It’s Very Cold Outside (Part 2) Энд Маш Их Хуйтэн Гадаа Байх

            Today, December 21^st, marks the first day of winter, the winter solstice, and the beginning of the Mongolian tradition of the nine nines. The darkest day of the year is upon us with a meager 8 hours of direct sunlight. The sun stays on a southern course that doesn’t get much higher than a 50 degree angle with the horizon.

Part of my walk to school

The nine nines refers to 9 sets of 9 days that make up the winter and start on first day of winter. It is a traditional way for measuring the cold and hints that the coldest set of nines is toward the end of January.

The First Nine: Milk vodka congeals and freezes

The Second Nine: Vodka congeals and freezes

The Third Nine: Tail of a three-year-old ox freezes

The Fourth Nine: Horns of a four-year-old ox freezes

The Fifth Nine: Boiled rice no longer congeals and freezes

The Sixth Nine: Roads become visible from under the snow and ice

The Seventh Nine: Hilltops appear

The Eighth Nine:  Ground becomes damp

The Ninth Nine: Warmer days set in

Another part of my walk to school.
Here we can see Chinggis's tallest tower still under construction

            Every now and then at various trainings, we have the pleasure of seeing and hearing the PC safety officer of Eastern Asia. Having completed her service many years ago in the Philippians, she always ends her speech with this story.

            Supposedly every Friday night when the PCVs of various tropical and subtropical islands gather to enjoy each other’s company and speak their native language, they always pause with their first drinks in the air and raise a toast to the dedicated and hardworking PCVs in Mongolia. We are always assured that the toast flows something like, “To the PCVs in Mongolia they are the real heroes/MVP.” I tend to think that the toast is more along the lines of “No matter how hard it is on this island at least we aren’t freezing our … off in Mongolia.”

            Regardless of what is said of our service the cold truth remains that it is very cold here. However, I am not complaining. I have grown accustom to the first chill and find that I quite enjoy not being hot. This is a healthy mentality to take while walking a mile in -20 Fahrenheit. “Man it is really cold outside! But at least I’m not really hot right now!... At least I’m not in the Philippians on a tropical island with warm beaches, blue water, and cold drinks…”

My school, and a frozen Russian style play yard that has monkey
 bars almost no child could reach.

            In November around thanksgiving the snow fell with no intention of retreating until spring. The world has become a winter wonderland that grows quickly grey and black with the dusting of coal fires. Also in November, we experienced some unusually cold weather with our (Sally and I’s) record low so far. It was a chilling week with highs around zero and lows that dipped easily into the -30’s in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately Sally and I had already purchased our winter parkas in UB by this time and were perfectly able to handle the extremes.

            In December the weather has gotten a little warmer. We have been consistently seeing highs in mid-teens with lows around -10. (all temperature in this blog is in Fahrenheit. Mongolia uses Celsius, but it is not a gauge that I am accustomed too.) While these temperatures have been manageable it looks like we have our coldest days so far in the end of the month, with highs that are still below zero.

Temujin Complex School's secondary school building

            My system for dealing with this weather is to prepare for it with the clothing I choose to wear in the morning. If I feel cold I apply more clothing the next day to counterbalance. So far the system has worked. All of my walks to school, while chilly, have been pleasant. One particularly cold morning in November (-25ish), I realize that my eyelashes were sticking together when I blinked and that ice had formed on my beard. This led to the “Darth Vader” face projection.

            If the temperature is -20, my dress consists of: underwear, long underwear pants, long underwear shirt, second short-sleeved shirt, pants/slacks, button down shirt, tie, sweater, wool socks, hiking boots, scarf, sock hat, face mask (white cheap breathing mask, creates barrier between breath, cold, and face), stretching face covering (Thanks, Claire!), winter parka, and fur-lined gloves. This ensemble allows me to step out into these temperatures without really feeling the cold for about a half mile. At this point, my glasses usually fog up, and I am forced to continue the rest of the walk with them in my pocket. Dressed to handle the weather, I am never too cold.  

            The face covering is altered based the temperature and wind chill. If it is only zero or even -10 with no wind chill, I have found that I can leave my nose exposed to breathe easier and prevent fogging of glasses. Any colder and full “Darth Vader” regalia is required.

