Repeat after me, students ...

Hello, all. Sorry it’s taken so long to post. The days went from super long and slow to super busy. I have four hours of Mongolian language study, walk home and eat lunch, then walk back to school to teach an hour of English. After my classes, I go to Mongolian dancing classes. Our group has decided to learn a dance for our swearing-in on Aug. 20. By the way, the word for "dancing" in Mongolian sounds like "boojiggly." I may have already said this somewhere on this blog, but it’s so great, I have to repeat it. Try it.

"Are you ready for some boojiggly?"
"I’d love a little boojiggly."
"That boy can boojiggly!"

See, it’s fun! After some boojiggly, I walk home, have dinner and write the next day’s lesson plan. Through all this, the weeks have flown by. I only have two more weeks of training, then one week in Darkhan … then I go to my new home. Exciting and a little scary. But I’m ready for it.

Teaching classes is going well. I definitely feel up for the task. What’s my weak point as a teacher? The disciplining. I know it’s a bit of surprise. I’m sure you all thought I’d storm into my class and lay the law down. But apparently I’m too "gentle." Who’d have thought?

Best part of the past week: Our Mongolian instructor is this petite, soft-spoken, sweet little Mongolian lady. We thought it would be great to teach her some useful, American slang. So when a couple of the volunteers came into class, she stood in her calm, teacherly way in front of the class and said "Fo schizzle my nizzle." It was incredible.

Saving grace: So I thought I'd really miss driving while I was here. But I think that was largely because I love to sing loudly in my car. It's my stress relief. But I've found a replacement. Behind my house there is nothing but fields. A little less than a mile away there's a great hill with a perfect view of the sunset. It's beautiful. I'll try to post pictures soon. And while I've become a regular performer for the grasshoppers and birds that live back there, I'll leave the sound clip out.

Sending letters and whatnot: Thank you so much for all the letters. Dr. Kilmer, you’re wonderful. In two weeks I’ll have a new address. So you’ll all have to stop using the Peace Corps address within the next two months. I’ve received letters as fast two weeks after they were sent, and as slow as a month. I just received packages from my family, sent probably a month and a half to two months ago. But it’s possible they were sitting the PC office until a trainer could bring them out to me.

Calling: My parents found a new web site that offers a good deal on phone cards. www.speedypin.com. They just used it for the first time yesterday, but it is supposed to have minutes to Mongolian for less than 5 cents.

I’ll be back in the city in two weeks. So it’s unlikely you’ll hear from me before then. So don’t worry! I’m fine. Hope all is well. Thanks for staying in touch and letting me know how things are going. I appreciate it more than you know.

Teaching tomorrow

Training is flying by. We only have a month left. Tomorrow begins practice teaching. I’ll teach my first lesson to 15 or so students from my town. It’s their summer vacation, so it’s a voluntary class. But in my tiny town there were more than 60 students who registered. And for the following two days, mothers and fathers randomly came into our classroom (while we were learning Mongolian) and asked if we had room for their students. Our Mongolian teacher was visited at her home by her boss, asking if four other students could sign up. It’s nice to know they’re excited to learn. Although, we’re told that by the fourth week, we’ll be lucky to have 5 students. Eventually they realize there are more exciting things to do during the summer.

How’s the weather? ... Hot! During the past week, it’s been in the mid-90s. The sun is intense, and there’s no shade ... anywhere. Honestly, I have a better tan now than I ever had in Costa Rica. Although, I admit, that could be an exaggeration. The fact that I only take one or two showers a week confuses things. It’s hard to tell what’s tan and what’s dirt.

Interesting experiences:
~ I saw my first sandstorm.
~ I saw host mother throw milk into the sky, a daily ritual for her.
~ My host sister threw milk at me as I was leaving for UB. I’m pretty sure it was for good luck and not in hopes that I stay away.
~ My host mom’s back was hurting. To help ease the pain, the older daughter took 20 grains of wheat and moved each grain individually around her lower back, hovering above the skin. I think she was pinching the flour out of the grains.

