Sweet Sorrow

Well this is it folks, my last post from Mongolia. I've been busy this past month showing my dad around the country, helping out with the training of new volunteers, and finishing up my close of service paperwork.

My dad was here for 12 days and got some really good stuff. We visited several monasteries and got to see some real countryside life. Check out this gallery and his website to see some shots from his trip. I was a little nervous about showing him around, but everything worked out great. I arranged two cars for our road trips and was able to talk my way into some cool places. I think he was impressed by the hospitality of the Mongolians...if not by their cuisine. He also got to meet a lot of my friends who were leaving the same week he arrived. All in all we traveled around 1600 km in 10 days, about half of which was on unpaved roads. Definitely check out his site and keep checking for updates to the Mongolia portfolio.

Soon after my dad left I traveled up to Sukhbaatar soum in Selenge aimag near the Russian border to help with the M18 business volunteer's final project. They did a business seminar similar to the one we did our first summer in the country. I was able to give them some useful tips on their presentations and the seminar went well.

After leaving Sukhbaatar, I went back to Arkhangai for my last week at site. I thought it would be painful, but I didn't know the half of it. I somehow caught viral tonsillitis that lasted 7 days. I couldn't really eat or drink anything all week. I did manage to lose a few pounds, so it wasn't all bad. There were some going away parties, but all my packing and crying was confined to my last night there. Saying goodbye to Nasaa was the hardest part and I had to do it all over again on the phone a little while ago. I'm not sure if we'll see each other again, but being with her was a great experience. Parting is such...

Writing this blog over the past 27 months has been an experience in itself. I hope it's been as enjoyable for you read as it was to write. I always enjoyed reading your comments and emails of support, but honestly I'd have kept it up even if I knew no one was reading it except my mom...hi mom. Once I get home I plan to turn the blog into a book using software from Blurb. I'll post some late updates once I get home too. I have a one night layover in Beijing and I'll be home the night of the 21st after being away from the states for 27 months. As for right now, I am so happy that I am alive, in one piece and short.

Metropolis

It's time for another three post marathon. These are, hopefully, more painful to write than to read so lets get to it. My dad just left after a 12 day trip. He got some great stuff for his website that should be up in a couple weeks. I'm trying to get caught up. We went to Amarbayasgalant monastery in a Russian Jeep and all over Arkhangai in a Toyota Prado (smaller land cruiser). It was definitely worth the extra money. We stayed two nights at a ger camp started by Rob Shore and his counterpart. I was going to book us a ger to ger trip, but he was most interested in shooting - IOW: photographing - monks. I'm glad we didn't have an actual translator with us because it could have brought up some painful memories.

Before we left for Arkhangai, we got to compete in the weekly pub quiz at Dave's and I got to go to a new club to see off a large group of M16s who were leaving early. Metropolis was a really big, nice place, but the guys were also really aggressive even by Mongolian standards and I won't be back. I was able to do a series of self portraits with most of the soon to depart and I'm happy with how they turned out. Check out the pictures.

Anyway, keep reading down for two more new posts and check back later to hear stories from my dad's trip. Believe me. There are plenty.

Dude, you're getting a deel

Before I left UB, I went to the market to pick up some material for a new deel. (side note - this word is pronounced like the computer brand which once prompted a question from my mother about why I needed a new computer in the first place.)

Nasaa's friend, who also made my last deel, was able to have it ready in time for Naadam. I got a new hat to go with it, and yes, Mongols do where cowboy hats as well as fedoras and sometimes baseball caps with deels. Naadam itself was typically sedate. There was a group of fans watching all the wresting and the end of horse races, but I didn't even see any archery. I did get some pictures of gar shagai where men flick sheep ankle bones and try to knock over tiles across a small playing field. All in all, I wore my deel for a few hours the first day. Oh well, there's always Halloween.

You Tube

After I got back from Tsenkher with Nasaa, I got a text message from my friend Danny asking why I wasn't up in Erdenet getting ready for the tubing trip down the Selenge river. I wasn't planning on going on the trip which had been talked about since our first summer. I'm not much of an outdoors type (I prefer calling it "between-doors") but I had just enjoyed my first non-work related trip to the countryside in a while and wanted to get away again. Plus, work was really slow and the water and power would be out for most of the week anyway. What was I going to miss?

