Dance Videos!

Tsagaan Sar was awesome. Might not be over for me, since I'm going to visit my dear Sarah in Daranga Soum on Thursday (with Nema! Paaarty time!), and she said her Tsagaan Sar lasts 20 days there. Oi.

So here are some videos to hold ya over from the Children's Concert back in October:

How to Make Buuz/Bansh: A Photographic How-To

Thanks Mel, Ellen and Mom. :) I know I have a lot of time to figure out what I’m doing in the future… I tend to think about it a lot since I have the time on my hands to think about such things.

Just finished up a lovely conversation with Ellen about… Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13, whist I was trying to clean my desk. Sundays are usually my cleaning day. By the way, I think 13 is my favorite! Mmm George Clooney.

As I mentioned, Tsaagan Sar is THIS WEEK. I’m not hosting my own Tsaagan Sar, but I’ve been invited to a bunch of houses already. Suvdaa’s even got her stack of 50 tug bills to give to the children who come’a knocking. Seriously, it’s like trick-or-treating for the kids, except they get MONEY. Alex told us last year kids came knocking at his apartment building, but since no one was answering their doors, the kids shut off the circuit breaker. Nice!

I also got my new deel (traditional Mongolian dress) this week. I'll have to upload those pictures after Tsaagan Sar. Remind me.

Last weekend I went to Suvdaa’s home to make bansh, which are like mini-buzz (dumplings). It was interesting to explain to her that we just have the one word for dumplings; that we don’t specify between sizes like they do.

In keeping with my new year’s resolutions, I did a photo-how-to on how to make bansh!

Start with mixing flour and water... make a  dough ball!

                

  Let the dough rest...

                    

            While the dough rests, take out your sturdy knives and
                     choice of meat (in this case, it's beef, but you can have camel, sheep, goat, whatever!)
       Just be sure NOT to trim the fat! (Mongolians love it!)

Cut the meat in big strips...

...then take those strips and cut them into even tiny-er strips...

Make sure to look FABULOUS while doing it!

...and cut again to make tiny cubes of MEAT

Now that you've chopped the meat,
put a handful of salt into a bowl of water for the onions.

Next, chop the onions into REALLY SMALL PIECES!
This is Suvdaa's daughter, such a helper! :)

Onions into the water-salt mix!

Onion-salt mix, into the meat mmmm

Now rooool it out into a desired thickness (thicker
for buuz, thinner for bansh)

While waiting that to marinate, check out the dough
that was resting, and kneed it like ya need it.

Cut the roll it into a desired thickness and press it,
making a cute little dough-coin thing

                                          

                DOUGH! IMMA EAT CHOO

Now the trick to good buuz is the rolling and the pinching-
roll from the inside to make a disk that's slightly thicker in the middle.

Now add the meat + onion mix...

...and pinch the top like an accordion... or something
I'm really terrible at it. So don't listen to me.

          
                     TA-DA!

                              

           Suvdaa even taught me how to do the buuz folding... which I failed at. Big time.

Can you tell which one I made? Ha.

                                

           All that's left is to cook 'em! This is milk tea, a traditional Mongolian drink.
            It's a mix of water, milk, tea from drained tea leaves, and a little salt.

                        

                                 IN GOES THE BANSH!

Boil, and SERVE!

Eat it with friends! Hom nom nom!

And that's about it! Easy-peasy yeah? So now go make your own and let me know how it goes. :)

Happy Tsaagan Sar, everyone!

Сар шинэдээ сайхан шинэлээрэй!

Singing oh, January, oh

The Decemberists new album = rockin', albeit a bit country sounding, was inspired by REM so I'm gonna give them a break.

Went to the Mercy Corps Client Day and Trade Fair during the weekend, some pictures ahead (HAHA get it?! Well, if you don't you'll see soon enough...). I got some cool stuffs, including PORK which we made pulled-pork sandwiches with and they were DELICIOUS.

Yesterday was the end of the 4^th Nine (see my post about the Nine Nines)… which is the coldest Nine. Only warm from here on up, yeah? I’d like to call BS since it’s only the end of January, but it seems that it might actually be true- the weekend calls for the lows to be ABOVE zero, and highs of +23F! I don’t even remember what that feels like! Break out the bathing suits!

This little sheep went to market... 

