Thursday, July 21, 2005

Small town boy in a big city

Jesse here speaking from the Peace Corps Office in Ulaanbaatar. Okay, so I'm not really a small town boy. But after living in a small countryside community with only 5,000 inhabitants for the better part of the last two months visiting the capital with 1 million people made me feel like a midwest boy making his first visit to New York. Of course, all of our host families who rarely make it to UB were very concerned about my safety. So far though not even an inkling of a problem.

My days in the capital have been as packed as Sierra's were. We arrived yesterday morning at about 6 am after taking the night train in from the countryside. The train was actually not that bad. We managed to find enough fold out beds in the cheap section for each member of our group, so actually got a decent nights sleep during the trip. After arriving in town I discoverd that Sierra (who I thought was already out of the city) was still in the hotel. So we got a couple of bonus hours together before we set out.

Much of the trip here has been about eating. Our first morning we went to a restaurant owned by a ex-patriot named Millie. We managed french toast, omlettes, huevos rancheros and most importantly real coffee. It was a bit expensive by Mongolian standards but worth every penny. Lunch that day was "Fast Food" at a foodcourt bearing the same name. Think McDonalds and a bento bar all wrapped up into on restaurant. Dinner last night was pizza and salad with the Country Director. This morning real coffee at a very Americanish coffee shop. Lunch of Indian inspired Mexican food (still good though). All in all the food has been a much welcome change from my rather boring diet. As my language instructor puts in "Mongolians really only have two kinds of meals, soup and stirfry"; don't I know it.

Of course, the purpose of the trip was not all food. We have also visited with the Red Cross, the Ministry of Health, ADRA (some Australian NGO), and the UN Population Fund office in town. All said the groups have are all very interesting and have it together as far as we can see. General trends in activities tend to revolve around reproductive health issues, STI's/HIV, and alcoholism. Made me excited to start service soon. Site announcment in 4 short weeks, can't wait.

Think that is all for now. Days have been fun but very full. I must say I sortta miss the simplicity of my life in the host community. It will be nice to get home.

Take care all,
Jesse

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Crazy Capital Confessions

Ok not confessions, I just couldn't think of a third C word.

Have been in UB since Sunday. Took the train saturday night (it was fun I had never taken a night train before). There were 5 of us, 4 in a compartment. We stayed up talking till 3 and the train arrived at 7 so I didn't get too many hours of sleep. But we got in, dropped our stuff off at the dorm, and then just started walking. We walked all over and checked out a lot of cool markets and places of interest (money changer, guest houses, restaurants, state dept store). We met up with the rest of our group who drove and then went for dinner. We eat a lot here. Trying to get all the food I have been missing. Really wanted Mexican but the closest they come is a mexican/indian place. Really good but not muy authentico.

Per usual we have been kept pretty busy. We visited with the deputy minister for youth affairs, the National authority for Children, the embassy, and tomorrow will go to UNICEF. It was really good talking with them and has helped to solidify a little more the type of work we might be doing. Which up until now has been pretty nebulous.

UB is pretty cool. Half of the population of MONGOLIA lives in this ONE city. Isn't that crazy! Anything modern is in UB. But UB is still pretty shakey. Many sidewalks are just dirt and the slums/suburbs are gers. The drivers are insane. When it rains the internet goes slow. It is just kind quirky. However, the way a building or something looks from the outside is no indicator of how it might look on the inside. Things are really nice on the inside a lot of times even by American standards. Like I said quirky. It is wierd seeing white people all over. Not used to it. We definately lose our superstar status from our host community when we come to UB. It is very nice. In winter, however, I am told that Peace Corps people are the only foreigners in the country. Too cold for a normal person.

oops...it looks like I have to go now. We are going to a former Peace Corps Volunteer's appartment. He doesn't know us but is buying us pizza and cake. I think i like him.

Ps. bought a phone today but don't have a number yet. will post it tomorrow.

bye!

Monday, July 11, 2005

Mongol Camping

So the last four days have been super fun on this half of the world. Jesse came back to Khutul for Naadam on Saturday. Naadam was kind of a dissappointment. It is kind of like the county fair that no one really likes but you go because there is nothing else to do. Naadam was like that. My town has 10,000 people and I think less than 500 showed up.