So, I bought the last bus ticket, told Nasaa and my office that I'd be away for a week, packed a bag, and thought about buoyancy. After a 12 hour drive to UB, a night on a friend's floor, and another 7 hour drive to Erdenet, I was in the market haggling over the price of inner tubes. We gathered supplies - beer - and drove to the soum, home to Colin one of the trip's architects, that would be our embarkation point. We camped next Colin's ger and began inflating the tubes the next day. One Mongol, who had completed a similar trip from upstream on the same river, would accompany us. He had secured three huge tractor tires which we would use to make a raft. Check out the pictures.

We had intended to travel up to 200 km and reach Sukhbaatar soum near the Russian border, but that proved overly optimistic. We ended up going 70 km, as the crow flies, in three full days of tubing. The river was mostly shallow and winding so it would have taken us over a week for the whole trip. We had already lost five out of our original 13 members due to bad skin reaction caused by our chosen Chinese inner tubes. In the end, we stopped 10 km from the nearest soum and were lucky to encounter a group of farm workers who agreed to drive us into Darkhan where many were scheduled to take part in Peace Corps training. I got to see all the new trainees and dry out before heading back to site. It was something I won't soon forget. Thanks to M17 Hanna Kim for providing most of the pictures in my Flickr set.

Time enough at last

The power was off all this week so me and Nasaa decided to go to the countryside (in Mongolian-hodoo) to visit some of her family. I haven't been out to the hodoo for a while, so I was looking forward to relaxing and doing some reading. I managed to finish one book, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People by Toby Young, before we managed to find a driver. Mind you, I'm no speed reader. It took us three days. We eventually found a driver who would take us out with just one other woman. That was a good start, because drivers usually try to fill their cars beyond the recommended capacity. Picture a clown car and add a sheep and three bottles of vodka.

We were to visit three families, all relations of Nasaa's mother. My ideas about reading quietly were put to rest when we got to the first camp. Everyone was excited to see Nasaa and almost as excited to see a foreigner. I was never really alone, but I wasn't disappointed either. My only other hodoo trips have been with work when there's always some kind of training going on. Now I also realize that the clients we visit must be well off. They can afford luxuries like bread, sugar and, vegetables. Those trips were also in the winter when it gets dark really early and you can't do much outside. On this trip I got to go horseback riding, try on an assortment of deels, and even herd some animals. Seriously. Take a look at the pictures.

On the last night two of the families came over for some group pictures. Everyone got dressed up in their best deels and I got to play photographer aka foreigner with a camera. Mongolians are crazy about pictures, overfilling albums and putting special shots up in their gers. The only place you can get good prints made now is in UB, so they were all anxious to know when my next trip was. I thought it wasn't going to be until after Naadam, but I just decided to go in tomorrow. I'm not staying in town this time. No, I'm headed northwest to Erdenet for the first annual, and hopefully not to be known as memorial, Selenge River inner tube trip. The plan is to start off north of the city and see how far we get. I'm betting on being out for three days, but who knows. That should be the next thing I (or my executor) blogs about, so check back for updates and pictures.

It's a nice day to start again

Hi gang. I know it's been a really, really long time since my last post, but I have been really, really busy the last two months. Seriously folks. No foolies. I'll try to get you all caught up in the next three posts. In other words, keep reading down to the next posts to read about my latest exploits.

I left Moscow on May 25th for my brother's wedding in Canada. The flight from Moscow to Toronto was 10 hours, or the same amount of time it takes me to get from UB to Arkhangai by bus. I'm not bitter. Immediately after getting off the plane I dropped my stuff off at my brother's friend's place and headed out for his bachelor party. Bardia and I had been organizing the party (a pub crawl through downtown Toronto) for a few months. The group ended up being smaller than I thought it would be. There was Bardia, his brother, their friend Jenya, Alex and I. So there were two Persians, two Irishmen, and a Russian. It was a very international affair and in the morning we even had pancakes. My memory from the end of the night is a little fuzzy (jet lag and all) so I can't take responsibility for all the pictures in the album.

The next day Alex and I drove back to his house in Kitchener where his friends were planning another pub crawl. The jet lag was seriously catching up with me, so I went home after the first bar. That was probably a good idea, because I needed to save my strength for the next week of events. There was a dinner for the bride and groom's families, a rehearsal dinner, the ceremony and reception, plus numerous gatherings at Alex and Laurie's house. I was a the best man and got to handle the rings and give a speech. It was a really great event and all their planning paid off. Be sure to check out all the week's pictures.

So that brings us to more or less the present day. I got back to UB on Wednesday morning and went right to work where I had to make a PowerPoint presentation on the catalog project. All the catalogs had been printed and I got to take home a whole set. My presentation on Thursday went well and I'm all set to go home to Arkhangai. I haven't been there since April 22nd and I'm sure I've been missed. I'm not sure what Mercy Corps holds in store for me in my last weeks in Mongolia, but my last Naadam should be fun and my dad is coming for a visit right after that. Keep checking back for updates. I'll make sure to post more often.