Also a month from today (*ahem* this was written yesterday) I’ll be headed to the good ol’ US of A (and Hong Kong) for a nice vacation. I’m thinking either I’m going to FREAK OUT (dreading reverse culture shock) or it’ll be perfectly fine. Hopefully the latter. Although my mom said she had it when she came back from Scotland for the first time, going into the huge supermarkets. One can only hope that I freak out whist eating a wonderful Jimmy Johns sandwich. #9 with no tomatoes and extra lettuce and onion… here I come.

…Need to stop thinking about American food. Just gets depressing. I’ve noticed I get on “food kicks” here. Like I’ll eat one kind of thing for a long time then suddenly get sick of it. I once was hugely obsessed with veggie melts but once sliced cheese disappeared from the delguur (store) shelves, I’ve been mostly eating sliced veggies with a Thai sweet-and-sour sauce, sometimes with chicken if I have it. For breakfast I used to be a hard-core egg eater but now I’ve gotten lazy and, with the help of Alex’s oven I’m still pirating, I’ve been eating toast nearly every morning. Partially also due to the fact that eggs are becoming a rarity again now that Tsaagan Sar is less than a week away.

i lose mai bodie... plz help mi :(

In other news we finished our grant for the Children’s Camp this week and I’m just waiting until Friday to get the final signatures so we can send it in. This week I’ll be starting another grant to address road safety in our community. When my coworker said that the hospital was interested in doing that project, I was right on board. We’re going to try for a MCA (Millennium Challenge) grant… but the deadline is April 4^th, just after I come back. So I’m going to try my darndest to punch this thing out next month with the help of my coworkers.

A little random, but I had a momentary freak-out at work today. I haven’t been feeling very good this week (tired/sore throat), I don’t know if that has anything to do with this. Anyway. I had “Doctors Without Borders” on the brain for some reason so I decided to check out their website. My thought process went a little like this:

Oh this would be a really awesome thing to do, what are the requirements? *clickity click* --> Huh, two years clinical experience with less than a 2 year gap in between --> Well, that’s ok, I can do my masters before hand, then I can work for a couple of years and then do this --> Let’s look at U of M’s nursing master’s programs! *clickity click* --> shit, do I need to take the GRE? WHEN? --> wait, what the heck to I even want to do my master IN? Clinical nurse specialist in GI diseases? CNS in adult acute care? Community health? Education? --> Should I start applying now?? --> Oh, but what if I wanted to take a year off? Then I could go down to Bolivia to do the photographs for Hugh’s university --> What about those photography classes I wanted to do? *clickity click* --> What about the continuing education classes in Japan? *CLICKITY CLICK* --> What about doing a year in South Korea teaching English? You get paid for that! --> What if I want to do a 3^rd year here?! I’m going to be SO OLD! I’m going to be the OLD SPINSTER with the nice career and no love/personal life, aren’t I? AREN’T I?? --> …I really should be working on that grant. *hastily closes browser tabs*

…Luckily my coworkers did not notice such a thought process.

Here's a nice picture so you can think happy thoughts after this blog post!

The Only Living Girl in the B-U

The local school kids are keeping warm!

((re: Title: On a Simon and Garfunkel kick, so sue me))

Anyway, what a week. Back in September we all thought about the months ahead of us- October was going to be busy due to the huge amount of birthdays and English classes, November busy because of Thanksgiving, December busy because of Christmas/New Years/IST, and January we thought to be the calm before the storm of Tsagaan Sar in February. Yeah, no. January is busier than ever, and we're already half way through!

Moon at 4 in the afternoon

It's been really nice to be busy. It was a tad bit slow during Christmas and New Years, but since then it's been constant. I've been working on various proposals, and we're all getting together to start to organize the children's camp in June. English club has started up again, but it was cancelled today probably due to prep for Tsagaan Sar (as Travis told me and confirmed by Suvdaa). We're only half way through January, but I've already been warned to stock up on things such as juice and eggs. I'm going to have to really practice self-control with the eggs... I still have control of Alex's oven at the moment and I wanted to make the pumpkin pie with the mix I bought. Mmm...