Darth Vadar protection 

            I was walking through the park the other day around noon, and I saw a pigeon sitting on the ground; so quiet, so calm. I walked up to the bird expecting it to fly away, but it did not and it was only when I was close enough to nudge it with my boot that I saw the small layer of fresh frost on its back. A sure sign that it would never move again. 

~Caleb 

Korean/American Culture Event

In Chinggis Town there are volunteers serving from South Korea as part of Korean Peace Corps program. We have often gotten together and had dinner with them, because it is fun to hang out with people from another country. Even though there is a language barrier their culture is closer to American culture than Mongolia. We depend heavily on several of them who speak English to translate for the rest of the group. Six of these volunteers are only serving four month terms and will be returning to Korea in January leaving behind one 2 year volunteer that started the same time we did. One of the four month volunteers works with my English counterparts at my school to help them with teaching classes and their English.

Sally, Kyra and I hosted the Koreans for a Thanksgiving dinner.
The Menu included green bean casserole, candied carrots, garlic mashed potatoes, and four homemade pizzas. 

Out of this friendship between the American PCVs and the Korean volunteers emerged a neat cultural event which occurred last Saturday. The event was mainly hosted by the Koreans who did most of the planning and funding, but they also included us in hosting some activities for the kids. It was a huge success. Children from all over town converged on my school’s gym to experience a mix of cultural activities that we foreigners had to offer.

The Koreans had stations with traditional food which as infinitely more flavor than Mongolian fair. They also had some games tables and a wall of pictures from their service in Mongolia.

Korean Volunteer leading children in a traditional Korean game

Station where kids can make traditional Korean kimbob
(Sushi roll with meat instead of fish)

Sally and I collaborated with Phoebe and Kyra, our site mates in Chinggis, to organize three activates. We had a Zumba stand where Kyra taught the Mongolians a mix of hip-hop and Bollywood dancing; a true representation of the cultural mixing pot that is America. Using a hand drawn map of America, Phoebe had the students throw a ball at the map and whichever state it landed on she would show pictures and information on her laptop. Our final station was a traditional carnival game where students would through a paper ball into cups of various scores. If they scored high enough I would give them a piece of candy. We were also joined by a PCV who lives only 30km from Chinggis named Ashley. She is on her second year in Mongolia and speaks almost fluent Mongolian, so she was very helpful with crowd management and explain activities to the children. 

Phoebe helping the kids at the map/cultural station

Ashley leading the ball and cup game

Kyra leading some of my school teachers in a Bollywood style of Zumba

Overall, the event was a lot of fun. It was very nice to collaborate with our Korean friends on a small project. We shall certainly miss the six that are leaving us in January, and will continue to foster  friendship with the one volunteer that will be left.

~Caleb 

IST—A Trip to UB

            Transportation in Mongolia can be difficult for some volunteers. Sally and I live 330km (207 miles) from the capital city, so our bus ride is only around 6 hours. If we wanted to save time, we could get there in 5 in a taxi, but it is more expensive. I have also grown accustomed to riding in the bus which is not at the mercy of every pothole.

            Bus riding in Mongolia, while the easiest way to travel, can have downsides. Sometimes the buses are either not heated or overheated. Roadside bathrooms can be… profoundly disturbing. It is also not uncommon to be sitting beside a mother or father with a child in his/her lap. Even with all of these problems, Sally and I are still dealing with a pretty easy half day trip to UB.

            Some volunteers are located on the other side of the country and deal with very long transportation issues. One of my friends must travel 4 hours to his Aimag Center from his soum (small village). This trip involves crossing land that has no roads in the snow and ice of winter. Once at the Aimag Center, he must board a bus for UB that travels for a solid 24 hours. Some sites are “fly sites,” but air travel can be difficult because the plane fair is as expensive as US fair, so many Mongolians would rather save money on 3 or 4 day bus trips. Roads in the country are always two-lane highways with enormous stretches of unpaved areas.  A trip to the other side of Mongolia that might take a day or two in the US by car takes 4-5 days in Mongolia.

