We’re Back!!!

We’re back! How have you been? A lot has happened. We left our host families in the middle of August. We had a swearing-in ceremony. We are now official United States Peace Corps volunteers. Sixty-eight of us stood before the director of Peace Corps Mongolia, raised our right hands and swore in. It was a good feeling. It was also great to not have to be under the close watchful eye of our host families. Now they can breathe and we can breathe! We were sad to leave them, but we were also happy to start the next part of our service. After a couple of days in the capital, Ulaanbaatar (UB for short), we got on a bus and rode for 12 hours to our home for the next two years. The ride wasn’t too bad, thankfully.

We live in an aimag center. The population is around 30,000 people. It is considered a descent size for Mongolia. We arrived to our town around 8 pm, tired, hungry, and anxious to see our new home. Peace Corps assigned us to a ger. A true Mongolian ger! We were really excited about this because when and where else would you get the chance to live as Mongolians have traditionally lived for hundreds of years?!? So the two of us get our luggage that we packed for two years off of the bus and our counterparts stuffed it all into one car’s trunk and off we went. A ten minutes drive from the bus station stands our ger. It is located inside a haasha (or yard) where there are two other one-room houses. As we walked into the haasha, one of the children covered the eyes of a big, black guard dog so that he would not go crazy at the sight of unknown people walking in his terrain. I can remember our first night in our ger very well. We were really hungry, and our new haasha family had already made us dinner…buuz. Buuz are steamed dumplings filled with meat (usually mutton) and fat. This was not exactly what we were hoping to eat (especially since we are not too big on fat); however, we ate. It was cold that night or I should say…it was cold for us. I was thinking ‘how could it be so cold in a ger at night in August’? So we asked our haasha family to make a fire for us. After a moment of silence, they replied, “You want a fire? No one makes a fire in August. Are you cold?” At this point I was really questioning if I was really cold or if it was just in my head, but I knew (we knew) we were cold and wanted some warmth. Then I thought that they thought we are some weird Americans who get cold in August. So we explained again that we were cold, and they went and got cow dung and made a fire. Soon it was warm in our 4-walled ger. Exhausted by this time, everyone left, and we prepared for bed. Lying in bed, we could here every dog bark…every sound that was made. We both fell asleep and so began our Mongolian life.

 

Today’s weather: high of 60s, sunny then cloudy

Fires made: one in the morning and one just now in the evening

On our ger life menu: J Velveeta Macaroni and Cheese for breakfast (we received our first care package from our family so this was a super treat!!)  and steamed rice with potatoes, garlic and onions with hot green tea for dinner.

 

More to come…

Nice to see you. Thanks for reading.

 

We stopped to see this mother and her babies on the way back home from the countryside. How awesome!

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This is the horse I rode in the countryside. There was an amazing 360 view.

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A half day with my husband!

Last night my site mates (Health Sector) and the site mates from the Children and Youth Development Sector (CYD) went to celebrate another volunteer’s birthday. It was here first birthday spent in Mongolia. We went to a local pub/bar. It was awesome. The pub has two levels, and it has big booths that you can sit in. We got there early enough to get a booth which was good because it got packed later. We had alot of fun dancing with the Mongolians that we did not know; however, they were cool and danced with us! The bathrooms, like most places here in this town, are shared by both men and women. They have two stalls with a squat toilet in each. When I say squat, I mean squat. 🙂 We each had one Mongolian beer that cost about two dollars a piece. The beer is good here, but not as cold as we would like. We stayed for a few hours, and then we all walked each other home. It’s Peace Corps’ policy to walk at least in pairs especially in later hours.

I woke up today very happy because I knew I would see my husband. All 68 of us had to meet a final time in a big city to receive the last series of vaccinations that are required for Mongolia. We received in total 3 rabies vaccinations. There are alot of dogs that do not have owners here in Mongolia. I guess you can say they are wild dogs, but they mind their own business and do not usually mess with anyone. However, Peace Corps wanted to cover all grounds and gave us the rabies vaccinations just in case. As far as I know, no one has had any adverse reactions to the vaccinations. Also, everyone is alive and well. We are all adapting nicely into our new Mongolian lifestyle. So it is fun when we all get together to hear stories about what has happened to everyone most recently. I also delivered a special message to one of the volunteers. His mother said his package that he requested is on its way and that everyone loves and miss him! He appreciated the message, and said he felt the same way. My husband and I are now starting to think about care packages and what we could possibly want from the States. You can pretty much buy the things you need here, but sometimes it’s hard to find the things you actually want. So we might be filling in the ‘Wish List’ page soon so that hopefully we can get a package by the beginning of August. We will see.

