Summer reflection

Ppffftttt, I just looked at my last blog post and “parched after a 5 mile run” shocked me…5 miles is nothing in my book anymore. Especially right after I cruised through the Hovsgol Lake marathon with my friend Brittany like this:

Summer has practically come and gone now, and it wasn’t much of a summer here, in fact there were two flash floods in Erdenet, so a couple of our roads are in disarray with chunks of pavement missing. I was happy to see that they’re going to put in storm drains, eventually, the pipes have been sitting on the side of the road for over month now.

To recap, in June I focused on Nutrition at my hospital, and my most memorable class was when I taught healthy cooking to the head nurses. Basically, I wrote up some healthy salad recipes that are easy and affordable to make, but not the norm for Mongolians. We chatted about why those recipes are healthier than some of the traditional salads Mongolians make, and then I passed out the recipe directions (in Mongolian). As I started talking about the ingredients 17 pairs of hands took over. It’s rare to find a Mongolian woman who can’t cook, and I was thrilled with how enthusiastically they got right to business. I basically just stayed back and watched, but answered questions as needed. The results were delicious and the nurses still chat about it, so I plan to do another class soon; apparently they all want to learn how to make pizza. It’s a good thing I’m an expert on making homemade pizza dough now.

Then in July, my parents came to visit. On arrival to Erdenet we started celebrating Naadam festival (the three manly sports). First, we dressed the part, then we at the traditional food and drink and then celebrated with the locals.

Wearing traditional Deels

Eating Huushar

Drinkin Airag (Fermented Mare’s milk)

A Naadam racehorse and two jockey finishers

 Then we took what I thought would be a relaxing cross-country adventure, where the road looked like this most of the time:

It was so bumpy that we couldn’t do anything but sit and hold on.

We saw quite a few things, but highlights included the Tsenger hot springs in Arhangai, riding a Yak, yak, yak, and hanging out by the pristine Hovsgol Lake, where we went horseback riding, canoeing, and where I ran my first marathon.

I was quite surprised about the trail; apparently I missed the memo that what I actually signed up for is what’s called an ultra marathon. That meaning, this is not a road race, so don’t expect to come close to your goal time, and yes, you must carry a backpack full of emergency medical supplies and at least a liter and a half of water.

The race started at 4:30am sharp in pitch black and we immediately headed into the forest on a root-infested trail. (Good thing I had my required torch, for without a light you would have been screwed) After emerging out of the woods, surprisingly ankle twist free, phew, we took what was initially a road that climbed up 2,400 ft to about the top of a 7,500 ft mountain. I didn’t run this. I attempted a power walk and madly ate cliff energy blocks and sucked down water. My calves screamed at me. I also may have stopped to take some photos: (Who does that in a marathon race? Weird, but seriously, the view was amazing.)

After those few switchbacks, the trail, now only accessible by horseback and foot lead to a 45-degree downhill where at several points I almost dove into a summersault. It would have been the most effective way to descend, and I’m pretty sure that's what the 100km runners were doing, for their paths in the grass were much larger than a foot.

We emerged into a lush mystical mossy forest, which was magical until I tripped on a root that face planted me, and then we started another 1,000 ft climb. This time with fallen trees as obstacles. There was another summersault worthy downhill and then the trail finally merged to a windy dirt road for the last 7 miles.

Looking back, I had a blast, it was quite an adventure and I was glad to have a running buddy to share it with. I may have caught the marathon bug as well, and have started training for the Gobi half-marathon that's at the end of the month.

In August, Eric came to visit and we visited Amarbaysalant Monastery (which is one of the few working Monasteries that wasn’t completely destroyed during the soviet occupation) and hung out in Erdenet where we picked strawberries in the woods, and went out to karaoke. It was a lovely, relaxing visit, but much too short.

Right after Eric left I had my Mid-Service training, which marked the halfway point of my service. It was mostly a group discussion and a sharing time for all us to reflect back on our experiences thus far. In many ways it was refreshing to think about project we want to work on and to look back at our accomplishments, but it was tough to look at our failures, which in most cases, outnumbered the successes.

Most everyone came here with a multitude of goals and ideas to add to the spark of growth of this country, but now having worked in this environment, where motivated counterparts and resources are limited, and change, on the whole, undesirable. Many of us, me included, have reached a point of realization that the major goals and ideas we once had about what our service would be like are unattainable.

