Ta-Da! Site Announcements

So after three long months of waiting today was a big day of announcements. First, we found out our language scores...I got the dumb kid score and jesse got the smart kid score. No surprise there.Then after a session of putting condoms on cucumbers, no joke, we were told our site.

We will spend the next two years in Arvaikheer in the Aimag of Overkhangai. This probably doesn;t mean much to you and quite franlky us either. However this is what we know:
1) It is in the south western region about 450 km from UB. That translates into a 5-8 hour car ride.
2) It is primarially agriculture and some gold mining.
3) The tourist attraction is a very old monastary and some mountains...and mark your calendars...the 800 year celebration of Nadaam will be held in the ancient capital this July. It happens to be in our Aimag ( Aimag is like a state or provience). Promises to be one hell of a party
4) We will be living in a GER! Crazy. Lots of work, cold, and fun. We are both looking forward to the challenge. We wanted adventure and rustic and boy did we get it. No running water or hot water, an outhouse, and a wood stove. But we have electricity 24 hours a day. Part of the deal with the Ger is that you will live in the same hashaa (meaning fenced yard family area) as another family. The family we will share our hashaa with is one of my counterparts and is an english teacher and leads the local scout group.
5) As for our jobs....Jesse will be working for the ministery of health. Primarially working on communicable and non-communicable diseases. Sounds like some good stuff with kids too.. I will be working for two organizations. One is the Government run Childrens center. I will primarially be working on staff capacity building. The other part of my time will be focused on a Mercy Corps (USAID funded) civic engagement program for youth. Everything is pretty vauge but it sounds fun.
6) this is all we know for now. On thursday and friday we will be meeting with our counterparts and on Saturday we will be sworn in as actual volunteers. Quite the job interview.

More to come in the week.