What my host family is confused about:
Every Mongolian meal is steaming hot. Even lunch, when it’s 95 degrees, I’m eating incredibly hot food and drinks. So my nose is constantly running whenever I’m eating. At least once a week, my family asks me if I’m sick. I always say no, the food is hot. They nod their heads as if they understand. But they still ask. I can’t wait until I can speak better Mongolian and can explain these situations. I know they think I don’t understand or am making up answers. It’ll be nice to let them know I’m not crazy.

Another rushed post

One month left of training. Then … prepared or not … I’ll be on my way to a village to teach some English and help develop the community. The days are flying by. Tomorrow I begin practice teaching. I’ll have 15 students, under the age of 15, who will be coming to my class during their summer vacation to learn English. More than 60 students signed up for mine and my sitemates’ classes. And even after registration was over, students were knocking on our doors to get into the classes. It’s nice to know they’re eager to learn. Although, we’ve been told by the third week we’ll be lucky to have five students still hanging around.

Since I last posted, we’ve celebrated Mongolia’s summer holiday, Naadam. I wrote a huge description of the celebration, but you’ll have to wait until I find a computer that accepts my USB drive before you can read it. Short description: lots of wrestling between men in fancy underwear. I have pictures.

What’s the weather like? Very hot. During the past week it’s held at a stead 90 degrees or so. And there’s no shade anywhere. Honestly, I have a better tan now than I ever did in Costa Rica. Although, I admit, it could be dirt. I only get to the shower once or twice a week.

I added a photo album link to the left. I hope it works. I think the pictures are a little dark. I’ll try to fix everything when training is over. I've been here for two hours and the computer has died on me 4 times. I tried to e-mail people, but gave up. Will, Travis, Katie, Liz, Ross and family, thanks for the e-mails. I promise I'll reply.
Hope all is well. Keep in touch! I love reading your comments. Christy, I'm glad you finally found the site! It's good to hear from you all.

Naadam

This past weekend was a holiday here in Mongolia. The big summer event is Naadam, which is celebrated with the three manly sports -- archery, horse racing, and wrestling. The big celebration is in UB, but it’s celebrated all over the country on different days and in different ways. My town’s celebration isn’t until October, which I believe is because my town is full of farmers. During the summer they’re incredibly busy with harvesting. So they wait until after the work is done to party.

Manly men
I went to Darkhan’s stadium to watch their games. We missed the archery, but we saw plenty of wrestling. Mongolian wrestling is pretty tame. Especially since you expect to see some WWF action when you see the traditional outfit. They wear a colorful half-shirt (just sleeves and a back), blue underwear and fancy boots. We’ve been told that the shirts used to have fronts, but one year a woman pretended she was a man, entered the competition and won. Women aren’t allowed to wrestle, so since then, they don’t cover their chests. Aside from the outfits, the wrestlers do a little eagle dance before and after each match. Some matches seem pretty uneventful. The object is to get the other guy to touch a knee or elbow to the ground. Most of the match is the two guys bent at the waist with their arms around each other, waiting for someone to make a move, hoping that move is the wrong one. The amateur matches are a bit more exciting. There are no weight classes, so there is often a larger guy with a smaller guy. The match often ends quickly with the larger guy picking the smaller guy up by his panties and throwing him to the ground.

No Janet here
My family watched UB’s Naadam celebration on TV. It felt a lot like the Super Bowl, with advertisements and all. There were pop stars singing in between events. Then a parade of trucks covered in banners of coffee brands and cell phone companies filled the TV screen for a couple minutes. The most entertaining part was when two couples began waltzing in the middle of the field. It was very elegant ... and then I noticed that the rest of the field was full of hip-hop dancers performing their own choreography to the ballroom music. I was a little thrown off, but it really grew on me. I think maybe 50 cent should look into that idea for his next video. I unfortunately didn’t get to watch too much of UB’s celebration, because I received a text message saying that my host father and sister were waiting in the town square for me ...

