The art of layering and the Mongolian shuffle and slide

Once again, time has flown by and it's been far too long since i've posted. I blame this mostly on an incident I'm embarassed to admit, which involves an uncapped water bottle and my computer. I'm sure you can only imagine. That was over a month ago, and now i'm in the process of dealing with my insurance to send it to the states for repair. Unfortunatly, even in our capital city mac repairmen are limited to about 2, of whom, know nothing about macs.

I've decided i'd finally take the time on one of my work computers to update ya'll, so please forgive me of my errors, as little editing will have occured.

All is great with me and i've fallen in love with my little city. Work is constantly a rollercoaster as are certain days and even throughout a day. Living in a land with such a foreign culture and language keeps me forever on my toes, or sometimes makes me hide away for a breather. In these past two months i've been lucky to experience a few more mongolian events of which I will share.

I crashed a wedding, well, my CP's (counterparts/co-workers) made it mandatory for me to attend the reception of a former administration employee at my hospital, whom I had never met. I soon became the bell of the ball, as the father of the bride prided my mongolian singing abilities and showered me with vodka shots. I mongolian waltzed with both men and women, and then danced the night away.

I attended a female pop concert (we have a very nice, traditional russian opera hall in town), at which during the intermission, lucky seat numbers, one being me, had to go up on stage. I was the only non-mongolian at the venue and got a surprising round of applause. On my walk back to my seat I had to shake every persons hand. My CP thought this was hilarious, I was bright red.I did win a fancy pen and notebook.

The director of my hospital took me out to brand new foals from his two herds of racehorses. This first consisted of a 2 hour drive in the steppe looking for the herds, which roam free, lots of vodka shots, aiirag (horse milk), and then the acutal branding session where 14 new foals were wrestled to the ground and burned with the metal branding stamp. After the process, they dipped the branding stamp into aiirag and we all had to drink the milk for good luck, and finish the third bottle of vodka before heading home. Luckily, my director doesn't drink, but that certaintly didn't exclude me.

The search crew

The branding corral.

The director of my hospital, Battuvshin and me with the branding stamp.

Dipping the stamp in Aiirag

At the hospital within these past two months I have continued to teach english, I started a beginners yoga class, and did several classes at schools on Alcohol awareness and STI/HIV/AIDS awareness. I also organized a healthy foods fair with our health department, in which a restaurant made corn dogs, ehhh, not sure the healthy foods concept was fully understood. I have helped schedule community blood pressure and blood glucose screenings and organized a two day training at our soum hospital (little city outside our big city) and a three day training for the nurses at our hospital, in which another peace corps volunteer, an RN came and had sessions on post-stroke care, diabetic care, patient transfers, pre-natal care, nursing ethics, etc. I feel that within this short time my hospital has been very open to my ideas, and to working with me, but I need to focus more on the hospital and employee's needs. Luckily, our IST came right at the perfect time for me.

Last week all the non-TEFL volunteers (non- teaching english as a foreign language volunteers), which includes us health, business and community youth development volunteers had IST (In-service training) at a hotel outside of Ulan Batar. We all brought one of our counterparts (co-workers) and had a week-long training by Peace Corps on how to better work with our counterparts, and within our HCA (host country agency - the places where we work), and give our counterparts a better understanding of the peace corps and what our goals are as peace corps volunteers. Sessions included capacity building, cultural differences, project design and management, needs assessments and resources, behavior change, proposal writing, etc. It was a great experience and motivated my CP to work more with me. We tossed around several projects ideas that we plan to work on in the next year and I now have a more detailed work plan that follows better with needs of my hospital and needs of our employees. As these project move in to motion i'll update you about them.

Before I get too wordy, I want to touch on the title of this post: the art of layering and the mongolian shuffle and slide. As you may have guessed, a major hurdle about living in Mongolia is learning how to function in -10F+ degree weather. In that, a major aspect of adjusting is learning how to correctly layer. Now, I haven't experienced our extreemes yet, and have no way mastered this art but, have found that in -10F one pair of smartwool socks, one layer of tights, silk leggings and polarfleece leggings under a sweater dress with another sweater over it, a small jacket, my ski jacket, a hat, scarf, faux fur-lined boots, and polarfleece gloves seem to do the trick on keeping me warm on my 30 min trek to work. Many mongolian's break out their winter deel's wich are fur lined. Almost everyone has at least something with fur on it, hats are most common.

