Mongolian MacGyver

I'm back in the BU after a tiring, but productive, week of nursing seminars in Ulaan Tolgoi/Erdenet. I will post about that later this week.

BUT FIRST

When you're a PCV, you get used to things breaking and you being the one to fix it/find a way around it. Such as using a broom dust pan to put your outdoor thermometer outside on the window ledge from the tiny high-up window in your apartment, or tumpins to catch the rain that should be falling outside.

In my last post I mentioned using my old water filter candle as a practice amputation stump:

You really don't want to see what's under there- it's pretty gross. 

My favorite, however, is how I figured out how to fill up my washer without any sort of hose.

Answer: A piece of hula hoop (left over from camp), cut at one end, duct taped to the facet.

TA-DA!!

Also a new store has appeared in the BU. I knew it was gonna be good but not THIS GOOD: shrimp, squid (?!?), cake mixes, and lots and lots of good (and expensive) booze. We now are officially the coolest aimag. DEAL WITH IT.

Work Updates OR "So what DO you do in Peace Corps?"

A post... about work? Timo! (Really!)

I still get asked all the time about what I do. To this day, I'm maybe still not sure. As the second year here goes on, more and more projects have come about. Non-TEFLs have the hardest time with figuring out "what we do," but perhaps the most flexibility in that sense.

So these are some of the projects I've been doing:

Seminars! (Nursing skills)

Grant writing! (I had to take pictures for the water distiller project... we're getting drinking water for the patients)

English club! (Check out my awesome drawing skills)

Nursing skill practicing! (Yes, that is my old water filter being used as an amputation stump)

Children's art therapy! (They're just happy to get out of the unit!)

Stroke rehabilitation therapy! (This one is a lot of fun!)

And teaching Mika how to keep his tongue in this mouth while he sleeps! (This is perhaps my most failed project so far)

Not pictured: Mongolish Club and the hours I spend on making power point presentations. Whee.

A bonus 3x1 picture from my family trip. Should have brought a basketball to the middle of nowhere!

Peace and love, ya'all. Happy Halloween!

Of Competition and Rivalry

Interesting theme this week. Not just because of the MSU/UM game (go State!!), Red Wing games, Tigers or Lions (and bears, oh my!), but of conversations had this weekend. Oh, also I'm sorry that Michigan fans got such a bruised ego... it's been nice to be on the winning side for once (or 4 times). :)

Mongolia has an addiction. An addiction that many people don't know about, unless you have lived here for a while. This addiction is one seen frequently, but rarely questioned, unlike the obvious addition to alcohol. That addiction is competition.

This weekend it seemed that competition and rivalry were a constant topic of conversation (it IS that time of year). I sat down with Jessica and her CP for lunch, and I finally asked the question a lot of the PCVs want to ask- "why, exactly, do schools have so many competitions?" Jessica's CP couldn't answer. She didn't like it as much as we did, but it was something they had always done. Jessica and I suggested she could be the voice of change, the starter of the revolution, the organizer of "Occupy Baruun-Urt" (hah). She said that she really couldn't- as much as she would maybe want it, she could lose her job trying to reduce the number of competitions.

I guess I should specify what kind of competitions they have. They have the usual stuff for the kids, which is what we generally agree with- basketball, volleyball, English, singing competitions, etc. Those are fun and good for getting kids involved in extra-curriculars. The ones that PCVs have trouble with are the teacher competitions- sports (which I think are generally fine if used sparingly) and teaching competitions. Teaching. Competitions.

I'm not a TEFL PCV, but I've heard so many of my TEFL friends talk about these competitions it's like I've witnessed them myself (and, my hospital HAS done something similar so I need to work on them too). They go like this: teacher make awesome insanely cool lesson plans with props and handouts and visuals (maybe including videos, etc). They spend hours upon hours making them. They present it to a class of their teaching peers, NOT actually in front of students (?!?!?! they usually cancel other classes too, so that the teachers can observe other teachers). The lesson plan goes in a binder, never to see the light of day again.

Now, why don't teachers do this for every lesson, I ask. It doesn't have to be flashy. It seems that if you prepared lessons that engage the children in learning, it would be better for them instead of reading straight out of a book.

It's too much work, Jessica's CP replies. We don't have time.

