Serving in Mongolia as a (Married) Couple

Quick Tips

Benefits:

1.       Share the adventure of a lifetime with someone you love

2.       PC challenges are often easier with two people

3.       Never feel lonely or isolated

4.       Time together away from demands of American life

5.       Long winter of living in close quarters together

Challenges:

1.       Isolation from Mongolians because you are a family

2.       Language can be more challenging to learn

3.       Couples are separated during PST

4.       Long winter of living in close quarters together

I think we've gotten accustomed to not smiling at the camera like Mongolians.

I was recently perusing a number of PCV married couple blogs and realized that almost all of them had a post dedicated to serving as a married couple. So while that has been the unofficial theme of our entire blog, this post is meant to be helpful for prospective volunteers and to provide a look into the challenges and benefits married couples face in Mongolia.

Sally and I went to a PC informational event in our freshmen year of college. We listened to a return PCV’s experience and adventures in the country of Georgia and were completely captivated about doing PC together. At the time the policy in place was that couples could serve if they had been married for one year prior to departure.

Sally and I set out to make our dream a reality. We finished college, took a few years to work in Birmingham, got married, and eventually after years of working toward a goal, departed for Mongolia in 2015. Since our departure to Mongolia, PC has changed its policy toward couples. Now any couple is allowed to apply to participate in PC; it doesn’t matter how long they have been together, their sexuality, or if they are married or not. This change of policy is an attempt by PC to be more open minded; however non-traditional couples are still limited as to which countries they can apply for because many developing nations, including Mongolia, have not yet accepted modern interpretations on relationships.

For Sally and I, PC service is the accumulation of mutual dreams and hard work.  We love the opportunity to share this journey and adventure with each other. In many ways our service has been easier than other volunteers because of this. We do not deal with isolation and loneliness because we have each other. Sally and I have also been together for a long time. Our past experience and the reliable fixture we have become in each other’s lives makes smaller challenges of service easy for us. 

Our mutual desire to accomplish PC is a huge factor for us in combating the challenges and disappointments of PC.  Often couples in PC end up terminating their service because one person really wanted to do PC and the other was only partially invested. In these cases PC service can put enormous strain on a relationship.  If there is any advice I can offer to future couples, it is that it is vital to your relationship that the choice to do PC be a mutual desire and dream.  This is not to say that the reluctant partner will forever or always remain reluctant. Many couples that are riding on one person’s dream end up growing together and sharing the experience, but to embark on two years of isolation from your country and family is really something that both people should be invested in. To do it on one person’s dream means that the relationship must face an incredible challenge, one that could make the couple stronger or could lead to resentment and fracture.

Setting aside that spiel, Sally and I have found that there is a cultural difference in the way a PCV is treated by Mongolians when they are single verses when they are married. Mongolians are extremely family oriented. This meant that during the transition period of being new at sight at the beginning of our service, Sally and I were often left alone because Mongolians saw us as a family and figured we did not need anything else. This isolation was nice after the rigors of Pre-Service Training, but it also meant that it was hard for us to reach a point of integration into our sites.  A volunteer who arrives at a new sight by themselves in Mongolia is often overwhelmed by helpful neighbors and coworkers who are amazed that someone would be living alone and take pity on the lonely American. This of course varies from site to site, but there is a clear cultural difference between single volunteers and couples.

A second challenge to PC service in Mongolia is overcoming the language barrier. As a couple, this can be even more difficult because you are rarely completely isolated from other Americans. This of course varies from site to site, but there is usually a clear difference between a single volunteer who is isolated in a small village vs volunteers who are always around other Americans. Mongolian can be especially challenging as a language because it is so removed form English in sounds, words, and characters.

 PC Mongolia still separates couples into separate host families during Pre-Service Training. (Check out post from the summer of 2015) The reason they do this is because it is believed that this allows couples to integrate better and to learn the language better. The practice of separation during the first few months of service is common in a number of PC countries around the world. During PST in Mongolia, couples are allowed three weekend visits to spend time with each other. This means that a strategic couple never goes more than 3 or 4 weeks without seeing each other. Another factor that makes this separation easier is that all volunteers are issued cell phones with unlimited calling among similar carriers. So couples are still able to communicate via phone and text during PST.  Even with all of this PST was the single most difficult time of our service. The separation was mostly frustrating. 

