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.