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.

So... where did that year go?

Yes, my friends. It's been (now) well over a year since I've stepped foot on the steppes (ha) of Mongolia. Crazy, yeah? I took some time to look back at the year, at the work I did, at all the friends I've made, and I realized I'm really excited for the year to come. 

Late last month, I went to UB for a nursing seminar, and to greet the M22s (the new volunteers!). We're no longer the newbies! It's a weird feeling, but honestly it feels so good. I liked PST alright, but as some M20s I met put it, "it's one of those things you liked, and happy you did it, but are glad it's over and never want to do again" things. It's nice to have my own place and work to do. I suppose it's gotta do with the "locus of control" thing... I can control more things now than I could during training, and it feels good. Not to say I didn't have awesome times! I'm excited to go down to the Z to visit during Naadam (with my family!).

Right now, however, it's all about the camp... after the seminar in UB, it was back to the BU for crunch time. We're doing pretty well at the moment, but there's more work to do before wednesday. Also! No internet for me starting on the 15th, until early July! I'm excited for camp, but I think I'm going to start to get antsy when July hits because Mom, Konrad and Monika will be coming :D I'm so excited to share crazy Mongolian adventures with them... because once I sit at the computer, I literally forget all the hilarious/crazy/WTF-moments that have happened since I last wrote a blog. Go figure.

I hope to have really neato pics from our camp. Have a good June everyone!

Pictures! *takes of sunglasses* YEAAAAHHHHHHHHH

PIZZA HAS COME TO THE BU! So we celebrated with some for Mogi's birthday. 

Nursing seminar at Jamie's hospital! Jamie and I with some of the awesome nurses.

Hannah (who is leaving today!) and I, hanging out near Grandville. 

Alright, any of my A2 peeps remember this show?? This was at the arcade at the movies I went to.

Waiting for the new peeps! Brian and I were the official banner holders.

Aaron practicing the break through (hint: it is hard to break through burlap material, bring a knife) 

The boys, attempting to look like badasses for the newbies.

Walk through tunnel! It stretches back, but it's hard to see since Mongolians took over half-way.

They're here!! Hard to imagine that was us a year ago...

Some of the CYD girls and I at Sukhbaatar Square in the capital... complete with a wrapped up Sukhbaatar statue in the background.

Lastly... and oldie for you guys. Happy spring/summer time ya'all. :)

I run and run as the rains come...

Nursing competition! Complete with dancing.

Mumford and Sons... never leave my playlist, please.

Oh, shame on me. Not updating in over a month. Granted, it’s been a crazy busy one. We’re getting ready for camp, and most things are coming together. We still have a lot to do, but I figure slow and steady is best at least until the teachers finish school in June.

So I wrote this a couple days ago, but I’ve sadly gotten sick since then. Luckily this is only the 2^nd time food poisoning has been this bad, and I’m really thankful I have an indoor toilet right now. I went into work yesterday for a little bit, thinking we were going to have a meeting… of course people were busy/not at work, so I decided to leave since I was about to pass out at my desk. At least now I can sit at my home desk for longer periods of time without wanting to lay down.

Bad decision of the week = watching the rest of season 1 of Dexter before bed. That show is so freaky, yet I can’t stop watching. It give me REALLY wacked out dreams. Coupled with my fever/chills combo, it kind of made for a restless night.

Since my last update, I think I was in the middle of my month of straight work.  I didn’t mind, but it was nice to have a real day off after that. Between various Nursing competitions, camp meetings, and event organizing, I’ve been redonkulously busy (I know that’s not a word, but it’s my blog, darn it).

Snowing on May 21st. 

Since the start of May, it’s been COLD. Confusing to most of us, since April was so warm I had to keep my windows open most of the time. Now that the heat has shut off (back to tumpin bathing…) and the temperatures dropped again, my apartment hasn’t been so nice and warm. Sadly I cannot start fires in the apartment, so my little Peace Corps heater has been my best friend on the (now shortening) cold lonely nights. Today, however... it's 80 degrees. CHOOSE ONE, MONGOLIA. You're about as bad as Michigan!