This trek involves a little adjustment to my normal walking pattern. I've observed mongolians thoroughly and have found there are two main forms of treking over the snow and mainly ice covered sidewalks. These include the shuffle and slide. The shuffle, which is by far the most popular, and safer form, consists of the typical shuffle movement where your foot doesn't come completely off the ground and is placed directly in front of the other foot. This limits space for error and chance that you feet will suddenly try to split on you. Trying to get anywhere this way takes twice as long.

The slide, most commonly attempted by children and young bachelors consists of a few forward motion steps followed by a sliding action on the ice. This doesn't work well for me.

The sliding track

I hope to soon follow this post with pictures!

Hope all is well and Happy Holidays!

xoxo,
Gracie

I suppose it's high time for an update.

Here’s the city sign as you enter Erdenet, which is about 5K before the city – my site mates and I took a cab out, and hiked back which took about 2hrs, it was a beautiful day! (One in a car can drive through our “downtown” in about 10 mins. It’s further for me to walk from my apartment on the south side of town to my hospital on the north side than it is to walk through our “downtown”)

This last month has flown by for me as I have been exploring my new city, meeting my Peace Corps site mates, my counterparts, and trying to define my role at the hospital, which has been the greatest challenge of all. I have certainly shown my face throughout the hospital, from tea breaks, painting the entranceway fence, attempting to organize medical books, meetings, impromptu visits to see a woman after she had given birth and a thromboectomy, to having shots of sangria in an office to celebrate my supervisors birthday. I have yet to get in any routine as each day brings something new.

Painting outside the hospital:

This week we have a disaster preparedness training drill. My supervisor and counterparts are dressed in camo like the Mongolian army. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get my own get-up, my hopes are high for next year though.

Anyway, this year, they are supposed to be preparing to deal with an earthquake (Mongolia has so many earthquakes… : / ?) and if potentially our hospital became an unsafe place to be, how would we handle the situation. (I think there are about 30 organizations involved in this preparedness drill) Tents were supposed to be set up as a mock hospital today.

 but,

Last night, we got about a foot of snow. The tents are old, so now they're trying to get a hold of some ger’s, yet, nothing has happened. Already i'm seeing a lack in preparedness and organization…. i'm sure my supervisor and cp's are prepared as they have "disaster preparedness backpacks" with flashlights, blankets, water, and thermoses. 

A couple weekends ago I went to the hudoo "countryside" to harvest potatoes and carrots. I now have more potatoes and carrots than I know what to do with.

Tomorrow is the actual “disaster” day and some head of some disaster preparedness organization from UB (the capital) is coming to evaluate the operation. Still, many involved in this drill are confused as to what is actually going on, what their role is, and they have yet to determine where and how we will actually set up our mock hospital.

Tomorrow will be quite interesting. I’ll get back to you on how it goes.

Most days I spend tagging alongside my supervisor like an excited puppy, always wagging my tail and interested to learn. However, as I get introduced to head doctors, nurses and other potential counterparts whom I may work with in the future, and a multitude of questions in Mongolian get asked, a blank confused look encompasses my face. Many times I get left to chat with one of these doctors or nurses, who know little to no English, and after a failed attempt to be productive and figure out the needs and wants of their particular unit, the conversations generally becomes about me (luckily something I can actually converse about in Mongolian); why I’m living alone, do I drink vodka, do I have kids, am I married, can they set me up on a date with their son. At this point it may turn a little awkward when I reject.

Nonetheless, I feel welcomed here. But, getting people to actually sit down and plan something rarely happens or what was planned is seldom followed through. It's frustrating to say the least.

Last week, I thought the nurse coordinator and my supervisor (external affairs manager) and I had organized nurses to do screenings at the mine, market, and outside the sports complex. I was very excited, and got materials (brochures) together to hand out to those who got screened. Somehow, we ended up just doing screenings at the hospital in the outpatient ward….

I have briefly met with the Public Health Director at the Health Department and learned that they have many ongoing health promotion programs, as they frequently get grants from MCA (Millennium challenge Account – US funding), World Vision, and World Health Organization etc. They are interested in working with the Hospital and me to get fresh ideas, and extend their outreach. We are hoping to collaborate with them on an Alcohol Awareness project next month.

As I may have mentioned before, alcohol abuse is a huge issue. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t see at least one man past out on the sidewalk. I have to avoid fights and drunken men stammering around regularly. Parties with counterparts are like frat parties, where shots are taken until people pass out, and if your not ringing enough you get another shot and beer shoved in your face. Even women with babies will take shot after shot, and then breastfeed. It’s frustrating and saddening to see this daily, and I want to work on educating our community so that children don’t continue to follow this trend.

