In the spirit of giving...

Exciting news 'round these parts!  I found out that one of the organizations I do side-project work at is one of three finalists for a major grant.  About a month ago (through the grape vine) I heard about a program at the University of Texas-Austin that presents projects in underserved communities to investors/sponsors to fund. These companies pledge to give money to the project of their choice and the project with the most interested donors then gets the money for that summer's build season.  UT also provides the labor for these projects once it's time to build.  LEOS, the organization I taught English classes at this summer and did the Women's Empowerment Seminar for in July, has been trying to get a women's shelter built for the last 3-ish years.  Currently there are NO shelters in Choibalsan or Dornod for women and their child/ren to escape domestic violence, and there is no permanent place to implement programming for women who, after leaving, need the skills for financial independence.  I gathered up all the info I could from Bujin, the director of the Dornod LEOS branch, and sent the project info to the coordinators at UT.  They LOVED the idea and on Monday chose this project (along with two others in UB) to present to their board.  After a Skype conference this morning to hash out the last of the details, the UT staff will be sending the projects to the donors in the next four to six weeks, which means we now agonizingly wait to hear if the shelter made the cut and will be funded.  Keep your fingers, toes, eyes, everything crossed for us!

Another wonderful happening here in Choibalsan is courtesy of my sitemate Koty.  She visits Anna Home orphanage every week, teaching English and Life Skills to the kids through songs, games, sports, etc.  She heard that Friends of Mongolia was seeking organizations to sponsor this holiday season, so she submitted Anna Home.  And they were chosen!  They are asking for donations of gently used clothing & toys, and some new personal care items & school supplies.  You can find more information, including the Arlington, VA mailing address, here.  Please consider making a donation if you can, and be sure to include a note in the box as to how you heard of this.

A Mundane Update

Woah, where did the last 6 weeks go!?  The good news is that in only 3 weeks it's the first school break.  BREAK!!  I could use a break...So busy!  No time for fun hudoo trips or other shenanigans, but here are a few highlights:


Weds, Oct 3: Found this little girl outside my building.  Called sitemate Sarah, who instantly fell in love and took her home.  Bambuul has a new playmate!

Friday, October 5: Said goodbye to Raj & Jyothi, C-town's VSO volunteers from India.  They aren't really gone yet, just moved to UB to wrap up a project.  VSO is done in Mongolia so current volunteers are being given the option to extend and finish up any existing projects.

Sunday, Oct 7: Nemekhee had me over and made dinner.  Shared wonderful conversation over our mutual favorite Mongol khool: tsuivan.  Nummers!

Friday, Oct 12: Usual expat dinner, but with the addition of C-town's newly reassigned VSO volunteer Liz.  She's a health care specialist from Scotland.  Excited to get to know her, maybe do some sexual health and domestic violence projects together...???  Also, FIRST SNOWFLAKES of the season.  The afternoon's rain turned over to big flakes in the evening.  Luckily, they all melted on impact and it hasn't snowed again...Yet.  :(

Saturday, Oct 13: C-town's first ever Chopped Challenge.  If you're not familiar with the tv show, basically you get 5 random ingredients and have to make one dish incorporating all of them.  As it was Koty's idea, she hosted and chose tubers, flour, a protein, chocolate and vodka as our first challenge ingredients.  Gotta say, all the participants made pretty good stuff!  I made chocolate chip potato pancakes (used all 5 ingredients in the batter) with a raspberry vodka sauce, but Koty's chicken chowder took the prize.  As I am not at all a competitive person, I have zero motivation to try again.  ;)

Sunday, Oct 14: Urgoo had Koty and me over for lunch.  He made a delicious spicy Korean chicken soup and a Chinese fried beef with garlic shoots main dish.  It was so, SO good!  Afterwards I had to take the dog for a long walk around the river, burn it all off.  On the way back home, we stopped into a fenced-in area next to the Mormon church. I took her off leash and threw the tennis ball for a bit.  She did really well with returning the ball and the "Come!" command.  I think that may be our new winter workout spot.

So that's about it.  Nothing too exciting, but pockets of fun none the less.  Looking forward to school break then Thanksgiving in UB.  Can't believe how fast the time is going!  Only 8 more months...