            Even with all of these difficulties, last week the CYD and Health volunteers converged at the upstanding Park Hotel in Ulaanbaatar for our IST seminar. (Sally is a TEFL volunteer and will be attending IST in a week.) In-Service Training (IST) occurs in a volunteer’s fourth month of service. It is an opportunity to improve skills and develop working relationships with counterparts. Each volunteer brings a Mongolian CP to the training so that they can develop a project with the help of translators. It also helps the Mongolian counterparts better understand their American volunteer’s customs and odd behaviors.

            I found IST to be some of the most useful training I have received with PC. It was a week of improving relations, and helping my social worker and I understand each other. We have plans now to start a Children with Disabilities Campaign at our site now. The purpose of the Campaign would be to raise awareness among the community of persons with disabilities, and also create events that bring the children out into the community.  Our first activity will be a New Year’s (Шинэ Жил) Party for children with disabilities. There we will have games and also a discussion about upcoming trainings that we would like to offer to family and caretakers. Later next year, I am optimistic about bringing Special Olympics to Chinggis Hot. This program has been in place and run by volunteers in a number of Aimag Centers, but never in ours. Now that my counterpart and I have plans and focus, the real challenge will be making it happen, but I am excited about the possibilities. (I will dedicate a future post to disabilities in Mongolia, cultural perceptions, and programs available.)

            IST also offered an opportunity to catch-up with friends that are on the other side of the country, and share ideas. It seems that everybody is in the same boat. The first few months can be hard for CYD volunteers because of language barriers. Since our focus is not teaching English, we often have concepts that are difficult to express with limited language skills, but everyone seems excited about someday being capable to speak fluently… or maybe just better.

            The Park Hotel is the first opportunity that I have had to enjoy a hot shower with unlimited water. It was amazing. In one moment, it feels like six months of baths is washed away and cleanliness enjoyed. Needless to say, I took a shower every day at the hotel.

~Caleb 

Collectivism - Cultural Differences #3

During our orientation days which seem ages ago (it’s been over 6 months!!!), we were told that Mongolia is a collectivist culture, which is common in many Asian countries. Our facilitators asked us a series of questions and we arranged ourselves on a scale to see where we fell on ideas of individualism or collectivism. The majority of us were on the individualism side, naturally, since that’s what America’s all about.

                                             

What do you think of when you hear the word collectivism? I think most of us turn to extremes. Oh, in that culture, each person must not care about themselves at all. Or, they must not be very independent. Or, they must be really selfless to care about everyone else more than themselves. But there’s a scale. Not everything is black and white, and Mongolia definitely falls into the gray in this category, leaning more towards the collectivist side.

                                              

In terms of individualism, Caleb and I have posted a lot about teachers competitions. Competitions for teachers seem to never end. There’s always another competition around the corner if there’s not one going on at the moment. For example, last week, all the teachers at my school had a teaching competition. They teach one 40 minute lesson and are observed by training managers (who act sort of as vice principals). They first compete against other teachers in their department (foreign languages, math, science, etc.) and then all the department winners compete against each other. Then (I think) those winners will compete against other schools’ winners. There is a lot of focus on doing your best and winning these competitions.

Academic Olympics is also a huge deal here, although this won’t be in full swing until the spring. Teachers will work with one or two of the best students in a subject to develop them as best as possible to compete in these competitions. Again, this starts at the city level, then aimag (province), then country. The teachers also compete in Olympics in their field. I have already felt pressure on having my counterparts win the English Olympics for our city. Part of what I’m doing at my school is working with my CPs who will be participating to get them to winning standards. It’s a big deal.

Outside of competitions, Mongolians have a lot of pride for their professions. Teachers, police officers, government workers, etc. are all looked upon with prestige. These types of professions receive individual awards or recognition all the time. Mongolians are also very confident in their ability to work, no matter what the work. There is a lot of emphasis on exceeding as an individual.

                                                            

On the other side of things, Mongolians do exhibit a collectivist life style. I know many of my fellow PCVs have been asked by their counterparts, neighbors, or coworkers if they are afraid to live alone. Mongolians don’t live alone. And they don’t do things alone. Generally, from what I’ve seen, alone time for Mongolians is not appreciated as it is in America. Whenever my counterparts’ husbands go out of town, they always go stay with their parents or in-laws. They never just chill at the house. Once, my counterpart told me her husband had to work one night unexpectedly, and she had to scramble to figure out where she would go to stay that night.