For us, the benefits of doing PC together far outweigh the challenges.  This experience has been an incredible growing experience and it is wonderful to share it together.

~Caleb 

Air Pollution in Mongolia

             Chinggis has relatively clean air during the winter. We live in a large valley near a river, so if the winter air is moving even a little, then most of the small city’s pollution is blown away. Still there are nights when the temperature drops drastically, and the air just doesn’t move. The hot air doesn’t really rise because it is quickly cooled.  During these nights, to walk through town is to navigate a smoggy haze of coal dust and particulate. Every breath is a taste of coal and your clothes become saturated with the scent. During certain cold nights of the winter, Chinggis City has air pollution levels that are worse than anywhere in the US.  The air next to a bonfire is probably healthier, but Chinggis has nothing compared to Ulaanbaatar.

           UB is a city that was designed to support a quarter million, but now houses 1.5 million people. Winter in Mongolia is deadly, so to escape the cold in the coldest capital in the world, many inhabitants use coal or wood burning fires. The smoke from these ger fires, coupled with cars and power plant emissions, has led to an environment where the particulate level during the winter can be as high as 80 times the World Health Organizations recommended levels.  In December, an article from Bloomberg said that UB’s air pollution was 5 times higher than Beijing.

            The effects of this environment on personal health can be devastating. Children are especially at risk of developing pneumonia and chronic respiratory diseases.  Walking through the capital during the winter is sometimes like walking through a Hollywood depiction of a war zone. Smoke is everywhere. It doesn’t rise or leave, it just hovers in the air seeping into lungs, clothing, hair, and even under fingernails. The scent of the city never is entirely gone, even in the most ventilated apartments.

            Mongolians living in UB recognize this seasonal pollution issue, and this winter, there were a number of demonstrations and protests by the people of UB for cleaner air. The government in Mongolia is trying to start a number of initiatives to curb the pollution.  A 2014 study on air pollution in UB listed over 20 different ways that regulation of power plant emissions and ger fires could lower the pollution levels. For years the country has been pushing people in cities to live in apartment buildings rather than gers, but the country has a long way to go before this problem is eradicated. For now the harsh reality of winter in Mongolia is not just the cold, but also the pollution.

Photo Credit: http://theubpost.mn/2016/10/03/pollution-and-viable-solutions/

Photo Credit: https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2010/03/26/nomad-green-air-pollution-in-winter-in-mongolia/

            It’s about to get real y’all. As a PCV living in Mongolia, I cannot for the life of me understand why my own country has trouble recognizing the importance of environmental protection and initiatives. We, Americans, live in a country that owes our clean air to laws like the Clean Air Act of 1970. For almost 50 years, we have lived with clean air and the expectation is that we will continue to do so, but I don’t think most of us fully understand what these laws do to improve our way of life. I certainly didn’t. Until I lived in Mongolia, I took clean air as a given, but now I realize that with rises in the world population any pollution free environment is no longer a natural state. Rather, it is a state brought about by hard work on the part of the people living in that area to improve the environment.  If we don’t make an effort to curb pollution in everything we do, then our natural environment will shift to its new natural state: a state of hazy air, polluted waters, and littered grounds. What we consider “natural” is not something that can be achieved without combined efforts to make it so.

I am optimistic for our environment. I am optimistic about Mongolia’s pollution. The people of Mongolia recognize this is a problem and are working to fix it. In 10 or 20 years the pollution of UB may be a thing of the past, but taking care of something you can see and walk through is easy. My hope is that, as developing nations clean up the pollution that is affecting their populations, countries like the US can pave the way in tackling problems of pollution that are not so obvious in areas of clean energy, waste disposal, and environmental protection. I recognize that to many my hopes may seem naïve, but what is life without optimism. 