Coming to that conclusion has absolutely been hard to grasp, and it’s exhaustingly disappointing as well. My work in community development is still raw. I only have experience working in community development and behavior change in this one country, this one culture, with quite a bit of history and tradition, that to this day is constantly remembered and respected. I still want to make a difference and help my community solve its problems and improve its health, but my expectations of what that success looks like are more realistic. It’s all about the individual; it’s about making a positive impact on one person that starts the change.

Now, how to do that. I’m back to stage one; getting the individual to see the real needs that need to be addressed, not the needs that are just an acquisition of a product.

So, here’s to year two

A day in the life of a PCV in Mongolia

Last week, after a 5 mile run in 75-degree weather I was parched (WHAT, it’s warm!?, yup, well almost, still in the 40’s at night)

So I stopped by a delguur (neighborhood shop) to get some water. I only had a 1,000tugs, equivalent to about 75cents and wanted to get the most outta my buck.

I asked the woman in Mongolian the price of some water, in which she replied rudely in Russian, I asked again in Mongolian, in which I was once again spoken to in Russian. Finally, I looked at her asked politely “in Mongolian?” and the guy next to me was like, “LADY, the girl isn’t Russian” and a small smile formed upon her face and she spoke politely to me in Mongolian and I finally got myself a bottle of water.

Outside, the man and his children watched me share the water with Moogi, which, I’m sure he was explaining to his kids only crazy people are friends with dogs like that.  But, we talked about how hot it was, he asked me where I was from/ what I did, and we bid our farewells.

It’s probably not all that common for PCV’s worldwide to get spoken to in TWO foreign languages everyday, and it’s really not for Mongolian PCV’s either, but Erdenet has a pretty plush Russian community and with my blonde hair and blue eyes, they automatically assume I’m one of them. It’s always a little boggling and I sometimes think I’m an idiot for not grasping the language when I don’t understand someone, but then I realize, oh, right, that’s Russian, whoa, shopkeeper, speak Mongolian.

I wanted to make this post about what a day at work is like, but I got distracted so I’ll start over.

Every weekday starts out about the same, most of the time I’ll walk the 25mins to work but if not, I’ll hop in a cab, well, let’s be real, I won’t take any cab. I have favorites.

There’s this sweet lady with a red mini-mobile that waits outside for me. I swear she knows when I’m running late and she’ll be there, chilaxin’ in the mobile. How can I refuse? Plus she waves to me if she sees me walking. She knows when I need her. And I always make her smile.

If I’m walking, I pass the GOK (Mining Company) Jumbo tron, in which every morning this is playing:

I find it strange, but it never fails to “pump me up”.

When I get to work I’ll fiddle around for a bit; make some coffee, chat with my cp and the others who stroll in the office by the sweet aroma of a real brew. I’ll share the coffee. Then, at 9:15 I make my rounds roping up people for my 30 minute yoga class.

It wasn’t until recently that my cp’s (counterparts) started coming to my class, as it’s consistently been the hardcore Tai Chi gramps and grams that stick around after their morning workout.

But, it’s evolving, so I’m evolving.

I started making music playlists for my classes and they dig it. I actually forgot my jams one day and got a “get it together” look from one of the Tai Chi grams, so I won’t let that happen ever again.

I’m not a certified yoga teacher, so I keep it pretty basic, plus, I’m not about to attempt explaining this in Mongolian:

Nor can any of my students do that without potentially hurting themselves.

I teach mostly in Mongolian, I’ve got right, left, leg, arm, knee, elbow, stand, straight, turn, sit, do this, and a few other commands down, well at least I think. In between the grunts and groans I still frequently hear mummers of:

“What’s happening now?”

“Which leg?”

“Psshh, turn the other way!”

“I can’t do that!”

“What did she say?”

I count in English and sometimes I get others to join in which makes me pretty proud.

 - Memorization through movement, it’s an English-and-yoga-in-one class. -

Granted, it’s only numbers, but many of my students have never spoken a word of English in their life before this, nor as older adults plan to take on the challenge of learning any new language.

So the yoga finishes, and I usually start my day off on a great high. Sometimes I stay and show people other exercises, or introduce myself to new students. There are consistently between 5-20 people every morning so I think it’s pretty successful, and at this point I’m feeling confident that before I finish my service the Physical Therapist, Naranhuu (who’s room we use) or one of the students will be able to lead the class once I’m gone, and it might be…. Peace Corp’s favorite word, SUSTAINABLE. Fingers crossed.

Today though, one of my favorite cp’s told me that she had to stop coming to yoga because she was losing weight. I asked, “Isn’t that a good thing? In which, she replied, “but, I’m just losing weight in my butt and boobs”.