From Russia with great admiration

I was in UB for another two weeks before I left for Moscow on May 23rd. I had been working 24/7 to get the catalogs finished and they were pretty much ready to be printed by the time I left. It was definitely good to get a break, because I knew I'd be busy right when I got back to Mongolia.

We have some friends, Marina and Natalia, in Moscow from when my father and my brother used to travel to Russia and Central Asia in the 90's. I got to stay in Marina's apartment for three days and Natalia's son Sasha took me around the city. His sister Olga had stayed with my family almost 10 years ago and they still have all the pictures from her trip. Marina and Sasha showed me the metro and Red Square. I got to go to history and art museums, St. Basil's, the Kremlin Armory, and of course Lenin's tomb.

It was a great trip, because I got to see a lot of stuff in a short time. I was surprised by how big Moscow was (over 3.5 times the population of Mongolia) and by how many words I already knew because they're also used in Mongolian. On my last night there was a birthday party for Sasha where I got to meet some of his friends. I'll be sure invite them to DC when I move back after Peace Corps.

End of an era

We had our "Close of Overseas Service" conference from May 7-9 at this really nice ger camp called the Secret History resort. I'd already been in the city for two weeks working on the second edition of the Client Product Catalog. We're doing all 10 Mercy Corps aimags this time and it's been a lot of work. More on that later. It was great to have our whole group together one last time at the conference. Our official COS date is August 20th and I'll be sticking around until then, but a lot of people will be heading home early for grad school and other reasons. Overall, I have to say this was the best Peace Corps event we've had. The scenery was nice, we had a big lodge to hang out in, and the sessions weren't too demanding. The overall atmosphere was "you've come this far, enjoy it".

It was kind of depressing to think that this whole experience is almost over, but I know I'll always have my memories. And for what I can't remember, I can always refer to this blog. Anyway, most of the conference sessions were about what it will be like to readjust to life outside of Mongolia. There were some cautionary tales about returned volunteers just lying on the couch watching Tom and Jerry, as well as mock job interviews, and final language proficiency interviews. On my LPI, I scored an intermediate high, up from intermediate low at the end of training. I think that's a good improvement considering I don't really talk about things that don't involve work, travel, food, or shopping.

Right after the conference, we went to the Ambassador's residence for a reception. The Ambassador wasn't there, but several people from the embassy and our new country director were. Our old CD is leaving to take up the same position in Romania. It was sad to see him go, because he was our first director and got here shortly before we did. These events are also good because they always lay out a good spread at Star Apartments. And we all know, there's never a plate big enough for a Peace Corps volunteer.

Carnivorous

Hi gang. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I've been really busy. Two weeks ago I went to Khenti aimag where 3 volunteers held the 2nd annual pig roast. Over 20 volunteers from different parts of the country braved an unusually bad snowstorm and usually bad Mongol transportation to get there. The Khenti people really did it up right this year with an actual spit for roasting and a separate fire for grilling. It was good to have two fires, because it snowed all day. We kept ourselves warm with impromptu sumo wrestling and by throwing around the old pig...head.

As I was headed back to site there were already people arriving at my apartment who were on school break. There wasn't really an event planned, but the week culminated in another barbecue that might become an annual event. Needless to say my apartment was a little the worse for wear. Nasaa described it (in Mongolian) as looking like a war zone. As you can see from the picture though, my friends did decorate one of my rather bare walls. Not sure about the slogan, but I appreciate the effort. My friend Jeremy also organized a career fair for Mongolian students who were in town for some academic competitions. It was held over two days and covered study abroad, interviewing and work opportunities. Nasaa and I helped get some speakers for the second day and the kids really enjoyed the whole event.

Right now a few Arkhangai people are in for resupply. Two of them can bike in and not have to wait for cars which is nice. The week after next I'm going back to UB to finish the latest catalog. I'll have some samples up later. Then we have our close of service seminar. At the end of May I go back to UB fly to my brother's wedding via Moscow. I have all the visa materials already so it should be easy.

In other news, I got a new hot water heater put in. This one heats the water as it flows through instead of holding it in a 50 L tank that threatens to fall off the wall. Plus it came with a smaller unit that goes in the kitchen so I can wash dishes with hot water. We're commin' up in the world here in Arkhangai.

We're very big in LA.

