Christmas 2006

Like I said before, I'm in UB from Christmas through New Year's. There were a lot of people in for IST and a Christmas party at Star Apartments, but now I'm on my own until Nasaa gets here tomorrow. I'm going to a friends apartment to celebrate New Year's Eve Eve. Then, Nasaa and I will go to Sukhbatar Square to see fireworks and drink champagne. I'll have more on that later. Christmas in UB this year was fun. We didn't have any seminars or anything so I just came in two days before and hung out. My friend Rob's parents and girlfriend came in from the states on the 26th. They (his parents) are very understanding. Anyway, he had a hotel suite for an extra couple days and I got to stay there. The UB Guesthouse can be a bit much when it's full of volunteers. Rob's parents even took a group of us out to dinner at this nice Indian place called Hazara. I love visiting parents. I also love the new duty free shop they opened right down the road from the Peace Corps office. They really knew what they were doing.

Vita and I had a good meeting with Ken, our country director, and Miriam, our new programming and training officer, about the business guidebook we're putting together. They're really enthusiastic about it and want to roll it out at PDM. I think that's good, because some volunteers will be doing income generating projects. They told us to show it to a Peace Corps guy in D.C. who is in charge of all business operations. I'll post more about that next week when we're ready to send it off.

I'm all set to go to Vietnam with my friends on the 20th too. We bought the tickets and are waiting for our visas to go through. We'll be going to Saigon and Cambodia and hopefully get a few dives in on an island off the coast. After that, I'll be doing some new catalog work and getting ready to go (almost) home to my brother's wedding in Canada. I think next year will go by fast. Stay tuned.

No room at the inn

This has been a really weird week as far as guests go and it's only Thursday. First, one friend came in from his site for the first time in two weeks. This would not be surprising except that he had not that much time there since the beginning of the summer. He's engaged to another volunteer who lives in the eastern part of the country so he spends a lot of time on the road. He does a lot when he's there and got a large grant for new construction at his school though.

We got some good work done on the newsletter we're putting together. Until this year the PCVL (one volunteer who stays a third year) put together a satirical newsletter, called the Kindling, based on volunteer submissions. Recently several aimags have begun to put their own newsletters together that would have competed with the Kindling. So, in a "if you can't beat 'em join em" move, the PCVLs (we have three this year) decided to have two aimags' submissions compete against each other in each issue.

The first contest was between Dungov and Zavkhan. I've visited both places, but I have to say Zavkhan won handily based on their uncanny parody of an issue of Newsweek. To explain, all Peace Corps volunteers in Mongolia get a free subscription to Newsweek's Asian edition delivered to their site. Some people have no other access to world news so conversations can quickly devolve into "Did you read (blank) in Newsweek?" "Yeah me too." Anyway, they were very faithful to the design and tone of Newsweek and were still able to work in Mongolia and Zavkhan specific jokes such as having the "quotes of the week" section consist completely of Mongolian children saying "hello" and "goodbye" at random to any passing American. The Dungov submission was funny too, but couldn't compete with the standard set by Zavkhan. For me, the standout was a word of the day joke in which one volunteer thought the term Quisling meant a baby quiz used to prepare students for a final.

In the spirit of the Zavkhan group, our submission will be an Onion style newspaper call the Songion (onion in Mongolian). We have a few things done and will have it ready after the newbies finish IST. Rob, one new volunteer, came in shortly after my first guest left. He sprained his ankle playing basketball with Mongolians and needed to go into UB early. He stayed one night and we exchanged some Kindling ideas as well as movies and prank phone calls with fellow Arkhangai volunteer Lizzie. A few hours after he left, Michael showed up to resupply and share some more movies and Kindling submissions. He has a lot of time on his hands (and photoshop) so he produced some cool montages and a few oddly detailed articles on hunkering (a common pastime in Arkhangai) and his love of Ramen. Then, last night, Nasaa showed up drunk at 1:00 AM and wouldn't calm down until I asked Mike to relocate to my room so we could have the living room (not exactly complaining).

So, we'll see what happens the rest of the week. I'm not expecting any other visitors, but who knows. I'll be going into UB on the 23rd and staying through New Year's. There's a Christmas Eve party at Star Apartments and I hear New Year's eve in UB pretty fun. Nasaa will be joining me for that and our 1 year anniversary. Wow. I'll try and post a copy of our Kindling submission and also a copy of the business guidebook we're preparing later. More news and photos on all fronts coming soon.