That's one pretty good excuse.

Dang, this post is getting pretty long and I’m only to 10 o’clock in my day.

In May, most of my days were spent Yahoo Messengering it up with the Health Department training manager, Enkjargal, to help them plan an Anti-Smoking event that happened on May 26^th. We focused it around prevention for children and had some contests; poster, chalk drawings, a run, and health screenings for adults. We also passed out information on the harms of smoking and tips for quitting.

Currently, there isn’t any type of program to help smokers quit or any nicotine patches, or special gum to help people ease their cravings, so I’ve been researching tips, tricks, and trainings that I can teach the nurses at my hospital to share with their patients. I had one American Heart Association document translated that helps people identify their smoking triggers and how to deal with those triggers, and the nurses explained it to those interested.

Our hospital also recently became, allegedly, a “NO SMOKING” Hospital. So we got our nurses involved.

I wasn’t aware all gov’t organizations were involved and it turned out pretty nuts; they had everything from a demo with Mongolian Army shooting blanks to getting pictures with a Bazooka, to contortionists and Tai Chi exercise, to the library promoting their books, vegetable sales, and my hospital nurses and I ran a 3K.

Contortionists

The 3K race start

And we're off!

Racing to the finish

Runners from my hospital and winner's with our awards.

I placed 2nd out of 45.

English Class has basically fizzled out for the summer, so I’m done with that for a while.

I’ve continued doing some basic Nutrition classes centering around tips on how to cut carbs and fats out of meals. But, Mongolians pretty much think I’m crazy when I tell them to discard extra fat. They LOVE fat, so, I’m not quite sure how effective those have been. I did get some people interested in using herbs instead of salt, and a couple people asked about buying olive oil.

My hospital is also now swarming with pregnant women (I know for a fact Mongolians get jiggy with it during long winter) So my counterparts and I have done some nutrition education and awareness about necessary women’s health screenings for them.

We’re also going to try and do some more alcohol awareness this summer since Naadam is a major drinking holiday. I want to put the focus on “responsible drinking” and don’t get so drunk you pass out in public. (Not really, but it’s reality – there were TWO men passed out drunk in the children’s park yesterday.)

But, finding time on the local channels has become increasingly difficult as political campaigning takes control. Some guy had a mobile jumbo-tron set up in my neighborhood this weekend blasting his slogan. It’s an election year and it’s looking like extravagant promises are being thrown up left and right.

And that sums it up for work.

I went to Khelgant, a town about an hour away a couple weekends ago where my friend Kari lives and helped start building a greenhouse.

Khelgant

Greenhouse!

 While there, I  snapped this pic of an emee (grandma) who is trying to save a litter of puppies. That's her pride and joy she's holding.

Moogi has recently become very popular with my neighborhood kids and they have proclaimed that when Moogi has babies they all want one. I can’t confess to them that that's never going to happen.

On my way back to work from lunch today I spotted an adorable old Mongol man in a beautiful Deel sitting on the stonewall lining the sidewalk. He must have spotted me too, because as I passed him he let rip several alarming flatulencies.

I wasn’t impressed.

Happy summer!

Gracie

The joys of training a dog in a particularly unfavorable environment

Unfavorable environment in that every inch of land in my neighborhood is covered with something utterly irresistible for a dog; from a multitude of fresh “meat still on the bone” bones, to trash, feces, the ever fascinating used condom, and stray dogs, getting Moogi to return on command has been quite the challenge.

I should have started her training much earlier, but the idea of spending more than the required 15 minute pee/poop walk in -20+ degrees wasn’t favorable on my end. The frozen land had also yet to reveal it’s hidden treasures. So alas, here I am, routinely attempting to captivate Moogi with fresh pieces of blood dripping raw meat, and ever enthusiastic praises so I can let her roam off her leash, and not look like a foolish American chasing after a mutt.

It seldom works.

At this point you may think, “why not just keep her on the leash?” well, she’s a dog, and thus enjoys running quite a bit more than I do. I also believe the training period is critical in building a bond and trust between human and canine. Plus, with a trained pup, you have a lesser chance of losing your friends who may not love your dog as much as you do, and of who don’t enjoy the licks and butt sniffs (which unfortunately Moogi is very fond of as of now, and we're working on it).

Upon the first night of acquiring that sweet, trash covered, matted stray, I knew I was in for a challenge, but the expected obstacles have become exponential. My initial concern was having my puppy get knocked up, but once that was resolved…snip, snip, I soon became aware of the gold mine of puppy sights and smells my neighborhood possessed.