Confusion
This was one of many communication breakdowns that I’ve experienced. The day before, one of my sitemates mentioned that her host sister was taking us to the hoodo (countryside) to watch a horse race. I asked my host family whether they knew anything about this outing. They did not. But they had spent the past two days chopping up a goat they had slaughtered. I asked what this was for, and they said the father was going out with friends from work. No mention of anyone else joining him. The next morning, my sitemate sent me a text saying she was leaving now for the hoodo, could I let the others know. Well, since I had spent the entire day before in the sun, and since I wasn’t ready to go, I decided I would stay indoors and watch TV with my host mom. So when I received the message about 45 minutes later, all I could do was shake my head. I think what happened is that my host father hadn’t planned on inviting me, but when he realized there were other Americans going, he thought he should invite his American.

Ohio represents
We took a meaker out to a mountain, which all the men climbed to worship and ask for rain. The women, and the American men, waited for about an hour in the blazing sun. After the worship, we went to the river, swam, ate meat, dried milk curds, cookies and, yes, I finally drank the airag (fermented mare’s milk). Not the best drink I’ve ever had. Luckily, you’re just supposed to sip it and pass it. We also had our own, personal wrestling competition. And since they were one Mongolian wrestler short, my sitemate Nick (from Dayton) was asked to step in. He didn’t wear the fancy panties, but he gave it a good run. He lost to the second-place finalist.

Almost there

Here is a picture of the ger on wheels that I stayed in my first night in Mongolia. If you can see this picture then I've figured out half of the picture-posting business. Hopefully next weekend I'll put more on the site and set up an album you can link to.

Welcome 24

Thank you, everyone, for the birthday wishes. They were much appreciated. My first birthday in Mongolia was a good one that extended over four days. I’ll give you a quick recap.

On July 1, I was in UB with about 20 other volunteers, touring the capital. On this day we went to the PC office, and they passed out letters. I had three letters! A good day indeed. This was also the last night we were in UB, so everyone decided to go out for a little boojiggly (which is what the word for “dancing” sounds like to the untrained American ear.) Like most Mongolians, the DJs were eager to use their English, so when the volunteers told them it was my birthday, they proceeded to say “Happy Birthday, Jenny” over the speakers as often as they could.

At 6:30 a.m. on my birthday, I woke up to the unfamiliar ring of my new cell phone. My first call from the states! It was very exciting, even if the person had forgotten that it was my birthday. ;-) My second call from the states came at lunchtime! Midday, I’ll admit, I became a little melancholy. I started missing everyone at home. The three-hour ride in a meaker (little Russian van) with 10 other people wasn’t helping. When we got back to site, the sky was full of storm clouds. A blustery, blah day. It fit my mood. I wasn’t looking forward to attempting to speak Mongolian to my host family. But when I walked in they were so excited to see me. They brought out three little presents and sang “Happy Birthday.” They helped me realize that on my 24th birthday I was doing exactly what I had hoped for. I was feeling refreshed and walked outside and there was a huge, beautiful rainbow. That’s the great thing about the storms here. They blow in and blow out in a couple hours. And there are no buildings to block the view, so you can usually see both sides of the rainbow.

On July 3, my family called from the states! Another good day. And on July 4, during class, my sitemates surprised me with a cake! And so ended my four-day birthday celebration.
(Cultural sidenote: In Mongolia, I’m 25. When you’re born you’re 1 year old.)

Phone calls: For any parents or friends of volunteers interested in calling here, my parents found a site where you can buy calling cards for 5 cents a minute. It’s at www.mongoltown.com. It’s written in Mongolian, but there is a phone number and e-mail address to ask for help. I’m told it’s pretty easy to tell what each card is worth. You have to purchase the cards through paypal. They last for a certain number of months.

Celebrations

Happy Fourth of July!!! And birthday to me! (Or happy pur-pur, as my Mongolian sister pronounces it).
We've spent the past few days touring the capital, Ulaanbaatar. I ate at a Mexican restaurant, saw last year's Wimbledon on my dorm-room television, ate pizza and a cheeseburger and got a chance to dance a little in the clubs. It's been fun. We also met some important people and were given a lot of important information. I'll write more about all that good stuff later.
I just wanted to let you know that all is well. I have a cell phone now, and have received two calls from the states!!! Great birthday presents.
Hope you guys have a good holiday weekend!
Keep in touch!!