A big group of us went to a restaurant that serves pizza and Mongolian food. My husband and I ordered and shared one pizza about the size of a medium pizza at Dominos or Pizza Hut. Surprisingly, we both were full with just one pizza. I can remember a time when my husband could almost eat a whole large by himself! He’s a big eater. We also each ordered one Coca-Cola. Our bill was 11,200 tugriks…roughly estimating around 8 or 9 USD. Not bad. The pizza was good, but it definitely was not a pizza from home. However, we enjoyed it thoroughly.

It was very nice to see everyone and especially my sweet husband. In total, it was only 4 hours spent together, but it was worth it. Soon my group left back to our town. I am always reminded of how beautiful Mongolia is when traveling. The mountains are so green and beautiful. You can see wild camels in a large group-I’m roughly estimating about 50 in a group. Who knows where they are going or who is the leader. You can also see groups of wild horses and sometimes babies. It’s just amazing. So here we are again, back home. We are ready to start the next week of language class. All volunteers in all sectors will be having a big verbal language exam either Thursday or Friday of this coming week. So this will be a big week for us. The Peace Corps will not remove you from your service if you score poorly; however, they will be assessing our proficiencies. So we will be trying our best!

We are sending much love your way…wherever you are. We hope you are having a great day, and we hope you have an awesome week! Take care and thanks for reading 🙂

 

On the menu today: Vegetable soup and honey with hot water for breakfast and  pizza and a Coke for lunch. Dinner TBA.

Weather: Perfect! Warm, not too hot with a slight refreshing breeze.

My first Mongolian adventure!

I am excited to share with you my first Mongolian adventure. It all started this past Saturday. My parents had company at our apartment. Dinner was around 8:30 that evening. One of my parent’s family members could speak a little bit of English, and she asked me if I wanted to join my mother for a ‘picnic’. I thought to myself that it was going to be a late picnic, but I still said yes. The translator then added that we would be going to the countryside, and we would not be back until the next and instructed me to pack warm clothes. Everyone finished dinner and within 15 minutes, my mother, sister, and I were ready to leave. We get into an SUV that already had four people inside. Soon we were on our way when we stopped at a local mini store where my mother got out and came back with a box full of food, drinks, toilet paper, wipies, alcohol, and wine. By this time, it is dark outside and probably almost 10pm. Continuing on our journey, we randomly stop next to a road and pick up one more passenger. There is now a total of 8 people in the vehicle leaving little space for anyone or anything. We drove for a little over 2 hours on a rocky, muddy dirt pathway. I can tell that we are out in the middle of nowhere, and eventually we randomly stopped again. Everyone got out of the vehicle and started talking to two guys. After a few minutes, everyone got back into the car, and then we started to follow the two guys now on a motorcycle. We drove for about another 30 minutes until we arrived at a house.

Vodka is the most common and preferred alcoholic beverage for Mongolians. It was introduced by the Russians way back when. Before this time, Mongolians did not regularly consume alcohol as it was only customary to drink during special occasions or holidays. So after we got settled into the house, a bottle of vodka was presented. I was really not wanting to drink, and I had hoped that they would not offer me any. Well they did. So I politely touched the shot glass to my lips and customarily passed the glass back to the host. Thankfully the host got the message, and soon my host sister asked me to play a Mongolian card game. I was thrilled to get out of drinking so I accepted the offer. It was well after 1am by this time, and I had been tired since the beginning of the trip. So one of my mother’s friends showed me to the room where my sister and I would be sleeping and where we soon fell fast asleep.