A different kind of anniversary

One year ago today a sweet little brunette with lanky legs and enormous ears came home with me. She's my cuddle monkey and my confidant.  She's my safeguard and my sidekick.  She's my Mongol mutt, my Bambuul.  <3 

Hiking Weekend

The weather was beautiful this weekend so I decided to take advantage of it while it lasts.  Koty, Bambuul and I went for a three hour hike yesterday, and Koty, Andrea, Bambuul and I went for a four hour hike today.


Saturday:

 The Men's Ovoo on a sunny day.

 Looking back at the city from the ovoo.

 Cemetery gates.

Inside yet another WWII cemetery/memorial.

 Plaque that's supposed to be where that light spot is in the photo above.

 Me and my monkey.  <3

 Kinda sad the picture is shot up.

These kids found us and immediately latched onto Koty.  She was like the Pied Piper, only without pied clothing and a flute to lead the children from the city...So maybe not exactly like the Pied Piper...

Sunday:

 The hudoo is so brown.  :(

 There's the mine!

 We stopped for lunch just outside the "city limits." (Choibalsan's soum name is Kherlen.)

 Look at my pretty girl!  Today's our one-year anniversary.  D'aaawww!

 Smile with your mouth full!

 Nom nom nom!

Headin' back into the city.

BTS

It's that magical maddening time of year: Back To School.  This means two cups of coffee every morning and bed before 10.  And still, I am exhausted.  I think part of it is the realization that I only have 9 or so months left here and I need to cram in as much as possible before I leave.  The other part is just the insanity of a new school year; Everyone's excited and motivated, a level of enthusiasm that will soon fade and my work load will drop by, oh, half.  But for now, I need a venti with an extra shot to go!

Right now my schedule is a madhouse of classes and side projects.  I still have to fit in my APDC and LEOS meetings, but currently I have 10 classes at school on all 5 school days, Access classes M&W, Skill Building (fka TOEFL) class on Wednesday afternoons, a new class for community members with low/no English on Friday afternoons, Film Club on the 1st & 3rd Sundays, and my favorite (shhhhh!): volleyball MT&F afternoons.  I'm not playing volleyball with my school this year, so instead I just wrapped up coaching the national (teen) girls team at the aimag's Sports Center.  The girls are in the Gobi competing this weekend (good luck!).  The sports center's director, Chimeddorj, and the volleyball coach, Tomood, asked me to play on the adult national team when they get back.  So, SO excited for that!  Keeping my fingers crossed I actually get to play when the competition rolls around (it's pretty obvious I'm NOT Mongolian), not just practice with them.  But either way, it will be super fun just to be on the court with them. 

 See Mom, I'm wearing knee pads!

 Showing the girls how to stay low when transitioning to dig a hit.  They totally understood.

 Of course, the harder we work, the harder we play!  Havin' a beer at my place before heading out to a dance club.

 The HUGE farmers' market in the square a couple weekends ago.  I went a little veggie & squash crazy.

 They even had a snazzy sign!

 This poor guy (gal?) turned out to be my upstairs neighbors' dinner (that's my laundry drying on my porch).  It was entertaining watching them struggle up the stairs with it.

 And I'm not so busy that I can't get Bams out for a walk, enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

 So pretty walking through the trees. 

The Land of Blue Sky and Autumn leaves.

Another Working Vacay

Sorry for the silence.  I was on a working vacay nearly all of August and just now am getting caught up on all I left behind (including puppy snuggles!).  Here's the latest photo evidence:

 I flew into UB on Friday, Aug 10 and got to Darkhan on Sun Aug 12.  It was good to see my friends who are scattered about the country!

Not sure what it is about toasty marshmallows, but they give me crazy eyes!

 For site announcements on Monday, I made a sign welcoming the M23s who would be joining us in Dornod/Choibalsan.  

 I remember the feelings of fear, nervousness and excitement as I stood over the map, waiting to hear my fate, one year ago.

 We got three new sitemates, Andrea, Sarah and Jeremy.

 Stephanie took a very close picture of my face that afternoon.

I did a training on Monday evening, then helped with site dinners on Tuesday.  The rest of the week I wrapped up some work I had been neglecting all summer in preparation for the upcoming school year. Friday afternoon was Swearing-In.  It was interesting watching it through one-year older, maybe a little bit wiser (?), eyes.