Thanksgiving 2006

The picture to the left is of my winning Pub Quiz team at Dave's. I'll going to Vietnam with the two guys in the middle in January. God help me. I spent most of the week in UB for Thanksgiving. My mom sent some cloves, so I was able to make our traditional bread sauce. It turned out really well and everyone liked it. There was more food, but less wine this year. That was probably good, because the party was a Star Apartments. Star is this gated compound in UB where all the embassy people and other expats like our Peace Corps country director live. They didn't want us staying there after 6 so we moved the party elsewhere.

Several of us also got to go to the new ambassador's house for drinks the next day. Danny (in the Hawaiian shirt) invited him to a hair cutting ceremony when he was in Erdenet and he wanted to return the favor. We talked about his work and foreign service stuff. He'd never worked in a country with Peace Corps before, but he has done recruiting. We told him he should talk to our country director about having a session with volunteers and they just announced he'll have one after IST. I think I'll take the exam again, because it would be good to have the Foreign Service as an option if I don't find a job right away after Peace Corps. As you can see from the picture on the right, it's now quite cold in Mongolia and UB is one of the coldest palces. Send me warm thoughts...and DVDs.

Middle of the Gobi

I spent the past week in Mandalgobi, Dundgobi aimag working with my fellow Mercy Corps business volunteer Denise. We're working on a guidebook to give to non-business volunteers who get approached by Mongolian businesses or otherwise want to help a business at their site. It will be presented to the new volunteers at IST in December. The book will be based on real questions we've received plus things we've developed in our work. It should be something we can leave behind to help future volunteers and the Mongolian business community.

Of course to reach Dundgobi, which really does mean middle of the Gobi, we had to drive 20 hours from Tsetserleg to Mandalgobi. I'm not too sure how long it should take, but the trip probably shouldn't include stopping at every ger to ask for directions and not stopping until 3 AM. But I'm not bitter. The rest of the trip was really good. Densie and I got a lot of work done on the guidebook and I got to hang out with her and the new Mandalgobi volunteers. They took me to this place they call the "rainforest bar". It was real pine bark paneling and this wierd moss hanging from the cieling. It was quite a surreal experience.

On Tuesday I left Mandalgobi with a USAID car that had an empty seat. I got to go along when the guy was talking with clients of AID funded projects. It was good to see the impact Mercy Corps has outside of Arkhangai. The best part of the trip was learning about the Ger to Ger project. It's a nomad centered tourism company that tries to improve herders livelihoods without making them dependent on handouts from foreigners. They have routes in the gobi and arkhangai now. They may have more by next summer. You get to travel between pre-determined points by horse, camel, cart, or car based on where the route is. I think it's a good way to see real mongol life and sites away from cities and towns.

On the last night, we slept in a herder's ger at a place called Ikh Gazariin Chuluu. It means place of many rocks and is made of huge rock formations. It was really cool to wake up to see the sunrise and see these big rocks in the background. We also got to see what a positive effect responsible tourism can have on Mongolian's lives. Everyone should check out Ger to Ger if you're considering a trip to Mongolia.

Changes

Fall has, um, fallen here in Arkhangai and it is getting noticeably colder from day to day. We've had a little bit of snow, but nothing that stays around should happen until Spring. There aren't as many tourists around and most of the ger camps have closed for the year. The new volunteers are settling into life at site and discovering the wonders of Mongolian transportation the joys of the re-supply weekend. The remaining UB expats have probably all retreated inside Dave's pub and I should face less competition next time I'm in town for the pub quiz. Lastly, my good friend Altai is leaving town on Monday for UB and then on to Switzerland to be with her new husband Chris. Altai was the one who brought Nasaa to Enkhee's bar last New Year's Eve when she was sitting home with her parents. We probably wouldn't have met otherwise and Altai was a good intermediary while we bridged the language barrier. She's been a good friend to all Peace Corps volunteers here and she'll be missed.

