community Youth Development) volunteers work at schools as social workers = no work. The Health and CED sectors are also greatly impacted by the swine flu. All seminars and trainings must be canceled! What’s a volunteer to do?!

During this time, all of my seminars and trainings have been canceled, including my highly anticipated hotel and restaurant management seminar.  Also, my youth business club has been canceled, and will probably be canceled at least until April. I’m expecting that even after the school break is lifted, no extracurricular clubs will be allowed to meet. However, luckily, I have many tourism web projects going on right now, and an advocacy program for disabled people within the workplace.

Going forward, I’m very interested to see how the government and Mongolia will react to the swine flu. As another volunteer said, “I’m 100% positive that Mongolia will cancel school for another additional 4 weeks, but I’m also 100% positive that they won’t.” If this high state of alert and the school break continues, eventually PC might have to assess how effective the PC Mongolia program can be during this swine flu craze.

My coworkers and Mongolian friends are taking the swine flu very seriously, yet not seriously.  Mostly all people are wearing a cloth face mask, at some places wearing one is mandatory. Mongolians are taking to shamanistic practices to protect themselves from swine flu – like eating horse meat, etc. “Doctors recommend general public to eat more vitamin-rich foods, drink seabuckthorn juices and to consume more horsemeat, garlic, and cruds to keep the winter flu at bay.” (UB Post) See a Reuters video on eating horse meat to prevent H1N1.

In all of my months working and living in Mongolia, I’ve never seen a national wash their hands with soap or cover their mouths with a tissue when they sneeze or cough. Obviously, just because I’ve never seen it, doesn’t mean that people don’t do it… I’ve just never seen it. I’ve seen soap present in the bathrooms in one building – the Arvaikheer government building. I’m sure more buildings are providing soap because of the swine flu craze – but still.. I think the lack of provided soap shows that washing hands are not part of the culture.

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Erdenet with my coworkers for a trade fair. As most people were meeting up with friends they haven’t seen in months or years, I knew drinking vodka and beer would be a central part of the trip. I encouraged my counterparts not to share cups when they were drinking in their groups of friends. (The common practice is to sit in a circle and pass one shot glass around the circle, refilling the same glass each time with vodka for the next person This means all of the people in the circle drink from the same glass….. Hello swine flu.) My counterparts said that they couldn’t not share glasses with others because it is the Mongolian culture.

All in all, my friends ask me daily what they can do to protect themselves from getting the swine flu, but the things I suggest (don’t share cups, wash hands, cover mouth when sneezing, etc.) they say they can’t or don’t want to implement. This is quite frustrating when swine flu is all the talk right now.

Hopefully the high state of alert doesn’t continue, and schools are allowed to go back in session. I’ll keep you updated on the swine flu happenings through my twitter updates.

Arvaikheer business survey results

For the past two weeks, I’ve been doing needs assessment surveys from the local Chamber of Commerce businesses. My Mongolian language isn’t good enough to talk about business concepts, so my counterpart acted as my translator. I met with both small- and medium-sized businesses. Each interview, on average, took 1-2 hours to complete. I asked questions about all aspects of the business, including human resource mgmt, marketing, finances, pricing, supply chain mgmt, etc… I will give you a summary of the results and interesting tidbits.

However, first I’ll tell you how I got to taking the surveys. During the first two months of being at site, the main goal, according to Peace Corps, is to become acquainted with the community, and get your life set up. Work was slow, as I expected it to be because of the cultural adjustment period. The workplace must get accustomed to you and you must get accustomed to them. Because there wasn’t much going on at work, I threw myself into getting to know the community.

After two months of networking, I was ready to get some things accomplished. My workplace didn’t seem to have any work to give me and didn’t have a work plan set out. Therefore, I started training the business professors at the Science and Technology University. The business professors sought me out for my help. They want to learn business English and American business concepts. As soon as my workplace heard that I was training the business professors, my director wanted to hear all of my ideas about how to improve the Chamber of Commerce. I guess I know what to do the next time it is slow at work = volunteer somewhere else, then the Chamber of Commerce will have work for me to do. Or maybe that was just coincidence.

It is important for me to survey the Mongolian businesses. It would be unwise to come to Mongolia and place all of my American expectations on the businesses. That’s the reason I wanted to do a needs assessment survey. The survey had to be done in person, in an interview form, because my director advised that Mongolians would not return a physical printed survey.

