I'm at home, surrounded by freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I'm actually at my brother's house in Pittsburgh. I arrived back the night before last. The day I was travelling was the longest day I've ever had, and I say that literally. It was a 36 hour day. I saw the sun go down and come up, but it was still the same day in the morning. In fact, my plane from Korea left at 5pm on July 15th, it was a 10 hour flight. Then, after a 5 hour lay over in San Fran, my flight to Pittsburgh took off 4pm July 15th. Fun.

My brother with his wife and 3 kids met me at the airport. It was so strange seeing a familiar face. It was so...familiar. They've been showing me a really good time. My brother owns Prints Charming Photography

. It was cool to see his office and all the ways which it's grown. In many ways I'm glad I'm not involved in running a business, and yet in many ways I'm recognizing that owning your own company may be the most free way to live in this country. It's the only way not to have a boss, and the only ones who can fire you are you customers, but they seem to love him.

We spent a lot of time during our COS conference and a lot of time just talking in general about how hard it is to readjust when you get back. It's harder to come back to the states than it is to leave in the first place...much. It's true too. Sometimes I feel like my skin, language, accent, and all physical characteristics are American, but inside, I'm this cross-breed Ameri-Mongol. It's all coming back to me, but slowly. Everywhere I go in my peripheral hearing, people are speaking English. It's weird to understand every little thing that someone is saying. I haven't needed to block out other people's conversations for a long time because I never knew exactly what they were talking about, and if the person spoke English, I made it my business to figure our why they're in Mongolia. The other Americans I lived with all adopted Mongolian ways as well, so all manners of Americanisms are spinning my head.

I can, for the first time, sort of see how the rest of the world sees Americans. Even at the airport in Seoul, Korea the Americans were the ones making a big stink about how long the ticket check-in line was. I'm thinking to myself, we're all stuck in this terminal until the plane leaves anyway. What's the big deal if it's sitting down or waiting in a line? And in the place and time, another Americn couple kept yelling at their kid to come over to them, sit, and be quiet. The kid was being really quiet and looking out the window just 10 feet away, but the parents got crazy upset and snatched the kid up forcefully so that the kid started crying. This happened like 4 more times, and every time, when the kid wandered away, the two would talk to each other about how impossible this kid is. I couldn't take it. Why can't a kid wander off for 10 feet and look at the plane out the window? I never would have considered it before, but now I can't help but think that it came more from the parents obsessive need to control than from anything related to safety. Mongolian children are mainly ignored. Parents there teach their kids virtues like patience and peacefullness by showing them, consistantly, what it means to be patient and peacefull. They never raise their voices. And while it's hard to take at first, they never discipline their kids for not listneing. If the children are too rowdy, they calmly say, "That's enough". If the kid doesn't obey, they say it again in the same tone. This might continue, but they never get upset or even acknowledge the child's behavior. It seems crazy, but for the most part, by the time a kid is 7 or 8, he or she has adopted the parent's peace and mild manner. I'm just trying to say, kids aren't punished for being kids. They are severely punished for doing something actually wrong, but for not listening or being too active or other things that kids do naturally, they are left to be kids in the same way that a baby is never punished for crying or pooping or spitting up.

The first resturant I went to in the States was at the San Fran airport. We were in a group of 5 RPCVs. We all went straight to the counter to order our food, but the man at the counter directed us to please sit at a table if we didn't want to take the food to go. We sat down and a waitress came up pretty quick, just to let us know that she'd come again soon. When it came time to order, the first person in our party wanted a chicken sandwich. The waitress asked if he wanted cheese. Ok, he'll take cheese, he said. What kind of cheese, she asked, colby? american? swiss? cheddar? The five of us looked at eachother with our mouths open. In mongolia, food comes how it comes. Usually your first 2 choices off the menu are not availible, and then even when it is there, you can't be sure that you'll actually get the thing you asked for. Here, we were being confronted with MORE choice. It blew our minds. But then the very next question was, would you like potato salad, cole slaw, or french fries? It was almost too much, just give him a chicken sandwich. But that's the American way. I'm sure none of these things will bother me soon enough, but I'm know the bigger, more impacting, cultural differences are awaiting me.

I'm missing sorely some of the things and mostly the people I've left behind. Part of me wants to buy a plane ticket back, even if just for another week. But I know that I have to go through this sometime. I find myself thinking in Mongolian and wanting to speak it, but there's no one to speak with. And all of those little Mongolian expressions that I salted my English with constantly are useless here. Yanaa, ee chavaas, yamar sonin yum be, baihaa.

I'll be in the groove soon. I start my new job in a month, and seeing my brother's kids has been worth all of this. From what they say, little Riley doesn't like any new people, especially men, but she is all over me and loves for me to carry her and to sit on my lap. How cool! She is adorable, as with all of his kids.

I've got to go eat some breakfast. I might have one more blog in me before I retire it along with this chapter in my life. Thanks for being a part of my journey.

Peace and love and faith, hope and love to you all

To begin, as usual, a weather update:

In the last couple weeks, the weather has gone from snowing and uncomfortable, to really really nice, to hot as hades' underpants. But the forecast for tomorrow says...snow!

My keyboard is at the school. And as some of you know my laptop's keyboard has a few keys that don't work, including my spacebar. So I'm "CONTROL V" pasting every space. I hope you all can appriciate the time and energy that I'm putting into this blog. I assume that if you're still following this late in the game, you do.

School let out. It's so strange to be here in my town with absolutely nothing to do but walk around. I want to enjoy this last month, you know, be fully present, but it's sort of difficult. My mind is elsewhere in a far away land, where the morning bells ring with liberty. Kid's Day was on the first of june. It's the one day of the year when there are no drunk people wandering around, and kids don't go unnoticed. In fact, they get whatever they want. You'll see them everywhere, leading their parents around saying, "I want icecream or candy or pop or a toy," whatever, and the parent just buys them whatever It's a fun day to in Mongolia.

Our close of service confrence was actually really informative and surprisingly fun. It was good to see my M-nineteens one more time before I say goodbye to most of them for good. I'm sure I'll keep in touch with a couple of them, but as with the end of all of life's chapters, you leave behind friends that were there for a season.

:/TEAR

You may have seen it already, but there is a rather amazing COS picture of our group on facebook.

Now is the time to cope with saying goodbye to my friends here, my ger / this amazingly beautiful town, and the end of my service as a peace corps. It's a lot. Plus, I'll be dealing with readjusting to freedom, ahem, I mean USAmerica. Some of it I'm looking forward to, but honestly I could die happy if I never saw another roadside billboard or got the latest pop tramp's song crammed down my throat. I would love to live in a world where money and business were not the bottom line or where people weren't looked at by those in charge as consumer slaves. But hey, I'm a dreamer, and it was nice to escape the heart of the beast for a little while. I got to see that there is a land where who you are is not defined by what you do. I saw a market economy where, for the most part, greed and competition are not the driving forces. I saw a people who aren't possesed by their possessions. And I saw a news system that didn't throw words like "terror" and "crisis" around to boost ratings. All in all, it was a two years well spent. Mongolia has it's problems and I'm glad to be headed home, but still I'm not looking forward to breathing the air of control and indebtedness that was so thick in america when i left. You can't really imagine how refreshing it is to live in a place for a while where the day isn't split up into 15 minute intervals until you've lived it yourself. I thank God that places like this still exist, and I'm praying that there will always be places with a different vision of the world. Because the possibility of the western way of life imperically taking over everywhere is a very real and frightening scenario.

This leads me to some final thoughts...things I've learned from my experience. Poverty is only a state of mind. Yes, some places are plagued by severe famine or water shortages, and we should do everything in our power, and a lot of things out of our power with God's help, to put an end to that kind of poverty. But in many places, poverty is only an idea given to us by people that can profit from such an idea being out there. We buy into the fear of not having enough, which in America means usually not having enough excess. This fear actually drives us into both debt and a sort enslavement to THINGS. We desire to be independant and own our own land, not because there is any inherent virture in land ownership, but because somewhere down the line we were told that it is important to own land, and we agreed. But land ownership is aristocratic territory, and we, the common man, will lose a game played on their home turf. This individualism and privitization in our blood drives us away from community. Even if we use our resources and possibly invite the homeless into our home{a noble thing indeed}, we're still stuck in that awful "I'm having THEM into MY home". Instead of the more accurate, "we are family, and this home belongs to you as much as it does to me." In Mongolia, you belong to the land, not the other way around.

In fact, Christians, would any of you say that you own your particular houses if Jesus walked in the door? Or would you readily offer Him the keys and say, all of mine is yours. But Jesus also said that the way you treat the worst off is how you are treating Him. In fact, by most any standard of definition, Jesus WAS homeless.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of attributes that are amazing and unique about the States. It's my home and I could never feel more at home anywhere on Earth. We have a standard of "niceness" common to most Americans that surpasses anyone else I've encountered, and we maintain that generous spirit even though it's the source of a lot of how other nations try to take advantage of us. The list could go on.

So...My mission for "readjusting" into the states will be to find a way to promote community and subverse individualism in every way I can. But the question is, can i resist the pressures of the American life? Will i fall into chasing the American dream? I've been thinking of how I will spend my six thousand dollars in readjustment, and most everything I've come up with has been ways to spend it on myself. I think I really need some sort of mentor to look to. Or someone willing to keep me in check.

I don't know how interested you all are about these things, but they are the things I'm most dealing with at the moment. Any other revolutionaries out there? Holla at me.

Love and peace brothers and sisters

Well it's May. For the last week it's been really warm and pretty during the day, and it's only gotten cold at night. But I learned, never turn your back on the Mongolian spring. It went from about 65 degrees to 20 degrees in the span of 30 minutes and then...blizzard. Everyone was freaking out.

