weather report

i am looking outside my window at work and i can't see across the street because the wind is blowing so hard the dust is swirling about and blocking all line of sight. If we were in twister country i would say there is a twister coming. it is crazy. i am putting off walking home because i am afraid that my ear might freeze off. Word on the street is that it is going to get worse over the holiday weekend. Snow is coming and more wind. Wind creates quite a heating challenge in the ger because it sucks all the heat out the top. blah.

However on the up side, at lunch today, it begins the start of a 5 day weekend. So bad weather or no, I am going to enjoy it.

That pretty much brings you up to speed on the weather happenings of arvaikheer.

On a puppy note: i have finished naming all of the puppies....flash & bernard you know, cole (he is all black, get it?), doogers, and scooter (he is small and walks really cute). I introduced byamba to them the other day but they didn't seem to hit it off. kitty sniffed and the puppies just sat there. oh well.

What's to know?

Hiya, actually got some free internet time and thought i would make use of it.

The winter sickness is upon our household. Jesse has had a sinus infection that won't stop and i oddly have an ear infection. so, many calls to the peace corps medical officer. Oh, and i think we both have black lung. How cool is that? I am always trying to get illnesses that are old fashioned like black lung, consumption, grip, what have you. But for all my joking....black lung it is. The air is really cold here, you don't need to be reminded of that, so all the fire smoke and coal smoke that people burn just sits on top of the town. It looks worse that LA, really awful. Well it makes our little lungs irritated and so we have coughs and runny noses and the like. Just like Black Lung no way to be rid of it till spring. this is me self diagnoising here but i think i am on to something.

what else...byamba is recovering from her operation but her belly is still bare-ish. I am a little sad about it because she will look like chemo kitty when all our mongolian friends and co-workers come over, and since they dont like cats to begin with...she won't be winning any hearts.

The puppies are still really cute. their eyes are open and their feet point down instead of out to the sides so they can kinda walk now rather than scoot.

Work is pretty good. I have been working on some new presentations that are coming along. the next step is to present them to my work and some kids for feed back and training. At TAN i am writing surveys that are making me remember back to the Evans school and I think i did ok so that was kinda nice. jesse and i did another kindergarden parent training yesterday. Our translater was 45 min. late and we planned a pretty interactive session that ended up being like pulling teeth so we will have to rework something there. kinda a lousy way to end the day. Jesse is randomly busy. he is putting together posters for World Vision. The AIDS poster they want to be themed: happy families don't have aids. For a variety of reasons that is not the best message to promote so he is working on tweaking it. he is doing an anti-smoking presentation on monday with one of his co-workers.

We are stocking up on food for tsagaan sar. it looks like we can get away with pretty much anything because we are foreigners. so i am making carmel corn, mongolians like sugar (like me) and they get a kick out of popcorn so I think that will be good, pizza hosher (this could be hit or miss, the tomato sauce might throw them), deviled eggs (again hit or miss but pretty tame all around), and scones. something like that at least. i think they will be tired of boats and will get a kick out of our stuff. at least that is my hope. There is also a tradition, i just found out of having a big dinner of tsagaan sar eve. so we invited our site mate (minus her spouse who is in the states doing the foreign service interview this month) to our house.

Other than that we are just trying to keep up on our new years resolutions...keep the house clean, lose weight, study mongolian....the usual. Keep up the emails and the posts. take care.

Happy New Year

Last time I posted I was in UB and we are back again. After a horrible micro ride home from UB two weeks ago (it took 12 hours, when it usually takes 8-9, and a guy was drunk and trying to pick fights and then passed out and drooled on everyone, and i didn't have a seat so much as a metal bar that gave me bruises) we discovered that our kitty was in heat. I don't know how many of you have tried to live with a cat in heat in a ger, but it is not pretty. So we turned back around and took her to the vet to get fixed and the last of her shots. She was so mad and so sore on Tuesday when we picked her up I wanted to cry. But we got her home and wrapped her in a blanket and a hot water bottle and she mostly slept the rest of the day and night. Now she is doing fine but her whole stomache is shaved so she gets cold pretty easily. Tonight we are taking a car back but it has no heat so she will ride in our coats pretty much the whole way.

It has been a good trip to the city. Lots of sleep in time and relaxing with friends. Plus unlimited free internet. So that is nice. Today we had our first salad since coming to mongolia and it was so good. : )

New years was good. We had friends over to the ger and we drank bad champagne out of a mug and lit sparklers at midnight. We also had a wonderful surprise on new years eve morning. Our hashaa dog had 5 puppies. So of course I was out there every hour to check on them. It was super cold that day with bad wind but mommy was doing a good job of keeping them warm. Jesse and I have taken it upon ourselves to feed her about 3 times a day so they all stay healthy. When we get back they should have their eyes open (I think). They are almost all black but one has little brown eyebrows and a white chest and one has white paws and a white line down its spine. I have named those two because I can tell them from the rest of the litter. The one with white is flash and the other one is bernard.

Monday we are back to work for real....for about a week and then it is tsagaan tsar and an official 3 day holiday which ends up to be more like a week or two. Most of the kids get pulled out of school to help clean the houses and make boats (think steamed meat dumplings). Our family is making 1500 boats. Then everyone gets in new clothes and goes to their friends and families houses to eat boats, drink vodka, and give presents. It sounds like it will make me tired. But it is the biggest holiday of the year. Most of the previous class (M15) are going to thailand durring this time because it is too much to go through twice. : ) Still not sure if we are supposed to host people at our house or not and how much money we are supposed to give to people we visit and what kind of presents we are supposed to give so this is giving me low grade anxiety.

That is all I can think of for now. Hope your new years bring joy and good health. Cheers.