There are a new buildings, of undetermined purpose, going up around town, but the biggest physical change is the new Buddha statue that was set up on Bulgan Mountain this weekend. There was a big ceremony on the hill with prayers in the monastery and chanting by local monks. Judging by an artist's representation and a brochure I saw, it will be part of a complex of stone steps and pagodas leading from foot of the mountain all the way up to an expanded monastery on top. I'm not sure when it will be completed, but I'll be taking pictures of the progress. I've uploaded a gallery from the ceremony and I'll add to it from now on. I also added some galleries of pictures from over the summer so check out my Flickr page. I'll be editing my old posts to make them look better in the new template also. Check a few posts to look for changes or just start at the beginning to catch up.

The last change is that I have less than a year left of Peace Corps and I'm thinking of what I want to do next. I know I want to work in international development and I'm looking on job boards, but I could use some more advice. Here's a copy of my resume. I'm interested in NGOs, consultancies, and relief agencies.

Ocotber...SUPRISE!!!

I spent all of last week in Zavkhan for their trade fair. I was kind of excited to drive there, but after 17 hours in car each way I think I'll fly next time. The trade fair went well. People from my office and Bayanhongor came up to help. They had a parade and an opening and closing ceremony that ours didn't really have. I didn't have a lot to do so I just explored the city and hung out with Zavkhan PCVs. They have six people, three new, all in the aimag center. Last Friday was our annual consolidation drill. Peace Corps wants to make sure volunters can make it to certain pre-arranged locations in case of an emergency. Since I was in Zavkhan, I had to go to a volunteer's ger and wait for peace corps to call. All the Arkhangai volunteers came in and partied all weekend. They even hung in there for a third day since I missed the first two. They're some fine hyper-socialists.

I've been kind of slow at work lately, but I'm lining up some new trips and making plans for travel and after Peace Corps. I'll keep you updated. Enjoy the Zavkhan Flickr gallery and check out the photo album I added. I'm going to try and upload all my photos from before too.

Mongol Wedding

The plague quarantine was lifted on the 12th so we were able to go to Altai's wedding and hold the trade fair as scheduled. You can check out pictures of both on my Flickr Page. The wedding was really just a big party. People do an official ceremony then go out to the countryside, set up some gers, and receive visitors. Family members visit the first night, then friends in descending order of closeness. It's sort of like how Tsagaan Tsar works. We went on the last night, because the quarantine had just ended. There was one main ger for the party and a couple others where people could make food and sleep. Part of the tradition is to have two bowls in the middle of the ger with, one with mare's milk and one with Mongol vodka (a liquor made from whey). There is also plenty of real vodka going around and they fill various smaller bowls and pass them around. Once you drink, the bowl goes back to the middle to be topped off, and then passed around again. I tried to drink as little of the mare's milk and vodka as possible. The Mongol stuff is much weaker so I stuck to that. I don't know how the wedding party lasted three days, but they seemed ready to get out of there. The tall white guy in the pictures is the groom, Chris, and Altai is the little Mongolian in the red deel. They're probably moving to Switzerland were Chris is from. He already has a ger set up.

The Trade Fair went really well too. I was gone for a whole month before it happened, so I didn't get to help prepare. The staff had been working with other aimag staffs and the local government so they were on top of everything. There were over 70 businesses from the aimag and UB selling everything from vegetables to electronics. I got to help out a little and take pictures. There were some competitions like wrestling and mare's milk drinking, but I missed those. I'll try to put up some other pictures later.

In other news, we're driving to Zavkhan on Monday morning. We'll be there for a week to help with their trade fair and I may stay on another week to work with their clients. I also might go to Bayan Olgi to see the Golden Eagle Festival, but I won't know until next week. I'll keep you posted.

It's my birthday, my b-b-b-birthday!

As you can see from the subject, today is my birthday. My 27th birthday to be exact. It seems like only yesterday that I was 26... My site mates and I did some celebrating last night and Nasaa is coming over tonight. She has to help me finish the ger shaped cake my awesome mother ordered from Fairfield. It's huge and chocolatey and delicious. I uploaded a new set of pictures from our party last night so click on the Flickr link on the left. The pictures speak for themselves. The new guy is Don. He's working in the children's center here in Tsetserleg. You can still order me stuff of my wishlist and my parents will send it along.

In other news, we are unable to leave town because of a quarantine. It seems a student at the Teacher's College came down with the plague after coming into contact with a marmot. Mongolians really like to hunt and eat marmots and they harbor fleas which carry the plague. Peace Corps always tells us to stay away from them (marmots not Mongols) and this is why. There are only three people sick in town and if they are all confirmed to have the plague the the quarantine may be extended. All the volunteers are fine and Peace Corps is on top of the situation. I'll post an update later after I talk with my coworkers and hear from Peace Corps again. If they extend the quarantine, we will have to postpone our trade fair which is happening this weekend. That would suck, but oh well.