Speaking of the Mongolian spring. I've learned a new expression/superstition. The expression is "Zun boloogui". It means, "It's not Summer Yet!". Mongolians personify the spring sky (for you late comers, the Sky is the number one god in their ancient shaman religion). The spring sky is content to give a warm day here and there. But he is a very moody, jealous, and irritable being. If you go around on a warm day in a short sleeve shirt, not wearing a hat and coat, the sky will look down and feel disrespected. It's like you don't fear him, and he gets mad. I never understood why you see Mongolians all bundled up even on really warm days. I always thought it was because, you never know. It IS that, but also, they are showing respect to the spring sky. Sort of, "I know you are a harsh spirit, I respect that you could send snow storms, dust storms, freezing winds, rain or whatever." So when they see someone (me) wearing short sleeves, they say "zun boloogui".

Tomorrow is my Trafficking In Persons (TIP) awareness seminar. I'm pretty nervous. It's impossible to expect everything to go well without a hitch, but I'm hoping my students show up, and that we have a PA, microphones, and a projector all working. Cross your fingers. It's important that these kids know about evil people who see young women and men as products to be sold into forced sex, labor, militia, marriage, etc. POP QUIZ, where is the American hub of the illegal transporting of females into prostitution? that's right...ATLANTA! Home of the largest, busiest airport in the US. Thanks Terrence for putting so much of the leg work into this project, from me and my school.

I have been offered a postion with Mission Year (one of those monastic things I was talking about) As I prayerfully consider it, I've also been applying to many other jobs, mostly in Atlanta, but also in D.C. I'm applying for a recruiter job with the Peace Corps in Atlanta. The pay is pretty good, and it's close to home. They wrote back and said I should expect someone to contact me soon, either for an interview or for more information. It's good to have options, but the more options that open, the more I stress. I'm sure I'd be stressing more if I have no options though. I feel like my dreams have all come true so far though. Peace Corps was a dream come true, not the orgaization exactly but the experience. It was worth putting myself through college just to have these last two years, as stressful as they've been.

I have less than a week left of work at my school. Specifically, I think I have 3 classes to teach, not including computer classes or clubs or other things like that, but 3 English, 40 minute lessons. Wow. Next week I leave for my close of service conference, final physical, and dental exam. I'm totally packed, that's inclluding the things that I'm just bringing with me to get them out of my ger (books, clothes, water distillers, etc). My bookself, which at one time was completely full and cluttered, is almost completely bare. I've been burning old clothes that I don't need and are way too nasty to give away. I'm getting a box together of things I'm leaving the volunteer who will take my place, and I'm sorting out which things to give away to M20s and which things to take home.

I was talking to my duu. That is my little mongolian brother. He's 9 years old, and we've been good friends for a long time. I mentioned how soon it is before I'll go back to America. He started bawling. We hugged, and he kept crying. It's was so sad. I looked around the ger for something to give him as a present. I gave him my frizbee. That helped, but he sniffled for a while still. It was my first encounter with really having to say goodbye to my friends here. And I'm realizing that it's going to be really hard. Yeah, certain people will stand out as the hardest, but I've depended on these people in so many crazy ways for the last couple years. They've made living in Mongolia tolerable and worth it. Not only that, but also my fellow M19s, I'm not sure you can imagine how close you get to be to people when they are your ONLY other foreigner contacts. And most of them are amazingly cool on top of that. Oh well, there's still some time before all that.

I love you all with a great passion. Everyone congratulate Wes on completing his PreService Training in Paraguay!!! He's starting his journey as a sworn-in PCV. Good luck.

I hope to see you guys soon. I haven't forgotten any of you. (and a couple of you I haven't met)

PEACE LOVE GRACE HOPE FAITH All the blessings of heaven. Be fruitful and multiply!

The word spring means something totally different in Mongolia. Sping here is like a person that fell asleep watching The Shining and then proceeds to have bad dream after bad dream, waking up occasionally and thinking, "Oh, I hope that's the last bad dream." What can I compare you to, Mongolain spring? You are like a man who bits his tongue and then every time he thinks it's getting better, he bites it again, and it all starts over.

Every once in a while, it gets warm (keep in mind, after a year here your definition of the word "warm" will include a temp in which you can still see your breath). The sun will shine, and all of the snow will melt and make a flood out of your town. Then it will get dry, and the wind picks up and you get crazy dust storms. With the wind comes colder weather and clouds, which gets everything cold, like bitter freezing cold, and then it snows for a while and the cycle starts again. This can happen over the course of a week, or it can happen twice in just a few hours. you can never know what to wear. It's time for a tank top, and then you need a wnter coat. You wear your tennis shoes, but by the end of the day the ground in the entire town has become mud. forget to bring a hat to work, and your ears might get frost bit on the walk home. Wear long underwear in the morning, and by lunch time your sweating in them. The joy of spring. Mongolians say, "The spring sky is a moody person", at least that's the official translation. My translation would use a little different wording.

I just started my last quarter of school. It's really exciting. My movie club is going great. And I've decided to teach with all of the teachers for these last few weeks. The truth is, I really only have about 5 weeks of teaching left. My close of service conference is in Mid-May, and by the time I get back from that, it'll be graduation time. Then, in the first week of June the M-21's fly in to start their journey in the steppe. I'm hoping to make the most of the time I have left.

But still, I do care less and less for being culturaly sensitive. Sure, I still use my right hand, pull my sleeve down when I recieve things, make sure my liquid containers are always pointing north, shake a person's hand if we happen to touch feet, and a whole list of other things that have become second nature, but a Mongolian recently told me (at a government sponsered shool event where kids were all around and people were drinking vodka) that I had to drink three shots because that's Mongolian custom. I said, "I don't care." And that's been my MO for the last while. I don't let people show up to meetings late and just pass it off as culture anymore. I don't let people come into my ger and just take whatever they want, nor do I any longer ignore it when the teachers and staff steal my things from my classroom. they don't call it stealing, but it's stealing. No, some things can't be overlooked and passed off as "culture". refusing to show up on time and constantly reschelduling meetings that you don't really plan on attending, lying to someone about your intentions just because it's easier to disappoint them then tell them the truth, borrowing money (or anything) that you don't plan to pay back, showing up to school at 10:00am too drunk to teach, or never putting in your contribution to a project that would have gotten resources for your school and students, these things are not merely cultural differences. They are flaws that don't do anyone any good. And I wish someone had let me know that it's not my job to allow and enable this behavior. The way we're taught is that you can't change these things, so just try to work around it. I've decided I can't take that view anymore. It's not that I'm going to be able to change anything, but I can at least voice my disapproval and refuse to participate. And when something harms me personally, emotionally, or monatarilly, I can certainly stand up and say that I'm not going to take it anymore. Oh well, too little too late I suppose. But the point is, I'm not too worried about burning bridges anymore, especailly those bridges that I now see were never important. Trust me, this is a very different stance from the one I've had for the last couple years.

Easter has happened! I spent it with some American friends. We had a pot luck lunch. Everyone spent a lot of money on their food. And in the end we had a feast of pizza, hamburgers, fries, pie, cookies, biscuits, scrambled eggs, yogurt, soda, and deep fried peanuts (Yeah, that last one was me). We played charades, and got so stuffed that I didn't eat again until dinner the next day.

I have an official close of service date. It's July 15th. Somehow, I was able to get myself on the first flight out of Mongolia. I hope my family's happy about that. I originaly wanted to stay until the very end, August 13th, but family and other plans have had me push this up. It feels so weird. I can mark a day on the calendar of when I'll be on a plane out of here.

All of my extra money has been going to buying gifts for people. From the looks or it, most of my luggage on the way back will be gifts. Some people are going to be pleased I think. I'm not totally done yet, but I've got something for most of my family and a couple friends. Living like this has made me super duper poor, but that's to be expected at the end of a "wild adventure". And I have lots of little things for people I've overlooked. Anyway, I hope I'm not forgetting anyone important.

I know you all are busy with stuff. Still, it'd be good to hear from you. I have an interview soon via skype with Mission Year. Wish me luck.

I love you all.

Peace

Wow, it's the end of March. It's snowing everyday, and the wind just gets stronger and stronger. Not to mention it's still about 20 degrees in the day and 0 degrees at night (F). But enough of a weather update.

Work at school is going. We are in the middle of a 2 week break. That means, just one more quarter to go . But I'm still going to work everyday because I have a student and a teacher going to the English Olympics competition, and I care a lot that he does well. At night, I'm writing emails, filling out applications, researching things, and basically getting ready to dive back into it in America. I've got some amazing leads, back to that in a minute. Anyway. I'm so tired lately cause I've been email corresponding with america at night and teaching in the day. So, I don't have time to sleep. Ug. I've even been passing out randomly while at home.

BTW I'm borrowing a keyboard from the computer lab at my school during this break. That's how I'm able to write this blog here.

So....I've decided I'm going to try to join a Christian monastic society when I get home. I'm in the application process now. What that means is, I'd live in a common home with other Christians, we'd all have part time jobs (or not depending on the orders) and pool all of our money together, spend everyday in contemplative prayer, and use the rest of our time on community projects. The one I really want to get in with is called The Simple Way in Philladelpha. Those people are known for all sorts of antics, including getting arrested on occasion while protesting unjust laws that marginalize the poor (no sleeping in public, no begging, no peeing in public, etc.) I'm really excited about this next chapter. The other monastic society I'm applying to is called Mission Year, they are in 8 cities in the States. I have a good feeling about that one. I've applied, had references sent, traded emails, and I've even hand written a letter to Shane Claiborne, telling him about my intentinos of applying for his apprenticeship. I feel the same way about this stuff as I did when I applied for Peace Corps. As soon as I got on the right track, the rest has just followed and keeping on it has not been difficult. I hope one day to maybe even start a monastic society in Atlanta or even maybe just help people who are looking to shed the single-home family and take on a multiple-family home setting, give counciling to some of the issues involved, etc. This time, this next year, I hope will be the time I can learn and grow in that area.