During PST, I found that all the family members sleep together. With the houses I saw, this made sense. There were only a few rooms in each house. But I imagine that even if there were many rooms, the whole family would still sleep together in one room. It’s just what they do. It’s a slumber party every night! With your entire family…

A few weeks ago, I attended a teachers meeting at my school. It lasted about an hour and a half, and the first 45 minutes were dedicated to people asking for money for whatever reason. The first person wasn’t someone who worked at our school, but she was asking for money to help pay for her child’s surgery. The next person was a worker at our school, and her child was also having a surgery. Our social worker also announced, reading off of an email, that a construction worker who was working on a new building in our city, fell from the scaffolding and was seriously injured. Someone was also asking for money for his multiple surgeries.

What would we do in America if this happened? Most likely, tell ourselves that everyone has problems, and maybe give a couple dollars or nothing to each cause. But this isn’t how they roll here. The teachers took a good amount of time hashing out each situation, and every teacher agreed to give some amount from their paycheck for each person. Can you imagine? If every teacher from our city did this (there are 5 schools here), that would pay for a good chunk of the surgery. It feels like America does this in a sense, but the cause usually has to be something really meaningful to the person. This whole situation seemed very collectivist to me and is one of the bigger differences I’ve noticed between American and Mongolian culture.

                                     

I know this is a little late, but Giving Tuesday is December 1^st this year. Being as it is the holiday season, perhaps you will consider giving a little donation to a cause that means something to you. If nothing comes to mind, please consider one of these, which all have personal significance to me:

http://railroadpark.org/support.html

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/donate/

http://www.awrc.org/

http://www.tigersfortomorrow.org/

http://www.makeyourselffoundation.org/

https://www.arborday.org/

I’ve been reading a book of the Dalai Lama’s teachings. It’s good stuff. Here’s a couple quotes that seem relevant to this post:

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

                                                          

Happy holidays!!!

~Sally

What is Work!! Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more.

Many of you have probably been wondering what I do. The main reason I have not written anything on work until now, is because it has been slow to start.

I am a Community Youth Development (CYD) Volunteer. This mouthful means that rather than being focused entirely on English and Teaching English, my focus is more on developing projects that improve the community and youth. These projects include and are not limited to social clubs, life skills, summer camps, and training for teachers. My focus could be in anything. This is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I am free to design and incorporate projects that fit my skills, but on the other hand it is very difficult to accurately assess the needs of the community with limited language skills. Also, it can be hard to get projects going when dealing with Mongolian Standard Time (see Cultural Differences Part 2).

Photo from one Halloween Party--I'm the Ghost.

 When the Mongolians ask me what I do, I tell them I am a social worker (Нийгмийн Ажилтан) and PCV.  This has been very useful because social workers are a relatively new and prestigious position in Mongolia. Often when encountering groups of drunk men in Chinggis Town, I will explain my profession and where I work. It is has been a useful tool for deterring unwanted attention, because they seem to respect the role of social worker. I also drop the name of my coworker and that seems to generate even more respect.

So, what does a school social worker do in Mongolia? The short answer is everything. Social workers in schools are perhaps the busiest people, because they are often doing the jobs of 3 or 4 people. It is not uncommon for a social worker in Mongolia to be in charge of planning student events and parties, organizing extracurricular student organizations (Scouts, Student leadership,  Young Doctors, Young Policemen, etc.), organizing awareness and life skill activities, collaborating with local police departments on research, collaborating with the local government as a school representative, discipline of deviant students, programs for students with special needs, collecting information on students, working with families that need assistance, etc. There are probably some things that I have left out, but you get the gist. This naturally leads to hard working individuals who are overworked, very busy, and unable to complete tasks efficiently or accurately. Often tasks that seem less important are not completed or fall by the wayside (e.g. working with families and students in need).

Photo of second Halloween Party--Kids are watching a scary film.