Oh, one more thing. My blog has been included on a site called Peace Corps Journals. It lists Peace Corps volunteers' blogs by region and country. Check it out to see what other volunteers are up to. Enjoy the new pictures and check out the wishlist too.

Pardon Our Dust

As you can see, I switched to a new blog template as part of an upgrade to Blogger Beta. There are a few new features that make finding old posts and adding links eaier. And I even like the color. The link list is now on the left and I've added links to my mailing address, Flickr photo page, and Amazon wishlist (my birthday is on September 10th) plus some political blogs and sites I read. Hope you like the redesign.

In other news, my office just got full time high speed internet. Add that to my free hot water heater and having Fairfield nearby, and I have it pretty good. I am so, so spoiled. Work has been slow this week, but that's ok. I was putting in 12 hours days trying to get the catalog finished and traveling a lot. Now the first ones are being printed and we're planning other trips to make more catalogs for RASP clients. The whole office is going to drive over the mountains to Zavkhan for their trade fair next month. I'll probably go on my own later to work with clients. I've been looking all year for something special that I could contribute to Mongolia and I finally found it. All those years assisting my dad on photo shoots and hanging out at ad agencies really paid off. The free lunch and movies didn't hurt either.

Not going to swearing in proved productive. Nasaa and I took a car out to visit Michael in Ih Tamir. His school director (who he lives next t0) also owns a ger camp so they moved him out there for the summer. We hung out and got to see this big rock called Tiger Choloo. It's just sitting in the middle a field. I blame aliens, aliens or a glacier. Check out the Ih Tamir set on my flickr page. Also check out the Ming Wax Museum that was part of our Great Wall tour. All the sets are lined up on the right and the newest photos are in the middle.

There are a few people visiting Arkhangai for vacation and the new volunteers get here today. It should be a fun week.

Home Sweet Home

The main catalog is done, but won't be printed until after the aimag level ones are finished. We will be distributing those at aimag trade fairs being held in the next month. The one here in Arkahngai is September 15-16. I was figuring out little quirks in PageMaker right up until we sent the files to the printer, but I guess that's the best way to learn. There's been a good repsonse so far. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I'm back in Arkhangai now a day earlier than I expected. There was a Mercy Corps Land Cruiser headed this way with and empty seat and you don't pass up a chance like that. It's a matter of 10 hours on a bus and 7 in air conditioned comfort. It'll be quiet here until new volunteers and my site mates arrive on Sunday or Monday. I think I made the right decision by not going to swearing in. Nasaa is going to the city for a week on Monday, so I would have just missed her. Plus, I'm looking to save some money after spending 3 out of the past 4 weeks in UB.

As promised, I posted galleries from my trips to Beijing and Hovd. Here are some samples to click on for links to the Flickr galleries.










That's all for now. It's good to be home.

Homesick

I'm back in UB (as if I ever left) finishing up catalog stuff. We're making one main catalog with all seven aimags represented and seven smaller ones for each aimag. We should have all aimags and the main one to the printers this week. I had a welcome break last week and went to Hovd in the far western part of Mongolia. I worked at the local RASP office and produced catalogs for a sausage maker and two furniture makers. I could almost spend the rest of my service doing catalogs, but I'm sure I'll find other stuff I'm good at. The mongols understand the concept, but most have almost no idea how to put them together. Plus, there's really no quality printing outside of UB. That will change eventually. Hopefully my work will encourage businesses to spend more on marketing and maybe even demand local design and printing services. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

There isn't as much work to do here as I thought there would be, so I'll go home soon. I haven't been in Arkhangai in over a month and I want to see Nasaa and get back to work in my office. My friends are trying to convince me to stay in town all week and go to the M17's swearing in ceremony, but I really want to go home. I can still see everyone as they come through town on their way up to Darkhan. The only attraction would be to go to the ceremony and I've lived through one already. We'll see.

In other news, I ended my summer losing streak at Dave's pub quiz thanks to a nautical round and a table round about US license plates. We also went to a free Scorpions concert on the main square which was quite an experience. I haven't had a chance to post any pictures lately, but I'll put some up once I get back to site. Until then, enjoy these ones my friend Mike sent me from our trip to Beijing.


