From East to West via Berlin

The Berliner Dom and the diversity of people enjoying a nice summer day

For two years, Caleb and I have been living in the eastern part of the world in the unique Asian country of Mongolia. Eastern culture is vastly different from life in the States or, as we are experiencing now first hand, in Europe. I spent a month in Berlin in 2011, so this isn’t an entirely new experience for me, but coming here from Mongolia versus from the States creates a completely different perspective.

Last pic of us in Mongolia
(in the airport)

Caleb and I’s last week in Mongolia was surreal. It didn’t feel like we would soon be leaving. It didn’t feel like we were finished with our Peace Corps service. It didn’t feel like this plane was going to take us out of the country to the exciting world of Europe. I didn’t believe it until we landed at the Berlin airport.

As we were exiting the plane, Caleb was in the aisle moving forward and I was still working my way out of the seat. I had resigned myself to waiting for a number of people to pass before I could insert myself into the line, but then something amazing happened. The woman directly behind Caleb noticed me, saw that I was with Caleb, and LET ME IN FRONT OF HER.  This may not seem like a big deal, but this simple act of kindness made my eyes well up. I almost lost it right there in the plane. I really wasn’t in Mongolia anymore.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t kind people that do nice things in Mongolia. It’s just a different mentality, a different culture and way of doing things. I had gotten accustomed to swarms of people around ATMs with no regard to that personal “bubble” so many of us Americans require, or the knowledge that everyone will push and shove to get off the bus first. It’s just the way it is. But not here, where regular people take a second to notice others around them and offer up a considerate gesture. At that moment, I finally started to believe that we were moving on into the next phase of our lives.

Our dinner view

We arrived in the afternoon on Friday and took a taxi to our hostel. I practiced my German with the driver and was able to have a decent, albeit broken and ungrammatical, conversation. After a brief time of settling into our room, we went out in search of food. At the closest S-Bahn station, the tempting aroma was far too much, so we caved and got subs from Subway. What can I say. It had been a while, and it was well worth it.

We ate at a little park near our destination for the evening: the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom). And guess what. No one stared at us. No one cared how we were dressed and what we were doing. No one bothered us at all. After eating, we went inside the church to buy tickets for the organ concert that evening. We were a little early, so we went back outside to laze about on the green space directly in front of the church. The grass was thick and plush, and we could feel the humidity in the air, something we haven’t experienced in over 2 years. There were no cows wandering around, and no feces in the grass. No one was drinking vodka, but a ton of people were out playing Frisbee, or taking a nap, or walking their dogs, or spending time with family. And no one was judging anyone.

We are here!

On the outside of the Berliner Dom

I don’t know how many languages we heard during the 45 minutes we were hanging out on the lawn, but there were all kinds of people from all over the place all moving through this one space in harmony. All ages, all colors, all religions. This city is “multi-kulti” – multicultural – which is why it is so beautiful and easy to fall in love with.

The organ

The sanctuary

The organ concert began on time inside the intricately ornamented sanctuary, and all the ticket-holders were present within five minutes of the start time (WHAT???). Everyone knew when to applaud and when not to. There were only rare hushed whispers during the hour-long performance. Caleb and I enjoyed it, even though we were both fighting to keep our eyes open. Neither of us slept during our travels, so at that point, we were going on 20 hours awake.

When we returned to the hostel, we were content to go right to sleep. What a lovely day it had been as we transitioned from East to West in a city who is an expert at bridging such a divide. 

From Berlin,

Sally

2nd School's New English Room

A long time ago, in a blog post from last July, I asked for contributions to a grant project for my school. Lo and behold, the project was officially complete in April, and I have the photos the prove it. A huge thanks goes to all those who donated. This would not have been possible without your thoughtful contributions!

Caleb and I presenting at 2nd School's Foreign Language
Teaching Methods Day in the English Room

Since acquiring the grant items around October – December, the new English room has been used for numerous activities for students and teachers alike, including a province-wide foreign language teachers’ teaching methodologies day, reading and speaking clubs for students, intensive preparation courses for the larger academic exams like the academic Olympiad and final concourse exams, meetings for English lessons for the school’s English teachers, a few regularly school scheduled English classes, and the school’s very first English movie club.

New curtains, chairs, and teacher's desk

The funds from the grant supplied the English room with a customized bookcase, new flooring, curtains, a stereo system, a TV, a printer and ink, a teacher’s chair and desk, several chairs, and varying other equipment like a power strip, extension cords, etc.