LESSON TIME! Tsagaan Sar, or "White Month" is the lunar New Year. Not be confused with the Chinese New Year (which is occasionally shares the same date), Tsagaan Sar is tied closely to the Tibetian New Year, and is celebrated two months after the first new moon after the winter solstice (remember the start of the nine nines?). It's to celebrate the new year, and start fresh. I've been told that it's the "beginning of spring" as well, but this year it's during the coldest part- Feb 3rd-6th. It's the biggest Mongolian celebration, with each family spending the weeks prior stocking up on goods and making (literally) thousands of buuz (steamed dumplings). I've also been told that families can go broke during this time because families will save up and spend every tugrik they have on presents and food. 

Tiled banners at the 1st School

On Tsagaan Sar day, people travel from house to house, greeting each other, eating, drinking, and giving gifts. Kind of like Christmas, since it's getting to be a slightly commercialized holiday now (I've seen TV commercials on the big screen in the square). It was renamed to "Herder's Day" in the Russian communist era, but it's back to the good ol' Tsagaan Sar name now.

Alex and the kids... photo walk in -15F weather! Yeah!

In other news, I had a backpacker stay with me this week! His name was Alex (Alex #2!), and he's from Spain. He's doing a around-the-world trip which I'm quite jealous of, really! Maybe after Peace Corps? Who knows. Anyway, he came down to the less-traveled BU to do a mini-project with the children. Alex had a bunch of cameras he brought with him so along with Nate, we organized to have the children come down to the children's center to participate in a photography project. The children learned about photography, did a photo walk, discussed their photos and made frames for them. They were then hung in the children's center. Overall it was a really cool project, and since it was the first time that Alex has done this project, I think he got some good ideas of what to do/not to do next time (he wants to continue to do this around the world, to show the people of Spain how the children of other cultures think of the world... neat huh?).

Mongolian Woman

Switching gears again, we've passed the 7 month marker of being in Mongolia. I mentioned this to my coworker who said, "when you have lived here for one year, you will be Mongolian." Sweet! Also, only a month and a half until Florida, Michigan, and Hong Kong... so much to do! People to see! Grants to write! Mongolian to learn! Again, I'm glad it's so busy, I just hope I don't get too overwhelmed. 

Peace for now... stay warm my Michigan people, I know it's getting chilly over there. Just don't expect any sympathy! :)

New Year Reflections and the Nine Nines

Happy New Years from Mongolia!
(This was taken about 20 min ago from my apartment window.)

At the time of writing, there's only about an hour and a half left of 2010. Then again, we'll be celebrating a whole 13 hours before the Eastern time zone. We had pizza this evening, and because of all the festivities that were happening this week, we decided to call it after a movie. Needless to say, it was less exciting than last year, ha!

I look back at this year, and it has gone SO fast. It was also one of the better ones... the first half of the year I had a well paying job (that I was awesome at!), was taking photography classes, etc. The second half has been such a learning experience being here, and I'm grateful for every moment. I'm amazed at even though I feel like I'm not making much of an impact at the moment- I actually am. I was thanked today during a nursing meeting for coming to Mongolia and teaching them. Huh. And this week when Nate and I had a meeting about a grant we wanted to write, one of his coworkers thanked us for thinking of them and having them help us write it. Of course! We can't do it alone. After the new year, we're really going to kick it into high gear with the grant stuff.

Fireworks RIGHT OUTSIDE MY APARTMENT! ... on Christmas Eve!

So there's only really two "resolutions" I have (even though I said previously that I wasn't gonna have any):
-Take more photographs!
-Get crap done.

That's pretty much it.

There's something else neat that I wanted to share. The winter in Mongolia is broken up into 81 days, counting nine sets of nine days each. It starts on the solstice (December 21st) and lasts until mid-March:

The First Nine: Milk vodka congeals/freezes
The Second Nine: Vodka congeals/freezes
The Third Nine: The tail of the three-year-old ox freezes (owch)
The Fourth Nine: The horns of the four-year-old ox freezes (double owch)
The Fifth Nine: Boiled rice no longer congeals/freezes (it's getting warmer now!)
The Sixth Nine: Roads blacken (roads...? what are these things you call roads?)
The Seventh Nine: Hilltops appear
The Eighth Nine: The ground becomes damp
The Ninth Nine: Warm days set in (hah, right)

Currently, we're in the second nine. Not sure if it's true, but all I know is that is freaking cold (-25F at the moment, that's why I'm NOT going to the square to see the fireworks. I can see it plenty from my warm apartment). :) I will never complain about the weather again.