Intereting note, the book I read that eventually led me to join Peace Corps was called "The Only Road North" a gift from a very amazing friend, I'm talking about Melanie here. Anyway, the book I read that got me started on this path was "Jesus for President" and from there "The Irresistible Revolution", both by Shane Claiborne, but this too was a suggestion from a friend, Tysen. They were both of the "Brandon, you need to read this book" variety. God bless pushy friends.

I've been very isolated lately. It might just be the time of year, but I haven't been out of town in a while. And I haven't been back to my resupply site in well over a month. It;s pretty difficult, but as the weather slowly gets better (despite the flippin' snow and wind), I feel like I can take on anything.

I know that I've grown so much. At the beginning of this second school year, I said that I didn't think I had a lot more personal growth to go through. That was so wrong. I've changed how I feel about food and nutrition, theology, pacifism, my reputation, and so much more. And I know I have this time to thank for a lot of the strides I've made.

I'm always happy to hear from you guys in the states. Please, send an email this month if you've got the time, or give me a call if you can afford it. If you don't know, my email is luc_duchien@yahoo.com . That's the one I still use for friendly correspondance.

Love ya'll

Brandon

I'm back to having to go out to blog. Sorry mom, your right, I didn't break my keyboard by blogging too much. If you want an update, you might just have to call. Before I get into how much fun I'm having, I just want to say, when will this cold end? We're still getting -15c days and -25c nights. Oh well.

I've been working really hard lately. I don't wake up super early like I ought, but I'm at school all day from the time I get there. The english olympics are coming up. This means that that my kids are being pulled from all of their classes to study in the English room. I've been making tests, assigning essays, tutoring listening and speaking, etc. until the sun goes down. Also, after Tsagaan sar, the lunar new year, there seems to be an endless string of mini-holidays to occupy all of our time. Today was the big Women's Day celebration. I cut out early because they werer getting to be too rowdy. Before, I'd care a lot about wanting to be friendly in the Mongolilan way, but as my service draws to an end, I feel less and less of a need to be culturally sensitive. On the other hand, more and more, I just want to sream and shout at my coworkers about the obsesive need to have copious amounts of vodka for any and every social gathering. I mean, drinking some sometimes is a good, and I can see people wanting to go overboard for a special occasion, but it's unheard of to get people together without buying at least 4 or 5 bottles of vodka and/or 3 or 4 2-liter bottles of beer. It's exhausting. On top of that, often there's the Mongolian alcohol made from milk, no not the milk stuff, the 50 proof clear death drink.

Did I say I was going to get to how awesome my life is and how much fun I'm having? I know that all the crap is going to disolve once the temperature gets and stays above freezing. And I can't describe it, but this has been an amazing couple months for me. It's just good. But here's the hitch, it's good, but in the way that I know it's gonna be awesome soon. It's gonna get warm, our close of service conference is in 9 weeks, and I'll be heading home in August. It's like I'm engulfed in hope.

We're in the middle of Lent. That's going well. I'm reading a book called "Jesus for President" and despite its terrible title, it's a pretty good book. It's by Shane Claiborne, who reminds me a lot of Rob Bell. Before this book, I got deep into the history of Christian theology for a while, and just wanted to bit my own head off by the time I got to Vatican II. While it's really interesting, it's not my bag.

I'm looking for jobs now. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing. I hope I'll be working at all. But I'm ready to settle down. I want to have one job and do it well, have one community and be a part of it, have one woman and love her right, and dig my roots deep. Who knows, you don't always get what you want. (And to be fair, I could see myself doing some other crazy thing and living in some other crazy place, but it's not the way I'm feeling now.)

Send me your questions if you have them.

Have fun guys. See you soon. Stay strong and shine bright.

Peace.

2010, wooo.

SO much has happened in the last month. Christmas and New Year's, the worst of the cold season, mandatory flu shots, dates, and much more. Now that January is almost over, the extreem -40 degree weather is slowly becoming more and more tolerable. In fact, every day we get 3 or so more minutes of sunlight. There's always rumors that this week or next week will be really bad, but those are things you have to deal with when they come up. The winter this year was bad though. My town in particular had a lot of livestock die from the cold and starvation. This winter was much worse than last year for exactly one reason. There weren't any mid-minter warm day like last year. Last year we had one or two days a month that wasn't bitterly cold. It gave the ground a little time to melt a bit of the snow away, but I don't think even the first snow ever melted. This way, the snow doesn't water the ground, it becomes icy hard, and the animals don't have any way of getting grass. Plus, the constant cold eventually kills them.

Cruddy news out of the way, Christmas and New Year's were pretty good, considering I'm away from home for the second year in a row. I was able to make it to a Catholic mass on Christmas. It made it feel that much more Christmassy. A friend went with me. It just reminded me again how much I miss my congregation at home. I spent the New Year's countdown with some friends in my aimag center. It still makes me crack up how different Mongolians do it. Last year, they didn't count down at all. This year, they did a count down over and over and over again from, like, 25 seconds. They did it starting about 5 before midnight til a little after. Priceless.

A lot of my friends are going home. We have a terrible early termination rate. It's like 30% that have gone home now. One of the ones who went home was my friend that I went to Cambodia with. Another was asked to leave for medical reasons. It feels like our close of service gathering is gonna be sadly unpopulated.

I got in trouble with the M-20s for calling them newbies. Those noobs can just go get stuck in the hodoo with nothing but their useless signal-less phones. I say that because I know now that they read my blog. Sorry.

Teacher's day is Friday, which means competitions, a lack of focus on work, and of course a party. I don't know if I'll make it to mine. As I recall, last year I won some sort of award, I never figured out what it was for or if I was supposed to get a certificate. I do remember them calling my name. After this, everything will center around the English olympics. At least I'll have more direction. As it is, every time I get on a schedule, something happens and I get thrown off again. First it was swine flu, then it was Christmas, then it was flu shots, now it's gonna be planning this English seminar.

Personally, I'm realizing that I've changed more than I can even say. I feel so much less crazy (after spending so much time in crazy mode here) than when I left. I mean, my head is on straight in a way it hasn't been in a while. At the same time, I'm totally lost as far as what I'll be doing in about 7 months. I'm in constant prayer about it. And it's not just that, I'm here, there, and everywhere about what to do in the present as well. It's strange that I relate feeling sane with being confused like that.

My good friend Tysen is going to come by this weekend. It'll be really good to see him. He was coming just to visit my site, but we rethought the plan and now I'm gonna meet him in between. The two of us already spend enough money calling one another on our cell phones. I'm pretty excited.

Teacher's day, Tsagaan Sar, English Olympics, one more quarter, and I'm done. That's how I'm counting time, and I know I'm not alone in that.

Good luck Wes in Paraguay. I'm sure you'll do awesome. I want to hear all about it.

Good luck everyone else.

Peace be with you all.

First, thanks to everyone who sent christmas cards my way. I've recieved 12, mostly from the Northlake family. At this time of year, when the days are short and cold, it's really hard to get my head in the game. Lonliness is so real sometimes. Thanks for the reminder that I'm not as alone as it seems.

Thanksgiving was fun. We had an embassy party again. There was turkey and all the goodies volunteers brought. I didn't stuff myself like last year. I had a pleasant time though. I was able to see some people that I will not see again until we do our close of service. There were the parties and craziness you might expect from volunteers when they get together. I bought another gallon of hot sauce at the store that let's you do that. I went through a gallon in the last year. We'll see if I can do it again. I'm well on my way. Hot sauce gives Mongolian food that extra tolerability needed for my happiness and a successful completion of my service here.

Work is back. My school gave me a new system to use in counterpart development. The old system was working until the school closings, and we all know how hard it is to get things going again that have been halted for some reason. The new method requires a lot of motivation on the Mongolian's part. It's one of those things where the more they give, the more they'll get. I'm fine with it, but when they are too busy or unwilling to work, it makes me look all the more unbusy. I'm hoping the rest of the month will turn out better than the first part.

I just want to do a good job in these last months. The end is just about in sight. Not quite, but just over the horizon. I am starting to think about what things I'll bring back, give away, or throw away (burn). I'm remembering the struggle I was having last year, trying to stay focused on work with winter pulling me down.

I know I'm seeming distant from people in the states lately. I've had a couple people tell me I'm being way too withdrawn. I'm really sorry. Know that I think about you all everyday. I just hate to communicate when I'm not feeling so great. Don't get me wrong, I'm alright a lot of the time. It just takes a lot of energy to stay up. Your prayers have helped a lot. I've gone through this part of the winter before, and I'm sure I'll get through it again.

Ahhhh. So let's just take a breath and remember that we are in Advent. Christmas is coming! I really hope I'll be able to spend it with others and not have to be here alone on that day. I'm sure I won't be sticking around if I can help it. Like I mentioned last year, Christmas is an empty word to Mongolians. Most believe that it's just another word for new year, and they are generally unimpressed when I explain that Christmas and New Year's are two different holidays.

So, life is good but tough. I'm looking forward to having a good Christmas, but mostly I'm wishing I could just teleport home for a minute and come back after. Hopefuly, this'll be the last Christmas away from home though.

I wish there were more to share, but it's a lot of the same. I miss you all. And I hope your holidays are full of love and family.

Peace

One thing before I get started. The other night it was –11C. It’s supposed to drop lower this next week. Hahaha. IT HAS BEGUN!