Finally, I have started my English classes and as of now I’m teaching twice a week. It’s a challenge creating my own lesson plans, as I have no formal training in teaching, but Peace Corps does provide us with some resources. Student books are needed but I think our current volunteers are working on that. I believe I have about 30 students, but each class varies.

I'm doing well, as I mentioned before this little city surprises me daily. I actually found frozen shrimp and salmon in a hidden delgur (small grocery store),  and got a little too excited and my mind wandered to all the delicious meals I could make. Though I was afraid to look at the price.

We also hava a hot dog stand in our "central park":

That’s about it folks, let me know if you have questions. Miss you all and hope all are well! 

Gracie 

Home sweet Erdenet

As most of you have heard through the grapevine or through facebook, I have officially sworn in as a volunteer and have been placed in the bustling mining city Erdenet, which is surprisingly very organized. There are tree lined sidewalks (many that need repair), two parks, one with two water fountains, and a children’s park which has several circular fair-like rides and a mini Ferris wheel. We have the biggest Buddhist statue in Mongolia and a white stone friendship statue, where two hands are holding up a ring of the emblems of sister cities. 

Across the street from my apartment there is a small ski resort, just bunny hills though. And I think they will be perfect for sledding down in my bath tunpen, which I don’t have to use anymore because I have hot water and shower! My apartment is on the second floor in the corner of this complex.

There is a sports center, which has a small swimming pool, workout equipment, table tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, and a sauna. We have a cultural center that has a small art gallery, many restaurants, bars, discos, and several shopping centers. (Though they really only have fake goods imported from China). I can get pizza delivered to my door, drink good wine and have the Internet at my fingertips. 

I work at the Regional Diagnostic and Treatment Center of Orkhon Aimag and will be promoting public health, teaching English, grant writing, capacity building, and whatever else I can get myself involved in. I have been doing a lot of planning these first two weeks and hope that I will be able to start implementing things next month. I do plan to start teaching English for the doctors, nurses and other staff at my hospital next week. 

Below is on the first saturday I arrived and my hospital was doing free diabetes screening. (on the left) This is just outside the local sports complex.

My apartment needed a little help when I first moved here, and I stayed with another PCV for a week, but after several plumbers, painters, electricians and some nice furniture additions it has become very cozy. It’s a one bedroom with a kitchen, bath and balcony. I think after a little more decorating it will feel like home.

I definitely didn’t picture my Peace Corps placement to be in such a progressive little city and am surprised at the resources my hospital has, although there is still much I can do. I am am thrilled get to work with many international organizations, and already have a meeting with WHO (World Health Organization) with my supervisor to help bring more trainings, particularly on midwifery, to our hospital.

Hope all is well back in the States, and those on the the east coast didn't get hit to hard by earthquakes and hurricanes.

Swearing in photos

At the Darhan Theater with Lisa Powers, training Coordinator, US Ambassador John Addleton and my host country director Ellen Paquette

The stage I swore in on!

Practicum Reflection: it’s like hurdling a Bactrian camel, once you overcome one hump, there’s always another.

I have a love-hate relationship with cultural immersion. Learning to deal with the simple tasks, which become almost impassable mountains, are difficult. It took me almost a month to complete a simple cardiovascular disease info brochure. Here’s the somewhat short version of my last 8 weeks.

My counterpart – a cardiologist name Urnaa was quite the character and is an extremely sweet lady. She is in her fifties and always has immaculate blue and purple eye shadow to match her purple scrubs and cap. When she takes her cap off she has bright red highlights in her striking black hair. She is a wonderful singer and says her hobbies are dinking lots of wine (jokingly). She has two children and her husband passed away in 2008 – I’m not sure of what.

I first met Urnaa during a “Networking” technical training session on one of our first visits to the hospital. We were there to interview health professionals on the health status of Mongolians. At this point she wasn’t aware that Peace Corps volunteers were working at the hospital for the next 8 weeks.

My assigned counterpart for my practicum had hinted that she was too busy to work with me and due to one of my requirements during training being to work with a counterpart on a health related issue I made the decision to seek out Urnaa. She had mentioned during that first interview that health information materials was something she needed, and something I knew I could help create with her.

