That just happened...

This afternoon I told Oyunga and Tsagaankhuu (the neighbor kids) that I'm leaving. They've been knocking on my door all night saying goodbye repeatedly. Then, just now, Oyunga knocked, waved for me to come closer, kissed me on the cheek & gave me a big hug. And now I'm sitting here crying. :')

Tsagaankhuu

Oyunga

Another goodbye and another competition

Had a really hard goodbye on Wednesday: my TOEFL class.  These ladies are motivated, dedicated, and so brave.  While the vast majority of the people who showed up on day one (literally 6 times as many as I ended with) gave up and quit, these women stuck with it and gave it their all.  I am so proud of them for not giving up, even when the material was difficult or the topic above their ability level.  They were fearless in their skill building, always asking questions and even asked me to extend the class hours/hold extra classes (which I gladly did!).  It is truly indescribable, my time with these women, as their level of commitment is a rare thing indeed.  I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them.  After our last class on Wednesday, I surprised them by having them over to my apartment for wine and (homemade) dessert.  They in turn surprised me with a snuff bottle (truly an amazing gift) then treated me to dinner and karaoke.  I definitely teared up more than once in the course of the evening!

 Nemekhee, Zoloo, me, Zaya, Saraa and Bolormaa

Hugs all around!

Then today I judged a 5th grade English competition.  In case you've forgotten, competitions are a BIG deal here and happen ALL. THE. TIME.  This was for the regular (not skipped/advanced) 5th grade classes, so there were only 3 participating.  Each of the three classes had 10 students on their team.  Because the new 5th grade curriculum doesn't include reading & writing (don't get me started on that!), nearly every challenge was singing or listening.  The one writing task they did perform was hilarious because the question was asked in English but because they can't write in English, they wrote the answer in Mongolian.  But the kids were super cute and everyone got a certificate, so all's well that ends well (right?).

 "Whiteboard" for the question/write answers task = paper covered in packing tape.  Baby wipes erase it.  Seriously! I've made so many of those...

It was the "Happy Alphabet" competition!  :)

Tonight I'm off to my last Friday night weekly dinner with all the PCVs and VSO.  I chose to go to the same place I went for my very first dinner out with the gang because somehow it just seemed fitting.  One week to go...

Counting down...

Thank you again to everyone who has sent sympathies and condolences my way.  The loss of my Bams is still very raw (in fact it's the reason I'm still awake and writing this post); she's never far from my thoughts and I miss her every day, most especially at night.  What I wouldn't give to "boop" her cold, wet nose just one more time...But my days have been filled with both the usual work & additional preparations to leave C-town, and my wonderful sitemates have been amazing, keeping my evenings filled too.  I welcome the distractions.

So here's what I've been up to:

 I had a dinner with Bujin of LEOS to say goodbye (and introduce her to Andi, a 1st year volunteer), which lead to an invitation to lunch that weekend.  So here I'm saying goodbye over said lunch with some of the women heading up the new secondhand store (to which I donated many items).  The store will help fund her women's empowerment programs.

She gave me a nice Mongolian picture and Mongol boot.  Really gonna miss her tireless passion.

 I also made a visit to the new APDC facility.  Here Munkhzul is explaining some of the classroom activities.

 Some of the new equipment.  They have all manner of therapy and diagnostic tools now.

Thought this was goodbye, but it resulted in making plans to get together the following weekend at my house.

 At my apartment this weekend.  They are presenting me with wine and a cross stitch hand-made by a mentor parent (someone who has a disabled child and volunteers to support other parents with a disabled child).

Love these ladies so much!

 School's been busy too.  The aimag English Olympiad had even more drama than usual this year.  :(  And General Exam prep is in full swing. Here, I'm reading words for a Spelling Bee at my school.

 9th, 10th and 11th graders participated.

The 1st and 2nd place winners along with my CP Jagga who coordinated the whole thing.

 On Friday in my final (aahh!) 5th grade English Club we made paper chains.

 They're going to have an Olympiad-style competition next week and I move the following Friday so this was our last lesson.  I wanted to do something new and fun for it.