We then discussed possible solutions to this problem. Have Jessica and the training manager sit in on lessons and give feedback. Instead of wasting time making lessons they'll never teach, have a seminar on how to make better lessons. Have less competitions so teachers can focus on making engaging lessons. Share lesson plans. The possibilities are endless.

I remember Todd saying similar things last year, when he was frustrated that teachers would cancel classes to prepare for the teacher's volleyball competitions. During one of the most recent competitions, I heard of an incident that really ticked me off. One of the teachers ended up teaching the grammar point wrong and tried to blame it on the PCV for teaching them wrong (?! why would we do that). What's more frustrating than that, was that the PCV had to go and teach one of the teacher's classes on the fly because the teachers were arguing so much about points and who was supposed to win, that they didn't go to class to do their job.

I really don't need to point out how many things are wrong with that. And that's why we're here. We're here to suggest better ways to teach, more efficient ways of teaching. But if this society has this tradition so well engrained in their culture, can we really do anything about it? Maybe. Going back to what Jess's CP said- she's afraid to make that kind of change because she could lose her job. The working environment here is sometimes so interesting. It's the wonderful thing about being a PCV- you can literally go almost anywhere you want, when you want, and speak to whomever you want. Americans are weird, new, and people generally want to hear what we have to say. The change could be amazing.

Enough chat. Picture time. Jess invited me to the singing competition for her school- "Universe Best Song" is a Mongolian singing competition on TV that is much like American Idol, only you have to sing songs that aren't in the Mongolian language. So many of the kids did pop English songs and traditional Russian folk songs, with a little Korean pop mixed in.

This boy was getting chewed out by the Russian teacher (who was sitting next to me) for messing up the pronunciation of whatever folk song he was singing. The judging was either a "yes" or a "no", just like in American Idol. There's none of that "every child is a special rainbow" American bullshit here!

These girls went to camp :) they were so good!

Deliberations begin...

Yep.

And finally...

DANCE DANCE

Here comes the light of an autumn moon

A couple things. I'm almost done with Mad Men season 4, and I've developed a girl-crush:

How could you not? I think it's the red hair and/or the attitude. You just want to BE her. She makes the show, and she's probably one of the most "moral" characters (surprisingly?). I guess after this I'm going to have to try out that "game of thrones" show all the boys have been talking about for ages.

Secondly. It's October, so that means Kate switches to her October play list (I have songs for every month that I usually don't listen to other times of the year):

"October" by Broken Bells - if you like the Shins, try this band, the lead singer is the same. Good stuff.

"Waiting for October" by Polaris - remember Pete and Pete? This was that band that played the theme song and other music in the series. The whole album brings be back.

"Strange and Beautiful" album by Aqualung - Reminds me of the fall before nursing school... that weird transitional period where I was a psych major for a semester.

Thirdly. I've become a cooking fiend. My favorite meals as of late:
1) Chicken, onion and mayo sandwiches
2) Banana bread! I think I've finally gotten it down
3) Hot chicken wings (yumm)
4) Toast, used in any way possible

Basically anything with chicken is a good meal. The meat is expensive, but fruit is more so. I've been counting up what I've been spending this month and I spend more on fruit, veggies and candy (sigh) then I do chicken. Also paper towels. Those are freaking expensive (like 5 bucks for two small rolls), so never again.

And thirdly is where it ends, I suppose... time for more Mad Men.

Taken at the TEDxUlaanbaatar conference in August. He was really good.

Please tell me what there is complain about…

It has been far too long. What is wrong with me- two months and no update? Another whirl-wind of months go by, and I realize how little time I actually have left here (11 months, WHAT?!). So lets back this train up, and make a (short) list of happenings:

-My CP is preggos, but you already knew that.

-That same week, I proceeded to break my iPhone on a rock (v. bleak moment for me, but I got the whole screen replaced in the capital. Who knew?)

-Altaa is preggos too! And the baby is due around the time that Suvdaa's is!
-Also that same week, I was told I was going to move apartments (I haaaaate moving)

-Ashley left Mongolia :(

-Went to MST (Mid-Service Training), and it was actually a lot of fun, with good discussion and painless seminars!