I have no way besides within my apartment to train Moogi within a controlled environment, and it sucks.

Here’s variety of example situations I’ve found Moogi in that may be slightly uncommon to those who have trained your dogs in America:

Gnawing on a horse’s skull (at least a dozen times)

Dragging freshly chopped sheep’s feet (x2)

Unknotting used condoms (x3)

Hiding under a cow carcass (x3)

Chasing cows in the middle of a roundabout car intersection (at the intersection once, but other cow chases, at least a dozen)

Romping with feral strays (practically every day)

Entranced with horses, goats, yaks, or sheep (at least once a week)

Breath wreaking of fresh human feces (luckily only once, but we were trapped in a car of 9 people with her for 15 minutes directly afterward, poop still stuck on her teeth)

And my favorite,

Returning to me after a fresh dip in the sewage drain (x2)

I should have left her in the street after that one, but I’ve dealt with my fair share of feces covered/ creek water covered dogs and figured it couldn’t be that much worse… oh, but it was.

Nevertheless I’ve always managed to get her back, mainly on her own accord, but recently, I’ve found that running her for miles, after which she is thoroughly exhausted (as am I), she’ll come straight to me. And slowly, as the phenomenon of getting let free becomes more frequent, she’s starting to understand that when she comes back and is attached back to the leash, it’s not going to be the last time she gets to explore the gold mine.

Erdenet Dance

You have probably heard enough about this since it has been plastered all over FaceBook, but here’s a little background on what sparked that Erdenet Dance video.

First and foremost my good friend/ fellow Mongol dog owner/ Mongolia Peace Corps volunteer and Gobi desert dweller, Corey Benov, introduced this video to me:

Many nights of dancing followed, but it wasn’t until I shared this video to my sitemates (other Peace Corps volunteers that live in Erdenet) that we decided to make our own video. Our goal was to highlight the best city in Mongolia, Erdenet ;), and for a bit of fun.

This is how it began in Katie’s words:

“One night, a few of us were at a volunteer’s apartment, painting the walls of a poorly ventilated room, listening to tunes, as we do.  A catchy song came on.  Somebody complimented it.  Gracie mentioned a fun video that a dancer made for the song, and we all gathered around the soft glow of YouTube to watch it.

“OH MY GOD THIS IS SO COOL LET’S DO IT HERE IN ERDENET,” we shrieked, possibly high on paint fumes.  “IT’LL BE EASY! IT WON’T TAKE LONG AT ALL!”

That was four months ago.”

(That was at my apartment and secretly, I knew that if I got them all high on paint fumes they would telepathically receive my idea and put it into motion…it worked. ;) )

THEN, to my amazement, the NEXT day, Katie sent out an email with a dance move we needed to learn and how much filming we needed to do per week to reach a projected deadline.

AND THEN THIS HAPPENED:

It was a lot of hard work, mostly on Katie’s part, but we all did some dancing and got at least a couple Mongolians from each of our agencies involved, plus a ton of kiddos from our English conversation nights, and the orphans we visit weekly.

We also tried to include highlights from Erdenet; the Zax (Market), our neighborhoods, the schools/businesses where we work, a hockey rink, the orphanage we visit, our hot dog stand, the copper mine, the giant Buddha, the Russian/Mongolian friendship statue, some cows,  and a delguur (neighborhood grocery), just to name a few.

As the project revealed itself, we realized, this is pretty SWEET and think it's a unique example of what a peace corps volunteer's service is REALLY all about - the relationships we build with the people we work with and the experiences we share together. If we can do some english teaching/ business development/ health promotion on the side (which we all do a ton of as well) then we are doing our job well.

So watch it, share it, dance to it, and send us a response video ;)

Саихан хаваржиж баина уу? (Saihan havarchich bain oo?) Are you springing well?

According to Mongolian tradition, Tsaagan Sar – “White Month” is the celebration of the Lunar new years and is the mark of the arrival of spring. Spring, as in, it’s finally warm enough to snow again, and it can be in the negatives and the high 40’s, where snow blizzards or dust storms can pick up at any time, all in one day.

Excerpt: I just survived my first Mongolian winter…and it wasn’t too bad. I got the Mongol shuffle down.

I missed the main celebratory days of Tsaagan Sar, which was February 22-27 while back in the states, but caught the tail end of it, literally, I ate some sheep’s tail, when I got back. So here’s a short synopsis of the holiday and my celebrations, and what I’ve been up to in my 4 month hiatus from blogging.