My counterpart and I interviewed many types of businesses, such as food stores, bread factories, milk factories, driving schools, hardware stores, hotels, restaurants, construction companies, old person facilities, eye glasses factories, pharmacies, car washes, heating companies, animal hide distributors, the technical university, photograph developers, and clothing stores. All of the businesses we surveyed are Chamber of Commerce members.

One of the purposes of the survey was to find ways to improve the CoC’s benefits package. This year, the number of members has dropped from in the 80s to in the 60s number range. One problem, as found through the survey, is that the members have no idea what the Chamber of Commerce offers! The only thing the members could cite was that the Chamber of Commerce organized the trade fair and a Holiday party. I asked for suggestions about how the CoC can help improve each business. Most businesses responded with the need for new technology information, such as trade fair dates, equipment upgrades, and factory improvements. The members also said they needed training in business knowledge, mostly marketing and management - my majors!

The Mongolian distrust and dislike for Chinese products has leaked into the business arena. Ugh. The business people that wanted an upgrade in factory equipment didn’t want anything from China. They want factory equipment and technology from Europe. Yet, they want equipment that is not expensive. I try to tell them that mostly all equipment or part of every equipment is made in China. It’s not that it is made in China that’s bad – it is the fact that you buy from shitty Chinese companies. The business people could buy from good Chinese companies, but choose to buy from companies that don’t sell quality products. I try to tell them that you can’t stereotype an entire country for having bad goods. I’ve learned that I can’t keep telling Mongolians this, because most don’t understand it. Maybe my goal should be to convert my co-workers first.

The survey showed me that many Mongolians have multiple, unrelated businesses. A bread factory and a hotel. A food store and a car wash. A hotel and construction company. A raw hide distributor that also sells school books. It is quite interesting to see the combinations.

One reason for the diversity, I think, is because of the extreme seasons. Many companies focus on one business for a particular season. Many things cannot be done during the very, very cold months, Nov-Feb. Some things can be done cheaper during the summer months. Many of the factories have to stop producing for the winter months. The construction companies don’t make new buildings during the winter. The milk factory switches from using fresh milk in the summer to powdered milk in the winter. There are many examples of seasonal differences within business practice here.

Most of the raw materials come from Ulaanbaater or Ereen City, China. Some of the raw materials come from Russia. Most of the business people in my city travel, themselves, to UB or China to get the goods to sell in their stores. The owners go at least once a month, if not three times, to get goods to sell in their shops. A couple of the owners put orders in to the distributor companies and have the goods delivered to Arvaikheer.

In terms of human resources, many of the smaller companies employ their family members. If the smaller companies hire outside the family, they look at things like a person’s community reputation, their age, and how many people in a family that person must support. The medium-sized companies give a test to potential employees. Many of the smaller companies said that their workforce was unskilled, but that the owners didn’t have time to train the employees.

I learned many things from the surveys that just made my eyes pop out of my head and think, “OMG! Did you just say that?!” Each time that happened I made a note for the training classes that I’ll be teaching. I’ve learned that most business owners have not gone to business school, and some of them haven’t attended university.

This month I’ll be starting a year long training course focusing on marketing, management, finance, and basic business skills. At the end of the year, I will have a business plan writing session. The target market of the trainings is business owners and managers. I’ve learned that many business owners know very little about business. The trainings will teach the owners about business concepts and how to apply them to their business. After each training the students will get homework and have to apply their new knowledge to their business.

The survey information truly verified the need for the business training classes. The business owners seemed very interested in the training course when I told them about it during the interviews. I’ve had random business owners come up to me on the street and tell me how excited they are about the trainings. I’m very excited that this has caused a positive spark within the community.

There is much more information that I gathered from the surveys, but too much to write here. Do you have any specific questions about the businesses of Arvaikheer?

 

In other news, I made pizza last night in a toaster oven. It turned out alright, but not like American pizza. I’m over bronchitis! And… I can’t think of much else. The weather is getting colder… meaning I’m a fire-building and wood-chopping pro! Some days I wear five layers of clothing. If you want to send me a birthday card, you should probably send it around now. Check out my contact page for my address.

Getting sick in Mongolia

Now, I have bronchitis. I’ve had a cold for the past two weeks that has turned into bronchitis. I’m taking antibiotics. What’s healthcare like in Mongolia? How did I get taken care of? The healthcare “system” in Mongolia for Peace Core Volunteers and Mongolians are quite different.