 Me with my new sitemate Andrea at Swearing-In.

 Me with my new sitemate Sarah at Swearing-In.

 Me with my new sitemate Jeremy at Swearing-In.

 Me and Gwen, my "hashaa sister," at Swearing-In.

 Chuka, Gwen, Me and Eej after Swearing-In.

 Before I left Darkhan on Friday afternoon (headed to UB for the big M23 welcoming party), Patrick snapped this shot of me dispensing some wisdom (?) to a newly minted volunteer.

PC rents out a bar/club for a big welcoming party for the new class of volunteers.  This is mostly for safety reasons, but also a great chance for many of the new volunteers to meet and hang out with the older classes before heading to site and getting to work.

Since UB is a money pit and my tugs go fast, I decided to take advantage of my extended time there and do some of the free or cheap touristy things I haven't yet had a chance to do.  First up was a long anticipated trip to the Museum of Natural History. 

 This is Tarbosaurus baatar.  Yep, he has a Mongol name cuz he's only found here and in the border area with China.  

 Couldn't take pictures in the dino hall, but Google Images to the rescue!

 This was definitely my favorite part of the museum.

 While one is permitted to take photos in the rest of the museum, it costs extra so I covertly took this picture of a stuffed loon and greebe.  Wonder how they got from MN to MN!?

 That evening we celebrated Caitlin's birthday at a French restaurant.  Hello spendy!  I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu so I could splurge on a bottle of imported French wine.  Worth.  Every. Tug.

 Then on Tuesday I got my Mongol tattoo.  I'd been wanting a tattoo to commemorate this experience for awhile and had been working on the design for some time.

 Ara lived in NYC and has been tattooing for over a decade.  He was great about maintaining sterile standards and talking me through the process.

 The finished product.  It says "Peace Corps Mongolia" in Mongolian language, written in the traditional Mongol script.

After completing my annual medical and dental (the whole reason I was in UB on the 20th & 21st), all us M22s headed south of UB to Terelj, the same beautiful park where we had IST.  The difference this time was...dun dun dun...we stayed in gers instead of the hotel!

 On Wednesday night we were allowed to take over the kitchen and make a Mexican buffet dinner.  It was great!  We even did a "Mexican Tsagaan Sar" before dinner, going ger to ger sampling different salsas or dips each ger group made (we made fruit salsa; yum!).

 Of course I had to taste it before serving!

 Here I am, sitting in a session, serious faced and ready to learn.

After three days of sessions (and even a 6am volleyball game!), it was time to head back to UB.  I was going to be staying through Tuesday as I had another training to conduct, but most of my friends left on Saturday or Sunday. 

 There was still one (free!) toursity thing I wanted to do, so Bryce and I grabbed the city bus on Saturday (25th) and headed to Zaisan, a monument dedicated to Mongolian-Russian friendship.  Yep, we climbed up there!

 Oh look, another tank. 

 Very serious looking military dudes.

 View of UB from about half-way up.

 Hello pollution.

 Keep climbing!

 Raise that power fist!

 Tiled mosaic inside the ring.

 Me and Bryce, at Zaisan with the UB sprawl behind us.

 So much development.

 There was an ovoo behind the monument.

 Love the stratigraphy on the craggy rocks.

 As we were walking to the next touristy spot, we stumbled on this park.  Basically, Dr. Lee started a hospital in UB, got some Rubles into Korea which helped thwart the Japanese, then was executed by a Russian at the age of 38.

 It was a very pretty, calm space within the city.

 A cool pavilion...

 ...Marred by the ever-present vodka.  :(

 Then we got to the giant golden Buddha.

 Bell on the grounds.

 Drum on the grounds.

On Monday I finished up the last of the trainings and got my things together to fly out on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, there weren't enough people booked on my flight so they cancelled it :( but luckily I was able to get out on Wednesday (29th) afternoon.

I got back with barely any time to spare before school started.  The first day of school is always Sept 1, but because that fell on a Saturday this year, only the Opening Ceremonies were conducted.  The first actual classes happened today (Monday Sept 3rd).

So here I am, in my office, waiting for a meeting to figure out my schedule for the academic year.  Since I teach the clubs and extra lessons, my lessons won't start for about another week, but I'll have all the prep work to get started on.  So here's to Year Two; let's do this!