All the schools in the country are out for a month. That’s the last two weeks and the next two weeks. They haven’t been able to stop the rapid spread of swine flu, so they’re taking all the precautions they can. All travel to and from the city is prohibited. The students are learning from home via television broadcast. I feel weird cause soon enough the Americans will be inoculated. But a lot of people are freaking out. Surgical masks aren’t uncommon in Asia to begin with, but everyone seems to be wearing one now. So I’ve got this time to do what I want, except the higher ups have decided to restrict all traveling for volunteers until the vaccines are in. I’m left in my small corner of the world to read, reflect, etc. It would be a crime (against my mother mainly) to not use this time to update y’all as much as possible. My home church has been really supportive lately, sending emails and the like. It’s coming at a really needed time. It’s odd. My work is going great. Socially, I’m thriving here. I feel prepared for whatever the winter might throw at me. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time. Yet, some days I still feel like I’m not going to make it. I get this voice in my head that tells me that the gamble I took coming out here, all that self-motivation I gave myself about throwing myself to the wolves and seeing what comes of it, that it wasn’t worth the risk. Odd right? Perhaps it’s that everyone hears right before the finish line, the final attempt by your inner demons to distract you because their cause is almost lost. Here’s to hopeful thinking because there’s no way I’m turning back now. I had a visit by some PC managers. Talk about validation. They talked with my director and counterparts at the school to hear their thoughts on my work. They said they were very happy with me and my work, and they hope the next volunteer continues in my footsteps. Now, Mongolians are not the type to talk down on anyone, especially the guest American, but it felt sincere. I just hope I can some through with some of the promises and plans I’ve made. That being the week long teacher’s camp I’ve proposed and the English lounge that they’ve asked me to help build. If I can just get those two things completed before I go, I’ll feel like that and the work I’ve done/am doing will make my work there a success. The Mongolian who I visited in Korea is here, visiting his brother, my counterpart. It’s good to see him again. I’m definitely planning to stop back in Seoul on my way home. I just don’t know what I’ll do with all my luggage and whatnot. The plan so far is to go to Korea, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and then home to Atlanta. But who can see that far in the future. I really wondering how much it would cost to send home some of the things I won’t need on the way. I’m guessing a couple hundred dollars. Yanaa! That’s a lot of tugriks. Thanksgiving is coming on us fast. I hope the travel ban is lifted before then, cause we’re supposed to have a party with TURKEY on the Saturday after. It might just be the last time I’ll see some people before I close service. Many people I won’t see before then. The newbies are already starting to complain. It’s funny because it was this time last year that we started to as well. It is nice being on the other side of that equation, listening to what their schools are making them do or how they can’t get things done like in America, and then telling them what’s what. They’re losing that blind optimism that we all had coming in. I just try to let them know that it’ll be hard but it’ll be fine. Blind optimism turns to frustration, but eventually it becomes a vision for the future. Again, I miss all of you. I’ve been inspired as far as what I’d like to do with the rest of my life. The epiphany also came at a good time. It’s given me some new energy. I’ll talk about that later. It’s too early to report on now. If you’re interested you can call me or email me. I’d like to discuss things with someone. Which reminds me, I need to email my bro Carson. I’ll hit you up again soon…Internet… Love, Love, Love, Love. In a word, it’s love.

Apologies. Seriously.

Part of the reason, i think, that I haven't updated is that now, in the second year, it's a little difficult to find interesting things to write about. Either I have to worry about repeating myself, or I have to take things that have become normal and treat them like they are special enough to write about. I'm not sure how many of you want to read, "I continue to eat with Mongolians everyday. They still rotate making the same three dishes continually. or Wow, I was in a bus today for 6 hours even though the trip should only take 1.5 hours. It was crammed with 17 people, even though the max capacity is 11."

I think about writing a lot. But I don't know what to say.

Here's my attempt at just giving some sort of update. The school year is up and running. Right now I'm in a near by town with some other volunteers. The week break between quarters was supposed to be the second week in November, but the minister of education pushed it forward to this week because of the bird flu "epidemic", hoping that sepatating the kids will slow the spread. I had work to do across the country during that week, and now I won't be able to go do it because I'll need to teach.

I started up the computer class again. We put a certain program on the computers to replace the defunct DynedLab that we had last year. Still, no internet, but the kids love this new program. It's very user friendly. We have 3 classes a day of 20 kids each. that's 300 kids that volunteer to come in and do an hour a week of extra english work. I'm loving the succes of this one. So many of the things I've tried to do have fallen apart for one reason or another. It seems that I've finally gotten the hang of working here. This year is seriously easier, less stressful, and much more productive than last year. It's unreal. I think both the lessons I learned from my first year and my vacation to Cambodia and Korea contributed to how great things are going.

I miss home a lot. It's come up quite a bit in my mind in the last couple weeks. I was recently able to speak with one of the returned volunteers from the group before me, a good friend. She's also from Atlanta. It just drove the point home in me. I'm now 96% sure I will not try for a 3rd year. In fact, I'm gonna try to leave a bit early to make it to my cousin's wedding next year. Missing home isn't causing any doubts as to whether I'll make it to a solid close of service. I'm just realizing that a lot of what I like about myself comes out from being around friends and family. There's a spiritual dimention to my journey that has diminished. I know it's waiting for me in the States to come back to, and I'm finding new ways to remain headstrong, but at the moment I really miss the feeling of being engulfed in a large crowd of hamonizing singers. I miss hearing a sermon in person...in english. I miss communion.

I'm pretty tired at present. Sorry if some of this blog reads oddly. What else? Oh, I'm going with my school to an english compitition in the Gobi next month. That's gonna be rad. I haven't made it down there yet. I'll make sure to take pictures.

To my nieces and nephews. I'll be back soon. Please don't grow too much too fast. Just wait another 9 months or so. Ok?

I'll try to post again soon guys. Really.

Grace

Without further delay

Being back in Mongolia puts things into a new perspective. Like a Monday morning's refelction on the successes and failures of weekend activities, being around the familiar faces and places here have me thinking about where it all went wrong and where it all went right. For the last 3 weeks I've been in my happy home of Khujirt. I had a couple meetings, worked on my community project, checked out what my peoples are up to, but mostly sat around my ger and watched tv shows on the computer. I'm intent on making this next year mean more to me, professionally, than the last. We'll see about that.

Now I'm in the city. The new batch of volunteers is just about finished with their training. They swear in on Wednesday. The change that was so thick in the air a couple months ago is thinning out as the M-20's prepare to spread out over the country and do their civil duties. The immediacy of a new school year now confronts us M-19 teachers.

My province, Ovorkhangai, is getting 5 new volunteers. I met them yesterday at their training site. All of them seem pretty cool in their own right. Finally, there is going to be another volunteer in a small town like me. His town is about an hour away from mine. It'll be nice to have someone else nearby who'll be going through the same challenges that I faced last year. For one, I'll be able to give a bit of advice about how to handle the situation. Two, I'll be going through the same things, and it'll be good to have someone who can relate. It's hard to remember last winter as anything than a dream, but soon enough (it'll start snowing in just over a month) excessive layers of clothing and stove fire maintenance will be a part of everyday living.

So many people from my group have left over the summer. I'm pretty sure our drop out rate is somewhere over 20% by now, and if history tells us anything, the beginning of the new school year and the beginning of the cold season will have a fw more out soon. Some people who have left are people I'd never have expected, and in the same respect, some people I'd thought would have left by now are still here...some thriving.

That last paragraph was a grammar lesson all its own.

For the time being, us veteran vols are getting the most out of what the city can provide before it's time. Yet, you can tell by out spending habits and likelyhood to stay in rather than go out, we've grown up a lot. Of course, by growing up I mean going long periods of time being completely broke.

thanks to evryone who reads these blogs. there's no sight of internet coming back in my town. so for now, you'll all have to make due with these postings only when I have the chance.

best of luck. best of times. peace and grace

I'm in Seoul.

I took 5 bdays off of my Cambodian vacation to visit some Mongolian friends in Seoul. I came without knowing anything but their names and the fact that they are Mongolian. It worked...even though I had their names wrong. It turns out they go by different familiar names here than they do in Mongolia.

I searched the internet for the area in Seoul where Mongolians live. I took the train to this place from the airport, found a Mongolian run restaurant, told them my story, and 7 hours later I was eating Huushuur with them. If I had known only their names or the name of their restaurant, or even a phone number, it would have taken only a minute.

I feel lucky as it is though. I figured that if I couldn't find them, I'd just convince some other Mongolian to take me in, which I had already worked out when Khishgee walked into the barber shop I was at. Someone heard that I was there looking for Mongolians from Khujirt, that I was an English teacher, and that I had been invited. They at once said, "That must be Genden!" (my mongolian name).

They've been so incredible to me. They will not let me pay for anything, no matter how hard I protest. They say that 5 days is not long enough and that I need to tell Peace Corps that I'll be here a month. HA! As if that were possible. They've shown me all around Seoul. Korea is amazing. It reminds me a lot of Atlanta.

Still. It's been over a month since I left Mongolia, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to site. Thanks to my lovely big sister, I have a good collection of movies and TV shows to keep me occupied this winter. I need to get busy on my secondary project, and I really need to begin putting english learning programs on the computers at my school.

It's possible that I may get the internet back this year. If I have to, I'll help pay for it. Learning how to navigate the internet is going to be key for those students who want to be a part of this technological generation. I really want to teach typing classes and give instructions on search engines and informational websites.

I keep thinking about the coming winter. I don't know why, but it keeps going through my head that I'm gonna endure it one more time. I have a battle strategy this year of how to keep from going crazy and stay on the up side of depression. I mean, it's gonna happen. It happens to everyone, but this time I'll be ready for it. I have battle plans for keeping warm, keeping clean/smelling good, eating well, exercising, etc. I really don't think I'm over thinking this, although other PCVs are telling me they'd rather not even concider it until the time comes.

I leave for Mongolia on Sunday. Then it's work work work.