Mike, Curtis and I at the Summer Palace

Mike's friends from Orlando and I at the Great Wall


Mike and I at Starbucks...ah Starbucks


Mike and Curtis having a private moment at the Summer Palace

That's all for now. Look for some new Flikr galleries next week.

Flickr link

I thought I'd just post a link to all my Flickr sets. This page should be updated automatically. With the uploading tool I'll be able to put up more photos at a time. Enjoy.

Smile and Naadam

Hope you enjoy the new town pictures below. This past week was Tsetserleg's Naadam. In case you're not familiar with it, Naadam is the annual festival of the three manly sports ie wrestling, horseracing and archery. I'm always surprised how laid back the Mongols are about Naadam. They come out to watch it the first day and on TV from UB, but by the second day you're just as likely to "Europe people" as Nasaa would say. Anyway, it was good to see Naadam in a new aimag and I missed the crush of people in town for the UB's Naadam. The city seems oddly deserted now. Guess it's because most of the banks and government offices are closed. As per usual, follow the picture to picture to the gallery.


We also took some visiting tourists to the mythical cave bar located in a nearby ger camp. You really have to see it to appreciate the glorious ambiance. Hope the pictures do it justice. It was definitely worth the trek up the valley to get to it. Hopefully the kareoke is working next time we go. Follow picture the the gallery.

Our Town

Hey gang. I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya, but I've been hella busy. I'm still working on that catalog which I have to finish right after I get back from China. I'm leaving on Sunday for Beijing and most likely going to Shanghai as well. Hopefully there are no surprises there. I'm looking forward to experiencing socialism again, but I also want to distribute some literature the Chinese might not be familiar with. I'll be back on the 24th so expect some pictures. Speaking of pictures, I'm using the Flickr uploading tool now so I put up several new galleries. This post's title refers to my site, Tsetserleg, which means garden and does not refer to an anatomical preference. Click on the picture to find your way to the gallery. I'll put up another posts with more links soon.

This isn't actually an aerial photo, but it gives a good view of the place. My friend Mike and I climbed a big hill to get a look at the town's cell phone tower and found an old graveyard behind it. I got some pictures of that and some of the towns wildlife. We also got pictures of our very own windows background. The place looks a lot better now than it did when some of the town pictures were taken. We've had a lot of rain lately so everything's really green. I put up some Nadaam pictures too. I'll link to those in another post.

Welcome to Fungolia

We went to the airport last Monday night to greet/scare the new trainees (they aren't volunteers until swearing in). First we all met at a UB volunteer's apartment to drink, eat pizza, and make signs. I did more of the first two. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.







A good time was had by all. We got to talk to a few of them before they left the airport, because there was almost 60 of them and they came on two planes. There was even a girl from Tallahassee who went to FSU. Wierd.

*Update-Check out this Flickr gallery for even more arrival pictures.

I celebrate his entire catalog

Sorry this is the first update in a while, but I've been really sick and really busy. I was in UB for 10 days this month. First I had my yearly check up then another business volunteer and I put on a catalog development workshop. The new Mercy Corps advisor saw a catalog from a similar NGO here in Mongolia and wants us to make one. We invited the best English speakers from the aimag offices and taught they about layout, Photoshop, and Pagemaker.

I made these little pictures for a memo that was translated and sent out also. I wanted to explain how to photograph priducts using background paper. All those photoshoots with my dad finally paid off. I'm feeling a lot better and going into the city again next Thursday for one last exam. I'll stay in until Tuesday morning to greet the new trainees at the airport. Then I have to come back and go on a four day trip to the countryside to take pictures and gather information for the catalog. After that I have to put the catalog together and go back to UB to get it printed and attend our biannual meeting the last week in June. It's going to be a busy month.

I'll post some pictures from the airport and maybe some stuff from the catalog later. Gotta go.

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

Spring is a really weird time to be here in Mongolia. It can be warm one day, then windy and cold the next. First there were dust storms caused by high winds and lack of vegetation. And starting this week, we've had our first precipitation in months. During the winter you can count on it being clear and cold. It's been snowing almost non-stop for three days now and it looks like a traditional winter back in the states. Once the sun comes out things should turn green fast. I've kind of forgotten what grass looks like.