However, here are the highlights:
1) wrestling: the highlight here are definately the outfits. Speedos, fat man in a little coat and big big boots (with upturned toes). The fat man in a little coat came about some time ago when a woman (who are not allowed to wrestle) ended up winning the National title. All the men were ashamed so they changed the uniform to include an open chested coat so no women could hide.
2) archery: we were only there long enough to see the children's archery but it is a long way with a very small target. 'nuff said.
3) horse races: This was pretty crazy, there were about 100 people on horses waiting for their turn to race at the finish line. The races start 15 Km from where we were and we caught the end of one. The jockey was about 8 years old and wore a cape. Once he crossed the finish line he was mobbed by the aforementioned people on horseback who all wanted to touch the sweat of the winning horse. It is supposed to bring good luck.
4) I tried the femented mares milk in the VIP section of Naadam (were it is shady and all the old people sit). It is very very bad. I had one sip and it curdled my stomache for hours. Jesse drank two glasses. I don't think he has tastebuds. Poor jesse.
5) Two peace corps people M15's (we are the M16 class) wrestled. They both lasted about 15 seconds and the crowds laughed the whole time. I liked it.

After Naadam the real festivities began...We went camping with about 30 people. Under 3 feet people outnumbered adults 3 to 1. We camped in the shadow of an 1800 year old monastary. The monastary was so beautiful and colorful. One of the things we did there was a re-birthing process. There is a upsidedown urn thing placed on four rock blocks. You are supposed to enter (on your stomache) and turn clockwise three times then come out this tiny hole at the other end. Jesse and I are not Mongol sized (more mongol super size). It is very claustraphobic inside and everyone is standing around laughing at you.

At the campsite we did normal camping things till the dads came back with a live sheep! They finished killing it then started taking all the insides out. The inside of an animal stinks! The women cleaned the intestines and the men pulled out a blowtorch. They tied the sheep to the tree and then used the blowtorch for about an hour and a half to get all the hair and whatnot off. Then they chopped it up, put it in a large metal container with hot rocks and water and potatoes and rolled it around for about an hour. Then we all sat down and ate piles of meat. It was actually really good and I got picutes.

We also had a huge bonfire (Mongolians aren't hip to the "leave no trace" camping philosophy). They passed around the vodka (about the 5th bottle) and sang songs and danced (sort of). Then J and I had to sing. We were very bad but no one knew. : )

The weekend was pretty fun overall but Jesse got a little sick. I think it was the forest berries he ate (Mike didn't you teach him better?). He thought it was ok because everyone else was eating them, although he didn't bother to check if I was eating them. He threw up in the car! Everyone thought he was hungover even though he only had one bowl of beer. Ha! I nursed him back to health and he is much better today.

That is all we have for now. Cheers!

Friday, July 08, 2005

And Jesse Speaks

Two posts in two days whatever will you do. For those of you afraid of information overload read yesterdays post first then read this next Sunday.

Since my wife loves to write in the first person I decided to write my own posting this week.

Not wanting to repeat Sierra two much I will say that we are having a great time these last few days at the first reunion of all 54 volunteers since we left for host sites. From the number of late night conversations we have all had it sounds like everybody is having a positive experience with their host families. As in America every host family has its own unique set of quirks but nobody has reported a poor experience to my knowledge.

As for my personal experiences everything is great. As I have mentioned before I live in a reasonably rural community (actually recently found out the economy of my town really revolves around sheep/goat/cattle herding and wheat growth). I live in a four bedroom cabin/house. We have a separate kitchen shack out in the yard, an outhouse, and several pins for the various livestock my family keeps. I have 3 younger brother (13, 10, 4), although the middle one has been living in the countryside tending the sheep most of the summer so I don't see him much . The four year old and I have become really close, he eats meals in my laps, runs to give me a hug when I get home, and talks a mile a minute as four year olds are prone to do. His language skills still far surpass my own, but at least I understand some of the words that come out of his mouth. The older brother is really great. He doesn't speak much English now but it very smart and interested in learning. This means that I h ave had many language exch ange sessions with him during the last several weeks. He has also sort of included me in his group of local friends. This has led to more than one trip to the river, stone skipping contest, grasshopper collecting session, or wrestling match. The time with him and the other kids has helped me to feel at home here as well as to improve my language.

Perhaps my coolest experience thus far though was my trip to the countryside on tuesday evening. The whole event started when my mom decided she wanted to visit her middle child at in the countryside. So about 10 o'clock at night (as the sun was setting) she and my dad loaded the family in the cart for the tractor, fired up the tractor and drove us into the country. We ended up parking next the railway and hiking a bit into the country to the gers where my extended host family lives with the huge family herd (about 90 head of sheep/goat combined). My parents and I were paraded into the ger and welcomed in the traditional fashion. To begin with the ger was really incredible. It was really the first time I have been in a ger that wasn't set up specially for tourists. It basically consits of a mans side and a womans side. On the mans side is a bed, all horse riding materials, the saddles, the TV and Radio, and other manly devices. The womans side contains a bed and dresser where all food prep items are kept. Between the two sides is a alter with photos of elderly family members, and other valuables. And of course in the middle of the ger is a wood stove where all cooking occurs.