So, where do I come in? My school has 1500 students and is arguably the largest in our aimag. We also have one social worker. PC has placed me in this school to work directly with him as my primary counterpart (CP). He is a very capable individual who has mastered the knack of being in multiple places at once. Some of my coworkers nicknamed him “The Wind.” This seems to be a suiting description. Sometimes I will be walking behind him in the school and will stop for a second to say “Hi” to a teacher I know. When I look up, he will have vanished. I seem to run into him all over town, but when I need to find him it is almost impossible. The best solution for locating him is to wait in the office that we share, but that can sometimes take hours. He also speaks very little English, so we are often communicating in Monglish (broken English and broken Mongolian). This can be difficult for projects and collaboration, but I am studying my Mongolian all the time.   

I also have 5 English teachers who are my secondary counterparts. Their English is pretty good, and they have had two previous TEFL volunteers, so they are pretty competent teachers too. In the future, I may also collaborate with the school doctor on health projects. With the exception of my Social Worker, CP’s are flexible positions. If I find a teacher that wants to collaborate on a project that person becomes a CP. If I have a current CP that is not willing to work with me, than I can stop doing so.

Second Halloween Party--I'm still the ghost

That’s all good Caleb, but we still have no idea what you are doing? The short answer is integrating and not much. I have been slow to push new projects, because I have treated that last few months as a time to observe and establish myself as a coworker. A lot of PCV’s come to site expecting to jump right into meaningful work, but the reality is that things do not move that fast here. So here is a summary of what I have done and what I would like to do by the end of the year.

September—spent observing counterpart and starting relationships with various CPs.

1                                                                                                                                                                       

S      1.   Started an English club for foreign language teachers, we have been meeting 3-4 times a week.     2.      Attended various athletic competitions both student and teacher based. 

        3.      Observed and assisted social worker in electronically entering student’s personal information to            database/ files.

October—

      1.      Organized an alcohol awareness meeting for students in the 10^th grade. Social worker presented         PowerPoint that I created.  Other speakers from health department also participated.

      2.      Started an English speaking club for students grade 10-12^th. This club meets twice a week for one       hour.

      3.      Helped plan and put on two Halloween parties for two different English speaking clubs.

      4.      Began planning possible beginners speaking club for teachers and a movie club.

      5.      Began talking about children participation organizations that social worker and I will be putting           on. (My social worker and I are to be in charge of 7 clubs, but with MST they have not started             yet.) 

Goals for next semester

     1.      Start English movie club that is in the works.

     2.      Start beginning English speaking club for teachers.

     3.      Begin various children clubs that are supposed to start with social worker.

     4.      Start pushing for possible life skills clubs that might be needed by the school.

     5.      Collaborate with school doctor and health PCV on possible health awareness.

     6.      Continue to better improve my Mongolian so as to make conversation more achievable.

     7.      Meet with Child and Family Development Center to collaborate on Summer camps for next                summer.

     8.      Continue current English clubs and work with English CPs

Posing with fellow teachers during Chinggis Khan's Birthday

   I hope this helps paint a picture of what I am doing. In addition to this, I spend a lot of time                  waiting for the ball to roll on various activities and have been reading a lot.

~Caleb 

A Trip to UB

Last week, Sally’s and my schools were off for fall break. I went to work a couple of days to see what was happening, but it turned out to be mostly a holiday for teachers as well. The only result of me going to work was a conversation with a slightly inebriated teacher in which I may have agreed to coach a hockey team. After some demonstrations of what I would look like on ice, we agreed that I had two years to get better at hockey. Is there even a hockey team in Alabama?

Sally and I enjoyed the much needed R & R after our busy Halloween schedule and spent the week reading, lounging about, exercising, and finishing Parks and Recreation (a rather hilarious show staring Amy Poehler). Toward the end of the week we prepared for a much anticipated trip to Ulaanbaatar (UB for short), the capital city of Mongolia located about 330 km west of us.

Friday morning found us boarding the bus in Chinggis Town for the 6 hour journey. Travel outside of our Aimag is prohibited in the first three months of service. However, we received permission to travel for the purpose of buying winter clothing which is not as easy to find in our small city. The bus ride was uneventful and freezing. It seems the bus we were on did not have heat, so the inside air was not much warmer than the outside zero degrees.

Upon arriving at UB, we headed directly to Narantuul which is the Capital city’s black market. (While it is a little shady and you can find everything, it is in no way illegal.) Narantuul is a Asian style market; a literal maze of venders and shop stands. Aisles are created through shipping containers full of goods. People are everywhere. Cars are parked so close you can barely walk between them. The air is full of smells: carnival like fried food, rotten vegetables, coal smoke.