As a PCV, I was given a medical kit filled with medicine at the beginning of my training. The kit includes many things like gauze, tylenol, benadryl, re-hydration tablets, tweezers, antiboitic ointment. These things PCVs can use at their discretion. During training we recieved a lot of training on when to take what medicine and what actions to take in case an emergency happens. We also received different medicines like antiboitics and tamaflu to take with permission from the PC medical team. To be able to take my antibiotic, all I had to do was call the PC office and state my symtoms. I already had the medicine with me. I didn’t have to have it sent from UB or anything. It’s quite an easy process, now I’m on my way to recovery! woo!

If my medical kit ever runs low on anything, all I have to do is ask for a re-supply from UB. It doesn’t cost me anything, Peace Corps really takes care of its volunteers. If something more tragic happens, then the patient gets flown to a Thailand hospital. According to Peace Corps standards, Mongolia doesn’t have adequate hospital facilities to take care of extreme medical situations. This is one reason why PC Mongolia is rumored to be one of the “more difficult” PC countries to serve in.

During training, PCVs were taught a lot about preventative medical care. We learned how to take care of our health in a bitterly cold country. We learned how to properly and safely chop wood. But we also  learned what to do if we cut off our fingers while chopping the wood. The focus during training was  on preventative care, maybe because there isn’t a very strong “curing” side of medical care here.

As a PCV, we aren’t allowed to use local medical facilities unless it is authorized by a Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO). For example, if I broke my arm, I might use a local hospital to take an X-Ray. Then take a 10 hour bus ride to UB, where I’d be further inspected by a PCMO. If my arm couldn’t be fixed in UB, then I’d be flown to Thailand.

Also, we aren’t allowed to use local medicines. We are only authorized to take what is included in our medical kits. Many of the local medicines come from a shamanistic, naturist background. I remember during training, many of the host country dads would come up with cures that I’ve never heard of for sicknesses. My sitemates would have to politely refuse and say, “Sorry, Peace Corps doesn’t allow it.” Also, we aren’t allowed to give out any of our medicine to our Mongolian friends.

Mongolian hospitals don’t have the types of amenities that many Westerners are used to. For example, if you choose to stay over night in the hospital, you must provide your own food. Usually family members bring food to the sick person, while they stay in the hospital. In the hospital, there isn’t a large nursing staff to look after the patients.

Recently, there have been many doctors that have come to Arvaikheer. The group of Italian and French doctors came for about one month. The foreign doctors trained the local Mongolian doctors. Also, they gave free surgeries for Mongolians in need.

Interesting fact: The plague still exists in Mongolia.

Arvaikheer, Ovorkhangai – My home for two years

As I’ve said in previous posts, I’ll be living in Arvaikheer, Ovorkhangai for the next two years. Now I’ll give you information about the city. In order for you to realize how I live in Mongolia, I’ll show you through photos.

 

Basic information about Ovorkhangai Aimag:

• Capital: Arvaikheer
• Aimag area: 24,286 sq. miles
• Aimag population: 108,235
• Population density: 4 persons per square mile
• Arvaikheer population: 24,200
• Geography: 49% Gobi Desert, 28% steppe, 23% forest
• Transportation: Arvaikheer Airport (AVK/ZMAH) has regular flights to/from UB
• Main industries: Animal herding, traditional crafts, …
• Aimag tourist attractions: Shankh Monastery and Erdene Zuu Monastery

Map of Arvaikheer, Ovorkhangai, MONGOLIA

 

So… what does my small town of 24,000 look like? It’s mostly a town square and the market. There are small non-distinguishable stores scattered throughout the neighborhoods. Each house or ger is surrounded by a wooden fence, called a hasha. I took this photo from a nearby mountain:

 

Arvaikheer, from the west side of town

 

A close up of Arvaikheer’s centre

 

In the picture above, you can see the market, bus/taxi station, government office, theatre, post office, and my new Chamber of Commerce/Business Incubator office.

 

Here are a few photos of the buildings on the map:

 

Government Office

 Post Office

 

Theatre

 

The market is on a main street lined with (mostly) two-floored buildings. Within the two-floored buildings there are many food, clothing, household goods and (crappy) electronics vendors. The exterior of the buildings rarely ever advertise what type of businesses are on the inside, therefore, you just have to go inside each building until you find what you’re looking for. Eventually, though, I’ll remember where each specific store is located.

