Happy holidays family and friends in America! I’ve extended a third year with the Peace Corps. I’m now living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – the capital city. I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) and also a Kiva Fellow. As a … Continue reading →

Mongolia and a number of other Eastern and Central Asian countries have followed the lunar calendar with its 12-year animal cycle since ancient times. The New Year according to the Lunar Calendar in Mongolia is called Tsagaan Sar which translates as the White Month. There are many opinions about the origin of this name. One [...]

Hello faithful readers… I’d like to fill you in on the current H1N1 happenings in Mongolia. According to the Mongolian government, 8 people have died from swine flu and over 1,000 cases have been reported so far. The first cases were reported just over 3 weeks ago. Currently in Arvaikheer, we have around 200 cases, [...]

The weekend of September 26, Arvaikheer hosted two big events: the Chamber of Commerce and Mercy Corps trade fair and the World Vision English Olympics. The city had a lot of visitors from nearby soums and aimags. The trade fair was organized between my office, Mercy Corps, and the government. Over 100 vendors from around Mongolia [...]

In July, just after the Nadaam festival, I attended a Yak Festival in a neighboring city. Bat Ulzii Soum is a three hour drive northwest of Arvaikheer in Ovorkhangai Aimag. The Yak Festival was paired with the opening ceremony of Sun Dalai, a milk product production company. Sun Dalai produces traditional Mongolian dairy products like ariul, [...]

Mongolia has been in the news recently, thanks to NPR. Listen or read the articles: NPR Special Series: Mongolia in Transition. Mongolians Seek Fortune in Gold, But at a Cost This article talks about “ninja” gold miners, based in Ugunga Soum, Ovorkhangai Aimag. Ugunga is just a two hour drive northwest of my city, Arvaikheer. Global Financial [...]

The last week of August, the M19 Peace Corps Volunteers had a mid-service training (MST). The training was scheduled around the beginning of our second year at our work site. The purpose of this MST training was to review the first year and to prepare for our second year in service. Also, it was a [...]

At the very beginning of July, my mother came to visit me from America. For the first couple of days, we were in Ulaanbaatar. She was able to meet some of my friends and the Peace Corps staff. We also went to some Mongolian museums and restaurants. Then, we traveled through the Gobi Desert for five [...]

June 2nd was my one year anniversary living in Mongolia. I’ll try to give a reflection of my first year working in the Peace Corps. Lately, I’ve been traveling into Ulaanbaatar for various business activities. The summertime is the high tourist season in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar has been packed with foreign tourists. Just walking around the city [...]

Here are some long-overdue videos from the M19 swearing-in performances in Darkhan, Mongolia on August 16, 2008. I finally have fast enough Internet to upload the videos.  This is just a sample of three performances, check out my YouTube channel to view the other five performances, and also three speeches in Mongolian by PCVs. The cultural [...]

I just returned to Arvaikheer from a weekend spa retreat with my co-workers. The Uvurkhangai Chamber of Commerce received some money from the National CCI because we won the best Chamber for 2008, based upon our annual report. My director announced on Monday, that this Valentine’s Day weekend we would be going on an all-paid [...]

I will introduce you to my Mongolian friends. Most of my friends are related to my work or to the other PCVs’ work. In Mongolia, most peoples’ closest friends are their co-workers. There is no separation between private life and work life. Therefore, I am good friends with my co-workers. I am also good friends [...]

Living in a ger requires me to do many chores that I wouldn’t normally do in America. I have everyday tasks, like making a fire with wood and coal. And weekly tasks, like fetching water, dumping out dirty water, washing dishes, and cleaning my stove. Now, I will tell you how I clean my stove. I [...]

Happy belated holidays from Mongolia! I haven’t updated in quite  a while. Now, I will tell you about the past couple of weeks during the Mongolian holiday season. Most Mongolians don’t celebrate Christmas, yet UB and the countryside are covered with tinsel and lights. If Mongolians don’t celebrate Christmas, why are there Xmas decorations everywhere? Because [...]

For the past two weeks, I’ve been doing needs assessment surveys from the local Chamber of Commerce businesses. My Mongolian language isn’t good enough to talk about business concepts, so my counterpart acted as my translator. I met with both small- and medium-sized businesses. Each interview, on average, took 1-2 hours to complete. I asked questions [...]

The past week has been very eventful. Last Saturday, my ger was winterized. On Monday, my work had a riverside picnic for the director’s birthday. On Wednesday, the Peace Corps western region manager came to visit my site. On Friday, I celebrated a really unique Halloween holiday, Mongolian style. In anticipation for my site visit from [...]

Now, I have bronchitis. I’ve had a cold for the past two weeks that has turned into bronchitis. I’m taking antibiotics. What’s healthcare like in Mongolia? How did I get taken care of? The healthcare “system” in Mongolia for Peace Core Volunteers and Mongolians are quite different. As a PCV, I was given a medical kit [...]

How are dogs treated, in general, in Mongolia? Most dogs are kicked around and have rocks thrown at them. People will go out of their way to hurt an innocent dog. There are probably thousands, if not millions, of stray dogs in Mongolia. Mongolians don’t keep dogs as loving pets, but rather as guard dogs [...]

In the simplist terms, a ger is a circular felt tent. My ger has 5 walls and is about 20 feet in diameter. To be honest, I cleaned my ger for 2 hours before I took these photos. This may be the cleanist it will ever be. Keep that in mind as you look at [...]

September 19-21, the Chamber of Commerce co-sponsored a trade fair for our aimag. The trade fair attracted many businesses in industries such as wool, clothing, traditional Mongolian products, food, animals, and technology. Businessmen (the term funnily includes business people who are women) received business-related trainings. Also, awards were given to the most outstanding companies and [...]

As I’ve said in previous posts, I’ll be living in Arvaikheer, Ovorkhangai for the next two years. Now I’ll give you information about the city. In order for you to realize how I live in Mongolia, I’ll show you through photos.   Basic information about Ovorkhangai Aimag: Capital: Arvaikheer Aimag area: 24,286 sq. miles Aimag population: 108,235 Population density: 4 persons [...]

Last night, I had my first huge ger-living accomplishment. I killed a mouse! And all by myself!   Of course, I’ve had other ger-living accomplishments like starting a fire and fetching water. However, I still don’t have the fire-starting thing down. And my hasha brother helps me carry the water container. For the fire, sometimes I [...]

The past month has been very hectic. I had the last weeks of training. Plus, I’ve been settling into my new site. This post will give you an overview of the last weeks of training. I had a business case study, English teaching week, the community symposium, the community development project, and the host family [...]

I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Today was the swearing in ceremony in Darkhan. 59 of the original 65 M19 trainees swore in. The U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia made a speech. The Americans gave a Mongolian cultural performance with singing, dancing, and instrument-playing. Jim Carl, Mongolia PC Country Director, and I at the Swearing-In Ceremony; I’m [...]