Once in the ger we were able to participate in the traditional greetings. We passed around beautiful marble snuff bottles ( worth about 2000 USD),and a bowl full of homemade whiskey (I learned how to politely accept and return the alcohol with out actually drinking any) There is so much tradition and formality surrounding everything here is always feels a bit daunting. After being greeted I spent the next two hours talking about my job, my family here and in the states, and generally what I am doing here. This conversation took place using my broken Mongol, a lot of help from my family, and a mime routine worthy of an academy award. All said the night was an amazing experience

Of course being mongolia the ride home was as exciting as the trip itself. Basically it consisted of me hold on in the front of the tractor cart, while talki ng to a drun k Mongolian who came with us from the ger. All this occuring while a sheep that was destined for the dinner table roamed the cart behind. Oh yeah, did I mention it was 1am, we were driving crazy back dirt roads, and the headlights kept going out. But we arrived safely at home and I only have fond memories of the experience.

Okay, that is all for now. Hope everybody has a good few weeks until we post again.

Jesse

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Manly Sports and Other such things

Hiya kids,

sorry this post is a little tardy, I have been a little low on funds (just got paid yesterday) and a little short on time. We just had our mid-Pre Service Training Language evaluations. Pleased to announce I don't super suck, I am on par with everyone else...except Jesse and a few other super stars (who we all hate) who recieved a Novice-high score. This is the score that you need in order to be sworn in as a volunteer. We are currently having a renunion with all 54 trainees in Darkhan for the week. It is nice to see everyone and how far we have come. We all kinda smell like sheep and the hotel that we thought was awful when we got here feels pretty good now. How quickly standards change.

Life in general is good. I think, for me this past week was a little rough. Kinda out of the honeymoon stage with Mongolia, or maybe just with training, and was feeling pretty homesick. Got a letter from Liz and John yesterday so that was awesome (blink blink). Will let you know when the package arrives and when your letters come riggaloo (I wrote you a letter about two weeks ago but it is still in my binder...I will mail it before I leave darkhan, promise).

Last week one of the things we had to do was cook over a fire. So we all got together and made hosher and boats. Hosher is meat packets deep fried and boats are steamed dumplings, of course meat filled as well. It was super fun. The pinching them closed is a little tricky and mine turned out very ugly but as I tried to tell the Mongolians it doesn't affect the taste. On Monday (the 4th of July) we had a birthday party for one of our fellow trainees and raised our glasses to the all of you at home. Then we lit some matches and called them fireworks.

On Tuesday we had dinner at our language instructors house and it was pretty fun. Ate hosher and drank milk tea and sang "American Folk" songs. I don't think I realized how many songs I don't know all the words too. The only songs we can sing as a group we learned under the age of 7.

Last week (skip reading if I posted this last time) we went to the cultural center and got a tour of all the traditional folk arts (singing, dancing, instraments). Peace corps said they will pay for music lessons for us so I am going to learn the Horse Head Violin (like in weeping camel) (I saw two camels on my way into to town the other day, they are so cool). I like it because it just sounds aweful so americans won't know if I am really bad at it or really good. It will be a mystery. Hopefully I will stick with it longer than the two weeks I was able to muster with the clarinet (sorry dad).

On Saturday Jesse is coming back with me to my town and it is Naadam! The manly sports festival (John I will send you pictures). From what we hear there is a lot of drinking, horse racing, and wrestling. People come in from all over and dress in their finest del's or in new clothes. My family measured me for a del waistcoat moments before we left for Darkhan so hopefully I will have something to wear at the Naadam. I will take pictures. Speaking of pictures, I have not figured out how to upload them here because our jump drive is not recognized by the operating system. Will keep working on it, however we can view pictures people send in email just fine. So I am excited that J will meet my family (they are all back now so the house is nice and full again) and it should be pretty fun to participate in Naadam. Learned how to refuse vodka in Mongol.

Next week my group goes to UB. So that should be an adventure. I think we are taking the night train and touring the town and going to some technical training sessions there. On my next post I will have some more interesting stories to tell about our time there. The way people talk about it it is some magical fairy land of a place.

And, this is pretty cool, J and I are both getting cell phones when we go to the capital. That means that people can call us (free for us) and we found a site where you can get $.05/min to call from the states to us. Everyone here has cell phones, mongolians and PC volunteers alike. Anyway will send more info once they are purchased.

I think that is all from me for now. For some reason I am blanking on stuff that I have done. Jesse was sad that people think he doesn't blog (or maybe that people think my blogging is so clever) so he is going to do his very own post tomorrow without me, with all of his stories. Stay tuned for more adventures from the Hoodoo (countryside)

Cheers!