 

There are a few “grocery/supermarkets,” where you gather your goods, then purchase at the checkout counter. However, most food stores stock all of the goods behind a large counter and the customer must ask for each specific item.

 

Off of the main market road, there is a large group of vendor stalls. The outdoor stalls sell most of the same items that indoor businesses sell. Although in the outdoor market, you can find bulk food goods like rice, salt, etc… Plus, you can find traditional ger materials. In the evenings the outdoor vendors lock up their goods in large metal storage compartments, which look like they were transported on a railcar.

 

 

Outdoor vendor stalls

 

In the market, there are fresh meat, vegetable and milk vendors. A customer can sample the fresh vegetables, milk, and cheese before they purchase. The meat market is… pretty eye-opening. Skinned sheep, goats, and cows are displayed in full form. Check it out:

 

Fresh (or not so fresh) meat market

 

Arvaikheer has three secondary schools. One secondary school is a magnet school, focusing on language and math. The city has a “Technology University.” The uni teaches technology subjects, as well as others, like English.

 

Arvaikheer has some amenities. It has a couple of small gyms. I’ve seen a massage business. The city has about 30 restaurants. I can buy tofu to cook at home.

 

Overall, Arvaikheer is positioned as the fastest growing aimag center in Mongolia – other than Darkhan, Erdenet, and UB.

 

Do you have any questions about Arvaikheer?

I’m a volunteer!

I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Today was the swearing in ceremony in Darkhan. 59 of the original 65 M19 trainees swore in. The U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia made a speech. The Americans gave a Mongolian cultural performance with singing, dancing, and instrument-playing.

Jim Carl, Mongolia PC Country Director, and I at the Swearing-In Ceremony; I’m wearing a traditional MN deel

I performed a traditional Mongolian dance! It went well without any mistakes. I’ll post a video soon.

My traditional MN dancing costume

Tomorrow I leave for my site placement. I’ll be living in Arvayheere, Overhangai, in a ger! I won’t have running water. I’ll have to chop wood for my stove, both for heat and food-making. I will have electricity, though.

My new site mates at the site announcement at the children’s park

My assignment is with the Chamber of Commerce. This fall my CoC office is opening a business incubator center! How exciting! More details later.

Sorry for the short post. I’ll update more when I get to site. I’ll give you a video tour of my ger.

How I live without running water – taking a bath, washing clothes, going to the loo

For the past 2 months, I’ve been living without running water. It may sound appalling to many people, but surviving without running water is actually quite simple. Well, simple enough for me because I’m not the one in my family who fetches the water, but nevertheless… Just stop for a second and think about how much you rely on running water in America. How many times a day do you use it? What tasks require running water? For example, when I got ready for my day in America, I’d use running water for brushing my teeth, washing my face, taking a shower, using the toilet, assembling oatmeal, boiling water for tea, washing my hands, etc… That’s at least seven tasks that I used running water for within one hour.

Now, how do I get by without it? Before I arrived at my host family, PC told me that I’d be living without running water. I was ready for it, but it wasn’t until I moved into my host family’s house that I realized how much my daily life would be changed.

The first task is to fetch the water from the well. My siblings usually fetch the water from the well while I’m at school. We have four water containers; maybe two are full at one time. Once, I went with my sisters to see how it’s done. We pushed a cart to the well. Then the well worker filled up our container with water. We paid her 60 tugrik (5¢), and then pushed the cart home. The well is covered with a building, and the water is distributed with a hose. Check out the photo below:

Fetching water at the well

I use the water from this type of jug for everything water-related. I have a $300 USD water distiller that produces about 1 gallon of water in 4 hours. I fill the white container with the unprocessed water, and then the distiller boils and cleanses the water. The clean water drops into the clear blue container over the course of 4 hours. The distiller has a fan on the top that produces hot air – therefore I have to decide what time of day I want to distill my water, or else my room may get too hot to stand. I usually distill my water during the night, or while I’m at school. You always have to be keeping track of when you’ll run out of drinking water, or you’ll have to wait 4 hours to drink clean water. Although, when I forget, I buy a 1.5 liter bottle of water at the store for 400 tugrik (35¢). It’s not too expensive, but my daily allowance is a mere $1.40 USD.