Next came my birthday! I’m 25. Oi. My 3^rd b-day in a row outside of America (England, Japan, Mongolia!). I should take this moment to say happy anniversary to this blog, since I remember doing a birthday blog note when we were in Kyoto! Anyway, it was a nice low-key event. My birthday (May 12^th) is on the same day as nurse’s day (how appropriate?), but since we did nurse’s day activities beforehand, the teachers and Nema took me out to dinner, then my coworkers took me out for cake and karaoke. :) On Saturday, Alex brought over a cake and wine and we watched Glee with Nema.

My candle was on FIRE. And singing happy birthday!

Hospital peeps and some of the English teachers!

Cake cutting pose.

Karaoke and dancing!

Just last week I took a quick trip to the capital to do work for camp. I took my dear Mika along, so as to get his manhood surgically removed. He did VERY well and I was impressed with his ability to sleep for 10 hours. I don’t know the word for neuter in Mongolian, so my CPs and I had the code word “snip snip” with hand actions. Or “no make babies” (in Mongolian). He’s pretty chilled out now, which I’m happy about. Crazy cat. I wasn’t so excited to go to the capital (had another attempted pick-pocketing, ugh), but I got to see Tim, Ned, Justin and Ashley (actually, both of the J&A married couples!). The two former I hadn’t seen since December… although it really didn’t feel like I hadn’t seen them in that long since we talk a bunch. Tim and Ned are going to be the health trainers for the summer in Darkhan (north 3 hours from the capital). I’m hoping I’ll be able to pop by to visit, maybe in August.

And summer! Summer! Swimming, sun, car rides, camel rides, horse rides… the family is coming!!

Mom, Konrad and Monika are due to arrive in Mongolia on July 10^th! :) I have a whole itinerary planned, which may or may not actually go well (because… well, it’s Mongolia. I know this country by now). I know they’ll be great travelers and we’ll have a great time regardless, but I want things to go semi-smoothly, at least. I wish Dad could have been able to experience Mongolia too, but I bet he’ll be with us in spirit.

Other things of note:

-As much as I get frustrated in the capital city (pick-pocketers, cab drivers that rip you off, expensive everything, etc), I always know I can come back to my town and find the nicest, most caring people I’ve ever met. For example, when I pulled up on the bus, I had a bunch of stuff and right away a man with his daughter asked if I needed a ride. After taking me to my apartment, they offered to help me carry the stuff up to my place. The daughter was even brave enough to carry Mika’s carrier! (Mongolians are generally freaked out by cats) When I offered some more money because they had been so nice, the man refused but let his daughter take the money after I insisted.

-I learn something new about myself and Mongolia everyday.

-If there’s a new product on the store shelves, there’s a chance that you might not be able to buy it because the cashiers don’t know what it is.

-Community (the show) drinking games are the best. Troy and Abed in the moooorning!

-When I learn a new Mongolian song, I am guaranteed to sing it at least twice in a row on special occasions. This includes birthdays!

-Tuya is my official #2 Mongolian Mom.

-Empty milk cartons make perfectly acceptable barf bags.

-Those 10-hour bus rides are an oddly good meditation/self-reflection place.

 That's all for now. On to pictures!

Todd's going away party! 

After the bar... move to the club.

You know when it's getting warmer... out come the billiard tables! 

Nurse's Day Lunch! The doctors served us food and drink. :) That's Tsolmon pouring the tea. She's incredibly nice, and she was actually my first office-mate.

...tumbleweed? Tiemshte! (Of course!)

Sarah planning out her world adventures while Mika sleeps. D'aww :) Also, the painting in the background (right of Sarah's head), I got during the Nursing Day dinner, for my "hard work and dedication". :)

The site mates getting together for some drinking games and awesome Mexican food!

Oh nah nah, миний нэр хэн бэ?

...what's my name?...

Chillin' by the seaside in Hong Kong

Hey, all. My bad with the lack of updates. If you didn’t know, I was in AMERICA. It was pretty darn awesome. I hung out with my friends every day, I got to see lots of people, drink lots of good booze, and eat lots of good food. A completely awesome trip.

Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve gotten the same questions: “How was America?” “Was it weird being there?” “Was it weird coming back?” “What was the weirdest thing about being in America?”

