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