And now it begins

I’m officially a Peace Corps volunteer. Today was our swearing-in ceremony, attended by the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia as well as the Mongolian president. We got word he was coming a couple days ago. It was quite an honor, but also a little nerve-wracking… since many of us were performing Mongolian songs and dances. But it turned out to be a beautiful ceremony. And my group’s dance was excellent.

Tomorrow, I leave for UB, where I’ll stay until Wednesday. Then I fly to my home for the next two years. I’ll be in the Zavkhan aimag, which is way out west. I’ll be living in a ger (I know you’re excited about that) but I"ll also be in the aimag center (capital), so I’ll have a decent variety of food during the winter. So I’m half roughing it and half Posh Corps (as we PCVS so lovingly call the easy life).

This past week, I met with my supervisor, the director of the school I’ll be working for. I must say, I was a bit intimidated when I first met him. His school has had two volunteers before me, which means I have double to live up to. He doesn’t speak any English, so we couldn’t discuss too much. But the one thing I kept hearing about was the previous volunteer and what she was able to do. So after our first meeting, I started biting my nails and wishing I were going to a town that had never had an English-speaking English teacher before. But, the next day we spent a lot of time with translators, discussing my jobs and what I expected and what he expected. And now I’m super excited. My school sounds awesome – and very advanced compared to what I expected.

Here’s a rundown of what my job duties tentatively entail:
For the first month or two, I don’t have to teach. I just observe all the classes, and maybe help out with English discussion activities.
At the start of the second quarter, I’ll started teaching an advanced English class, in which students have to pay to attend (which means discipline and apathy won’t be too big of a problem).
I"ll also start working with the English club, work on developing the recently started English resource room, and I’ll be teaching basic computer courses. The school just got a whole bunch of computers, and Internet(!) so I’ll be the specialist. The English resource room should be exciting. I’ll be responsible for working with organizations to find book and resource donations, as well as developing some of the visual aids, worksheets, tests and whatnot. The director is also excited that I studied journalism and is interested in applying that to his school in some way. So, after talking with him, I feel like all this is completely within my abilities, and better yet, all things I’m pretty interested in. Kudos to the Peace Corps for making what appears to be a good match.

As for my town, I have one of the most beautiful aimags in the country. Mountains, rivers, hot springs! But …it’s also one of the coldest. This is, I believe, why they put me in a ger as opposed to an apartment. I expressed my concerns about the cold early on, and living in a ger, the heating is controlled by me and my God-given abilities (God, I hope you gave me these abilities) to make fire.

So that’s the brief description. Luckily, I’ll have regular Internet, so you’ll be able to follow my adventure fairly regularly. I’ll be posting my new address on here soon. I also will have regular cell phone access. So anyone who didn’t receive my phone number, but would like to give me a call sometime, let me know and I"ll e-mail you my number.

What you’ve missed in the past three weeks:

• I took the final language test, and received an Intermediate low. A month ago I was at Beginner medium. Beginner high is what you need to stay in the Peace Corps (so they say). So my level is above (but not beyond) what was necessary. So I’m pleased. My language abilities were also helpful in impressing my new boss. So, yay for me.
• But don’t worry. It hasn’t gone to my head. While practicing for the final test, my host family was quizzing me on everyday questions. They asked me what other languages I spoke. I thought they were asking what foods I could cook. So I started naming Mongolian food – budz, hosher, dumpling soup, etc. They started cracking up, and then proceeded to make fun of me for saying I could speak the language of yogurt.
• Another communication snafu. I inadvertently canceled one of my English classes, on a day when the Peace Corps was coming to observe me. I was trying to tell my kids were going to learn a new song in a couple days. They thought I meant we didn’t have class for a couple days. So I was worried my observer would have to watch me teach my host sister, and no other students. Luckily, most of the students live close enough to the school that they could run around and get each other at the last minute.