Blessings and Peace

Greetings,

What is the one thing I think while walking down these Cambodian streets? "Why-o why-o why-o was I not placed in Cambodia." No offence Mongolia, but LOOK AT THIS PLACE!!! Everything's green, and you can buy fruit right off the side of the road. Sure, everyone has that original cotton-eyed hit of beauty when they first see a place, but I've now seen 3 different cities and they are all so pretty.

Ben and I met up with a couple of Volunteers in Kampot. One guy is an ex-PCV who works at a restaurant. He gave us some free beers, (that's right, come on down and get free beer in Kampot), and he and his girlfriend talked to us for awhile about their service. Cambodia opened up as a PC country a couple of years ago, so these guys are building the program from scratch. They're pretty pleased with their placement. In all seriousness, I am too.

The food here is great. $1.50 will get you a nice dinner with fish and rice and dessert. The two of us have been wandering around where ever the bus is going. We got on a bus to Kampot, but it broke down in front of a town called Kep, so we decided Kep was as good as Kampot and stayed there. Then the guesthouse owner in Kep had a friend that was going to Kampot anyway, so we rode with him to this place.

PC Cambodia has been very good to us. They forwarded out an email to the vols here asking if anyone would mind a visit from some Mongolians, and we've gotten 4 responses, which is good because we're less than a week into our month stay and a third way through our money, no fault of our own natually. This way we can go to different sites in Cambodia and stay with Volunteers. Travelling should be our biggest expenceonce we start on that route.

It's not as hot here as I thought it'd be. The mornings are blazing, but around noon it rains for a while and everything cools off. The humidity in Cambodia is a welcome change too, just like momma used to make.

We welcomed in the new volunteers in the best of PCM tradition. As all the newbies are coming off the plane, tired and jetlagged from being on planes for 18 or so hours, they are met by a sreaming and hollering crowd of over-hyped, unsensitive, and seasoned volunteers. It was obnoxious, but I think they felt welcomed. They are probably in language class right now wondering how suffix prepositions work, and practicing asking their host families if they like fruit. I don't miss those days.

Oh, weirdest thing. I was at the airport in Seoul, enjoying my 14 hour layover, and a kid comes up to me and asks me in Mongolian what time it is. I'm like "Chi Mongol hun mon uu?" Or, are you Mongolian? And he says yes and we start this conversation up. How random does it get? Just as I was leaving the Mongolian tongue behind, I got in one more conversation.

Well. have a blast.

Brandon

Hello all you patient people.

Sorry for the delay, and sorry for this short post. I leave for Cambodia in a few hours. I'm gonna have a 14 hour layover in Seoul, so that'll be fun.

I've been working, believe it or not. I took a trip out to Zavkhan last week for a teacher's camp. The trip was 35 hours in a bus that was 4 people over the official limit. Travel is a whole other post for another time. The camp was great. Zavkhan is amazingly beautiful. There are trees and mountains and rivers. We saw the highest peak in Mongolia, Otgon Tenger. It was snow capped and majestic, all that good stuff. On the 5th of June it snowed all day long. So that is my first time seeing snow fall in June...officially.

The ride back was a lot better. I had my own seat, and I was able to make my way to the front where I could stretch my legs a bit. It was only 25.5 hours to get back too. That driver meant business.

So for th last four days I've been in the city. Some volunteers from Kazakstan came by the Mongolian office. It was cool to hear their stories and compare. From what it sounds like, they have a very similar experience there.

For the next month I'll be on the beach eating seafood and wondering...remembering how the other half live. If you want, send me an email. If you're important enough you already know the email account that I check. I'm talking to you Northlake church of Christ. NcoCKBATW!!! I just made that up. Don't ask what it means.

Have a wonderful time. I know I will.

Peace and Love and All that is Good.

B

The end of my first year is approaching. My first year of school here is also coming to a close. It's a pretty emotional time. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I can't believe how much AND how little I've gotten done. I can't believe it's almost half way over. This ride has been like nothing I've ever done before. It's hard to see, day by day, the little changes that go into the making of a tried and true PCV. Winter is now totally over and we are beginning to have days that are so hot I don't want to go outside at all. Yeah. I've also seen in the last month 3 blizzards. The spring Mongolian sky is like a moody person. You never know exactly what you are going to get from hour to hour. My total person from flesh to mind to soul is feeling better. Sure I've been sick lately, but the bright shining sun makes all the difference. It doesn't get dark until about 9:00, and soon it'll stay light until after 10. It's so much eaisier to wake up when the sunlight breaks through the top of my ger before my alarm goes off. Spring is not only for the grass and livestock. It's also for our spirits.

My Mongolian family has been very busy taking care of their new lambs and kids. We now have over 100 in our livestock, and everyday they take them all out to pasture and every evening they bring them all back in to my front yard. One of my teaching counterparts is off at a month long seminar where they can only speak English, good for him, but this doubles the work for me. Also, one of my other English teachers is in the hospital. There are only 3 weeks left to teach, but this is turning out to be my busiest month yet.

I've decided that I'm going to go with one of my friends here to Cambodia for a month during our summer break. I'm so excited. I really need a break. Mongolians ask me all the time if I miss my family or if living in Mongolia is difficult for me. They really can't imagine. I couldn't have imagined it before I came either. Some days it seems that nothing is the same. Some days, everything I have to do is seasoned with that special Mongolia salt that makes things difficult, confusing, and insanely backward. I've met Mongolians that have gone to Korea for only 2 or 3 weeks and they come back saying that all they wanted was to get back to Mongolia where everything makes sense. The thing about living continually in a different place is that every little thing builds up...all the time, all day long...and never seems to let up. The solitude is the worst really. When I visit friends in some other place, everything is so much easier to deal with. I can talk to someone who not only knows where I am coming from but is also going through the same thing. I can finally talk to someone in English without having to talk 30 words per minute.

Not that I'm all down, quite the opposite. I'm so up right now that I feel confident taking about how rough it is sometimes. When I'm feeling really down I always question my right to feel so. It's hard to remember that the stresses that are laid on me right now are very much real stuggles. My friend Dwan recently reminded me that people tend to forget how sad or frusterated or burnt out or on edge they are until it's pointed out or until that stress is relieved. That's so true for me. I forget the burden I carry just living here and then I'm suprised when I flip out for something really small. Lately I've been accutely aware of how stressed I am and it's helping me to be less suprised when I break down or something. It happens. I love my job. I love where I am. I wouldn't trade it for nothing, but the Monglolians I work with cannot possibly know who badly I need this vacation.

I love you all and I'm really happy that I'll be coming home in just over a year....15 or so months. Until then, know that I'm doing exactly what I believe I need to be doing, and I appriciate every little morsel of support you send my way everyday.

Thanks so much

God bless you all.

Wow, it's been a long time.

Things are going great. Well, I'm pretty sick at the moment, but other than my health, things are terriffffic. I may just have internet in my town soon. It's supposed to be at the bank. I went once and it worked. The next time I went it was down. We'll have to see. Every new day is a new day of adventure here in the U.S. of Mongolia. (not the real name of this country)

This semester is promising to be the best one yet. My teachers are the most excited to work with me yet. This might have something to do with the fact that I told the training manager to make a schedule that my counterparts have to adhere to. I didn't want to do this before. They are all so over-worked as it is. I wanted the meetings to be on a volunteer basis, but I betrayed myself shortly thereafter. I felt like one of those people who say they'd like to give you a "by donation only" copy of a religious text, like the Bhagavad Gita, but then get upset when the donation you want to give is $.00. That sounded better in my head...anyway, I feel like I'm getting lots of work I needed to do done.

I'll give you one story about what kind of frustrations a volunteer might face in Mongolia. I've been training these two girls who won a regional English competition for the provential olympics for the last month...every day...even during breaks. They worked so hard, and I was extreemly proud of them. One student is all but fluent. She's amazing. She was a shoe-in to win and go to the national competition. The problem was that she also was scheduled to take the chemistry olympic exam too. The two exams happened to be scheduled at the same time, but no one said anything about it until the day before. They made her choose which one she would take. They wouldn't let her take both. Now, there is no rule about being in two competitions. Other students were able to compete in as many exams as they wanted, the olympics go on for three days. I was so mad when I found out that they were forcing her out of one of them. She had the right to prove herself in both fields. She worked so incredbly hard, studing everyday after school, on weekends, and on breaks. Anyway. That is how it is here. To me there was no reason to wait for the last second to tell her she had to choose, let alone no reason she couldn't have taken both tests. It would have been so easy to accomidate and facilitate her. I'm going to talk to the person in charge about this as soon as I can. I asked and I've been told I have to take it up with the Minister of Education. I suppose I'll give them a call on Monday or find the best way to bring this up. They have to know this is a problem. There has to be some precident set in place for if and when this ever happens again. 'Cause that is the problem at the heart. The competition was on a Friday, and there was no precedent and no one to call to get permssion to give her a special time to take the second test.

So what do you think. Am I overreacting? I don't know. Maybe that's just the way it is.

Summer break is coming like thunder. I've seen the light(ning). one mississippi, two mississippi. This summer I hope to keep real busy working on projects, but just as much, I'm looking forward to doing the chilling game. I want to spend the first three weeks of summer vacation in my town. I plan to go out into the mountains and hike and sleep in my sleeping bag. I probably wont go alone, but I'm sure there'll be someone willing to go with.

They say the second year goes by faster than the first. We'll see on that too.

I really just don't know what else to say. Life is good. The weather is getting warm. I'm feeling good (everything but my intestines).