Deep in the clothing section of the market, Sally and I found some nice winter coats. Haggling the price was insanely easy. For my coat the man started at 80 thousand and then said that because we were friends he would give it to me for 60 thousand. How could I argue a price like that for a winter parka with a fur lined hood? It seemed like roughly 30 dollars was a steal. Sally also found a coat that was more fashionable with that started at 120 thousand. We explained that we only had a 100, and that became the price of the coat. In another stand we found some nice gloves.

After an hour of searching for the exit from Narantuul, we walked to the downtown region of the city where we had booked a room at a Peace Corps friendly hostel. With most of our winter shopping completed, we could look forward to a day of sight-seeing and good food.  

First Mongolian Geocache!!!

The next morning, Sally and I went to the Monastery. It was there that we found our first geocache in Mongolia. The rest of the day, we spent walking all over the city and shopping in some popular markets. We were able to find a bag of Doritos, a large jar of crunchy peanut butter, and a large container of Hidden Valley ranch seasoning.  We also were hugely successful in finding casserole dishes that fit our small oven. I cannot convey to you how much this will change our way of life.  

UB has many amazing places to eat. On one main street is a German Doener place that is incredible. Dinner found us at an Indian restaurant that PCV speak of in reverence. It was the best meal I have had in Mongolia. The spiciness and flavor of the food is making my stomach rumble as I write this.

This is what the inside of this amazing monastery looks like. It does not feel reverent to take pictures, so this is a picture from the internet. 

After a successful weekend of shopping and good food, we returned to our small city in the middle of the steppe. Disembarking from the bus, we relished the quiet sounds of our city where only a few cars go down the roads. While it was nice to visit the teeming metropolis of 1.5 million people, it was better to return home.

~Caleb 

Halloween

Last week was a very busy week for Caleb and me. We both got involved in our schools’ Halloween parties. The week before on Friday, one of my CPs said “Let’s have a Halloween party!!!” Unfortunately, she was the most excited about it and she was sick all last week. She couldn’t help plan it or do anything at all.

Me as a ghost and some of the decorations

So my other CPs did a lot to throw this party together. It took place on Thursday evening. The students helped decorate. We had minimal decorations due to lack of funds and availability of Halloweeny stuff. White toilet paper can go a long way though. We used it to turn the gym door into a mummy and some of the teachers wrapped up a volleyball and hung it from one of the basketball hoops as a scary ghost head thing. It was creative. We drew Halloween pictures on cups and dispersed them through the gym. We also had some things that Caleb brought from his school, like little paper ghosts and a skeleton he drew and named Gentleman Bones. Gentleman Bones is now hanging in our apartment.

Gentleman Bones

Throughout the week, students were told to prepare a Halloween poster, a pumpkin, and costumes. There would be competitions among each class for the first two and an individual costume contest.

2nd place poster winner

The party was scheduled to begin at 7. The students didn’t make their entrance until about 8:30. I was slightly annoyed by this, but I spent this extra time wisely, haunting the school’s hallways making eerie ghost sounds in my costume. I scared some kids. It was great.

We started the party with some music and dancing, and then we watched Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video. After that, I taught a dance to those who were interested based off of Thriller. I think they enjoyed it. Then more dancing. And a tongue twister competition. “Creepy crawler critters crawl through creepy crawly craters.” Two students from each class participated. Some of them were really good at it.

Students in their costumes

After that, we did a relay race between classes. There were 5 students from each class. The first did a sack race from one point to another. The second student had to run circles around a basketball – 15 times. This wasn’t my idea. The students said 15. After they did their circles, they had to shoot the basketball. This took a long time, but it was hilarious. Some kids just fell over. Some kids hurled the ball in the complete opposite direction as it should have gone. Once they finally made the basket, the next student had to blow up a balloon. Then the last two students had to run from one end of the gym to the other with the balloon in between them, without touching it with their hands. Then they had to pop it between them once they crossed the finish line. This was quite entertaining to watch, especially since I wasn’t involved at all. Up ‘til this point, I had taught a dance and conducted and judged a tongue twister competition. It was nice to just watch.