The next morning, my sister woke up at 4:20am (the sun rises very early here) and said she was going to ride horses. A little confused, I went back to sleep for a little bit. At 7:45am we were on another off-roading trip heading somewhere else in the countryside.  We drove on dirt pathways and at times there were no pathways, and we just made a way. It was so bumpy that my host sister rolled down the window and vomited twice during the trip, and I was pretty sure that in another thirty minutes I would have too. The care smelled like everyone was hung over.  At times they rolled all of the windows up so there was no ventilation. Besides from seeing the awesome view of the countryside, I was ready to get to our destination. Two hours later we arrived to a ger. There was nothing else by this ger except beautiful mountains and wide open countryside. The family greets us with hot milk tea. We spent the morning and afternoon there. I was able to fish in a nearby river, ride a horse, herd the animals, and hold a baby sheep. In honor of his guests, the host of the family killed a sheep, and the others in our group helped gut it. This is the way of the nomadic Mongolian people. They survive off of the animals they raise. So I was honored to have been offered the meat of this animal. We ate. I tried a bit of everything. It was not as bad as I was expecting it to be. Maybe because everything was so fresh? Maybe because the way everything was prepared? It was so interesting to see and experience the lives of a true nomadic family. I give much respect to this lifestyle. It does not seem easy to live that way. Everything requires work. For example, they constantly had to chop wood just to keep the fire under the small cast iron stove going. There are still many, many people and families that live the traditional nomadic lifestyle. It was a real humbling experience. Soon, we were on our way back. We were back on the bumpy pathway. It was a great time. I was really tired by the end of the trip, but I would love to have that experience again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Menu: Stir-fried cabbage and hot milk tea for breakfast

Vegetable soup and hot water with natural honey for lunch

Rice dish with small bits of sheep meat and chopped carrots and hot water with honey for dinner

Weather: cool, cloudy, misty for most of the day and warm in the late afternoon

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Meet my Mongolian family

Please allow me to introduce you to my Mongolian family! Peace Corps has instructed us that this new group of people will be our new family ‘home away from home’ during these next few months. We will live with them, eat with them, converse with them, spend quality time with them, ect. They will be part of our guidance and support system to help us adjust to the Mongolian life. They will introduce us to the culture, teach us Mongolian songs and dances, take us on adventures, teach us how to prepare to live on our own (which will happen sooner than what we think), and they will take us in as a new family member. We address them as Aav (Father), Eej (Mother), DYY (younger brother or younger sister), Egch (older brother or sister), Emee (Grandmother), Ovoo (Grandfather).

So let me start with my Aav. He is a military man. He is a colonel in the Mongolian military. Everything about him in his work atmosphere commands respect. One day we went to visit this huge statue of Chinggis Khaan’s fifth and last wife where she is also buried somewhere in the ground beneath it. As we were casually walking, we crossed paths with two military men. However, just before the two military men crossed our paths, they stopped and saluted my father, he acknowledged, and then everyone continued on their way. My father was not in his uniform, but they still recognized him. I, not coming from a military family, thought this was pretty cool. 🙂 So moving on, he is a  man of around 5’10”, rounded waist, fair skin, and green eyes. He is a very kind and gentle person at home. He is very welcoming and accommodating, and he speaks gently to his family.  He is a good cook, and I love his vegetable soup. I often find him practicing yoga in the early morning.

My Eej is always smiling. She has a pretty smile with pretty teeth. She is skinny and very fair skinned with freckles all over her face. She has black hair and brown eyes. She is around 5’3” (a little taller than I am). She runs the show. Often times she will converse with the military men more than her husband, and they will listen to her and do as she instructs. She is a woman of respect. In the work atmosphere, she is a business woman of some sort (I’m still unsure at this point). She makes really good food, and she has said that she will teach me the Mongolian ways of life: how to cook, take care of family, games and songs, and soon how to care for my future ger. By the way, my family will be moving soon. They are remodeling a house in the outskirts of the community, and they have built me a traditional Mongolian ger to live in for the remainder of my stay with them. This ger is placed next to the house in the yard. Yay!

Then there’s my DYY (my host little sister). She is ten years old, still short, rounded waist. She is also fair skinned, has very slanted green eyes, black hair.

She is a kind and sweet young sister. She is mindful to her parents and knows how to cook and clean. She has made me a few meals since I have been here, and I am always quite impressed as to what she can make. She can prepare meat and vegetables as she has been taught. She washes the dishes and cleans the floors without conflict. She is a young fashion artist. I have seen drawings of girls in dresses posing. She likes to sing and watch Mongolian movies. She and her little friends help me a lot with my Mongolian language homework, and they often laugh or giggle when I am struggling to pronounce a word or syllable.

My parents have four children in total; however, they are grown and do not live at home. I have one older sister that studies in China, and I have one older brother that studies in Russia with some of the Mongolian military. Lastly, I have one brother who lives in the capital whom I have yet to meet. Actually, I have not met any of the others either. Maybe one day.

This is my Mongolian family. I’m happy to be here and share this new experience with them. Thanks for reading.

On the menu today: Scrambled egg on a piece of bread, hot tea with all natural honey, and milk tea for breakfast. One scrambled goose egg for lunch. Rice and meat for dinner.

