International Women's Day

As most international holidays in America, I thought this was just printed letters on the calendar. No sirree-bob. Women's Day is a national holiday in Mongolia with the day off work. It also called for some celebration.

When I arrive at work, I was slightly confused as to why my lady counter part was dressed in a spiffy outfit with a fancy face and hair, I thought maybe it's a self-esteem day, and started my day. Then, around lunch time, a line started to form in the hallway outside my door. All female, and all spiffy and fancy. Coincidence? No, these particular ladies are conspirators. And they were motioning me to join them ... why thank.

As I was lovingly shoved into the correct position in line in order to properly spoon the lady in front of me (normal queuing in Mongolia), I got all excited because I could see ... presents! Yes presents. What a delightful sight. The men folk were dressed in their, um, Sunday (?) best; full suits, dress shirts and ties. Oh they looked so handsome. They were greeting all the women as they filed into the room with mugs, roses, and smiles. There was a banquet table with a bountiful spread. Lunch was delicious and they even had a cake. Luckily I was sitting by the cake, so I actually got some. Always positions yourself next to the cake and the fruit, and shamelessly move the bowl of chocolates closer to you. Very important.

Now I have a beautiful mug that, basically, says Happy Women's Day. Z.U.N.E Men. ZUNE is an acronym for Zamiin-Uud First Hospital.

It was a very nice day followed by a three day weekend.    

Цагаан Сар

Happy Цагаан Сар (Tsagaan Sar)!

Tsagaan Sar is the Mongolian (& Chinese) Lunar New Year. Tsagann Sar means White Moon. It is now the year of the Snake. According to the handout on Tsagaan Sar the Peace Corps gave me, The Year of the Snake brings many disruptions and worries. So, it's a great year to be a PC Volunteer. He he.

The Mongolians clean their houses and offices the days before so everything is clean for the new year, and they also prepare buuz (pronounced "boats"). Hundreds to thousands of buuz. Buuz are little pieces of ground meat wrapped in a dough and steamed. Some of the volunteers participate in a buuz eating contest. The winner of the buuz eating contest this year, in a 24 hour period (because Tsagaan Sar is 3 days long, & come on 3 days is for sissies), ate 106 buuz. The record is 136 (I believe). I ate 1 and 1/2. Needless to say, me no likey.

On the first day of Tsagaan Sar you celebrate with you family. I went to my hashaa family's ger and celebrated with them. They have very traditional foods, think thanksgiving. The serve a whole sheep, cut and served in a ceremonial style, Fruit, candy, fermented mare's milk, dried milk, and vodka. You also where traditional clothing called deels. I will say, the U.S. was cheated on the traditional clothing category. They are pretty neat.

The next two days you visit friends and coworkers homes and eat and drink all of the above mentioned item. When you leave, the host gives you a present. These are not specific, so it's fun to see what you get.

My hospital held a Buddhist service and the monks came from the monastery. I don't know much about Buddhism, so I'm not sure if it was a ceremony or a blessing. They chanted for a while, then blessed some rice. I was told to keep the rice in my wallet and it will make me wealthy. This, of course, makes me sad because I forgot to bring a wallet.

Here are some pictures from Tsagaan Sar 2013 (February 10-13)

The head table with the elders and directors.
(and the deputy director's daughter)

My counter part, Shagai's daughter, Эгшиглэн (Egshiglen), in her traditional deel and head dress.

This is to see the medals on his deel and see the ladies deels

Me and my deel. My host family make this for me for my swearing in ceremony.
If you don't know any better, then you won't know I'm wearing a summer deel, not a winter deel.

The head table again. In the bucket is the fermented mare's milk.The tower looking thing is the dried milk pieces. And the sheep is too far away to see. Sorry.

The monks doing some of the ceremony
If you look at the yellow-ish white thing on the right side on the table, that's the back fat from the sheep. Yes they do eat it.

More fun deels

The monks wishing everyone a happy new year 

Everyone wishing everyone a happy new year.

My Mongolians are very mellow compared to what Peace Corps geared me up for. I went to a few houses and then went home.

I think it was a successful New Year. Now back to work, until March 8th which is Women's Day.

Christmas & New Year's

Sorry, it's been awhile.

I went to UB to visit my friends and they were nice enough to show me around. We went to a mall and there was an Ice Village. Here are some pictures.

Random Mongolian children having fun

 

Santa and me in his ice sleigh.

 

This was so slippery, I kept sliding away from the sculpture

Christmas is not celebrated in Mongolia. I was able to skype with my sister and my site mate and I went to lunch and went back to work. That night I was invited to my counterpart's house for dinner. While I was there she decorated her New Year's tree. I had to ask what it was for. She asked if Americans had New Year's trees and I told her no, we had Christmas trees. I tried to explain what Christmas was, but she didn't understand. Mongolians use Santa and gift giving for New Year's.

New Year's Eve was fun. I went to my site mate's ger to watch the fireworks and party. The fireworks were amazing. So many houses were shooting the off. Some were even horizontal instead of vertical. Unfortunately, I was too mesmerized to remember to take any photos. I'll have to remember next year.

On the work front, my counter part and I have made a Work Plan for the year, and had it officially stamped by the director. They like to "officially stamp" things here. We have also talked about planting a root vegetable garden in the spring and making fun parties for nurse's and doctor's day. Both are national holidays. I'm sure they are in the U.S. as well. That's all we got planned so far.
I was asked to help with a seminar in a different soum, but that's not 'til May. I am excited about though.