-Went to Anhaa’s (Sarah’s CP) wedding, hung out in the houdo
-My life being spent watching episodes of TV shows:

       -I finished watching The Tudors (sooo good)

       -Started watching Mad Men (sooo good)

       -Re-started watching all my favorite shows this month (sooo good)

It wasn’t all bad… that same week I had the crazy stuff happening was the same week I had found out from Soyol that we were getting *two* new volunteers instead of one! And dearest Ashley came to the BU as a sort of “final farewell”… more like she was here for seminar purposes, but it was nonetheless so nice to have her here.

After packing up my whole life in boxes, thinking I was going to move that next Wednesday, but not actually moving until Friday and going to the capital on Sunday (with barely unpacking and Mika not getting to adjust to the new place), my brain was fried. I was a crazy hot mess for a couple weeks there!

My place is finally put together (after like 2 weeks of cleaning!), but I still have yet to get a kitchen sink and a shower. But I did get a carpet that makes my place look like there’s a runway in it, so I’ll call that a victory. The sink should be here eventually because my landlord’s (one of the doctors at the hospital) husband is going to be the one to do it, and he’s in China. Of course. Could be worse! Could be raining… oh wait:

Rain? In my apartment?

Hasn’t rained in my apartment since (scratch that- it did last night), even though it was raining this week. So, whatever. It’ll be snowing soon enough. And it has been COLD. I had a moment of “oh yeah. THIS is what the cold feels like.” It warmed up for a while, but windier than I remember it being this time last year.

Work is crazy busy and I love it. We’re really getting into the groove of regular nurse-teaching sessions, and I’m starting some cool programs in the hospital.

Enough small-talk. Picture time!

Boy racing at Naadam

Can you spot the bird?

Anhaa and Zorgoo... the newly wed couple and soon to have a baby :)

Seriously, the creepiest men I've ever met (the two on the left). They were drunk as skunks (as you can tell) and couldn't remember/get over the fact we weren't Russian. And this guy looking at the camera wanted me to call him later. YEAH. SURE BUDDY I'LL GET RIGHT ON THAT. He was also confused on why I wasn't eating a second helping of mutton soup.

Sarah and her "forever six year old buddy"

FALL! Some of the only trees in the BU and they're on hospital grounds.

Happy Fall!

And life goes on!

Today was my first day back at "work" in a couple months (I say "work" as in sit at my desk in the hospital and work), because of camp and seminars (and my family visit!) and such. It was a little weird, but I wasn't as off in my morning routine as when I came back from America.

So it was pretty normal- we're having my dearest Ashley come this a'way to do a physical therapy seminar which is sure to be fun. As my CP and I were planning, I sensed something was a little off with Suvdaa, but I thought it was probably because I hadn't worked with her since camp, and I only saw her a couple of times after. That and we were probably both tired from the weekend.

Turns out that was NOT the case, ha. Conversation went something like this:

Me: Tuya is on vacation, yeah? Where is she?

S: I dunno. Maybe UB, maybe China.

Me: Ah. You said before you couldn't go to China, why was that?

S: Uh... (half laughs) I had problem.

Me (not wanting to press it further): Ah, I see.

S (grinning): .......

Me: ...??

S: ...I have baby.

Me: ....Umm... you do??

S (points to stomach): Yes.

Me: HOLYS&*%WHAAAAT?!?! That is AWESOME!!!

I proceeded to freak out for a few minutes, while Suvdaa laughed at me for being so excited. I had to try not to be TOO excited because in Mongolia it's bad luck to fawn over a baby that's not been born yet (baby showers = totally out of the question). Anyway, after those few minutes, though, my mind started to wonder... "That's so cool, I get to see a new Mongolian baby!" "But that means... she's gonna take leave and probably not be back before I leave." "Aw crap." It's fine though- Travis reminded me that it's not she's moving or anything, and that she'd probably want to help me in any way she can when she's away. I also have other CPs who are awesome too that I can work with while she's on leave.

I also had to remind myself of something that I think all PCVs remind themselves at least once during their service- life still goes on while you're here. Things don't stop happening just because you came to a different country. Good and bad things happen just as they do at home. I've already known some of the lows, such as illness and death, and I've seen how my Mongolian friends have reacted. Just in the past couple months it's been nice to see the highs- new buildings, new jobs, and now new babies. :) Although, Suvdaa's pregnancy isn't the first one that I've known. Khishgee, one of the English teachers, told me today she's thinking her baby is coming next week! And basically half of Sarah's teachers at her school are preggers right now (including her main CP as well), so I guess now's the season for love? Haha :)

So that's my news for the moment. :) Now I shall leave you with a couple 3x1 photos...