Peace to yo motha. (Hi mom)

B

Oh wow. There's so much to talk about.I know I'll forget most of everything that I need to say in this blog. It's just crazy right now. I still don't have internet in my town. Tsagaan Sar is the Mongolian lunar new year. It was on Feb. 25th this year. That so happens to also be my birthday. It also so happened to be Ash Wednesday. It's difficult to explain exactly what Tsagaan Sar is and how big is is. My friend Travis said it well when he described it as a mix of New Year's, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and everybody's birthday all at the same time. People put in an enormous amount of time and money preparing for this 5 day feast. Beyond the 5 days, there's a sort of Tsagaan Sar Eve that they celebrate and the ongoing party that lasts as long as it lasts. People who haven't seen each other and meet, no matter how long after the new year, will greet one another with Tsagaan Sar greetings.I had a wild time to say the least. I was dreading it a little, but now I can't wait for next year. The traditional food is a Mongolian dumpling called buuz. My family made 2000 of them in the few days before. We also made 70 hard pastries called boov.So spring is coming. Glorious Spring. The weather is already picking up. The winds are blowing harder as we prepare for the Duststorm season. But the wonderful news is that soon we will rise above the freezing mark for good. Right now even the nights are only -10C or so. -10C is no problem. But soon the days will be warm and the nights will be cool, and I'll leave my ger door open and open my ger's roof flap. The Sun will come out earlier and earlier while setting later and later. I saw some rather terrible duststorms in the summer, but the season is really an April/May thing. I'll let you know how that goes.I've really been surprising myself with my language skills. It's really turned conversational lately. I still don't understand most men...at all, but the ones I do have much thinner accents. Women, I can get all the time. It's insane some days. I don't know where it comes from. Yet there are still days when my brain shuts off and I can't understand anyone or say even the simplest of sentences. It's in such a grand fluctuation. I don't really know what to do with it. I suppose I'll just keep studying and doing what I do. I haven't found a tutor yet, no one who is willing to meet with me on a regular basis. I might start learning ASL from this deaf woman who I'm working with currently. She offered to teach me anyway, and I'd really like to learn.Everything's great though. I can't believe it's been over 9 months and I'll be saying farewell to my first year of service soon. Really. The longer I'm at site, the more I feel at peace with my work. Yes, I struggle all the time with very simple parts of my job. Yes, I can talk another PCVs ear off about things I'm frustrated about. Yes, I have days when I don't know if I can go on for one reason or another. But the things that keep me going are the little ways I know I'm helping, a building desire to see the whole term through, and the realization that the difficulties I face ARE my job just as much if not more than seeing tangible results. This last one was the most difficult for me to get. I'll never be able to put my work results into a pir chart or bar graph. I'll never be able to give stats about the condition of my work agency: before and after. I have to accept that most of what I do is neither qualitative or quantitatively measurable, and I can't go about my work in that mindset either. A lot of what I do, I have to rely on faith to believe it is making any difference. Sure, there are the kids I tutor and the visible improvement in their skills. There are test grades and communication barriers that come down, but most of my time feels like it is spent smashing my fist into a wall (More accurately, knocking on the wall and asking it to move for me, but I liked the imagery and the subtle allusion to the Berlin wall).I hope I'm communicating this well. It's hard to describe really. The point is that I'm more and more realizing my purpose here, and for the purpose I'm here, I really think I'll do what I can do and do it well.Sorry to anyone who was worried about me recently. I was staying in a place with no cell phone coverage for my phone for a couple days. I'll remember to let you know that I'm not gonna be available,Love y'all.

Peace

I've returned from a week+ long road trip. Along the way I forgot my phone in a city that is 300kms away, I grew a beard, my bank card decided to stop working...ok, let's go back to the beginning.

I left my town under the impression that we were going to have a week off. I went to the closest town to me and visited some friends there for a night. I helped with a English Teachers club, etc. The next day I went to the gas station and waited for someone to come by who was going to Bayankhongor. I didn't wait too long before a post office bus from the capital came by and I paid the driver to give me a lift. The ride was 6 hours and at night. Buses can get very cold at night, but luckily just my feet turned to icicles. I was met by some friends when I arrived. Bayankhongor is really pretty. It's an up and coming place that has been working hard the last few years to improve roads, parks, etc. They are building a dinosaur park there. We made some awesome calzones with the limited resources we had.

I stayed there for a couple days, but some of us decided to head to Arkhangai for a tiny get together in order to celebrate the inauguration. This is the part where I lost my phone. I left it at my friend's place. He is sending it to me right now. I got to Arkhangai and we had some amazing cheeseburgers followed by pot pie and tacos in the coming days. At some point I realized that my bank card wasn't going to work anymore, and I didn't have my account number at the bank. Thankfully, I had my brother's money that he sent me for Christmas on me. If I hadn't, my whole trip would have been extremely difficult.

I tried to leave on Friday for home. There were some snags. I finally arrived in a town near mine Saturday evening. From there I couldn't find a car until Monday afternoon. I got home to find out that my community decided to have classes all week and didn't tell me because they wanted me to rest.

All in all it was a ton of fun. I love to travel here. It's a guaranteed adventure every time. You really never know what you’re going to get. It’s most assuredly going to cause a bit of strife, but every time I get though another journey, I feel even more confident in my ability to do anything. At one point on my way home, I was held up in this lady’s house of which I knew nothing while a complete stranger tried to find me a taxi. I spent 4 hours sitting there, playing with her children. My emotions are rollercoastering. I’m reminded right now of how difficult training was. I think I had forgotten how much stress had actually been placed on me then. Usually when I think back to training, I think about how great it was to have people around all the time, but that’s not really how I felt. If I’m honest, I remember not wanting to be around people all the time in training. I remember telling the people in my permanent site request that living by myself would be just fine. I wanted to get away. I hope to really improve my attitude. I don’t have a particularly bad disposition now, but more and more I begin to focus on what I don’t have in my town: other Americans, certain foods, etc. The one thing that the journey definitely made me realize is how much my town is home to me. It’s home for many reasons: the faces, the students, my job, and the mere fact that I sleep so much better in my own ger than anywhere else. Travelling is great at first, but after a few days I really start to miss Khujirt. It’s really got a hold on me. Being away has refocused me on how much I love being here and how bad I want to work. My whole purpose in life right now is to get these teachers to a standard with their language that I’m happy with and to get some of these kids gold medals in the English Olympics (coming up in a little over a month). Sometimes it takes being away to recharge my batteries. I really can’t describe how important it is to me to do a good job here, but it dawns on me that I’m not gonna get a whole lot done if I’m always talking about how hard it is to get my teachers to come to meetings or how behind the vast majority of my students are. I also need to come out of this shell that I’ve built up. It’s the shell of saying that the work is too much and the task too difficult. I question who I am to think I can have much of an impact here. The truth is that the volunteer before me set me up perfectly. She took control of her situation, and I think the people here are just waiting for me to do the same. The main point here is that I have to stop complaining, even in joking form with the other volunteers going through the same thing. Typically, when I first get a job, my mind starts to formulate how I am going to take over the operation. Every class I took in college, my first thought was, “How will I get an A?” Every job, “How will I become invaluable to this company?” It’s been a long time coming for this awakening here. Part of me never felt like I belonged, really, but I recognize that most of the volunteers felt that as well. I’m ready to take hold of my destiny here in my cozy Mongolian soum. I’m ready to step up and do my job. And as I realize this about myself, I also realize that it’s been there the whole time. My attitude hadn’t been the best, but I set myself up for success from the beginning. I want to take just a moment, here at the end, to thank Northlake church of Christ. They’ve, believe it or not, put me on their mailing list for Northlake updates and the like here in Mongolia. I just started receiving bulletins. It made my day.That’s it for now. Peace and love everyone.

It's finals here at school. I have nothing to do with the tests, so I've been helping by grading. It's not looking pretty.

I'm begining to really consider life after the Corps. It might be a littel early, but it's that thing where your mind works it out for you and I sort of watch it like a dream. I'm weighing the options and discovering that I have a priece of me that would like to get a Masters degree, part that wants to stay in country for a long time, and part that wants to get a job and start building on a career. The making money one is outweighing the others at the moment.

There is no school next week, so I'm gonna use some Christmas money from the brother and travel. I've got friends in Bayankhongor that invited me to come down and stay for a while. It's my goal to visit every, near every at least, Aimag in the country. I've been to the three major cities in Mongolia, all the major towns in my aimag, and some other smaller towns. After Bayankhongor, I'll visit Tsetserleg. There's a few cool chaps up there. I want to visit the Kazak people in Bayanolgie and some of the Northern and Eastern places. The next major city is Choilbolson. I probably really misspelled that one. My birthday happens to fall on Ash Wednesday and Tsagan Sar this year. Tsagan Sar is the BIG celebration. It's the lunar new year, which is much more recognized here than the Jan. 1st one. I'm gonna visit with my training family in Javkhlant during that week off.

Traveling aside, I'm doing really well. I've been pretty true to the Sacred Space book that my small group sent over. It's a daily prayer book. It's helped me a lot to stay focused. I continue to put hot sauce on everything I eat, as it takes the food to another dimention. My one-on-one tutoring program is a big success. The students love it. The teachers love it. I'm going to begin a mandatory one hour with me and each of the English teachers every week as well. We are also starting an English movie club. It's going to be just the teachers at first, but if it goes well, I might start one for the kids. English club is actually taking off as well. We played scattergories last Saturday and a game that I made up that's a lot like Baulderdash. Anything with a competitive slant is good for teaching Mongolian students. I really want to do an english theatre where all those interested can perform in a play or sing a song or whatever in English and then we can give prizes to the best performers. I think my friends would come up from the Aimag center to be judges.

The temperature continures to drop. It's going to reach critical degrees soon I'm sure. It gets easier to live with. I just hate walking long distances, like to the church (40 mins), It doesn't matter how well you're clothed, it starts to freeze underneath it all. My school can't really keep up with the temperature though, and it's getting colder and colder everyday in class. I could see my breath, faintly, the other day.