Watermelon Jack-o-Lantern

After this there was more dancing, and my CPs and I decided how to judge the costume, pumpkin, and poster contest. We worked it out and presented the awards. I didn’t judge the pumpkin contest, so I don’t know who won, but there were only two entries. One was a pumpkin, but the other was a carved watermelon. I hope that one won. Like Gentleman Bones, those two items stayed in our apartment until after Halloween.

The costume contest winners

After a bit more dancing, the kids all departed. It didn’t take long to clean up, and we were walking out at around 10. It was a long day. That was Thursday the 29^th.

Students dancing

Saturday on Halloween, Caleb, Kyra (another PCV in our city), and I decided to go for a hike across the steppe to a nearby mountain. The majority of our walk was across flat land. We were very chirpy on the way to the mountain. We left around 9:30 and got to the mountain around 12:30. It didn’t take long at all to get to the top. It wasn’t that big. We ate lunch and hung out at the top taking pictures for about an hour and then started heading back home. Walking back was okay at first, but then we started to feel it. The last hour or two was pretty torturous. Caleb estimates we walked about 12 miles total. We got back home at 5ish, and we were so happy to sit down.

Thriller pose on top of the mountain

That evening we, along with Ian (another PCV in Khentii) went out to eat and came back home to watch some scary short films and a thriller movie.

And that was pretty much our Halloween. I decorated our apartment a little bit, turning our mosquito net into a giant spider web in the living room, and we put up trash bag spider webs on the walls, toilet paper streamers in the entryway and into the kitchen, and of course our carved pumpkin, watermelon, and Gentleman Bones.

It was a pretty good holiday altogether. We have now been in Mongolian for a full 5 months. It’s hard to believe. Happy November everyone!

~Sally

It’s Cold Outside (Part 1) 10/26/15

Today, October 26, the wind has been blowing down from Siberia bringing some of the lowest temperatures we have seen in Mongolia yet. The high for today is 37 degrees. When I walked to school, the weather channel website said it was 25 degrees with 18 mile per hour northern winds that brought the temperature to about 11 degrees. The wind seems to be a determining factor for the temperature. Wind chills make a pleasantly chilly day, bitterly cold.

As the weather gets colder, I have been adding more clothing to cut back the chill on my walk to school. Today I wore low grade long underwear leggings for the first time. I also wore corduroy pants, wool socks, hiking boots, an undershirt, a long-sleeved cotton shirt, a long sleeve dress shirt, a tie, a scarf around my face (thank you Miss Kim), a sock hat, and my Duluth trading company fleece jacket. The jacket and corduroy/long underwear combo was vital for cutting out the wind chill.

Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it is not yet that cold in Mongolia. The season is young and just cooling down. However, today is unique because I can safely say that the wind chill is colder than some of the colder days of a normal year in Birmingham. About once a winter, Birmingham will see temperatures at or around zero degrees Fahrenheit, but it is rare and even rarer for such a severe wind chill to affect our southern climate. In the last four years, I have often gone hiking throughout the year with my good friend Tyler. In January on Vulcan Trail overlooking the city with the wind sweeping over the curve of Red Mountain, Tyler and I would occasionally experience weather as cold as I have just experienced today at the end of October.

~Caleb 

My Job

I realize that since I’ve started my actual work, I haven’t really written about it. So here you go. Sorry this got a little long. Skip the first part about scheduling if you wanna. I don't really have pictures of me teaching, because I'm teaching during those times. :) I will work on this. 

My work week has been in the neighborhood of 32 hours, pretty consistently. It may be a little more starting this week due to clubs finally happening.

My school’s schedule is pretty typical for a Mongolian complex school, I think. A complex school is a school that has all grades, 1^st-12^th. The day is divided into two sections. High school students, grades 9-12, have classes in the morning, from 8am to 1:15pm. Middle school students, grades 5-8, have classes in the afternoons/evenings, from 1:30pm – 6:45pm. I don’t work with elementary students, so I’m not sure when they have classes.

There are seven blocks of time in the morning, and seven blocks of time in the evening. Each block is 40 minutes long. So there are 14 class periods in a day.