Camp Stories

Hey everyone! I'm back! Hoorah! Dariganga children's camp was a blast and half, mixed with frustration and being exhausted pretty much constantly. Now, my family is here!! And they are all doing well... maybe except for Konrad because his stomach hurts all the time and he complains about jet-lag. Ha. Welcome to my life! :D

Now... onto some camp stories. I tried to write down the more interesting stuff that happened.


Teams

The Sharks!

To keep up a competitive spirit, the campers were randomly split into teams of 10-12 kids. The first task they had to do was figure out a team name, which proved to be a little difficult at first. The first session had a theme of “animals” and basically all the teams wanted to be the “lions,” or “tigers”. The second session had a theme of “everything” (we got lazy, so what), so there were still a lot of animal teams, but more interesting ones were noted, such as “Nature”, “Team Blue Sky,” (Tsinker Tinker in Mongolian!) and “The Untouchables.” The last one being Leon’s team, obviously.

The Untouchables!

My teams were “Penguin Team” and “The Sharks”. The Penguin team was hilarious. They did really well, and they had some really insane personalities. Our team flag had a large penguin on it, with pinwheels made of construction paper around him. This is because, “Dariganga is too hot for penguins, so we had to make a freezer for him.” Too cute. Our motto (which every team had one) was “our motto is, just smile, just smile!” My team seemed in it to win it, though. Sarah’s team however was the “Happy Tigers,” and had Tigger as their mascot, which she was none too pleased about and vocalized her angst frequently. Her next team somewhat made up for that- “The Giants”.


Cross-dressing

Mongolia has a culture that is very homophobic, to the point that it has been said that they didn’t need gay rights passed because it “doesn’t exist.” It cracks me up, however, that cross-dressing and acting extremely feminine is perfectly ok. I suppose because they know they’re faking (they would never to think it as actual homosexuality), and as Alex said one time, being over the top and as far from the norm is the humor here. I suppose so, but still interesting. On Mongolian TV, it’s not to unusual to see a cross-dressing male. We had a Mr/Ms competition, which consisted of the chicks dressing up like dudes, and the dudes dressing up like chicks. The males definitely were WAY more into it. One of my “girls” on my team from first session, and one of the “boys” from my team second session won the competition in their category. Too funny.

Even more hilarious than the little boys (who many of them could have for sure passed as girls in real life), were the PCVs and Mongolian English teachers who participated:

Kaede, me, Carolyn and Sarah. We're some good lookin' dudes.

Soyol... the scariest looking Mongolian man ever. Complete with fake nose thing.

Ooo la la, Bob.

Ribbons/”Totes”

Last year, the PCVs came up with an award system using beads, which went over really well. We wanted to put our own spin on it, so we came up with the idea of using ribbons (in Mongolian, it was pronounced like “totes”). Everyday was a different color, and they were counted up the next morning in their teams.

Andrew and his Strong Tigers!

Sometimes this proved to be a problem, as the kids found out early that if they were caught doing something good, they would get a ribbon. A couple days into camp, we had an awful lot of campers picking up trash on the ground in plain sight of the PCVs. Sometimes the kids would completely shameless and just ask us for one. That was the worst. During hiking day, I had two girls hold my hand and walk with me around Altan Ovoo (one of the most holy mountains in Mongolia), then ask for a ribbon afterwards. For what??, I ask. For talking to me of course, she said. It wasn’t in English, mind you, and even if it was, I wouldn’t have given her one.

Relay day!

The only time we had to take away ribbons was during the second session, when some of the older kids started to get really bratty really fast. Taking away ribbons was for (including, but not limited to) being super late to class, not coming to class at all, or generally being brats about stuff. Luckily, we didn’t have to take many away.

The last full day, we had a relay day after the final English tests. We gave out more ribbons that day, for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, which tipped the scales quite a bit. The relays in both sessions created some upsets for the final ribbon counts.



Barack Obama and George Bush, BFFs

Not actually the two campers, but my CPs, Togsoo and Degii!
Helping me out with the life skill lessons...
and all the campers boo-boos.

