Mid-Center to Present--07/14/15

         

It has been two weeks since I wrote my last blog. The time feels like it is literally flying by. At the end of June, all of the PC trainees were brought in to Darkhan for Mid-Center days for basic training on safety, medical, and logistical topics.  Sally and I enjoyed the opportunity to spend a few days together. Every time we are staying in a hotel the PC has allowed us to share a room. This is of course the way it should be, but we were under the impression that we might not get this privilege during training. It turns out the training has been very accommodating toward married couples which was not the impression I got from reading blogs in the states.

Our PC Medical Officer (PCMO) is a slightly scary Russian doctor, (I believe he grew up in Russia, however I am not sure what his nationality is now) whom everybody loves. He is fully confident to take care of us here in Mongolia. During one of his training sessions he asked all of the trainees to define an emergency, and someone said what we were all thinking. “An emergency is a health problem that is scarier than calling you.” While he did not laugh, I think he was amused on the inside. His Russian accent and mannerism is wonderful, and makes any of his trainings immensely enjoyable. One of the more memorable talks regarded STD’s among PCVs and safe sex practices. Later Sally and I joined the other two married couple trainees for dinner. I raised a tea toast to population that was free from STD through monogamy. 

While this does not pertain to Sally and I, it is not uncommon for PCVs to find potential spouses while serving abroad. I was a little surprised about this, because I struggle to understand relationships where one person is in a position of power and influence over the other, but I realize that love happens spontaneously. I also realize that two years is a long time for a single PCV to remove him/herself from the dating world, and have come to believe that these relationships founded abroad are most often as innocent as any other.

Mid-center days allowed us the opportunity to be exposed to eating out. Sally and I sampled a number of resturants in the Darkhan area. It was truly nice to have Mongolian versions of American food that we have not been experiencing during training. I have had a hankering for fried chicken and was able to mildly satisfy it in the city. Sally and I often split enormous dishes that are expensive to a PCV, but really only cost about 6 dollars.

Lodging… was amazing. In an earlier blog, I write about the hotel as being a gradual step down into third world comfort. Now the hotel is almost luxury with hot showers and actual beds. The flushing toilet was not really an improvement to the outhouse I have been using though. What can I say? I like the breeze. The other thing you have to understand about Mongolian plumbing is that it is often the same plumbing the soviets installed before I was born. This leads to a host of issues with water pressure.

After Mid-center days, Sally came and visited my Ger and family for a day. My host family is really great!  I had hoped to do some hiking with Sally, but the weather did not cooperate with whipping sandy winds.  That Sunday morning, Sally returned to her community via taxis.

A week of language classes and trainings flew by in the blink of an eye. During that time, I went shopping with my Host Family and the market where they bought me a very nice in-formal dell. It is a beautiful baby blue color. I have also been exercising on a regular basis, and started trying to talk other Americans into joining me. My friend Theo has taken up the call.  Together we have been exercising using gravity workouts and bricks as weights.

With the weekend came the festival of the three manly sports: Nadaam. I went to the opening ceremony with my host family and most of my CYD group. It was there that I was able to locate my beautiful wife in her fashionable dell. When I get an appropriate internet connection I will include lots of pictures. For now let me say that Nadaam is colorful and festive in a manner that is akin to a state fair. The stadium is where the wrestling occurs. Archery and horse racing are held outside the stadium. Surrounding the stadium is rows of gers and venders selling all manner of Mongolian food and merchandise. The staple food of Nadaam is khoosher which I have described in a previous post. It is also during the festival that Airrag (fermented mares milk) is consumed in heavy doses.

Sally who was without a family joined mine, much to our delight. We enjoyed a nice three hours walking around the stalls, watching the wrestling, and dining at a khoosherger.My host father found a bottle of Airrag (the bottle had once been a 1.5 liter coke). Following the direction of the PCMO, I took only a small sip of the bowl that was passed around and waited for any ill effects. By the time the bowl returned I knew, I was free from anaphlatic shock, so following the custom I drained it. Airrag may contain 2% alcohol, so it is very weak as far as beverages go. When I first heard of the drink stateside, I had hopes of finding some amazing beverage to share and discuss with Americans. I think this is one we can let the Mongolians keep. To say that it is an acquired taste does not even begin to convey the truth.  The taste is somewhere between milk, vinegar, and very old cheese. Sally also had a bowl and didn’t find herself enjoying it any more than I did. 