A lot of ‘weird’ questions. America was good. It’s still there! It wasn’t weird being there, nor was it weird coming back. I was sorta indifferent, I think. Of course, it was sad saying goodbye again to my friends and family, but on the plus side, my mom, sister and brother booked tickets for July! Hopefully Ellen’s tickets to come soon after. :)

HARRY POTTER PARK!

The weirdest thing I noticed in America was not the clean bathrooms that had toilet paper, not the super awesome customer service, but the fact I tended to ignore people when I was shopping. I’m used to not understanding people around me, and I think that transferred to American stores. I felt quite dumb.

I also had a second leg of the trip, in Hong Kong to see my dear Janice. It was a really nice trip, full of equally awesome food and lots of shopping. :) We saw some of the usual tourist sights, and Janice took me to some local areas that were out of the way. It’s a super big city… much like London or New York I think (although I’ve never been to NY). Full of life, lights, and sounds.

My sister, Jack-Jack, and Lauren!

I finally arrived back in UB late last month. The next day my wallet was stolen (fun times), and the only reason I was sticking around was because people were coming into town who I hadn’t seen in a while. I was really happy to get back to the BU, back to home (and Mika!), and of course, work. I got a warm reception and I’ve been pretty darn busy since then. Children’s camp, seminars, case studies to write, projects to keep up on… I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I left America!

Mommy and Jack :)

Since I’ve been back we’ve had three visitors, if you can believe that. We’re not a well-traveled Aimag since we’re on the edge of Mongolia and there’s not much out here. Last week we had Peace Corps for a visit, this past week we had our dear friend Cassandra come from UB on HCA (host-country agency) business, and yesterday we had the UB embassy come for a talk about scholarship opportunities to study in America. It’s been really nice having people (read: other Americans) come by to chat. It was especially nice for me to hang out with Cass this past week- lots of girl talk. :) Dava and I were talking and we decided that we want at least one other girl site mate next year (her school might be getting a teacher-trainer, which would be really great), so we can have girl chats and hang out after work. In Mongolia, if a Mongolian woman is seen hanging out a lot with a man (foreign or otherwise), it can be construed as them being involved together… that’s why there’s a government official that had to be corrected by my supervisor since he thought I had three boyfriends. Sigh.

The usual crew! WTF Luke.

Sadly, it’s not all been good news in the BU. Nate’s supervisor had a really bad stroke and at this point, I believe he’s still in the hospital. He’s such a super nice guy, and I really hope he gets better. :/  Last week, Tumbee (who used to work at the children’s center as well), got into a bad car accident in UB. Thankfully, he’s ok, but his passengers aren’t doing as well. This is kind of a doubley bad thing since Tumbee’s wife is having a difficult pregnancy and the stress of the accident doesn’t help. And to top the week off, my coworker had a death in a family, so it’s been a little stressful around the work place as my coworkers are getting ready for the nursing competition in dornogobi (another aimag, south west of us). Actually, now I can’t remember if they said it was in dornogobi or dundgobi. They’re right next to each other.

At the club, partying it up like we're 20 again, ha.

But otherwise, things are good. My routines are back to normal, and I’ve even started running regularly since the weather has been SO NICE. 50’s, 60’s, even a low 70’s last week. And since it’s (literally) always sunny in Mongolia, it’s seemed even warmer. My apartment has been hot since it’s a bit too cold at night to have the heat shut off. I’m gonna be a little sad the day they turn the heat off… back to the tumpin bathing.

Mika’s been a little bugger lately. The weather has seemed to give him cabin fever, and he’s exploring any possibility to get out of the apartment. He already had attempted suicide when Sarah was taking care of him, and with me he’s gotten stuck in my neighbor’s balcony and nearly fell off. Stupid ass cat.

Lastly, if people are interested, these are my currents:

TV Show: I finished Parks and Rec in record time… finished 30 Rock, now onto Arrested Development.

Movie: None. I’m so ADD, and I love my TV shows. I usually flip on Oceans 11/13 if I just want background noise.

Music: Really mellow stuff at the moment… Aqualung and Jack Johnson on repeat, yeah!

Book: River Town, about a TEFL PCV in China. Neat story so far.

At one of the many black markets in Hong Kong!

Hangin' with Janice!

Oh, and some BU pics too. This is what we did when I got back:

Now that's what I call a beer pong table.

...Wait. What?

It's how we do it in the 'Bu.

All in a day's work.