I'm spending a lot of money on negch (phone units). I call too many people. I can't help it. I need comunication. You are charged by the minute here when you call out. It's a viscious system. There was a time when I really liked being alone and all the time I had to myself, but I'm becoming really jealous of people that have sitemates. Some have up to five/six other Americans where they are. I asked to be alone. I didn't know what I was asking for. I sometimes catch videos online that people make of themselves having fun with sitemates. I think, "I hope they realize how great they have it." If I had only one other person at my site, I'd be really greatful. It is fun though to talk to other loners. We all have the same complaints. Not only are we alone, but the fact that we are alone mean that we live in a small town. That means we make less money, although we have to spend money to travel to buy the same things that others can get in their towns without going anywhere. We have less things to do, less options at teh store, etc. It's like, you either get it all or nothing. I ought not be too down about it. I, at least, have internet now. Many volunteers don't have that. My internet is at my school. The PCVs with internet in other places have to go to a place and pay for crappy dialup on virus ridden computers. I am really far away from my other PCVs compared to other people. Some people live only a thirty minute drive away, the average is about an hour, but I live 2 hours away. This means I have to spend that much more money to visit folks.

I hate that I sound negative a lot though. I don't mean to. The truth is that I'm having a great time over and above any of the oddities, difficulties, frustrations, or battles with nature. I think I use the blog as a place to vent, it only a little. There is something in my blood that makes me feel better if I write it verses say it out loud. I also know that some of my readers like to hear about the "struggles". I know some of you like to live the experience vicariously. That's cool. I think I do it for you all as well.

It was nice getting some of this out. Leave a comment if you can. I like to hear from you. I think I'll go out on a limb and say that James will be the first to leave a comment. Come on friends. Don't let him show you up like that. It makes us look bad.

Brandon.

So, yeah, I was sick yesterday. I think I got some sort of food poisoning. I don’t know exactly. I feel tip top now though. Exciting news! I found canned peas at the store. I bought the stock of them. I also saw canned pineapples, but for some reason I didn’t grab them. I’ll have to go back and nab some before others do. There is a store in town that is coming into its own. I saw wheat bread there the other day (I didn’t need any at the time), but when I went back it was all gone. It’s a cool place. You can tell the owner wants it to be something special. It’s worth going in every once in a while just to see what might have landed there. I bought Mentos there a while back. It’s kind of a fin thing to never know what you might get at the store. In the States, you can usually count on what will be at a store. There’s no sport in going to a supermarket at all. The thing about this store in town is how much it deviates from general Mongolian capitalistic philosophy. Storeowners do things a lot differently here than they do in the states. Usually, every store you go to will have the exact same things in stock and sell them for the exact same prices. Even at bazaars, where there are many stands that sell the same type of thing, you’ll see the same stuff for the same price. The idea is that it is considered shameful to oversell your neighbor. Competition is turned on its head. You have a bunch of people that are trying to “samesell” each other. It’s really great too because you hardly ever get those pushy market salespeople that you expect to get in a foreign country. There is haggling in some of the markets, but it’s generally a one shot down and compromise thing. No one here is interested in spending all day trying to get a few pennies out of you, even if they’re not doing anything else. A lot of time, even in the black market, they’ll simply refuse to bargain. It’s not really worth it to them. New Year’s is crazy here. I get the feeling like they don’t really know what to make if it though. It was only recently that the concept of Christmas came around. They’ve taken some of the symbols: the tree, Santa, presents, tinsel, etc. and combined it with New Year’s. Many people go around in Santa hats and drink vodka. They don’t countdown, which was sort of disappointing. At about 10 minutes till, the president gets on the TV and addresses the nation. Then, at about two minutes till, they simply announce that it is 2009 and people let of fireworks. That was actually really cool. My town is a valley, and I live on top of one of the big hills. I was able to see everyone set off their fireworks all over the town all at the same time. Each family might have only set off 2 or 3 but it was really fun to watch. I’ve never actually seen works like that before. Usually it’s a show where everyone is looking at one spot for a long time. This was so much cooler, fireworks all across the sky. There were concerts of singing and dancing, discos, balls, and the like all week long leading up to the first. My church did a right Christmas party. It was really cool because it’s such a small set up as is. They set up potato salad, made buuz, cookies, fruit, milk tea, and a big treat…airag. Airag is that fermented mare’s milk I was writing about before. You really get a taste for it, but it’s seasonal. Some people freeze it for special occasions. So I was able to have it. Thanks to my brother, I’ve now seen Tropic Thunder and Dark Knight. I hadn’t heard of it, but I have to say, Tropic Thunder was rather funny. The Dark Knight was like twice as good as the first, even though the first movie blew out any of the first series. I feel like such an American. I have a shelf dedicated to DVDs that were either sent to me or I got in the black market in the capital. DVDs are like 2-3 dollars for a nice Chinese copy. The greatest part about Chinese knock offs are the subtitles, which have been translated into Chinese, and then Babelfished back into English. Someone ought to write a script sole based on what Babelfish quotes. My favorite that I saw during the break was the translation for “Shut up” which subtitled as “Fag your face”. One thing that has changed my life…I bought a pillow in the capital. Oh what luxurious nocturnal comforts!!! It’s a jenkin pillow (excuse my Mongolian). I’d actually forgotten what it felt like to sleep on a soft fluffy cushion. Every night I just conk out like a kid after his birthday party. Oh, fire making, water distilling, outhouses, splash baths, lactose based alcoholic beverages, day old buuz, wearing 7 layers of clothes, crowded microbuses, random street drunks, seeing farm animals every day, wrestling, unpaved roads, store inventory surprises, statues of communist dictators, statues of Buddha, parties that never end, hidden bottles of vodka like aces up your sleeve, random opening and closing doors, not speaking native English for weeks at a time, black markets, crowding around tellers and shop keepers, fetching my own water, three dollar bottles of vodka, 12 hour bus rides, and so on and on. It’s all becoming home. Lots of Peace and Love and all the blessings of Heaven.

I know I don't update as often as some of you would prefer, so here is a list of other PCVs in Mongolia's blogs. You can see what they are up to, maybe compare what I say to what they say, etc. I hope you enjoy.

http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/mg.html

Quickly, I'm having a great time here. I just finished our In service training, which was the best training yet. It was kind of sad though. It is the last scheduled training, which means that it is the last time we are likely to see each other until close of service.

(Hey family. If you really want to help me out here, I know that we still have political ties on the state and federal level. Talk to our congresspeople. Tell them Bo Marlow's son is in Peace Corps Mongolia, and they could use some funding. I'm sure they'd love to help out. Everyone else who wants to help can do the same thing. Write your senators and congresspeople. There really needs to be some sort of inflation allowance. Things are spiraling out of control. It's not like we're asking for billions of dollars. It wouldn't take a lot to improve the lives of people living in second and third world countries) It is possible we will have a Mid-Service training, but that was a special budget request from the country director, and that status will not be known until around April.

I know that if my dad were still alive, he'd be calling all of his friends in Washington, but I'm sure that he hasn't been forgotten yet.

I'll write soon.

Brandon.