Weather: cold, windy, rainy

Welcome to Mongolia – Reflecting back

Inside Chingghis Khaan International Airport

We arrived to Mongolia after a one night stay in Seoul, South Korea. We were all excited to finally be in Mongolia! Thankfully all 69 volunteers’ bags made it to Mongolia as well. The welcoming of the new volunteers into the country was amazing! I will never forget it. After baggage claim we all started to go outside where all of the vans were waiting for us. To our surprise, a lot of the third year volunteers were waiting for us outside and started cheering for us once we stepped outside. They raised their arms and formed a tunnel for us to go into while yelling and cheering us on. It was an amazing feeling, and it was a very warm, welcoming feeling. We all met and spoke with each other for a while as everyone got organized into their groups to then get inside numerous vans to go to our orientation site. I think back on this day, and I remember seeing all of their faces and all of their smiles. It was so nice.

So now we are well integrated into our host sites and families. We sit and drink hot tea and hot milk tea (a customary Mongolian tea) while visiting with our families. This is the staple drink of Mongolians. I often sit and drink hot water honey. It is really good and a change from the hot tea. The honey here is really good. It is 100% all natural and collected from beekeepers that are known to live in the town my husband stays. His family are beekeepers as well. My family and I often sit and exchange English and Mongolian words while drinking hot tea. It is interesting to learn the ways and culture of the Mongolians.

Hello to All!

So we have been in Mongolia for a few weeks now. It has been a new and fun experience so far. Serving as a married couple, we have been living apart as well. We have been doing well with this situation and find that our days are busy to keep our minds off of being apart. Either way, we had previously discussed this topic at length before coming to Mongolia and agreed that we are cool with it. So I live in a bigger town of about 20,000 people. I live in an apartment with my host family. I have a small room that has a small balcony that offers an amazing view of the town! Sometimes I just stand and people watch. Its serves as good pass time while my little host sister is playing with her friends and my host parents are working. I also sit at my desk and do my homework while still being able to look out the nice picture window in my room. The apartment is small but manageable. It has two rooms, a living room, a small kitchen, and a small bathroom. I have a normal toilet and a functioning shower. We do have running water and electricity, but no cooling units. My husband lives in a small town called a Soum. Our towns are 30 minutes by train from each other. The cost of a one way ticket is about 600 tugriks which is around 50 cents. He lives in a small three bedroom house in the country side. I have not visited him yet so I’m describing everything based off of what he said.  He uses a squat outhouse, and he does not have running water so he gets his water from a well. He has to heat water and use a tumpin to bathe. The tumpin is a multi-purpose item. We both have to hand wash our clothes, and we use the tumpin for this. His family has a garden in the yard and owns livestock. His town has alot of trees everywhere while mine does not. Both towns do have mountains. Although we each have very different living situations, one thing is common about the Mongolian people. They are very welcoming and accepting. They are hospitable and always try to feed you! We are blessed to have such happy and welcoming families so see everyday.

We have language class Monday through Friday for four hours a day. The Mongolian language like any language requires studying and practice. We take the language class one day at a time in order to not feel overwhelmed. We have technical training in the afternoons and for me it’s health training – for him its teaching training. There are 8 of us site mates in the health sector in my town, and I am the only nurse. The others specialize in other health backgrounds.

We are heading back to a central location next Sunday to complete a series of vaccinations. So all 68 of us will get to see each other again and share our recent experiences. I will also get to see my husband!! He has been wanting to eat pizza for a long time now, and we hear that there is a restaurant that offers it there so we will be able to eat some pizza soon!

The country side of Mongolia with two gers in distance.

Canh banha yy? Hello, How are you?

Mongolia is beautiful! We have been in a town that has nice green mountains. We finished our orientation and intro training. We were all sent to our host families this past Wednesday. What an awesome experience it has been so far! Almost everything is different. The food is great! Rice, noodles, cucumbers, tomatoes, meat, fresh bread and more food! We do not have showers so we wash in a tumpin. A tumpin is basically a wide, shallow basin. Water is boiled and then mixed with cold water for an equal balance. We have been hand washing our clothes and hanging them to dry. You definitely can tell that you’re in another country. The weather may be warm, hot, cool, dry, or rainy.  We are back in a main town briefly to receive our second set of vaccinations. All 69 volunteers are alive and well! Everyone is adapting and learning a new way of life. There is so much to say and show, but with little time. Some volunteers do not have access to internet in their town at all. Some have internet cafes. So this is just a quick entry to update a little on our recent activities. Thanks for reading.   😉

 

Mr. and Mrs. street vendors in Seoul

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