Women's Empowerment Seminar

On July 14 & 15 I hosted a Women's Empowerment Seminar.  The idea for the workshop came from Bujin, the coordinator of the Liberal Women's Brain Pool, an organization I do some of my side-project work at.  I developed most of the resources, and with the help of some fellow PCVs, we facilitated four sessions over two days.

 Kate and I getting ready for the Life Skills session Saturday morning.

 Tan lines!

 The first day's participants: prostitutes and at-risk teens

 Menopause Myths and Truths activity

 Hand washing demo

 Teeth brushing demo

 Condom demo!  Yeah!

 This photo cracks me up.

 Vegetarian meal cooking demo

 Ashley and Lauren facilitating the Domestic Violence session Saturday afternoon.

 A great PSA I found and had captioned in Mongolian.

 Seminar day two.  Koty prepping with the translator.

 Bujin addressing the women before getting things started.

 Day two participants: local business women and entrepreneurs. 

 Koty and Chris facilitating the Business session Sunday morning.

 Ashley and Lauren facilitating the Politics session Sunday afternoon.

 Back row L to R: Bujin, Ellen, Chris, Kate
Front row L to R : Lauren, Zaya, Koty, Ashley, me

Overall I'd say the seminar was a success despite the materials not being translated.  The Life Skills and Business sessions were by far the most well received, followed by Domestic Violence.  Politics was a total fail, but not because of the materials or facilitators.  The participants just were not into it, probably because they were tired of election/politics stuff so soon after the national elections.  Oh well.  If they choose to do something similar next year, the necessary changes can be made in plenty of time!  And having Ellen there to run the tea breaks was such a huge help.  Gave me the time to focus on logistics and feedbacking the sessions instead of having to watch a hot water pot. 

Naadam 2012

Summer in Mongolia means Naadam, and Naadam in C-town was quite the sight to see.  Having only experienced a soum Naadam, I was pretty excited to see a big city Naadam.  And as my Women's Empowerment Seminar was the following weekend, a few friends came out early to partake in the festivities.

 Group shot at the Soldier's Memorial, which is right next to the Naadam Stadium.  L to R: Koty, Ellen, Me, Jessica, Kate, Chris

 Ameriks sittin' on a tank...NBD.

 Vendors outside the stadium.

 Khuushuur tents!

 First khuushuur of the day.  10am was just a bit too early for me.

 It was really, REALLY hot.

 Finally the band started.

 Cute dancing girls.

 Deel fashion show.

 LOVE the pants deel!

 Ttraditional dance.

 Then all together to finish the opening ceremony.

 Then we headed out to Bayantumen soum (about 30 mins outside the city) for the first of the Three Manly Sports, horse racing.

 At the finish line.

 Winner!

 Ellen, Kate's friend visiting from the States, wanted to see one of the racehorses up close so we stuck around...

 Which then meant there were no meekers to take us back to the city!  We started walking then hitched a ride in the back of a truck...

Truly, we were in the back of a truck.  And we were perfectly okay with it!

 Naadam Day Two: Khuushuur at noon, a far more reasonable hour.

 Men flicking Shagai.

 Men shooting Shagai.

 Wrestling!

 Saluting/showing respect.

 This is my favorite of the Three Manly Sports!

 Last but not least, archery.

 Guess he hit the target!

 After spending the day at the stadium, we headed to the Fake Lake to relax.  Lauren (yellow) and Ashely (blue) arrived from UB in time for Day Two.

 This is Oyunga, the neighbor girl who loves Bams.

 And loves squirting herself in the face apparently.  :)

 We were a little bored so we decided to take pictures with our Zodiac signs.  I'm a rat.

 Then we just starting taking random photos.  Puppy love!

 After the fake lake we stopped into the square for cotton candy.  Yum!

We decided to skip Naadam Day Three (cuz really, how much wrestling and archery can one watch!?) and instead spend the day at the river.  As Ellen is a tourist, I had to get her in the river!

It was a fun three days and I'm glad to have seen what a city Naadam can be like.  Pretty sure I'll seek out a Naadam celebration in the States next summer and rock my deel too!