Buuz, buuz, buuz.

During Tsaagan Sar only white foods (meat included, fat especially) are prepared and eaten and gifts are given to your family and friends, it’s almost like a mix of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Leading up to the holiday, families, mainly women, will make hundreds, sometimes thousands of Buuz (Steamed beef or mutton dumplings) and then beginning with the elders and family members, visit each others homes to talk about spring, play games, and consume buuz, Aruul (dried yoghurt chips), Airrak (fermented horse milk), sutee tsai (milk tea), and vodka in mass amounts. It’s mandatory to eat at least 3 buuz per home. The gifts are presented along with some cash, and a mandatory shot of vodka.

Since I was at the end of the strain of visitors, my gifts included candy, lots of frozen foods; several pounds of buuz and beef, two whole fish – head, tail and scales included, a grocery bag full of Aruul, some “support” tights; purple, and some hand soap.

Who can’t resist those gifts?

I only went to three homes, so my expectations are high for next year’s toll of goodies.

My coworkers and I before I left for a visit to the states.

Shortly thereafter, we celebrated women and men’s (soldiers) days.

 On women’s day, my department (Administration) women (besides the director and vice director) were coaxed into our training room by the lures of delicious cakes, cheap wine, vodka and candies and our vice director read us poems, thanked us for our hard work, and poured our vodka shots, 3 mandatory. I also was given a ticket to a play, which was about a girl tormented by love. I could only understand snippets, there was some awkward striptease dancing, and then it ended where the girl was released from the torment (?). On men’s day, and I just observed the accumulation of empty vodka bottles in the street.

My projects at work are ever increasing and our neonatal head doctor, Uyanga (Photo below) and I have taken on a huge grant proposal to equip our new neonatal unit with the necessary modern materials and to get more training for the nurses and doctors in that unit. (Apparently, they opened the ward before fully equipping it…Mongol style – at least we have the space and some equipment now).

Me and Uyanga (Neonatal Doctor)

 I’m still teaching English and rotating doing health classes at the hospital and schools. I’ve continued to expand my relationship with the health department and am working with them on a reproductive health curriculum for teens in the next two months. We also have been tossing some ideas around for nurses and family day in May and I’m hoping we can pull off a 5K run!

I also had some fellow Peace Corps volunteers, Cliff and Joe come and do some Music Therapy sessions in January at my hospital, which was one of my most enriching, memorable moments - it's amazing what music can do. Here's a little snippet of a song they did:

For those not on FaceBook, here is a photo of my sweet puppy Moogi  (“everlasting” I named her after my host mom). She’s a jenkin (real) Mongolian trash mutt - I picked her up off the street about 3 months ago. She’s certainly been a project and getting all her shots and spaying has been eventful, but well worth it. I took her first to a vet in town but due to the communication barrier and needing to have documentation of her shots in English (since I plan on bringing her back to the states) I had to take her to the capital UB, where there’s an American vet.

Moogi

Moogi's spaying adventure:

I learned the day I planned to go to UB that pets aren’t allowed on public transportation, so after getting my train ticket reimbursed, and unsuccessfully convincing the bus driver that Moogi was a good dog, Moogi and I weaseled a spot in the front passenger seat on private microbus packed to the roof of rowdy drunk Mongolian men…. yippee.

They all adored her, and me, thankfully, but it did make for a nerve-racking 7 hr trip, in which we arrived to UB at 2am. Luckily, I convinced the driver to take me to my friend’s apartment and didn’t have to find a taxi. On arrival to my friends apartment the few men left in the van all got out of the car and requested a picture with me:

The microbus crew - Otgoo, the driver is in the middle, wearing the blue jacket.

The driver then walked me to the apartment door and even waited for me before leaving back to Erdenet the next day. I had Moogi spayed the next am, picked her up at 3pm drugged, groggy and freshly stitched, wrapped her in a blanket and was back on the microbus by 4pm, my fingers crossed that the microbus back wouldn’t break down on our way home. It was in the -10’s outside. We made it back safe and sound and at a more reasonable hour of 11pm.

So, if anyone’s wondering, it only takes 14 hours of travel plus 2 1-hour taxi rides in UB and 200,000 Tugs (about $150) to get a pup shots and spayed in Mongolia.

Well hope all is well on your side of the world – What a wonderful time to be in Kentucky right now with both UK and UofL in the final four! I’ll be cheering on my cards this weekend!

Best,

Gracie

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