My water distiller

I bathe and wash clothes in the same tumpin, or tub. I wash my hair and bathe every 4 days. However, when it’s really hot outside I’ll bathe every 2 days. Before bathing, I have to make sure that my family has water. If they don’t have any water, then I have to wait to bathe until they get some. This means I have to strategize when I want to bathe. If I see that the water is running low, I’ll pour my bath water into the tumpin up to a day before I actually bathe. When I bathe, I usually use cold water. If I want hot water, then I have to boil it, and that’s just too much hassle for me. The amount of water I bathe with is about 1-2 gallons. How much is a usual shower in the states?

I wash my hair first. I soak my hair with the water in the tumpin, then suds it up with 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner. (2-in-1! I would never use this in the states. I like my hair to be thoroughly cleaned and conditioned.) I rinse my hair with the same water that’s sitting in the tumpin. Therefore, my hair is never completely free of shampoo because I’m rinsing with the water that already has shampoo suds in it. Next, I wash my body with the same shampoo-y/dirty water that’s already in the tumpin. I just stand over the tumpin and try not to splash water all over the carpet in my room. I’m never free of dirt, but always feel much better after washing most of it off. After I’m done bathing, my hair is usually in a ratty, dangly mess and I have to comb it out. Then I dispose of the tumpin water by pouring it in the yard or down the “dry” sink – into a bigger pail that my brother takes outside later.

My tumpin

I wash my clothes in the same tumpin that I bathe. Once again, my clothes are never free of dirt or soap because of the inadequate rinsing process. I wash about half of my clothes in the soapy water, which, with time, begins to acquire more dirt than soap. I wring the soapy water out of my clothes into the tumpin, so later on less of the soapy water will mix with the clean water. I dump the dirty/soapy water into the yard. Then I fill up the tumpin with clean water. I rinse out my soapy-ish clothes in the “clean” water, which, with time, begins to become soapy water rather than clean water. I would be wasting too much of my family’s water if I changed out the tumpin water too often. I have a clothing line in my room to dry my clothes. In addition, I hang my clothes outside.

My family owns a washer and dryer, but it isn’t like you would find in the states. Like I said before, we don’t have running water. So, how does the washer get water? My mom pours the amount of water she wants into the washer. The dirty water runs out the back into a tub. The same dirty water is used for every load – but more soap is added. My mom washes the loads from light to dark colors. The dryer is just a spin dryer. The extra water comes out of a tube, which is deposited in another tumpin. The clothes are hung outside to dry.

In order to go to the bathroom, I walk outside to the outhouse. Mongolians dig a 10-15 foot deep hole into the ground and build an outhouse over it. The floor has wooden planks. You do your business between a single missing plank on the floor, into the 10 foot hole. There’s no seat, it’s a squatting toilet. A toilet paper dispenser holds the toilet paper. This is helpful when it rains because the toilet paper isn’t ruined. When you’re done, you throw the toilet paper into the hole, too. In bigger cities and populous places, Western toilets exist but they are of very low quality. We found a Western toilet in the Sukhbaatar Post Office, but that’s the only one we’ve seen so far. (Besides in Darkhan at our hotel and training school

What other questions do you have about running water?

This week has been fun. I’m learning a traditional Mongolian dance to perform at the M19’s swearing in ceremony! The solo dance is 10.5 minutes long. I’ll get to wear a traditional Mongolian dancing costume. My Mongolian dance teacher is a 16ish year old girl. She comes to my school and teaches me in one of the classrooms. At the swearing in ceremony, I know that there will be 3 Mongolian speeches, a love song duet – sung by a married couple, and my traditional Mongolian dance. All of this will be performed by M19 PC volunteers.

On Sunday, the Americans in my community came to my house to eat hamburgers, fries, and watermelon. My host family claimed to like the American food that we cooked. So, that’s nice.

I find out on August 12 where I’ll be placed for the next 2 years. All of the other trainees are speculating and strategizing where they think everyone will be placed. I’ve figured out that I won’t be in UB. Therefore, I’m predicting that I’ll be placed either in Erdenet or Sukhbaatar. This is just my prediction, based upon many random theories and rumors that are milling about the PC. I’m counting down the days until August 12! But before then, I have to pass my Mongolian Final LPI! Back to studying for me…