In one night I created a simple informative Heart Disease Brochure. I showed it to Urnaa the next day I was available to work at the hospital and she was thrilled to work with me. The next two weeks I met with her with the intention to translate the brochure into Mongolian. We would maybe translate a word or two before she would start showing me pictures, her PowerPoint’s in English and Mongolian, teaching me how to read an ECHO, drink coffee, or I would sit at her desk as she assessed or tested patients.

I finally realized after 3 weeks that I would need to resort to another resource to get this brochure translated. I went to another Peace Corps volunteers’ counterpart who had translated his brochure and she translated it in one day, but then the next day I had to work with her intern to get her translation on paper into word format. Then of course, my computer couldn’t read the file, so I had to re-translate it on my computer so that I could edit again the translation with Urnaa.

Finally, I tried to sit Urnaa down to finish correcting and edit the translation to her liking. After three patients, two emails sent, lunch, and chatting with another doctor – we finished – in about three hours. (and an hour and a half into my afternoon technical session)

Then my Mongolian technical trainer looked at the brochure in class and changed more of the translation. Finally it was finished.

I wrote out my budget to PC, got the stamp approval from the hospital and received 20,000T to print 100 copies.

I then went back to PC Andrew’s counterpart to call the guy she knew at the printing shop so that we would get a good deal, and not get ripped off.

I went to the printing shop, but they didn’t have any paper, so I had to go down the street – count out one hundred pieces of white paper and returned to the shop to wait an hour and a half for the brochures to complete printing.

They are now completed and my hopes are that patients will read them, learn, and then turn them into fire fuel, rather than the other way around, which is also very likely.

My favorite parts about this whole process are the broken conversations in which flirting, drinking, partying and secret lovers took place. Mongolia, this has been quite an experience thus far.

Things I have learned:

Time is relative. Being late, not showing up or changing times at the last minute is acceptable.

Dress is extremely important – (need to wear heels)

Be patient and persistent.

Privacy is relative. Knocking isn’t necessary – just walk in and ask for what you need.

People don’t think it’s weird that a white blonde lady is sitting in during their medical exams.

a few updates

Hi all,

Hope you enjoy the Naadam photos, it was a great cultural weekend for me! Our town had been preparing for weeks and I was surprised how quickly our new stadium was finished, and how bright the town turned with fresh paint... mot of which faded in a day. At our city square several concerts and Mongolian pop stars performed, people set off Chinese lanterns and there were firework displays both Friday and Saturday night.

At the Stadium, which is about 5km outside of the city, visitors set up their gers, a few kid carnival rides, food stands selling husher (mutton filled fried bread) other meat kabobs, and aiirag (fermented mares milk). Horses, people and drunk men were everywhere. Wrestling, which is the biggest sport took place both days inside the stadium, horses races took place both days as well and the finish line was in the field next to the stadium. Archery also took place outside the stadium.

My host mom had taken me to get fitted for my Mongolian Deel (the blue dress i'm wearing) the week before, which is the traditional dress for celebrations, and what I  like many others wore for the opening day (friday).

Things are going well for me, it's crunch time now as I prepare for my final language assessment and finish up with my practicum. Time has flown by and it's hard to believe i'll be swearing in in a few short weeks.

This past week was hectic as I had to prepare and teach my first English class for community members. It went really well but we only had 7 students. PC encourages us to teach English throughout our service.

Hope all is well with you all,
Miss you!
Gracie

Naadam Photos

A few photos of my home and family!

a delayed update...

Naadam

All is well in Sukhbaatar! All of Mongolia has become very festive as Naadam approaches. This celebration began in 1921 when Mongolia gained their independence from Chinese control, and it is Mongolia's second biggest holiday. The National Naadam held in Ulaanbaatar is always July 11-13, but local Naadam's are held throughout the country from late June to early August. Sukhbaatar's Naadam will be held July 21-23, and lucky for us, we will also get to celebrate Sukhbaatar's 80th anniversary. I can only imagine it will be quite the celebration and expect the Chinggis Khan vodka, aiirag (fermented mares milk), and buuz (mutton filled fried dough) to be free flowing. 