In addition to (and maybe because of) the snow, the town has been without running water all week. People who live in the ger districts don't really notice, but value my sink and toilet. A water truck showed up outside yesterday. I hope he comes back. Enkhee says the water might come back tomorrow. I'm not sure if something actually broke or if they're just doing maintenance. There is plenty of drinking water around. Every store sells bottled water although I rarely see Mongols buying it. I also put some water from the truck through my distiller. If the water's not back tomorrow, I might make my first trip to a well. Here's hoping I don't fall in.

UPDATE: The water came on around 12 last night and the weather is clearing up. Doin' fine.

Sports

I was back in UB at the end of last month to meet with a satellite internet company about my community project. I’m still waiting on an estimate for service, but I might be coming to you for donations. Peace Corps has a system where we can make a free web page for solicitations and I have a (regular?) readership already. One of the benefits of being in UB during the week is the Thursday night pub quiz at Dave’s. I can get my full English breakfast, answer trivia questions, and feel like I’m in…south Florida or any other place British people live. So far, I’m two for two and should start demanding a free beer from teammates. I think naming the first woman in space and knowing all the major party presidential runners-up since 1948 put us over the top. Although, an insidious pictionary round almost did us in. No one on my team knew what snake+plane+tent meant. Luckily, I guessed our other two in under a minute so we still won.









Last week, Nasaa invited me to another athletic event that was slightly more…athletic. The schools, banks, government, and offices were all playing volleyball against each other. My office wasn’t competing, so I sat in the cheering section. Here’s Nasaa, lucky number seven, serving and making a save. I didn’t get a picture of the bruises she had on her arm afterwards. She’s very sensitive.









My big boss is coming out from UB next week with our dairy expert and a consultant. Hopefully, we can finally put this market plan to bed and I can move on. I want to start working on a web site and catalogs for our Tsetserleg clients and then do the ones on the soums. If it turns out well, I’ll have something to show people at the June meeting and have an excuse to visit other offices. I have to see more of the country before next winter.

“So you’re the one they call Steel.”

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I’ve had a Peace Corps nickname since staging in LA: Steel. Like any good nickname, or tattoo, origin story there’s drinking involved. Most volunteers being recent college graduates, whenever a group of us gets together there’s a lot of drinking and what my friend Denise likes to call “hyper socializing.” This was even truer when we got to LA, because we were getting to know each other and saying goodbye to America. One night we split into random groups and went of to explore. My group appointed Arni as our navigator, because he was the tallest. We made it almost to the Santa Monica Pier where we were waylaid by bars. That night was pretty tame, but on our last night in the states, we made the most our Peace Corps per diem. A group found the nearest liquor store and did some comparison-shopping. I was captivated by a big shiny can in the
cooler label “Steel Reserve.” I bought it and brought it back to the hotel where I was informed that it was a really potent and distasteful malt liquor. Being the malt beverage aficionado that I am, I said I’d drink it anyway. To this, a couple guys said that if I drank it they’d call me Steel from then on. I’m not sure if this was to be a reward or a penalty, but needless to say, I drank it and have been known as Steel ever since. Possible substitutes include John Steel and sometimes Steely Dan. It became so prevalent over the summer that people who didn’t know the origin started using it and one girl wondered why I wasn’t sitting with the S’s during swearing in. Now, second year volunteers (M15s) use it even though I haven’t met most of them. One M15 actually walked up behind me when I was on a computer at the Peace Corps office and said “So you’re the one they call Steel.” An introduction doesn’t get much better than that. A bonus is that the Mongolian word for steel is bold. This is also the name of a Mongolian rap star, so I haven’t tried to explain the name to Mongolians. There’s only room for one Bold in the country.

Despite being the man of steel, I’m nothing without the love, or vague acquiescence, of a good woman. This was demonstrated when my girlfriend, Nasaa, had to call a repairman for me when I tripped the circuit breaker in my apartment and couldn’t figure out how to fix it. I should have known that running my hot plate, rice cooker, water heater, and water distiller at the same time was a bad idea, but I was hungry, thirsty, and dirty, so very dirty. When all the power went out and I realized that other apartments still had electricity, I spent the rest of the night sulking. I can change the fuse in my apartment, but when I saw that it was ok, I had no other idea what to do. The next morning, Nasaa sent an electrician over. It took him all of five minutes to find the breaker box and flip the switch. To my defense, the box was locked and located downstairs, and had a sign on it reading, “beware of leopard.” True story.