Each link had a letter of the alphabet and corresponding vocab word which they then had to sting together in alphabetical order.  Learning English is soooooo much more fun when it involves crafts!  It was super cute hearing them sing the alphabet in parts over and over, making sure their chain was correct. <3  Sure gonna miss these kiddos!

Have a couple more goodbyes to say in the next 12 (omg!) days, and a few more things to wrap up before embarking on the next phase of my service.  Really excited for our COS conference, see my cohort all together one last time, and to get to Darkhan & start PST.  But for now, it's one day at a time. 

A Sad Update

I am heartbroken. When I came home from work yesterday I found Bambuul had passed away.  I will always remember what a happy dog she was, and I hope she knew just how much I loved her.  Last night was very difficult, trying to go to sleep without her snuggled beside me.  And this morning I felt so "off" without Bammers; there's an uneasy stillness in the apartment that has kept me in tears. Thank you family and friends for your sympathies. I am overwhelmed by the flood of messages, comments, text, calls and emails I've received in the last 24 hours.  I have taken great comfort in your words, and your support will get me though this. Thank you. And if you're a fur baby parent, snuggle them close an extra time today/tonight!

Rest in peace my sweet little monkey.

Summer Plans

As some of you may have heard, on the 19th I was offered the Deputy Training Manager position for Pre-Service Training in Darkhan this summer.  This position works in partnership with the training staff to finalize training materials then manage (and facilitate when necessary) the entire summer's training for the new class of volunteers.  It is not a position that we, volunteers, apply for.  I heard through the grapevine that my regional bosses Bayar & Khaliunaa and my friend Zoloo suggested me to Saraa and the training staff.  I was very honored!  And because this is such an honor, on the 21st I accepted the offer!  It will sadly mean moving out of Choibalsan in about a month (instead of sometime in June or July) to get started, but I'm ready for this challenge.  Saying goodbye to friends and co-workers here all that much sooner will certainly be difficult, but they understand what an exciting and impactful opportunity this is.  :)

Care Package Woes

So we really don't know if this new law is for individual (illegal) importers importing large quantities for resale or if a humble volunteer's care package will also be subject to this law. Either way, not worth the risk (I would be beyond depressed to have to destroy peanut butter). Big thanks to those that have sent something in the past, it was great while it lasted! 

Link

Khovsgol Lake Ice Festival

Well, the Saint Paul Winter Carnival it wasn't, but it sure was a heck of a lot of fun.  I was so happy to be able to have the opportunity to go to the Khovsgol Ice Festival, one of the items on my "Mongol Bucket List."  I was able to do a bit of work on the trip too, and take a meeting about a possible summer project up in the Russian border with the reindeer herders.

The route. Purple line = dirt road, pink line = paved road.  Khovsgol is the name of the aimag as well as the lake.  It's "capital" is Murun, like Dornod's capital is C-town.  It's typically 14 hours from C-town to UB, 18 hours from UB to Murun, then 90 minutes from Murun to Hatgal soum (village).  One way.  I was on a mini-bus for three of the long legs, and an actual bus (think Greyhound) for the leg from Murun to UB.  We rented a meeker for all of us for the round-trip Murun to Hatgal and also for transportation around Hatgal.  There is a definite hierarchy in Mongol ground transportation: bus then mini-bus then meeker/portagon.  It's amazing what half an inch of extra knee space (bus v mini-bus) and a seat to yourself (bus & mini-bus v portagon/meeker) will do for your level of comfort.

 Mini-bus to Murun packed to the roof!

 Apples, oranges, grapes, lemons, kiwis and bananas in the aisle.

 Me and Corey.

 

Brittany and her CP up front.

Oh hey Jerry!

 Wrestling Palace in Murun.

 Jeff's ger in Murun.  I slept in there for three nights. 

Jeff and Gennie rolling out the tortillas for fajita night.

 Gracie frying the tortillas and sauteing the veggies.

 I chopped all the veggies and meat.

 The crew enjoying the fajitas the night before we left for Hatgal soum.

 In the morning, heading to our meeker to get up to Hatgal soum and Khovsgol Lake.