Half an hour left of 2010! Sarah pointed out that 2010 was the shortest year of our lives- since we're 13 hours ahead of home. :)

Bonus picture! I took yesterday for a Mercy Corps new year card... that's my friend Nema on the right:

Happy New Year!
(The things in the tree are money- it's supposed to be good luck to stick money in Christmas trees, and collect it after the new year.)

Shin-Jil or Happy New Christmas!

CHRISTMAS TIME IS... PASSED

So Christmas has come and gone. Christmas itself was kind of sucky without the family, but the volunteers know how to do it right- beer pong, movies, food, and karaoke. It was nice to skype with the whole family for a couple hours, then Luke for a few, and then Ellen. :) I took Christmas Eve off of work, and instead of cleaning like I wanted to, I did the aforementioned activity and sat on my butt. I’ve been doing that a lot lately, perhaps the weather is to blame… the weather has constantly been in the negatives (for the highs as well) and like we were told previously, we’d probably not want to go anywhere in the winter months. Yep. OH but my wonderful mother and sister BOTH sent me packages! And they were AWESOME. I have enough Santa Pez dispensers to last me the next decade.

Let's get the party started!

Speaking of which... New Year. 2011. Entering a new decade.... huh. After talking with Nate, I decided to not do any new year's resolutions. I'm just going to try my best and see how that goes.

Let's talk about Mongolian New Years, shall we?

Little known fact to Americans, and known to all Mongolians- Shin-Jil is a BIG FREAKING DEAL here. Shin-Jil, or literally translated- "New Year" (what does that mean again?), is the Mongolian celebration where you put out Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, and have a Mongolian Santa at extravagant company parties where you drink champagne, vodka, wine, and beer and dress up in prom dresses while dancing to waltzes, circle dancing, listen to speeches, and (if you’re lucky) receive awards.

Basically, it’s a Christmas party. I was told by a Mongolian friend recently that Mongolians think they’re the same thing. That’s ok!

Prom? Or New Years? I think the latter.

Edit: So I was just reading something interesting about how in the eastern Soviet states, the New Year is a huge deal and they even have “Grandfather Frost” who basically looks like Santa. Since Mongolia used to be under Russian rule, that makes total sense. Carry on!

So what do they do for real New Years, you may ask? I’ve been told a couple things, ranging from spending it with the family, to drinking with friends, to doing nothing. I saw a sign in the square, though, that said something about a party in the square (? It’s freaking cold) on Friday at 7pm, so perhaps fireworks are in order! (Edit: it's not a party in a square I found out, but it is a party. Anyway) Speaking of which, various nights since Christmas Eve, there have been professional-grade fireworks going off right next to my apartment. Oi.

Sort of like the Mongolian Rockettes!

Anyway, back to the Shin-Jil party. My first inclination that this stuff was gonna be serious was when my wonderful mommy sent me my “old” prom dress because I had seen pictures in PST of people at New Years parties dressed up like they were waiting for the next limo to take them to the after party in some swanky hotel room. The second was that the party cost each person 20,000 tugs (about 15 bucks). For my small PC allowance, that’s quite a bit. So I had come back from UB that Tuesday, and so work on Wednesday (the morning before the party) was… uh interesting. We learned in IST that they were probably going to have programs of some sort, and this was no exception. And then I saw it. My name, on the program… TWICE. Eek. An English song and a Mongolian song. In front of nearly 200 people. 

Double eek.

Shots shots shots shots shots shots

Basically that ended with me taking vodka shots with the kitchen workers (who are awesome, and since my office is right next to the kitchen, I get to see them every day), singing Jingle Bell Rock (TWICE) and not one, but TWO Mongolian songs. My coworkers know, however, to not ask me to sing more than two Mongolian songs, because those are the only two I know. Need to work on that. But now the whole hospital thinks I have a voice of a rock star. Whoo! That’s right world, watch out, Kate’s a-comin’. I had a really fun time dancing, singing, drinking, etc. All the hospital workers are amazing, vibrant people who know how to have a good time. I look forward to introducing them to my family and friends this summer! :)

I also got an award… neat, yeah? I got a cakes (the word for cake in Mongolian is English cake but plural) and a bottle of sparkling wine! I was half paying attention, when all I heard was “Peace Corps” (in Mongolian) and my name, and my table started shouting at me and pointing towards the stage. Hah. 

CAKES! AND WINE!

Actually, a lot my introductions go like this (Mongolian in italics):

My Co-Worker: This… is [person], he/she is [does this job]   ((Her English is getting really good!))