An unlikely duo in real life, at camp, they were the best of friends. Within the first few days of the first session, the campers took to figuring out their English names. When I sat at their table for lunch, the boys excitedly told me their names… William, Andrew, Matthew… pretty standard, until I got to the end- Barack, George, and LeBron James. Basketball is a huge thing here, side note. Barack tended to be one of my love/hate relationships- he was a smart kid, but he would just talk talk talk in class. Grr. I did get to use him well in my volunteering lesson, ha.



Enforcing

Swimming!!

I found towards the end of camp, I was bringing to get a short fuse with the kids, the teenagers in particular. As I learned from Claire, enforcing rules and having them stick to it was a huge deal. The campers did pretty good the first 6-7 days of camp… then things got real. It started with one of Leon’s team members skipping out on a life skills lesson- a huge no-no. They had a ton of breaks during camp, so there was really no reason for them to be skipping stuff. So anyway, Leon took care of it and took a ribbon away from him, and we had a talking with everyone during morning announcements.

We thought that would remind the students to at least semi-good, but alas- on the last day of English classes, Leon discovered that one of the kids who had been previously making a ruckus in his life skills class, was missing. Looking in the usual spots (kitchen, basketball court, and his room) came up short, and I started to get worried. We went to the councilor’s room and asked if they’d seen him. We followed them back to his room, where they lifted a blanket… and there he was- sleeping under his bed with his headphones on. I was pretty darn livid. I mean, really?

After lunch, some of the teachers and I had a talk with him and another kid who had apparently skipped life skills the day before. After chewing him out pretty good and having the teachers translate, Aldarma turned to me and imparted some wisdom: “When I first became a teacher, I was always so angry when students disrespected me… like you are angry. Now… I don’t care.”


“Poop is raining from the ceiling… POOP!” and “HOW DID I WET MYSELF?”

So blue :)

Sarah and I, not being able to spend one minute away from each other, were roommates during the entire camp. We had two rooms. The first room was in the dorm the closest to the toilets and the kitchen, which was nice. What was not so nice was the fact we were the only ones who didn’t have electricity (Sarah: “Well, considering you’re rooming with me, it’s not a surprise we have electrical problems.”), and we had a weird bat infestation problem. Each morning when we woke up, there were more and more black pellets on the ground in the middle of the room. The looked speciously like the pieces of poop that Dwight found in the bat episode of the Office. It was confirmed the next night when we heard squeaking in the ceiling, above where the poop was landing.

Our second room (Maggie and Claire’s old room) was much nicer- electricity, a desk, an extra nightstand, and even an electric plug! The novelty wore off fast when it started raining- inside the room. Sarah woke up in the early morning and wondered if she had actually peed the bed. In fact, it was just leaking from the ceiling. Maybe the ceilings just really hate us.


Wait… what kind of horrig?

The food at camp was actually surprisingly really good. I don’t eat a lot of Mongolian food, so this was the best I could have hoped for. I do wish there were more vegetables, but that’s a different story.

So one night, we decided to have an “American dinner,” because frankly we were pretty sick of all the kids at that point. Usually we would sit at a different table and practice English with them. Anyway, the waitress lady hands out our food, and right away we smell something… off. It smelled so familiar to me, so it took a couple minutes. Was it…? Yes, it was liver stir-fry (horrig, in Mongolian). My host family had given it to me a couple times, once in a huushuur. It wasn’t my favorite meal. Anyway, no matter how hard we tried and how much chili-ketchup we put on, none of us (save Maggie) was able to stomach (ha) it.

Our dining hall!

It was quickly noticed by the cooks, to which we had to explain that we’re just really not used to eating geddis (the word for intestines) and such. They in turn felt bad, and wanted to cook us something different. We quickly protested, because we decided it would be a good night for ramen and snickers bars since we were thinking about having that anyway one of the days. Later that night after the evening activity, the cooks surprised us anyway, with about 10 plates of kimbop (it’s like sushi… without fish). Mongolian hospitality!

And now, for some other pictures!

Altaa watches the class as they take the final exam.

Penguin reunion after camp in Sukhbaatar square!

DANCE DANCE :D

Life skills lessons!

Me and some of the campers... I'm so tan now!

Finally, a semi-creepy wall mural inside one of the cabins.