            So I hope that you will join me in this effort to think about an environmental consciousness. I encourage you, the next time you step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air, to recognize that this natural state is the accumulation of a lot of hard work, that the air you breathe is clean because people a half century ago didn’t like the haze that was settling over our cities and dreamed of something better.

~Caleb   

Sources:

Amarsaikhan, D. et al. (2014). A Study on Air Pollution in Ulaanbaatar City, Mongolia. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2, 123-128. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/gep.2014.22017 Retrieved From: http://file.scirp.org/pdf/GEP_2014042109521953.pdf

Kohn, Micheal. World’s Worst Air Has Mongolians Seeing Red, Planning Action. (2016, December 23) Retrieved from:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-22/world-s-worst-air-has-mongolians-seeing-red-planning-protest

A Second Year of Work

For Sally and I, our second year of service at site started last September. It has been a good year so far with a number of ups and downs that are consistent with Peace Corps Service.  Many Volunteers kick off their second year with extreme optimism about what they will accomplish. I was definitely in that group. I looked to the second year as opportunity to really achieve something great, but PC service is nothing if not a constant period of adjustment, change of perspectives, and re-evaluation of hope.

In many ways, the second year has been easier. I now know who I can rely on for help, how the school schedule works, and more than a years’ worth of experience with Mongolian culture. Yet for many volunteers, myself included, starting the second year with super high expectations can be a challenge. We jump into the new school year with the expectation that the difficulties we faced in the first year will be just a breeze this year. As the sports and dance competitions wash over us, as the annual parties occur, as students stop showing up to clubs or activities, it becomes increasingly apparent that we (the second year volunteer) are not free from these challenges. At this point, I realized that I needed to revisit my expectations for service. I started the second year believing that many of the big projects I was unable to accomplish would be possible with my experience. What I’ve come to realize is that to measure the value of service in large, visible, exciting new projects is a fallacy that a PCV must logically set aside.

So after a mid-service crisis and a change of perspective, I have come to realize the value of the small stuff. This does not mean that the daily frustrations of PC service- the lack of attendance, the miscommunications, the sudden schedule changes- do not bother me; rather I have reached a place where all is expected. My expectations have become realistic. I now know that I will not be single-handedly bringing Special Olympics to my city, because my city and the organizations involved are not ready for this. And that is okay. I realize now that the hours I spend with one person trying to improve their English, so that they can study aboard is equally valuable in terms of service.  And here lies the beauty of PC service. We continue to lay a foundation, so that even if we are unable to bring about the changes and improvements we desire, then the community members and future volunteers can build off of our legacy. The students that we work with can become people who help future volunteers bring about better changes and improvements. 

My second year has been a continuation of a number of projects and clubs that I started last year. I have English speaking clubs and English movie clubs for both high school and middle school students. I also go to my dorms on a weekly basis to watch a movie with the students there. For my English teachers, I offer an advanced English class that meets multiple times a week. This year I have also started holding regular office hours in which students and teachers can meet with me for one-on-one assistance or just as an opportunity to chat with a native speaker.  As a Community Youth Development volunteer, my job is to try to focus on soft life skills, so I often us my clubs as a platform to have discussions on empathy, planning, etc.

Sally and I also do a number of projects together. On Mondays, we offer a number of classes to adults in the community. These include beginners English classes at the Emergency department and the Courthouse, an English teachers methodology class for teachers in the city, and a trio of community speaking classes with separate levels of advanced, intermediate, and beginner.

I have also recently started an advanced speaking community class for high school students. I’ve been rather proud of this class because it cuts across schools and allows students of similar skill level to meet together to play games and improve their English.

The cutest class, by far, is a ballroom dancing class that I assist Sally with at her school. She has a number of young students that worship her and love the opportunity to spend time with her outside of the class room. So far we have been able to teach a large group of excited 5^th and 6^th graders the basics of western waltz, swing, and salsa.

So while the second year of service has brought on a number of challenges both old and new, it has still been a worthwhile one so far.

~Caleb