It's all over but the dust storms

Our Project Design and Managment (PDM) workshot went really well. I think it was more useful than our In Service Training (IST), although that probably wasn't Peace Corps' intention. At IST, unless you were an English teacher all the sessions were just information about what other sectors were doing. At PDM, they took us through all the stages of a project from an original vision through action planning, budgeting, and monitoring and evaluation. Instead of bringing another Mercy Corps employee, I decided to bring Enkhee who you might remember is awesome. Mercy Corps gives all it's Mongolian staff plenty of training so I thought it would be a good idea to spread the wealth. I won't be seeing most of the other volunteers until we finish service next year, becuase this was our last big Peace Corps event.

Enkhee's idea is to bring the internet to a nearby soum with the help of a local bank. Khaan bank is in every soum in the country and they sometimes allow people to piggyback on their connection. Another volunteer just completed a similar project so we have a model. I still have to go to the soum to get an idea about where the cafe would be and what local support is available. Enkhee is more ambitious than I am, he wants to build a whole new building, and I'm wary of the "if you build it, they will come" ethos common in development work. But, if the need and community support is there, I'll help achieve the goal. I might be looking for help and donations from people stateside, so stay tuned.

In other news, it's been a pretty warm winter especially here in Arkhangai. Because it's so dry and windy, I can look forward to a couple monthes of dust storms. I here it's not as bad as the Gobi, but then again they have dinosaur bones. I should also say that work has been a lot better since I got back. I have a work plan now and, combined with the internet project, plenty of things to keep me busy.

Oh, I have to mention the chili cook-off I went to last Saturday. That's right, a Texas style chili cook-off in UB. It was help at the Star apartments which houses a lot of ex-pats and embassy staff. They had pinatas and guys in cowboy hats and even a kegerator. I almost thought I was back in America until someone snuck some buuz onto the baked goods table. I'll be here in Tsetserleg until May, so it was a good way to say goodbye to UB for while.

Hodoo fever

So, it was Valentine’s Day last week. I realized it was V-day when Naasa gave me a card and some candy. Yes, I’d forgotten. It’s just not the same without the guilt inducing consumerism. I actually had checked the date earlier in the day and February 14th didn’t register at all. Luckily, I had some heart shaped candy (thanks mom), wine, and candles so I managed to salvage a romantic evening. I also cooked dinner, so give me some credit. Naasa asked if I could cook any Mongolian food. I told her that I’d made buuz and hosher last summer. Of course, that was part of my cultural training and we were heavily supervised. She said that she would come over later and show me how to make Tsoyvin (usually noodles, mutton, and vegetables). It was good and I helped. I pretty much just cut the meat and vegetables. Those months as a prep cook at Bradley's are really paying off. I tried taking a picture of Naasa cooking, but she didn’t want to look at the camera. Women.

Actually, it’s amazing how many things about dating a Mongolian are the same as they would be with an American. People gossip so she doesn’t want to tell people at work we’re dating. She tries to introduce me to her friends and I don’t have much to say. Of course, she doesn’t want many people to know she’s dating a foreigner and I’m bad enough at small talk in English. I thought about the whole interracial dating issue after we’d been going out for a while. I mean, technically, I’m dating an Asian girl, but I live in Asia. You’re perspective really changes when you live outside of America. Maybe these issues should be thornier for me, but now I’m just concentrating on learning more Mongolian so I have more to talk about. Naasa is working on her English too and using the dictionary hasn’t gotten old yet. We meet each other halfway in text messages. I guess that’s a good sign.

It should be a big week. People from Uvurkhangai are coming up to help make a work plan for me. I’m not sure how much will change though. Mercy Corps has had volunteers for a while, but they’ve always been in Gobi Initiative offices which are much bigger. There’s always someone to work with the volunteer and several English speakers around. With my RASP office, they’ve never worked with a volunteer before and they just hired me a translator with passable English. Naturally, they don’t understand why I don’t perform like other volunteers they’ve heard about. It’s as if you took a top athlete and said “he performs really well here on Earth. Let’s put him on Mars and see how he does…oh, he’s doing so good. He must be lazy.” The Peace Corps seminar I’m going to next week is about project development and management (PDM). I’m taking Enkhee the bar/restaurant owner. He wants to set up an internet café in Tsenkher soum. If things don’t pick up at work, I want to spend more time on outside projects. After this trip I have three months with no travel planned. I should have a chance to teach more and get things done. I hope.