Sally had traveled to Nadaam with her language group, so she left when they did to go see the horse racing which takes place in the countryside. It was said to depart from her earlier then we would have liked, but it was still really nice to see her on a day that was not a scheduled visit.

The Festival of Nadaam last for almost a month, so the PC gave the trainees a four day weekend. I spent most of this weekend trying to stay cool in the heat, and reading. One highlight was a hike I went on with a fellow volunteer to a mountain that was in walking distance.  It was fun to get out and stroll on the ridges. Needless to say the view and climb was amazing.  We were able to see for miles. The summit was about 1000 feet higher than where we started out. On the way back, a storm that had been on the horizon swung over the mountain with rain and spotty lighting. My hiking buddy Jake is perhaps the tallest person in Mongolia at this moment. We immediately grew uncomfortable with the lack of cover and retreated to the bottom of the valley following a small canyon out of the highlands. It was a pleasant adventure that we both thoroughly enjoyed.

On a final note, internet has been difficult to come by during training. Once Sally and I get placed at a site we will establish our own internet connection, but for now we can only post when we get access. Another issue is that internet here is rarely unlimited, so out of respect for the people who are allowing us to use their internet we are posting very few pictures if any. Next time we have wireless unlimited access we will try to update the blog with the pictures we have been taking.

~Caleb

Dude, I got a Dell! (7/9/15)

No, I didn’t buy a computer. Two days ago, I told my family goodnight around 10 or 10:30. I was in my room for just a few minutes when my host mom came in and presented me with a beautiful blue Mongolian dell. In Mongolia, when someone is talking about a dell, they are NOT referring to a computer. Dells are the traditional clothing in Mongolian culture. They are robe like garments that, more traditionally, reach the mid calves or ankles in length, are long sleeved, and are tied with a belt or sash around the waist. There are also buttons on one side to close it. My family gave me a non-traditional dell, which for women is shorter and short-sleeved. My dell has a zipper in the back. It’s more like a dress, but the material and style is the same as a traditional dell. It reaches the tops of my knees and has white embroidery on the collar and sleeves. The belt is a little frilly and is more for fashion than function. Somehow, my dell fits me perfectly. My family didn’t measure me or anything, so I don’t know how they knew what size to get. The belt was a bit big, so my mom and sister are taking it in today.

My Mongolian host mom and I the morning of Naadam

Tomorrow, my sitemates and I along with some host family members are going to Darkhan for the day to celebrate Naadaam, the festival of the three manly sports. The three sports are horse racing, wrestling, and archery. Caleb and I may get to see each other here, which will be an unexpected visit. He or I will write more about this after it happens, but I mention it now because I will be wearing my dell for the festival tomorrow. None of my family is able to go with me because they have to work, but they are super excited for me to get dressed up for the occasion. I’m not quite sure, but I think someone is going to do my hair in the morning. And my 20 year old sister and mom just went through all my earrings to pick out the ones that match my dell the best. My only problem is the lack of fancy shoes (which is fine with me, but my family may disapprove). I have high heels, but I don’t think I’m going to show those to my family because they might make me wear them. Hopefully, I can get away with my black slip-on TOMS.

My PST sitemates, Jessica and Alex, and I before going to Naadam

Caleb and I at the Naadam stadium in Darkhan

Anyways, it’s awesome that I have my very own dell! I’m excited to officially wear it tomorrow for Naadaam. Pictures will go up as soon as possible!

~Sally

I finally did it. (7/8/15)

This deserves its own small post. Tonight, I ate ALL of the food they gave me for dinner. This is the first time this has happened with either of my host families. I was really hungry, and I didn’t get home until around 9 or 9:30 because I had a one-on-one tutoring session with my Mongolian language teacher at the school. The food wasn’t like a super amazing dish; it was your basic Mongolian tsouvan (again, more on correct spellings and dish descriptions later). However, I was really hungry. They served me a large heaping bowl, and I ate it all. I was amazed with myself. Meanwhile, I am having to wear a belt on the almost tightest loop because of the amount of weight I’ve lost. I don’t know how much since there’s no access to a scale, but judging by my clothes, it’s relatively significant. But back to the point. I ate an entire Mongolian serving of dinner. You should all be very proud.

