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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.