 The "guesthouse" gers we slept in.

 Smile and say "Not cramped!"  

 

Guesthouse on the lake and Sukhbaatar ship in the distance.

 Driving to the festival, passing the Sukhbaatar, frozen into the lake.

How the "road" is marked on the lake.

 

Ice Road Truckers has nothing on this!

 Looks like Lake Superior!

 Panoramic as we walked toward the festival.

 

 The lake is so clear you can see the rocks on the bottom!

 

Slightly deeper water...

 

Even deeper water.  Love the color changes.

 

Coffee shop on the ice.  Aw yeah.

 Watching the skaters.

 

Think that guy is a winner.

 Ice slide!

 

Weeeeeeeee!

 

 Horse-drawn ice sleighs.  The horses are shod with shoes that have spikes on them to grip the ice.

 Some of the guys getting a ride.

 

Hi!

 It was such a thrill.

 After the ride.

 Ice Wrestler.

 Ice Chinggis?

 

Ice Skier.

 Ice Sukhbaatar.

 Ice Reindeer & Sleigh.

 Hello frozen lake!

 Could barely see the other shore.  Khovsgol Lake is long and narrow, 84.5 miles long and 22.7 miles at its widest.

 Hill with an ovoo.

 Heading up!

 Panoramic view from the top.

 

Don't look down!

 View of the festival from the top.

 People walking to the ovoo.

 

Making offerings at the ovoo.

 The gang that went up.

 People bowing to the ovoo from the lake.

 

Awesome ice formations on the back side of the hill.

 

 The whole group.

 

Getting ready to "shoot" Gracie...

 ...Then they all fell down.

 Fish khhuushuur ger.

 Frying the khuushuur.

 So delicious!

 

Usually it's the opposite...

 Someone made an Inuksuk!  Probably the Canadian Ambassador or his peeps... (The US Ambassador was there too; she treated us to dinner on Monday back in Murun.)

 Huge bonfire on Saturday night.

 Naadam wrestling on the ice.

 The shopping.

 Now that's an ugly fish.

 These smoked whitefish reportedly came from White Lake as it's illegal to fish Khovsgol Lake.

 Checking her feet for spikes before the tug-of-war.

 

Ready...

 Pull!

 Horse-drawn sled race.

 Look into the ice, find your soul.

 Reindeer!

 So many events the two days: ice soccer, ice golf, ice "strong man" competition, reindeer races, singing competition, opening & closing ceremonies...We saw a lot, but we missed a lot too.

 

The sign.

 Because there were so many of us in the meeker, the driver was risking a ticket so about 100 yards away he dropped half of us off before entering, then when leaving about half of us walked until we were out of sight.

 The awesome shoreline as we were walking.

 MOM!  DAD!  I found your "Cabin on the Lake" here in Mongolia!

 We stopped at the Sukhbaatar on Sunday as we left the festival.

 There were other, smaller, ships frozen into the lake.

  The next however-many photos are of random people in deels.  I've got a little deel crazy this winter.  Just love 'em!

 My ride from UB to C-town was simultaneously the best and worst ride of my time here.  There were 11 open seats on my mini-bus, including the one next to me (the whole time!).  However, my mini-bus broke down six times and the mini-bus we were caravaning with broke down three times.  This delayed us by 5, FIVE, hours, for a total drive time of 19 hours.  Uuuuuuuugh.

 The good thing about caravaning is safety.  If one bus/mini-bus/meeker/portagon dies, we can all pile into the other and get to shelter.

 The last of the mountains overlooking the steppe as we headed East.

My awesome souvenirs: two felted reindeer, a hand-carved horse spoon (to go with my Welsh Love Spoon) and my snazzy reindeer wool knee-high socks.   On day two of the fest I negotiated the prices down (from ridiculous tourist prices to only slightly escalated prices) using my exceptional (ha!) Mongolian language abilities...and logic.  Selling them is better than packing them up, right!?

So all-in-all it was tough travel and tough accommodations, but none of it was so bad that I wouldn't do it again.  And knowing Bams was well cared for by my sitemate and her dog was a comfort. :)