~Sally

Adjustments and a Birthday Celebration! 6/28/15

Without getting into details, I will say that I moved to a new host family home on Friday. In my new family, I have a mom, dad, 20 year old sister, two 18 year old brothers, an 8 year old sister, and a 6 year old brother. This is a big family! I have a huge space here. I have a large carpeted bedroom with a TV, and I have my own kitchen space with a fridge, table, chairs, cabinets and freezer. The curtains here are great at blocking out the sun, so I have slept well the past two nights.

This past week went by quickly, but it was kind of stressful. We visited two of our sitemates’ homes, which has been a good experience, but that means I wasn’t getting home until 8pm or later. I couldn’t start on lesson planning or Mongolian homework until I got home, so this made for several really late nights. I’m glad my new family was okay with me sleeping in until 10am this weekend.

My sitemate, Marc, and I taught our grammar lesson on Wednesday. We got pretty good feedback from our observer, but I feel like it could’ve gone better. Still, this was just my second time truly teaching, so I’m not being too hard on myself.

After the micro teaching on Wednesday, our technical coordinators told us we had new micro teaching partners. This was kind of a shocker, since originally we thought we would be teaching with our current partner for two more classes. Marc and I had actually already planned out the class on Friday, and he had written half the lesson plan. It threw me off for a few minutes, but I found the merit in switching partners, so I got over it pretty quickly. My new partner is Alex, who, like me, hasn’t had any previous classroom experience. He is very chill and a quiet type, like me, so working together is making both of us be more extroverted in our teaching. We planned out a seemingly solid lesson plan for our classes on Friday. Unfortunately, my host family situation abruptly changed Friday during lunch, so I was not in a state to adequately teach the classes. Alex, the brave soul, taught the classes solo. From what I hear, it went pretty well! Today, we started planning our final micro teaching lesson, which we will teach this upcoming Tuesday.

Now, the birthday celebration! Marc’s 25^th birthday was yesterday, and it happened to line up with our “cooking practicum” that we had to do. This means all of my sitemates went to Marc’s house around 11am to work on preparing food. I think Marc’s family thought that our entire soum would be stopping by for lunch, because we made SO much food. We worked together following instructions of Marc’s family and our Mongolian language teacher to create khoosher, tsuivan, egg salad, carrot salad, and potato salad.

Marc’s family also cooked us sheep meat in a very interested and incredibly tasty way. They heated up stones and added the meat, stones, water, onions, salt, and some vodka to this giant tin cooker thing and closed it up. They let it cook for a while, and WOW! That was good. I think my favorite thing of the day was the broth was came from the meat cooker thing. It is probably the best thing I’ve had since I’ve been here, actually.

We stayed at Marc’s for several hours, cooking, eating, singing Mongolian and American songs while Marc played guitar, eating more, having cake and more cake, meat and more meat, and some of us were given food to take home.

Afterwards we made plans to meet up soon to brainstorm about our community development project. And a few hours later, we did. We met under Alex’s shade tree, which has a view of the soum. It is quite pretty on shade tree hill, especially in the evening. We made some good progress and were ready to all go home when our Mongolian language teacher, Boloro, called. She met us at Alex’s house and asked us if we wanted to partake in some archery. Of course we did. We all took turns, and it was super hard to pull the line (or whatever it’s called) back at all. The girls in our group were pretty sad, and our arrows didn’t go very far at all. The guys did a lot better, but still we were all shown up by a 15 year old Mongolian kid, who pulled the line back with perfect form with no trouble. We left not long after that.

When I got home, my new mom and 20 year host sister fed me (yes, more food) and then asked me to milk the cows with them. So I did! I wasn’t making anything happen at first, but I eventually got into a very slow rhythm and was doing it pretty well. Nothing close to my sister, who was milking at warp speed compared to me.

I am looking forward to next week when I get to see Caleb for five days during PST mid-center days. We will all be coming together to sit through lots more safety and security talks and whatnot in Darkhan. Then on Saturday and Sunday, I will visit Caleb’s host family at his soum. We aren’t quite at the halfway point in PST, but time is definitely moving. I am staying very busy.