Highlights of Naadam include "The Three Manly Sports" of wrestling, horse racing, and archery. The wrestling "required dress" is quite impressive, and became so due to a woman who snuck into the competition. As the story goes,  (or so what i've heard) is that the original dress were long Deels (Mongolian traditional Chinese-like garments) but one women disguised herself as a man underneath the Deel to be able to compete. She was eventually discovered and the current dress of Mongolian wrestlers are blue or red speedo-like bottoms with white threaded checkered pattern around the edges and a diamond in the front & back, with a  blue or red long sleeved open vest with the same white threading. Therefore, women in these outfits would be easily identifiable. I'll soon be putting photos up so you can see! There are very few rules of wrestling: the first person to touch the ground with a part of their body between the knees and elbows loses. There are corresponding titles to the levels which are, Nachin, Zaan, Arslan,  and Awarga. Awarga being for the most respected, famous champions. I have yet to see wrestling in person, but it has been on TV continuously.

Mainly young boys, but some girls ride in the horse races.  Most are under the age of 10 and usually the lighter the child the greater chance the horse will win,  and some kids under five may even be jockeys. Most ride bareback. The race is generally 32km (14.5mi). Horses can be of any age and there are even some in their 20's that compete. In Archery, women and men are both allowed to compete, and they no longer aim at warriors but practice targets.

Shagai (anklebones) is also played throughout the Naadam celebration, (it is the official fourth "Manly" sport since 1997) and this game is played with the anklebones of sheep, goat, and the rare few have camel and horse. There are several ways to play shanghai but for all it is important to be able to distinguish the four sides of the anklebone, which are: horse, camel, sheep or goat, and on uneven ground a fifth side, cow, is also possible. The game i've played most often is ankle bone shooting, where a player tosses all the pieces to the ground and by flicking sheep side pieces to sheep and horse to horse w/o touching another piece, they collect the anklebones. The object is to collect all the pieces.

They are in the process of building our Naadam/80th celebration stadium and I've heard rumors that it is estimated it won't be finished by our scheduled Naadam, but we shall see what happens.

Demographics

In these past few weeks I have been given an overwhelming amount of information about Mongolia from the Peace Corps, CDC, Mongolia's MoH and other agencies about Mongolia's health status, history, goals, what previous volunteers have done, and Peace Corps and Mongolia's goals for us in the next two years. Here is a summary on the health demographics so those who are interested can have a slightly better understanding of Mongolia and what i've been placed here to do. Now that I've said that, i'm sure that even through this wealth of information I have reviewed there may still be some discrepancies. Most of the information provided below is from the WHO- Mongolia Country Cooperation Strategy.

Of the approx. 2.8 Million People in Mongolia: 46% live in rural areas, 36% live under the poverty line, 28% are under the age of 5, 67.8% are between ages 15-64 and 4.1% are above age 65, 1.5 million people live in Ulaanbaatar. 

The current trend of population growth is characterized by declining fertility and mortality and an increasing aging population. Chronic diseases are becoming major health issues in the growing elderly population.

Mongolia gained it's independence back from Russia in 1991. This transition from the Soviet dominated centralized system to a market based democratic system was unfortunately very detrimental to the Health Sector. Due to severe funding shortages from the cessation of subsidies, both preventative and curative health services became limited and massive unemployment occurred, thus leading to increased poverty, weakened social services and poor amenities to the rural areas. Consequently, there was rapid migration to the cities, especially to UB. Lifestyle changes from nomadic to sedentary, food consumption pattern changes and habits have contributed to the fact that currently 1 in 4 mongolians are overweight. 

The leading causes of death are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, injuries, and accidents  (this is mainly due to reckless drivers as most mongolians follow few traffic laws and there are generally at least 6 people per vehicle, but more commonly 8+. The few times I have ridden in a small sedan, there has been at least been 6 adults plus 2 children.  Infectious diseases are also on the rise esp. respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases. 

Pollution is a major issue, trash pick-up is almost non-existent and most is burned,  or thrown on the ground. My family will put empty plastic ketchup bottles into out outside stove to add fuel to the fire.  There are a few landfills. Recycling programs are limited, though there is reimbursement for glass and plastic bottles, unfortunately, few people recognize it. Mining may be a potential GDP gain for Mongolia but there is a high need of regulations on emissions, safe working conditions, and illegal foreign miners. 

Child Nutrition remains a challenge to be addressed and even though there has ben a great decrease in the levels of underweight, stunting, and wasting. Stunting still affects one in five children under the age of five.The main causes of infant death are asphyxia, sepsis and congenital defects. Maternal death is mainly due to anemia. Vitamin A and D deficiencies are also common. To reduce these risks, last year a law was made which require mothers to give birth at a hospital and encourage mothers to get better prenatal and postnatal care. 