I have three Mongolian counterparts (CPs). I teach one English class with each of them. On Mondays, I co-teach 9^th grade for two class periods (2 “hours” as the teachers call them, even though the “hour” is only 40 minutes) and again on Thursday for one hour. Both days this class starts at 9:30am, which is the earliest class I have during the week.

On Wednesdays, I co-teach 2 “hours” of 5^th grade, and again on Friday for one hour. Also on Wednesdays, I co-teach 2 hours of 8^th grade from 5:20-6:45, and again on Thursdays for one hour starting at 6pm.

I also teach English to my CPs three hours a week. And there is a separate class for my CPs who will be participating in the teachers’ Olympics competition in the spring, also three hours a week.

This week, we are also finally starting with the clubs at my school. Once a week, I will co-teach an English class for teachers and school workers that want to learn English. We had the first class on Monday, and although only 3 teachers showed up, I think they all really enjoyed it. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if the class stayed that small.

I will co-teach an English speaking club for middle school students Wednesdays at 12 and for high school students Thursday afternoons. The middle school club will be one hour, but the high school club will be split into two groups I think, 9-10^th and 11-12^th.

Altogether, I have 19 hours of teaching every week. Outside of that, I meet with each of my CPs individually to lesson plan about 2-3 hours each, and I lesson plan by myself for the English classes I teach to my CPs. I have also been typing up all the lesson plans on my computer for all the classes I co-teach, and occasionally, I have to prepare materials for classes, but my CPs usually take care of this.

In a broader view, my Mondays are pretty nice, only one “real” class with 9^th grade. Tuesdays, I have NO real classes. On Tuesdays, I have my CPs come to my apartment to lesson plan and have CP English and Olympics classes. Since I don’t have an office and the one small teachers’ room is often crowded and noisy, it’s nice to have a day where my CPs aren’t distracted. Wednesdays are my hump days, for sure. 5^th and 8^th grade, 2 hours each, and I don’t get home until 7. Thursday is like a bookend day. 9^th in the morning, 8^th at the very end, not too much going on in the middle. And Fridays are pretty good, just 5^th grade and CP classes. No lesson planning or late nights.

Classes themselves have been going pretty well. The 5^th graders are all so excited about learning English, and they always seem to make me feel like a rock star. It’s easy to have fun teaching them. 8^th graders are my least favorite, just because they can get unruly in a matter of seconds. This is also just me trying to work out classroom management skills, and my CP for this class can’t communicate on the spot with me very well. 9^th graders are great. Some of them are reluctant to participate, but if I keep pushing those students, they will eventually work with me. The majority of the class seems really into English.

One thing that makes it difficult to teach here is the lack of materials and resources. Every school is different here in those terms, but I really feel it at my school. In my 8^th and 9^th grade classes, they only have 5 or 6 books for the whole class. They share maybe 5 or 6 students to one book.

My access to a printer is not ideal. I haven’t had to print anything personally, which is nice. My CPs always print any materials we need for class, but my school charges 100 Tugriks for each piece of paper you print. This converts to about 5 cents, but this can really add up when you’re printing things for every student, especially on a PC budget.

Speaking of which, I know you are dying to hear about class size. I don’t know what the average Mongolian class size is, but I can tell you about my school. My 5^th grade class has 24 students, my 8^th grade has maybe 26, and my 9^th grade class has about 22. In my school, there are probably about 25-80 students in each grade. They are divided into different homerooms. For example, I teach the 8^th B class. There is also an 8^th A class that I don’t teach.

I am starting to feel pretty settled in with my job. The two main challenges for me have been scheduling and communicating. Communication is always going to be a challenge, I think, but the more I work with my CPs, the better we get with communicating with each other. Scheduling is just hard. It’s the clash of Mongolian and American ideas about time and priorities. I have a schedule worked out for my week of classes, CP classes, and times to lesson plan. I kid you not when I say there hasn’t been one week when something hasn’t been moved, changed, or canceled.

That being said, the more I’m here, the more I get used to it. Teaching is getting easier for me, even though it’s hard for me to label myself as a teacher. It’s not a bad job, and I appreciate all the teachers and professors I ever had classes with so much more because of this experience, but as a career, I don’t think it’s for me.

But I digress. We’ve been at our site for 2 months now, and time is not slowing down. Work is steady and good, and I feel needed. It’s nice and I’m happy!

~Sally