Just saw this in an article about one of my favorite blogs:

There are blogs for baseball teams, for fast food, for God and for Satan; there are lots of blogs on politics and Hollywood and at least one that deals exclusively with pharmaceutical industry research. There are hundreds of blogs on Iraq and more than you would imagine in Mongolia.

Glad to see they've finally caught on out west. Now lets see if I play in Peoria.

Tsagaan Sar 2007

Last week was Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year celebration, and I got to go back to my host site in Hotol. Tasagaan Sar = (Thanksgiving + pub crawl) x 3. I spent the three days of the actual holiday in Arkhangai and visited Nasaa and her relatives. Compared to my friends who are English teachers, I had it pretty easy. I only visited a couple houses each day and didn't have to drink too much. As you can see from the pictures I had a deel made for Tsagaan Sar and got to where is to Hotol also. It's something nice I can take home. I may have another one made to bring to my brother's wedding in May.

In order to go to Hotol, I had to take the bus to UB and then a train. I made the whole trip in 20 hours and that's because the train trip itself took seven hours. I passed the time by reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's over 1,000 pages long, but was recommended by a friend. I can't really tell you what it's about except that by page 300 it involves tennis, French Canadian Separatism, and drug and alcohol rehab. I made it into town at 4:30 am and went right to bed. The next day two friends, Curtis and Danny, who also trained in Hotol drove in from Erdenet. We visited each other's houses and had some left over buuz. We also got to see our language teacher Undraa. A lot of people from the town remembered us and it was good to see the place again. It looked a lot different than in summer.

In other news, the business book is finished and will be distributed to the new volunteers at PDM next week. Based on their feedback, the book will be revised and handed out at the M18 training this summer. Hopefully we get to go in and help out. I am also starting work on a new version of the catalog. There are a lot of new businesses that want to take part, so we should have plenty of good stuff to choose from. That's all for now.

Indochine

Hey gang. I know its been a while since I rapped at ya, but I just got back from south Indochina. We were gone for three whole weeks and moved around a lot, so I might not mention every thing we did. Overall it was a great and relaxing trip. There was lots of beach time and sleeping in. That meant we didn't do a lot of tours and boat trips, but that was fine. We were on the same plane with a group of girls who got up before 8:00 most days and that doesn't sound like much of a vacation. I'll do a quick rundown of our activities and let the pictures speak for themselves. Go to my Flickr page for all the sets or click on links as they appear.

The trip started and ended in Ho Chi Minh City, which most locals still refer to as Saigon. We only had a night there before taking a night bus to Nha Trang. We really wanted to go SCUBA diving and that seems to be the best place. There are a bunch of dive companies and they all do refresher courses which is good, because I hadn't been in the water for two years. Nha Trang kind of reminded me of Miami beach with a string of hotel, shops, and bars right across from the beach. Apparently Summer is the high season so we got cheap rates. I'm sure its hotter and rainy then too.

From Nha Trang we booked a highland tour down to Dalat and then back to the coast at Mui Ne. Our driver/guide didn't have the English we expected, but he showed us some cool stuff including rubber and coffee plantations, silk worm growing, and a long house village. We actually stayed in a longhouse for a night and got to see the minority tribe that lives there. The government recently moved them out of the hills and is trying to settle them more. The highlight of staying in the village was probably crossing a river on an elephant. Check out the pictures. We also took a cable car across a valley near Dalat. That was good for some aerial shots. Dalat is a nice little city that was set up by the French as a kind of alpine retreat. I'd like to spend more time there, but after one night we went to Mui Ne. It is another beach town, but much more laid back. There are some cool looking boat tours and sand dunes you can go see.

Another cool thing we saw during the tour was the Crazy House built by a Vietnamese architect. It's not even finished yet and it's already pretty crazy. And I can't forget the waterfall on the way to the long house village. We actually went behind it and swam around, but I couldn't take any pictures there.

After another night in Saigon, we headed to Phnom Penh before heading straight for another beach town called Sihanoukville. You can tell where this is going. More sitting on the beach enjoying cocktails and not much else. One thing that amazed us was how well all of the people trying to sell you things spoke English. If you don't buy the little girl's painting she'll deliver a surprisingly effective insult and try to impress you by counting from 1 to 10 in five languages. While sitting on the beach we also ran into the Imans (the coolest married couple in Peace Corps history). They'd flown into Bangkok and just happened to be in Sihanoukville that day. Needless to a great time was had by all.