I wish I could actually post more frequently, but I have no internet at my soum. I am writing a blog post every week to keep everyone up to date, even though they are being published late. I am doing great here, so please don’t worry about me! I hope everyone is doing great at home. For those of you Alabamians, I hope you will be happy to know that I have been enjoying breezy high 60s low 70s weather these past few days. :)

~Sally

Sandstorms, Rain, and Sun 06/27/15

Another week of classes has flown by. On Sunday night we had the strongest sandstorm I have seen yet. I use the term sandstorm loosely. The image that comes to mind is something like “The Mummy,” with a face of death, destruction, and utter blindness. Here it is more like the wind kicks up the sand reducing visibility to about a quarter of a mile instead of 10+ miles. Walking in this environment can still be really miserable. Certain parts of Mongolia are more prone to sandstorms in the spring, but I think Darkhan, being rather dusty, has the occasional storm on a regular bases.

This week has also brought some rain which is a blessing, because it completely lowers the temperature. Last night was the coldest night I have seen yet, and I slept pretty snuggly in my warm sleeping bag. What follows the rain are days of pleasant sunshine with perfect temperatures.

Sally, I, and all of the other trainees have now been affiliated with the Peace Corps for a month. It is hard to believe that that much time has passed, yet the experiences have been so numerous that it feels like a year or an age has passed since we boarded the plane in San Fran.

On the humorous miscommunication front, my host community contains an enormous market where one may be able to acquire anything. The English speakers call it the Darkhan’s Black Market, because of its maze of vendors, stalls, shipping containers, buildings, and open air markets. This really unique place is also were the Taxi’s drop travers off for my community. Upon returning from Sally’s family on Sunday, I exited my taxi, and looked around for my family. When I didn’t see my Host mother or father, I oriented myself off of a building, cut through the market, and preceded to my Ger. (A distance of about 1.5 km) It was hot, but it was also the first time I had walked a decent distance by myself, so I rejoiced in feeling like I knew my community.

When I reached my Ger, I realized that my Family was not present, and also that my host sister had tried to call me multiple times. I called her back and explained in broken Mongolian that I was at the Ger/Home. Ten minutes later I see her running up the hill where upon seeing me she collapsed in grass. What I gathered from her is that she had been tasked with meeting me at the market, we had missed each other, and she was worried that I had been lost. Fear that she had lost the families American let to a mad dash back to the Ger to see if I had really made it home. Since, we had not been running, my host parents and I, found the whole experience humorous.

Later in the week, I was asked by my sister to translate a sentence and help her make signs out of notebook paper.  The sentence in Mongolian translated into, “Please, do not paint the walls.” It was explained to me that the signs were to go to the school where we were having class. I accepted the fact that there must be a group of English speaking children running amok in the school with paint brushes. When you don’t understand the language well, you learn to just go with it. Upon arriving at the school with my fellow trainees and seeing the sign in my hand writing placed were we would see them, I realized that it was for us. I also realized the difference between literal translation, and good translation. “Wet Paint! Please do not touch the walls.”

On the subject of translations, T-shirts in English are always fun. “Love Mosic”

Today, my fellow CYD trainees and I had a cooking class. We went to the market as one American horde, and with the help of our teachers purchased all we needed for lunch. We then stormed to one person’s house where we created great Mongolian dishes.

Tsiuvan is a dish containing steamed flower noodles, vegetables, and usually meat. We made it without meat. The noodles are created first with flour and water and rolled into flat layers which are then steamed about a pot of boiling water. Sometimes a soup is created and the noodles are steamed above the soup. Once the noodles are cooked the sheets of flower is cut into small pieces and mixed into a stir-fry of veggies and meat. I have had this dish a number of times with my family, and it is always good.

Khosher consists of fried dough stuffed with meat. Also very delicious, the flour and water is mixed and rolled into small circles. Raw minced meat combined with onions and various spices is then added on top of the dough. Folding the dough creates a pocket for the meat and the whole thing is fried in the skillet.

For Americans, I think we pulled off our luncheon/class pretty well. I should mention that Sally does not have access to the internet, so she will be posting things either through me or at a later date. My beautiful Wife is doing well, and we are looking forward to seen each other at mid-center days next week. On another note, I also have very limited access to the internet. I apologize for posting multiple blogs at once, but I do not have the luxury of spreading things out. Please check the previous blog to make sure you are caught up.   I also apologize for the lack of pictures. I am hoping to fix this at a better internet connection.