Me: Ahh, how are you?

Mongolian (turns to my co-worker): Does she know Mongolian?

Me (to him): Yeah, a little.

Mongolian: Really? AHHH VERY GOOD!

Me (thinking): Please don’t ask me anything complicated.

Mongolian: blah blah blah where blah*

Me: Oh poops. I don’t know. :(

*in super fast speedy Mongolian!

Suvdaa and I going sledding at IST!

Usually, when they talk that fast, I can just understand that they’re talking about me. I’m usually also good at guessing what about, if something has happened that I did that they found funny, or otherwise.

Lately I’ve been getting called “Russian” more lately. I joked that I’m going to get "Би орос хүн биш" or, “I’m not Russian” tattooed somewhere in Mongolian script. Perhaps not a joke, though.

<---This hat must be at fault for some of the increase.

So, happy New Years, my friends. May the new year refresh your spirit, and may you avoid falling in open manholes.

Back to the UB- IST

Hey everyone! Long time, no post. I blame it on the weather. It's been in the constant negatives (even for the highs!), and it looks worse when I change my settings to C, so I'll stick with my F, thank you very much. It was a high of 2F today, which was pretty darn enjoyable.

Sitemate lovin'

Anyway, the main reason I didn't post much this month is because I was back in the U to the B again. And I got sick, again. For serious, that city is wack. I've been told it's the most polluted city in the world (most particles in the air), and is SHOWS. I wish I could have taken a picture of the view I had when I was coming back from training- there was a THICK cloud of gray over the entire city. Oi.

So- training. Our M21 training group had training at a hotel near UB (thankfully outside of the city some, but I was still stuffy the whole week), of which we bring one of our coworkers, usually the one that you work with the most. I brought Suvdaa, the head of nursing, and who I work with the most for sure. She's so motivated, and this week really helped our working relationship. The week was SO BUSY. Sessions all day, and meetings at night. We did manage to chill out, drink, and play cards almost every night though! So the sessions were pretty awesome... we went through the whole process of making a legit project, getting funding, etc. Suvdaa and I really got some good ideas for projects as well, and I think they'll be totally doable.

All the healthies and our CPs!

On the Thursday night of IST, we had a free night, where we could pick what we wanted to do. Tim, being the ever-planner, asked the CPs (counterparts- our coworkers) what they wanted. Mongolians LOVE talent shows and competitions. Maybe a soviet throwback (there's a lot of that here), and of course, they wanted a talent show. The TEFLs had one during their IST, but there were twice as many of them as us, so that was feasible for them. We were all pretty weary about having a talent show but since we were going to have a dance as well, we conceded to make fools of ourselves.

Oh, and did I. In spades.

oh what the crap

Started normally enough- each sector (health, business, and youth development) had to do something and none of us wanted to. The business one ended up being pretty funny- Jon took one of the team and showcased his talent of downing 3 beers in succession. Good times! The CYDs (children and youth development) did a Jingle Bell Rock dance, which I was somehow tricked into coming into the middle of the dance and dancing with them, ending with jazz hands. Let that sink in a little bit.

Baby, it's creepy inside

And then it was the healthie's turn. Even more surprisingly, although all the boys were dragging their feet about the whole thing, we put together a show- "Baby it's Cold Outside" performed by yours truly, Matt, Leon, Ned, and Cody. We rehearsed it an hour before the show, and many drinks and one thrown-out shoulder later (sorry Leon!), it was ready. It was pretty darn hysterical, and personally I think it was the most entertaining.

The cutest performance, however, goes to the CPs. They each took the time to write out a poem for their volunteer, in Mongolian, and translate it. It was a little confusing at the beginning since they started in Mongolian, and I heard my name... twice! I turned to Justin, asking if he heard that, and I looked at Suvdaa, who nodded enthusiastically at me. This was my poem she wrote me:

The CPs doing the poems!

Dear Kate, kind and cheerful Kate,
She amazes people by singing 'motherland' song well,
She likes Kazakh handicrafts,
This became her big hobby.


I about DIED with happiness and laughing at how accurate/cute it was! It completely melted my heart and it was the talk of the town all the next day. Suvdaa hit the nail on the head, and I gave her a huge hug after everyone was done.

That was basically the IST. Good times, good food, good friends.

Suvdaa and I!