We managed to drag ourselves away from the beach after three days and headed back to Phnom Penh so we could make it to Angkor Wat the next day. We only got a one day pass, but the three day one would be worth it. We'd heard it was easy to rent bikes and see the main things in one day. That's good, because I was just about dead after that much biking. Plus, with me being slow and bad with directions, I lost the rest of my group for about four hours. Luckily, I could buy a map and figure out where the sites were. I was about half way through when I come out of a bathroom to find the others on the side of the road looking at their map. They'd gone left at the start when I thought they went right. We got to see the biggest two temples together and share our pictures of the rest of the park.

After yet another night in Phnom Penh, we went back to Saigon and booked a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. That was one of the tours we really wanted to do and it was only a half day. You have to watch a propaganda movie before you go on the tour, but I didn't see any anti-Americanism elsewhere on the trip. Our guide had actually served with the South during the war. The tour itself was interesting, because you saw how they adapted from fighting the French to the Americans and how they responded to the jungles being leveled by bombs. I just about squeezed through a few of the tunnels, but not the original door you can see in the pictures. Out of respect for Peace Corps rules, I did not go to the firing range.

That night at 12 am we flew back to Korea and then to UB. I'm here now finishing up the business book and starting the next version of the catalog. Tsaagan Tsar is also almost upon us, so I won't be getting much work done next week. I may come back to UB and go up to Selenge to see my host family. There's also a dual birthday party a bunch of people will be going to and I haven't been back there since swearing in. I'll have updates later.

UPDATE: Just so you don't think my trip was all drinks and pony rides, I thought I'd mention that I read three books while on vacation. There were some long flights and bus rides so I had plenty of times.

Those books were:

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson - 784 pages

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - 240 pages

The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens - 161 pages

Other volunteers brought some books and many hostels have exchange programs. Remember kids, Reading Is Fundamental.

Korea

Sorry I couldn't get that file to upload. I'll try a different service later. I'm at the airport in Incheon, Korea where we had a 20 hour layover. There are only a few flights a week out of UB so this happens a lot when people are traveling. One of the people in our group has friends teaching English here so they met us at the airport and showed us around a little. We didn't even make it into a major city, but it is really developed around here compared to Mongolia. Last night we checked into a hotel and 11 of us slept in one big room. We also went to a karaoke bar. You can check out the pictures. I'd like to see more of the country, but it was good to just leave the airport for a while. I'll have more news and pictures once we get to Saigon tonight. That's all for now.

Sledding

We went sledding again this weekend and I was able to take some pictures. Jeremy was in on his way to America and Nasaa was able to come as well. The sleds, which are just big pieces of hard plastic, took quite a beating, hence to duct tape. My beard froze again from all the snow flying in my face, but it wasn't really that cold. I don't have any other news except that I finished our Kindling Submission. Click on the link for a PDF. I'm still leaving for UB on Thursday and heading to Saigon via Seoul on Saturday. We're thinking of heading to the coast and then looping west through Cambodia. I'll do a post once we get there. It should be a good time.

Happy New Year

I've been home for a week now, but haven't had a chance to post yet. I've been busy getting the business book and our Kindling submission together. I'll post them in some form once they're done. I had another full house this weekend and I'll have a few more guests this week too. Tsaagan Tsar should be even crazier this year, but that's not until after I get back from Vietnam. I'm heading to the city on Thursday in a Mercy Corps Land Cruiser. That makes the trip so much better. We leave for Vietnam on the 20th and will be gone for three weeks. There are nine of us going on the same flight and we'll be at the same hostel that night. Should be a good time. I'll do a post once I get there. Other news from this weekend is that we went sledding down the big hill in the middle of town. We used these big plastic sheets another volunteer had left behind. My camera wasn't working, but I'll get some more pictures if we go again. My whole face froze. Should be quite an image.

My New Year's in UB was really fun. After being in Arkhangai last year, I wanted to see what the city was like. I also wanted to be there with Nasaa since it's the one year anniversary of when we met and we'd never been in the city together. We didn't actually meet up until the 31st which is fine because the city is expensive enough on my own. That night we went to a UB volunteer's party. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be, but I did have to translate UB volunteer Mongolian into regular Mongolian for Nasaa. Most UB people have English speaking counterparts and hardly ever have to use the language. After the party, we went to Dave's for a drink before going to Sukhbaatar square. There were people setting of giant bottle rockets and general craziness. We headed right for the new addition to the Government House to see a concert on the steps. I haven't mentioned it before, but they just finished the addition. It's this giant pavilion with two Mongol horseman statues and a big statue of Chingiss Khan oddly reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was all Mongolian hip-hop. It's good to see parts of American culture catching on here.

That's all for now. I probably won't post before we're in Vietnam, but check back for updates.