I swear (or affirm)

I (state your name) am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer. The swearing in ceremony last Saturday was pretty impressive. The US ambassador and the President N. Enkhbayar both gave speeches and all the host families were there to say goodbye to their trainees. People from each training site got to perform traditional Mongolian songs, dances, and poems. The audience couldn't believe that we'd only been in the country for three monthes. It was great to see everyone in all in dels or Mongol shirts and the host families really enjoyed it.

I've been at work in Tsetserleg for a almost a week now. I had heard from other business volunteers that you spend the first 3 months reading and getting familiar with the operation and I thinkthey were right. Right now my Rural Agro-Business Support (RASP) office works with about 12 businesses in Tsetserleg and in nearby soums (towns). I've been reading their business plans and in a couple of weeks I get to travel to the soums to help with trainings. Tsetserleg is nice and there are a lot of foreign tourists passing through. I'm not sure how many I'll see in winter though. I'm still getting settled in my apartment and figuring out where things are. I want to go hiking and check out the mountains also.

More pics

Some shots from our business seminar. I can send you my presentation if you want.










Some pics of my host family and I plus a little going away party with Curtis and his family.











Big group shot. Some trainees at our Darkhan pub crawl. All the Khotol people at Vita's birthday party. .

Training Wrap-Up

Training is almost over and we're all back in Darkhan for our last medical and technical sessions. On Monday we got our Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) scores and site placements. It was a great day because I got an Intermediate Low (up from a Novice High at Mid LPIs) and I found out that I'm going to Tsetserleg, Arkhangai. It's supposed to the nicest provence and I'll be living in the capital in an apartment. We swear in and officially become Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) on Saturday. The ambassador administers the oath and various dignitaries as well as all of our host parents will attend. Each group of trainees is doing a performance and one representative from each is doing a speech in Mongolian. I have a Mongolian shirt and hat to where. After that we get to go to UB for a couple days to buy stuff for our sites. I'll do another post about swearing in with more pics from swearing in. Now, though here are some pics from my summer in Hotol and from our two trips to a monastery nearby. Click on the pictures or links to get to the galleries.

Business Seminar

Things are really good here. We had our business seminar yesterday and it went great. We had a full house (almost 20 small business people and students from our town) and all three of our presentations went over well. Peace Corps let us use their LCD and I used my computer for powerpoint on two of the presentations. I'm really glad I brought it because we wouldn't have been able to do the seminar with out it. If I get the chance I'll post my presentation which was on marketing. We had it translated into Mongolian and we got to work with a translator during our seminar. That took a little getting used to. It was really satisfying because one of the audience members got up at the end and said that she wanted to thank us for trying to help thier businesses. That's what we're here to do.

I'll put up my new address once I know it, probably at the end of August. Thanks for the comments and emails. Look forward to more blog posts and pictures.

Here is the label as promised. The address will be good until September. Also here is my latest photo album and a wish list I set up with Amazon. Just click on "add to cart" and ship to the gift registry address. If you think of anything else I might like just send it to 1010 Andrews Rd West Palm Beach, FL 33405 and my parents will send it along.

Thanks for checking in. More posts to come.

Hoodo Tales Part II

Part of Peace Corps training are so called "survival competencies". Here in Mongolian that means can you; chop fire wood, winterize your ger, and cook for yourself. To that end I've so far cut and chopped fire wood, cooked traditional Mongolian food, plus ridden a couple of horses and milked a goat in the process. I'll try and post photos of all these things when I go to UB this week and find a computer that will accept my USb drive. Or I'll break down and burn them to a CD. Either way, look for an action packed post at the end of the week.

Otherwise training is going great. I'm already at the language level I need to be at the end of the summer so now I just have to keep it there. On the business side, my group is putting together a business plan for a local shop and after UB we have to a small business symposium. It should be great practice for when I get to my real site.

In UB I'll post my new cell phone number which you can call with a calling card (incoming calls are free) as well as my Amazon wishlist and a mailing address. Comment on whatever you feel like or just email me at jrkinsella@gmail.com

later.

Hoodo Tales

The Mongolian word "Hoodo" means countryside, but since this is a place with a lot of countryside we translate it as anywhere more rural than where you are right now. Two weekends ago we went from Hutul, which has aparments with running water and paved roads, to Orkhan, which has none of these. The plan was to visit some other trainees and maybe see the river which shares its name with the town. That's where the trouble started. We found a taxi to take us to Orkhan, but the driver wanted more money than we expected. He said it was because he would have to wait for us. We said he wouldn't and we started driving. Eventually we pulled of the road (we were expecting to take a dirt road eventually) and pulled up to the riverbank. At this point we realized that he thought we just wanted to go to the river (I had been holding a towell). This struck us as odd and kind of like having someone bring you to the Mississippi river instead of to the state of Mississippi. Dan, one of the four trainees in the car, said he knew the word for city, as in Orkhan city, and told the driver "Orkhan mot". We then went back on the highway and across to the other, shadier side of the river. At this point I looked in our dictionary and saw that "mot" and "hot" meant city.

After that we had a little laugh with the driver and ended up making it to Orkhan to see our friends. We swam in the river and played frisbee and had two lunches (one with each trainee's host family). On the way out of town the wheel of a second taxi fell completly off and we had to find another ride. This week learned more word to use when arranging transportation so hopefully we can use them soon. Well, I have to go learn how to play a Mongolian musical instrument . I'll more Hoodo tales in my next post.