New Moon

Yesterday Tsetserleg celebrated the first full moon of the (lunar) New Year. A lam from UB came out to our monastery to bless people. At least that's what I think he was doing. I still don't know much about Buddhism. I didn't even know it was a special night until Naasa came by and said her and some friends were going to the monastery. She did a little prayer bow to make sure I understood what she meant. Cute. When we got there, I saw something I'd never seen in Mongolia before. Mongols were in a line. Usually they just elbow up to a counter and shove whatever their holding at the teller/clerk. I even wrote an onionesque story for our newsletter about a volunteer spending his entire service in a store, because he thought he had to wait his turn. Anyway, it turns out that the line was being enforced by the police, because the president was on his way. I didn't actually see him, but a nine SUV convoy with police escort did come and go quickly. He also went by the government house later and talked to Naasa and other workers. I didn't go though. I'd seen him before. After the president left, everyone lunged through the one door through the fence. The police did a good job of making sure no one was crushed and once inside the fence there was a reasonable line.

Inside the monastery people filed by various shrines and approached the lam. His bouncers let one person through at a time and then he tapped you on the head with a little brass thing. Funny, I don't feel different. There was also more candle lighting on the mountain. Hopefully, this marks the end of the new year season. People are still trickling back into town/schools from greeting in the countryside. The market manager, who I'm working on a business plan with, checked into the local hospital last week. She may be sick, but I think she just went in for a rest. My teacher this summer scheduled a three day stay after training was over.

No other news for now. Next week, people from the Uvurkhangai office are coming up to help my staff do a work plan for me. They have a lot more experience with volunteers and how to use them. I want to be a lot busier. RASP offices have a lot fewer employees and no dedicated translators (until my office hired their first for me) so it's hard to get one on one attention. I just want to accomplish as much as other business volunteers here. Working with new clients this year and helping with the trade fair should give me the opportunity.

Meet the parents

I made it through Tsagaan Sar reasonably unscathed. The Peace Corps training and advice from other volunteers came in handy. I only visited four homes, so I wasn’t overwhelmed. The holiday itself revolves around visiting other people’s houses. It’s kind of a cross between Thanksgiving Day and a pub-crawl time three. Each household prepares the exact same food and goes through the same rituals. In America, people would try to make theirs unique and outdo each other. Here things are very tradition oriented. You go in and greet everyone in the room by holding your arms out palms up below (or above if you’re older) the other person’s. Then, you eat potato salad, some sheep meat, and finally buuz. The whole time you’re also drinking milk tea, berry juice, and rounds of vodka shots. At the end of the visit, you look at photo albums and exchange gifts.

When I went to coworkers houses, the visit was perfunctory. It was just like any other work party. At my girlfriend’s brother’s ger, things were more festive. Oh yeah, I have a girlfriend now. I haven’t really told anyone back home, so this is my coming out post. I was going to tell my brother, but he’d probably blog about it before me. He’s even worse at keeping secrets than I am. We’d make terrible, terrible spies. Not being an incrementalist, I didn’t think it was worth the time to tell people individually. Hope you don’t mind.

Here are some preemptive FAQ answers:

Here name is Naasanjargal
She is 26 and her birthday is February 28th
She works for a judge and plans to be come one herself after getting work experience
We speak mostly in Mongolian so my language and texting has had to improve
We are not married

Peace Corps had a special cross-cultural training session about sex and dating. They went over what Mongolians expect from a relationship with an American. A lot of them expect you to stay or take them home with you. We discussed me leaving in two years and it hasn’t come up again. It’s common for male volunteers to have Mongol girlfriends. It’s less common for female volunteers to have Mongol boyfriends, mostly because young Mongol guys tend to be assholes. That is, except for Enkhee who owns the bar where I met Naasa. Enkhee is awesome.

This post should be the talk of the water cooler tomorrow. Feel free to comment. Here’s one last thing. When I was in grad school at UW, I had a friend named Paul who had taught English in Korea for several years. He had a girlfriend who he stayed with even after he came back to America. I was joking with him once about it and I said he was like a GI with a local girl. When he heard I was joining Peace Corps he said, “just you wait”. Thanks for the heads up Paul.