~Caleb

Micro Teaching and Caleb’s visit (6/22/15)

Time is starting to feel somewhat normal again. The first weekend here felt like a month. And the first week felt like a month. The second weekend was more like a week, and the second week also felt like a week. This weekend felt like a day, because Caleb was visiting. So, it has been just over two weeks since we have been with our host families, but it has felt closer to several months. It hasn’t been dragging by, but everything was all very new the first week.

Last week was interesting. My Mongolian language is making slow, painful progress as time passes. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

In technical sessions, which is four hours in the afternoon, my site mates and I have been getting deeper into learning about teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). There are six other trainees at my site, and we were placed into pairs to begin our “micro teaching.” Since I have had no formal teaching experience, I was paired with a site mate with teaching experience. We have been working together to prepare lessons with the topic “Family.” My partner, Marc, has been really great to work with. His past experience has truly proven to be extremely useful as we learn about practice teaching.

I’m not sure why PC calls it micro teaching. It’s just another way to say practice teaching, I suppose. For micro teaching, our Mongolian language teacher and technical coordinators advertise to our community that there will be free English language lessons taught by Americans, for school aged kids from 6-18. They sign up and are split into three groups by age. The young’uns are ages 6-10, intermediate is 11-14, and the older students are 15-18.

On micro teaching days, we have to team teach a 40-minute class to each of the three classes. Our first micro teaching day was last Thursday. We will have three more micro teaching classes over the next two weeks: one on Wednesday and one on Friday this week, and one on maybe Tuesday the next week.

It seems like Marc and I did quite well for our first time teaching like that. We have been told that we work well together and that our lesson on vocabulary was planned, prepared, and presented well. We have several things to improve moving forward, but overall, I think it was a good first experience.

The first of four micro teaching lessons had to be about teaching vocabulary, so we taught the students basic family vocabulary like mom, dad, sister, brother, grandpa, grandma, brother, and sister. We incorporated games, which will we do for all of the lessons to make them interactive and fun. The lesson on Wednesday is going to be a grammar lesson. Marc has been taking the lead until now, but I think I am taking the lead when it comes to teaching the actual grammar. I am more nervous about this lesson than I was for the first, simply because it is difficult to know what the students already know and how quickly they can or can’t pick up on the grammar.

Friday’s lesson will be focused on speaking, and next Tuesday’s lesson will focus on writing. Hopefully, the same students will return so we don’t have to start at nothing.

In other news, I had a bit of a rocky miscommunication with my host family last week. I didn’t realize it, but their expectations of me and what I was doing weren’t exactly matching. They somehow got the idea that I didn’t like them or wasn’t enjoying being around them, which is way not true. With the help of a PC translator, we were able to communicate our thoughts and expectations to each other and get on the same page. Now, I think they are happy and I am happy, so all is well.

Caleb and I had our first paid Peace Corps visit this past weekend. I think he has agreed that my soum is better than his. We hung out with my family and site mates and played shagai, did some minor hiking to watch the sunset, and cooked spaghetti for my family. It was a nice weekend, and it won’t be long before I see Caleb again for mid-center days, in less than 2 weeks.

After Caleb left on Sunday, my family decided they couldn’t take the heat anymore and had to go swimming. I didn’t realize this was happening until everyone was ready to go, so I didn’t have quite the amount of time I needed to adequately prepare. There is a river a ways away from our house. It took us about 20 minutes to walk there. I only got in up to my thighs since the shorts I was wearing weren’t great for water, and the river was moving pretty fast, so I didn’t want to misstep and end up getting myself into a safety and security situation. I didn’t stay in long, and one of my sister’s didn’t get in at all, so I sat with her on the riverbank and skipped some rocks with my Mongolian mom. The rest of my family stayed in the water for a good half hour, including my 6 year old brother who was stark naked while he swam.