The custom bookcase with all the doors open

The biggest item through the grant was the bookshelf. It was about one million tugriks (about $500) altogether, and some of the school workers built it for the room. It holds all the books we have and has plenty of space for more. There are two chalkboards in the room now, one more than before (the second was donated from the school), and they are part of the bookcase. The magical part is that the chalkboards are set in runners, so they slide open to reveal more bookshelves and the TV!

Ayyy Macarena! 

The stereo is the item that I have personally used the most. Starting in the second semester of this last school year, Caleb and I hosted a ballroom dancing class open to all teachers and students 5^th grade and up. The teachers were too shy to attend with students there, so it quickly became all about the students, which was great! Ballroom dancing eventually transformed into line dancing, which we moved from the gym into the English room. There was strong student participation and enjoyment through the rest of the school year.

Students and one of my CPs installing the new flooring
(That little bookcase and one more of the same size was all there was before!)

New and old flooring

While the grant money didn’t fund any new books, I found a couple organizations that donate books to libraries like this one. We received over 150 books from a donation through the American Center for Mongolian Studies in their partnership program with Asia Foundation called Books for Mongolia. We also received a big box of books from Darien Book Aid. They have a program that donates books to schools all over the world who have Peace Corps Volunteers working there. Caleb’s parents also sent us some great books to donate to the English room. Our English room now has around 500 books, which are level appropriate and interesting for varying ages.

4th grade students checking out the new Darien Aid books with my CP

While I was unable to establish a lending system in the last few months, I hope this is something the next PCV can accomplish. It looks pretty hopeful that my school will get another volunteer, and I hope they will continue to build up the English room over the coming years. Thanks again to all who supported our new English room!

Sally

Last time in the English Room

Saying Goodbye

As I write this, I am sitting on the bunk of a hostel bed. Sally and I are one day from departing Mongolia. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning. We have completed the Close of Service paperwork and are now Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It has been a wild ride, one that is enlightening, awarding, and incredibly challenging.

The last few weeks at Chinggis were a whirlwind of countless last minute activities and planning. Sally and I have been planning a large vacation through parts of Europe and spent a week working out the details and itinerary. There was also a number of things we needed to do at site to close out our service. This included housing checks with our landlady and closing our Mongolian bank accounts.

We also spent a lot of time saying goodbye to the people we have worked with and gotten to know over the past two years. We each met with a number of our counterparts and CPs for either dinner or brief visits. Mongolians do a good job with saying goodbye; it is often a short simple affair or a small party, not the long drawn out affair that is present in other cultures. The sad reality of leaving Chinggis is that we may not see many of these people again.

On Sunday morning as we left our apartment for the last time, a number of neighbors and CPs came out to say goodbye to us. One neighbor, who has been a sort of grandmotherly figure to us these past two years, kissed us each on only one cheek. Then leaving us in suspense for the other cheek she said, “I’ll give you the other kiss when I see you again.”

Over the past few days we completed a number of tasks that PC needs us to do to wrap up the paperwork end of our service. Yesterday the group of volunteers who are leaving this week gathered at the office for one last goodbye to the incredible staff that has supported us during our service. Each of us ceremonially rang the bell and were applauded for our service by the staff and volunteers.

The PC office in UB has been a sort of sanctuary and headquarters for us these past two years. After leaving the office, the 14 of us who are leaving this week went to a restaurant to celebrate and say goodbye. It is sad to say goodbye to so many great people, but it is nice to know that the volunteers are going on to new and exciting adventures and that we may see them again in the States.

It is surreal to be done with our 26 months of service. A part of me is in disbelief and halfway expects to return to Chinggis. Another part is extremely excited and ready to leave Mongolia to start the journey home. Our service has been completely different than we might have expected, but just as good as we could have imagined. Sally and I are very satisfied to have had this experience, but we are not too sad. It feels to us that it is time to close this chapter and move on to the next one. Adventure awaits!

~Caleb

P.S. Even though our service is at an end the blog will continue for several more months as we wrap up the final chapters. Here are things to look forward too on this blog now that our service is at an end: Reflections on PC service and lessons learned, Sally’s amazing grant project, details on our awesome return journey through Europe, the whys and hows of shipping a cat across the world, reintegration into America (is Post Traumatic Peace Corps a thing?). 

Our Last Naadam

Sally and I attended Darkhan’s Naadam festival two years ago. Last year we were unable to celebrate this Mongolian holiday because we were at the Scouting Jamboree, but this year we had plenty of time to go and see Chinggis City’s Naadam festival!

Naadam is a national competition/festival that occurs every year in the summer. It is the celebration of the “three manly sports” horse racing, wrestling, and archery. Usually smaller Naadams are held first in soums and aimag centers, and then the winners go on to compete in regional and national competitions. While it is the “manly” sports, women can compete in archery and sometimes horse racing.