Making a home made candle

My power has been out for a few days and the store by my house had a shady man standing outside it telling people it was closed. Also, all the blinds in the window of the bank were closed. . . hmmmm. The point is, I was unable to purchase candles the other day (meaning Friday). I went home to my dark tent, and decided to lite to 1/4 inch of candle I had left. Which lit perfectly. Then I thought to myself, I can add wood shavings to the candle to make it burn longer like in the stove. So I did, and it saved the candle from burning out. Hooray!!!

So, about 5 minutes later another thought popped into my head, if wood works for "candles", wouldn't the teeniest, tiniest bit of coal also work? So I put a teeny, tiny piece of coal on the wood shavings, and  . . . nothing happened. Oh well, I thought, back to sitting in my chair doing nothing.

About 7 minutes later I heard a 'pop' sound and saw my candle was a blazin'.

30 seconds after I took this picture, the plate under the candle shattered. This made me think the candle was a bit out of control. Time to put some water on it.

Have you ever put water on a tiny coal fire? Um . . . DON'T! I put two drops on it and a fire ball shot to the ceiling. Normally, this wouldn't be as scary, but when your house is made out of wood and cloth, . . . well, naughty words are said at a loud volume, as I lunged towards the cupboard where my fire extinguisher is.

Luckily it was just a tiny fire ball and nothing else caught on fire. Unfortunately there was still the problem of the 'out of control' home made candle who was, apparently, resistant to water.

I thought, Well, this all started because I was thinking about the stove fires, Oooo, I'll put it in the stove! I took the biggest plate piece and, ever so carefully, dumped it into the stove fire.

On Saturday morning, I went and bought actual candles.

The End

I.S.T.

What is Peace Corps’ idea of fun? That’s right, it’s In-Service Training!  

What is In-Service Training, a.k.a. IST? Well it’s a week-long training with someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you, and working on a possible project as we are taken through the steps of Project Design Management.  Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

No to the first part. Yes to the second part. It’s is difficult to communicate simple things, like ‘no, it’s not okay to look through my bag when I go to the bathroom because you want to know what medication I take.’  So Project Design, as awesome as it is, takes a few steps back when you spend most of your time looking up words and having translators ask basic questions to realize you are not on the same page, book, or even library.

Anyway, coming up with projects to do with our Mongolian counterparts is, in fact, what we do in Peace Corps. The trouble is staying within the Vision and Goals of, not only Peace Corps, the sector we are assigned to.  I am assigned to the Health Sector, so we have a goal to assist counterparts in acquiring health skills & knowledge; one to train the community with our counterparts; and one to assist our counterparts in acquiring non-health skills & knowledge. There are, of course, multiple objectives attached to each goal. If you are wondering what “non-health skills & knowledge” are, that would be category where English lessons and being the I.T. person fall. 

If you are not familiar with Project Design Management, then IST is like taking a drink out of a fire hose. This is what most of the counterparts experienced. They had to learn what it was, pick a subject, and then get their volunteer’s opinion on how to develop the project. It’s a lot to do in a week’s time. There are so many angles to consider, and resources to look at before you finalize a project, it’s a bit overwhelming.

Our project is interesting and I’m curious when, or if, it will be put into play. It would be very beneficial for the community, so I hope it isn’t forgotten about.

 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Peace Corps puts on a Thanksgiving for the volunteers and any, and all, Americans in Mongolia. What “other Americans” are in Mongolia?  Embassy and Consulate people, and few religious groups and some English teachers (many ReturnPCVs). It was held in an apartment complex’s “group room”. Sorry, I’ve never lived in an apartment fancy enough to have one, so I don’t know the real name.  It was really nice. It was potluck style and some people have mastered cooking without all their favorite ingredients.  This one girl made a bacon-pasta salad, and then mixed it with a green salad. It sounds odd, but it was delicious. It was also the first time I’ve ever had bacon in mashed potatoes. It was awesome! I don’t love bacon, but wow. (Yes, I do realize both of my favorite dishes have bacon in them)There was also an amazing green bean casserole. I honestly couldn’t tell you what was in it besides green beans and cheese. Perhaps that is all you need.

Unfortunately, Mr. Turkey could not be found in Mongolia this year, so we had boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead. It was still a treat. There are only thighs and legs where I live and they don’t seem to have much meat on them. 

I was having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures!!!

M23 Healthies
(minus one; plus Ned's head)

Our Country Director giving a Thanksgiving speech.



These are articles that have been passed down through the years.
The Christmas sweater is from a M11;
the tiara is from a M20 (for girls);
and the bow tie, I don't seem to remember anything about.

 

Eating pizza in UB's DoDo Pizza. Best I've had in M ongolia.
P.S. the cheese and crust really does make the pizza.

Eating at the Garlic Corner in UB for Mari's B-day.

 

 

 

My First Virus in Mongolia . . .

It's been coming for days now. I'd been hoping that is was going away. I don't like being sick, like most normal people. It always start with that small tickle in the back of your throat and then slowly, ever slowly, makes the glands swell . . .

I'm kidding. I'm not going to do a whole post on the Common Cold.

This post doesn't have a theme though, sorry if you're disappointed. Upside, a few pictures!

With the cold weather in mild-force I have to dry my laundry inside. I've draped my clothes line on the roof poles around my stove.

 

 

 

A marvelous coal fire brewing in my stove. 

(No, I did not make this; a Mongolian did)

Um . . . Take 3 rings out before dumping in the bowl of coal 

This piece of coal that is bigger than my niece's face.

Is it a birthday party . . . balloons . . .  streamers ?!?!?

Nope. They're Christmas decorations!!! 'Tis the season, even in a Mongolian Hospital.

 

!!!!!!GRAPHIC PICTURE FOR MY ANIMAL LOVING FRIENDS!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last, but not least, my coworker's winter meat has arrived.

What kind is it?
There is a rather large hint in the picture.