And so begins week three. Eight more weeks left of pre-service training. Hopefully, my Mongolian will have improved drastically by then. For everyone in the U.S., I miss you all. And I also miss America’s wonderfully diverse and flavorful food. Send fried chicken!!! (Not really, that would be disastrous, but really, do)

~Sally

A Weekend at Sally's 06/24/15

It is hard to believe that a whole week has passed since I wrote my last entry.  Time seems to be flying by. The weekdays are filled with classes, training, studying, and integrating with our host family. I have succeeded in losing yet another item to the abyss from which nothing is returned… This time it was my Mag-light. An unfortunate late night loss, that glared up at me from a distance of ten feet as if to wail, “Caleb!!! Why?!?!” Realizing there was nothing I could do, and that I would not want my beloved light back anyway, I concluded my business and went to bed pissed…angry at my clumsiness.

The Mongolian currency is Tugriks. There are about 1,900 Tugriks for one American dollar. I have yet to figure out exactly how everything is valued, because it seems like some items are just more expensive than others. I bought a hat for 55,000 Tugriks. A cab ride to Ulaanbaatar from Darkhan (a distance of five hours/ 230 km) is 10,000 Tugriks. Shaving cream 4,500 Tugriks, Vodka (low quality) is about 6,000 per liter, A Coke is 1,300 per can, and, my favorite measurement of Tugrik is from my good friend Theo, an ice cream cone is a whopping 250 Tugriks. Theo (a fellow married PCV CYD trainee, who is also separated from his wife, and is my neighbor) commented on a recent shopping trip to the local market that I could have one can of shaving cream or 18 ice cream cones. In a single sentence, my perception of expenses has been forever changed.

The high point of last week was the weekend which I got to spend with my lovely wife. I left the Darkhan area on Saturday morning and traveled north to her host family. It was a really nice visit. Sally and I had at that point been separated for about two weeks, so we were excited to see each other. She walked me around her community, showing me her store and dreaded hill. Compared to Darkhan her community is slow paced and in the country. It was nice to walk around even though the high was well into the nineties.

Later that day, her language cluster of TELF volunteers came to visit, because they were required to spend time at everyone’s house at least once. We had a nice afternoon of laughter, byyt (delicious Mongolian stuffed dumplings), and played a game of horserace involving the ankle bones of slaughtered sheep.

The bones have four distinct sides that are based on the shape of the bone: a camel, a horse, a ram, and a sheep. In the traditional game, each player gets one bone and turns it to the horse side. They then place it at the beginning of the track that consist of more bones. Then each player roles 4 bones at a time in an attempt to get a horse face up allowing them to move down the track. The winner is the person who gets their horse to the end of the track first. I realize that this may sound morbid, but it is actually a really cool game, and entirely suiting for the herding culture that is Mongolia.

In the heat of the afternoon after all had left, Sally and I lay around her house playing cards and enjoying each other’s presence. Toward the evening, we went to her host family’s house and spent time talking to her host parents. Her host father, following the Mongolia tradition, offered me his snuff bottle. This is the first time that someone has done this for me, and I was excited to participate in the tradition. Snuff is finely ground tobacco that is housed in a delicately carved stone bottle. After receiving the bottle, I am allowed to acceptable alternatives as the male guest. I may hold the bottle two my nose and just sniff the fragrance, or I may take a small amount out and snort it off the bridge of my thumb and index finger.  I did the latter before returning the bottle to my host. To say that the nicotine goes straight to the head is underestimating how fast you feel the effects of snorted tobacco. I did not find the sensation entirely pleasurable as it left me with the shadow of a headache.

Around sunset, we climbed a nearby hill and saw spectacular vistas. I have deeply enjoyed every opportunity I have had to climb mountains/hills in Mongolia. The views from these expeditions are truly amazing.

The next day Sally and I made lunch for her host family preparing a meal of American style spaghetti from ingredients we acquired from the local store. It was fun to see the table turned on our Mongol friends. (The word Mongol has some negative connotation in America, but here it is what the people refer to themselves and their nationality.)  Some of Sally’s family really enjoyed it, but others were not entirely impressed.

After an afternoon in the heat, it was time for me to take my journey back to Darkhan. It was sad to say goodbye to my wife, but I am excited about the next time I see her. We shall only have to be separated for a short time before we are reunited in Darkhan for mid-center training days. While we miss each other dearly, the separation has been busy and exhaustive with language learning and training, so it seems to be going by quickly.

~Caleb