Since Sally and I know a lot of people at our site, it was easy to find a friend who was willing to take us to see the horse racing which takes place outside the city. The races are usually with young horses of the same age competing across various distances. The first race I saw was 3 year-old horses who galloped a distance of 14 km (8.75 miles). Watching the races in person is a little anti-climactic, because you only see the last couple of km as the horses race across the steppe. One controversial aspect of the Naadam races is that the jockeys are children. It is not unheard of for a child to be injured or killed during one of these races. However in the defense of tradition, many of these children have been riding and living in the countryside since a much younger age, so they are often very experienced riders.

Wrestling in Mongolia is a big deal. Mongolia takes pride in the fact that their wrestlers are revered on an international basis, and many of the best sumo wrestlers come from Mongolia. However the wrestling is not the fast pace or even weight class style of American high school matches; instead it is more of a lumbering grapple where each opponent tries to bring the other to the ground. During Naadam the wrestlers wear a traditional garb that provides some amount of handle holds in the shoulder region. One way that Mongolia illustrates in enthusiasm for wrestlers is by electing a lot of them in to roles in politics after they finish their sports career.

Archery involves firing an arrow from 75 m into a low row of stacked targets. The object is to strike the center of the stake and knock down the orange targets. It’s a little different than firing into a target and the arrows are not tipped so there is no danger of someone getting accidently killed, which is refreshing since a number of judges and assistances stand right next to the target during the competition. Archery is impressive to watch not just for the skill, but also for the elaborate traditional deels that the competitors wear.

There are other smaller competitions that occur during Naadam. At our Naadam we also saw a Shagai competition which involves flicking bones across a distance of 5 m to knock down another row of ankle bones. It’s like a smaller archery competition. At some of the larger Naadam festivals, various feats of horsemanship are demonstrated.  The festival also includes lots of Khushur ger kitchens where it is easy to buy the traditional Mongolian food of meat-stuffed fried dough and fermented mare’s milk. For children there are all sorts of games set up outside the stadium and lots of toy and ice cream venders.

Sally and I were happy to see Naadam this year. It is our final Mongolian holiday. We are quickly approaching our final days in Mongolia, and will soon start our elaborate return journey which will take us through parts of Europe. By this route we will be able to circumnavigate the globe.

 

Sally is wearing a new summer deel she had custom made. 

~Caleb 

Temuujin English Camp

Upon returning from the Gobi, we didn’t even have a day’s rest before we started our next adventure. For several months my English teachers and I have been planning a week long day camp for middle school students at my school. I am proud to say that with their cooperation and the help of my fellow PCVs, it turned out to be the most successful project of my service, and the students had a great time. We had a total of 26 students from grades 5-8^th that attended. Three of my Temuujin English Teachers helped, and five PCVs.

The camp was broken into three hours of English lessons in the morning and three hours of fun activities in the afternoon. For the morning lessons, we broke the students into three separate classes based on skill level. The English lesson plans were mostly created by my English teachers who had worked on this in preparation for the camp. In the afternoon, the students were divided into three random teams. The purpose of the afternoon groups was to encourage team building and cooperation among peers. We had cheer, flag, and various relay competitions. Afternoon activities throughout the week included a team-building round-robin, health round-robin, life skills, relay competitions, a movie, and a trip to the river.  On the afternoon of the last day, we had an award ceremony where we awarded various teams and individuals candy and certificates. Everyone got an award.

At the end of each relay the wining team got to dose the losing team in water

Life Skill's Class

Feebee teaching "Head Shoulder Knees and Toes"

Group game of Dog House 

Watching the relay competition

City walk-a-bout, visiting various workplaces and acting like workers for a picture

Water cup relay, first team to fill the jar in the back wins

Playing in the river

Dylan playing the group game "Honey, I love you. Won't you smile for me?"

Sally and Dylan making teaching stress management with paper fortune tellers

Sally teaching health facts

Tommy teaching a morning English class 

 

Best flag goes to team "New Delta!!" 

Camp picture with awards 

 Our great teachers!! 

Overall it was a great camp. The best I’ve done in Mongolia. Attendance was 100% the whole time which is a bit of a miracle for a day-camp here. It was also a lot of work. At the end of the day, we would return to the apartment exhausted, but it was worth it.

~Caleb  

P.S. Happy Fourth of July!! We are grilling out on Kyra’s stove with our Khentii volunteers. Soon the goodbyes will start and it will be a long time before we see some of these great people again.