The rapid migration to cities had led to an unmet need of safe water supply (the main cause of the spread of infectious disease are due to unsafe water and hygiene practices), poor sanitation and limited access to healthcare services.  Consumption of alcohol and tobacco is increasing, people are becoming physically inactive and are consuming more processed and salty foods.

Mongolia eradicated Polio in 2000 and the 2005 immunization program has also successfully controlled diphtheria, pertussis, and neonatal tetanus. A hepatitis B vaccine for infants was introduced in 1992, but viral hepatitis is still a a major health issue as the vaccination does not affect the existing carriers. Localized outbreaks of measles still occur. The national coverage for measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is more than 95%.

The prevalence of Tuberculosis (TB) is still high and HIV/AIDS and STI's are on the rise. Several anthrax and plague cases are recorded each year, and Mongolia is one of the highest reverence countries of Brucellosis in the world. There are still cases of the avian flu and pandemic influenza each year.

In late 2007 the US and Mongolia signed a $285 Million agreement called The Millennium Challenge (surprising enough, President G. W. Bush has been the only US President to visit Mongolia) they have dispersed the money into four projects: Rail, Property Rights, Vocational Education, and Health. The health sector received 17 million. One major achievement in maternal and child health through this challenge is high coverage of prenatal care is now  87.7%, and delivery by skilled birth attendance is at 99.8%. Further improvements in prenatal health are needed as 65.3% of all infant deaths take place in the first days of life.

The main health goals for Mongolia in the next 15 years are to increase life expectancy; reductions in infant, child, and maternal mortality rates, improved nutritional status, improved access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, prevention of HIV/AIDS, sustainable population growth, reduced household health expenditure, a more effective, efficient and decentralized health system, and an increase in the number of client centered and user-friendly health facilities and institutions. 

A focus toward preventive health has become a major initiative for Mongolia and PCV health volunteers are encouraged to extend our knowledge of public health methods to build the capacity of health workers and encourage and mobilize communities to embrace healthier lifestyles. 

A few clarifications from a forwarded email:

Unfortunatly, there is NOT an environmental sector of Peace Corps Volunteers in Mongolia, and Mongolia must request there to be environmental volunteers, PC doesn't just send volunteers places without the country's request. Current Mongolian PCV's are encouraged to have secondary projects and many have worked on environmental issues though. 

I just had to get three rabies shots and Typhiod. I've only had to fend off one attacker thus far, but spay/neuter programs need to be implemented as puppies breed like rabbits. I encounter around 20 dogs/puppies per day, most are docile, but i the evening they can get a bit wild.

Dried/Smoked whole fish is available regularly and many in the Selenge province are lucky to enjoy this luxury. My host family has brought some home but rarely eat it. I haven't seen fresh fish anywhere, but I have seen some people fishing and know there are some volunteers who fish with their family.

All family's live within a Hasha (wood fence for property boundary and to keep cows and horses from wandering into gardens) Many Hasha's in my city have Gers,  in which extended family members will live. Though the majority of residents in Sukhbaatar live in wood homes. 

My Brother Bilguun - Beegie is 19yrs old and is on summer break from College in UB. He is studying to be an accountant like is mother. My younger sister turns 16 this month, she is also on summer break, from high school.

Though my family does have running water for out toilet and one sink, we don't have a shower. We all take bucket baths with hot water. Sme volunteers do have hot showers, some have solar showers, but the majority of us take tunpen baths.

Things to love about Sukbaatar, Mongolia

Karaoke Bars

Internet Cafe's run by 10 year olds

Wild Mares and their foals evening graze in my backyard

Russian Ice Cream

Impromptu water fights with my Dyy (little brother)

Watching my aaB (host father) dancing in his boxers to American pop music

The unanimous love of volleyball and Lady Gaga

Extended family sleepovers

Evening runs to the Orhan River (Ladies – this is how to find your well-endowed Mongol gentleman, as they love to bathe in their tighty whities, or nothing...)

After one shot of wine, having to take two more shots just for respect.

The disgusting act of grabbing and sniffing a young boys genitals...oh cultural immersion you never fail to surprise me :).

Cows browsing in the market and everywhere else

Constant confusion

Being called Crazy because Gracie is difficult for Mongolians to say & then the hilarity of explaining what crazy means in English

Buddhism

Blue Skies

Learning to love Mutton

Mongolian Wrestling outfits (look them up ;) )

Grape juice made from soaked raisins