So my last post was sort of a cop out. I wanted to post something, but I was in the capital city and had many things to keep my busy. Please know that part of the reason I keep posting to this site is the pressure from the readers to do so (a big part of that being my mother). I thought then that I would actually write a decent blog with the going ons of my life here in Mongolia. My friend also challenged me to do a series of “How to” blogs like, “How to start a fire with only one match”, “How to stay dry in a rain storm when your roof has a 4 foot hole built into it”, and “How to choose a seat in a microbus that will be your bumpy home for the next…however long it takes to get there.” (Travelling in Mongolia is a lot like a college party invitation: Starts between 7-11pm, Ends ???) I’m not sure if I’ll follow through with those. I have, however, been writing a lot lately. Mostly I’ve been writing fiction that is laced with a heavy dose of autobiography. I’ve never written like that before, but there is a strange sense of release that comes by writing so. I even wrote a piece called “The Song of Bo Marlow” where I set my father up as a labor hero of the early 20th century. That one came out very freely. I’m reading a lot too thanks to Gwen, the Northlake small group I belong to, and the massive Peace Corps library that everyone loves to raid. I found some good stuff there including a biography on G.K. Chesterton and some old editions of the Magnificat. Now that I have the Internet at a rather regular rate, I’ve been able to call family and a few friends using Skype. If you have an account, we can talk for FREE. Look me up. I’m registered as an Atlanta resident under my name. It’s kind of a strange thing. I’ve been here for over six months. I swear it feels like I just arrived, but when I think of all the things I’ve done, it seems like I should have been done with my service by now. When I talk to someone that I haven’t talked to in six months, it’s like no time has passed. Some people are up to all sorts of new things, but for the most part, people talk about how their lives are as uninteresting as when I left and it’s the same old same old. Not long from now, I’ll be looking for jobs and a place to come back to. Most everyone has a job or a school waiting for them when they get out. Somewhat from their own desire not to get back and sit around and partly because PC is a good resume builder and looks great on a Master’s degree app. The truth is, Mongolia has below average drop out rates and way above average rates of people that come back (or never leave). It’s odd, percentage wise, the Caribbean posts have double the drop out rate as this land-locked, ice cube called Mongolia. Everyone says it’s the people. I’d have to agree. The language is going swimmingly. Every time I say that I get put in my place by some impossible speaking situation. Teaching is going pretty good as well, although my biggest problem still persists, getting the students to respect a teacher that refuses to discipline them in the good old-fashioned way. They know what I will not do, and I’m fairly certain that they don’t see me as being as…real as other people. I think I’m like this thing to them. There is no way they’d mock the other teachers the way they mock me. They mock the way I talk and move and even how I get upset, which has to be the most frustrating thing. I’ve learned that just having them stand outside, where other teachers will see them, for a few minutes is a good form of discipline. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but the most effective thing I did was have my class write, “I will not speak while Mr. Marlow is speaking,” 50 times each. I hate that I have to worry about discipline so much, but most of the time they’re simply being and acting like kids. I have good days and bad days. Good class periods and bad ones. I’m beginning to realize that a lot of my feelings about my service are determined by whether or not I’ve been able to connect with my kids lately. A good class has the ability to make it all worth it, while a poor one can get me wondering if my presence is doing any good here at all. The temperature keeps dropping. Some days it feels like my eyeballs are going to freeze solid. Last week was especially bad. I was wrapped up as tight and multilayered as I’ve ever been, but the wind cut right through it all. I couldn’t believe how ineffective my enormous winter coat was being. It warmed up this week just enough to snow a couple inches and then the temp dropped again. The snow is so beautiful. I have all of these mountains around me (my town is in a mountain range and is located in a valley for those of you that didn’t yet know), and when they are covered with snow, I could get lost looking over them. I’m heading to UB, the capital, tomorrow for two weeks. One week will be more training and the next is a Christmas vacation (I’m taking for myself). Side note, there is no such thing as Christmas vacation here, for a few reasons. One, Christmas is not celebrated. Whenever I mention it people always say, “Shin jil bayar”, or “New Year’s holiday”. They have this assumption that there is no difference between Christmas and New Year’s. They also seem to thing that Santa Claus is the guy that brings in the new year, or something to that extent. I’ve been able to use my teaching position as a means to educate my students and even my counterparts about their differences and how Americans celebrate them. Mongolians love, I mean LOVE, to sing, so it’s been my privilege to teach some carols as well. I’m not sure what else to talk about. I’m not sure about what things people are interested in hearing. Just the other day, the bank had a problem, and they asked me to come behind the counter to help them out. I couldn’t help them though. It was such an odd thing. I can’t imagine a reason a bank in the States would ever allow a non-essential person, a regular customer even, in the back of the bank. That’s part of what makes Mongolia so cool I think. I might one day, in a fit of aggravation, rant in a blog about drunk Mongolians that roam the streets and how I’m constantly their target, but to be honest, it’s part of what gives this country a certain charm. Not that I support alcohol abuse in any form, but the fact that people are left to live as they see fit, for better or worse, is a kind of freedom that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in the States. Everything is so controlled there. What sort of society bans people from carrying around a beer in public? Ours I guess, again for better or worse. The point being that, here, there’s not this guy covered in stars and stripes with a tall hat making sure you’re doing everything right and not being a danger to yourself. Moral issues don’t necessarily translate into legal issues. It’s hard to explain. It’s like, I can know right and wrong, yet it’s really up to me to decide what to do. I don’t think I really felt that with the sort of flair I do here. Before, moral choices were always laced with the knowledge that a wrong move can put me in jail or give me a record that would severely impact the rest of my life. Everything had a paperwork feel to it. Like every action was being kept in a file to be used as a sort of blackmail for future employment or what not. Here, actions are right are wrong by their own merit. Actions still produce consequences, but they are more social than anything else. I haven’t yet processed which I prefer. I have to say that I like both systems for different reasons. I am here only commenting on the unique difference in the overall feeling both give. I can be rather descriptive when I’m trying to get something out in print, and it has the tendency of coming out stronger than I intended. General feeling becomes a sort of over-traversed point. Sorry. Thanks everyone for your support. I really cannot believe how much love you all have sent my way. I had these great fears about coming out here and being forgotten, but I now see how foolish I was being, in spades. I love you all, and I hope you know it. Let me know what sort of things you want to hear about. May the great peace of Christmas fill your hearts in this season.

"On time" is a rare concept in the world.Cleanliness is a luxury.English is the most confusing language in the worldSome people speak english, so it's not a great idea to talk about everyone as if they don'tEvery part of the animal is edible.Every animal is edible.Having other people around to talk to is a serious sanity issue.Never worry if it will make you sick. One way or another, you're gonna get sick.They say it's not the destination but the journey, but the destination is pretty damned important when the journey is 30 hours and on unpaved roads in a Russian made vehicle crammed with 22 people.Never take running water for granted. Thank heavens everyday if the water is hot.When travelling, stay in a hostel. It's cheap, and you meet so many interesting people. Why spend your travel time locked in your hotel room watching cable news and HBO?Learn other people's languages. At least enough to be polite...and not get ripped off by shops and taxi drivers.If you have a long shopping list, shop hop. Buy one thing in each store and small talk with everyone along the way.You get away with a lot when abroad, but learn how to be culturally sensitive. People are really empressed if you do something respectful that is unique to the region.The origional sin of America is impatience. You don't know how bad you have it until you spend time in a country that's never heard of it.The greatest invention to come out of the West is the line. If you hate waiting in line, try NOT waiting in line. Then go back and enjoy it ever time you're at the bank or the store and you know when it will be your turn.You only really need two sets of clothes for each season. Anything more is luxury.No matter how bad I try not to, I always end up Americanizing everything I do.Spices may not be essiential to live, but they are necessary for life.Why buy it at the store when you can make it at home??? If you can't make it at home, you probably live near a neighbor that can.I've never heard anyone say, "Boy do I miss the mall."Be thankful we have something called "peer pressure" in the states. In the rest of the world it's called, "society."Americans are completely recognizible at the first galnce, from a distance, at night, by everyone.Girls naturally want to learn in school and plan for their lives from a very early age. Boys only pay attention to something if someone else laughed at it first.And a bunch of other things. This was a quick list, on the fly. I'll write again soon I'm sure.

It is the very beginning of the season too. The people here like to remind me that it’s going to reach –40. It’s a joke to them. But I’m realizing that it’s no joke. I’m in the capital, known to all as UB, short for Ulaanbaatar, on my way home. I spent the last week with friends in the major city of Erdenet. It’s the third largest city in the country. That means that for the last few days I’ve been eating pizza (not too bad), Indian food, chicken, pork, fruits and vegetables. Oh my dear heavens. It’s been unlike anything else. There are three of us from the country that are visiting right now. We are literally taking pictures of the food. There was even beer on tap at the Italian restaurant I went to last night. What?!? Oh, it’s almost too much. But it gets better. I bought Ranch dressing at the store. RANCH! I bought cinnamon and get ready…barbeque sauce. I’m not sure if you can imagine how revolutionary these things will be for our lives. My daily food is noodle soup, and noodle soup is what I eat every day. On special occasions, we’ll have fried noodles. In my town, we have no fruits. We used to have apples, but not anymore. I couldn’t even find potatoes or onions the other day. I bought a horse for the family. They feed me every day, so I took the money we got for food for the last three months and bought a horse for food in the winter. This is good on many levels. I feel better that they spend a good amount of money to feed me when I get money from Peace Corps, and I don’t have to eat goat when we eat the horse. I had horse stew the other day. It’s the most delicious red meat I’ve had. They also bought a cow. Oh glory, I can’t wait to eat that cow. I bought a Mongolian winter del. It is so pretty. It’s brown suede and lined with fur on the inside. It fits me perfect, and I bought it at a second hand shop. I also bought a winter coat. It is amazing and warm. I found out that it was once a Russian issue military coat. I found that out because people started saying I look like a Russian soldier. Then I saw a Russian soldier, and I put 2 and 2 together…. I also got some Mongolian winter boots. They fit me too. This all is incredible because I was told that I wouldn’t find anything outside of UB to fit me. It’s almost as if someone left these three items for me in advance, after having measured me, for me to find. Hmmm.My mom was super kind enough to reimburse me for the clothes. I was expecting to get money from my American account, but that account is frozen until further notice. So I was going to be hitting some really hard times ‘cause I used my money for wood and coal initially. Thanks to momma, I’ve got an early Christmas/Birthday present instead.I’m getting the materials together to put on a Trafficking In Persons seminar for my town. That’ll probably go down after February. Human trafficking is a real issue here. We will soon start the chess club, and my friend this week got me going on starting a student government at my school. I’m also going to get together a Life Skills workshop for the boys. That is badly needed. My only concern there is making something sustainable.

I hope that my work here is worth the time. Sometimes it feels like I'm the scrolling news at the bottom of the screen on CNN. It looks cool and all, but it's not very informative and kind of gets in the way of what's being talked about. I thought of that metaphor on the fly. Only time will tell if it makes any sense. I'm really tired. I spend the last 12 hours on a train in a sleeping compartment about 4 feet long and two feet wide. I didn't sleep too well.

I'm gonna get going. I hope to keep in touch more often in the coming months.

Peace

Also, check out this video if you have time,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIeOODsi_-w

I'm proud to say I know a lot of people in this video. Trinity Vineyard, where I have deep ties, is connected with this group. I never worked with Lazuras myself, but I thought some people who read my blog would like to know what's happening in Atlanta

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write in my blog. There was, for a while, a dial-up Internet connection at the post-office. The computer was old and disease ridden, and it took 30 minutes to walk there. I was able to go on and check emails, but it was impossible to send them from there. It was impossible to do anything else really. I tried to download some Rob Bell and Northlake sermons, but it took about an hour to download a 7MB file. But there is reason to rejoice. Our school, after much fighting and a lot of work put in by the previous volunteer here, has got Internet. In fact, it is located in the English resource room, of which only my counterpart and I have the key. The connection speed is incredible. I got up to 200kb/s while downloading yesterday, which happens to be faster than the Internet my apartment in Atlanta had, almost by double. I was able to catch-up on my favorite web show at www.jakeandamir.com. I was able to call some of you using Skype, and I think that many of you didn’t answer because the number came up as unfamiliar. I talked to John and Emily for a good while (thanks for being so available guys). It’s been silly cold. It’s barely ever been above freezing in the last couple weeks. The ground is covered in snow. The caped mountain peaks are simply gorgeous. I wake up everyday to a freezing cold ger. It doesn’t matter how much wood I put on the fire the night before. Soon I will start getting coal from the school. Coal burns longer and faster than wood, so it might help with that. I used to chop my own wood, but the old man that lives with us in the ger next to mine saw me almost chop off my thumb with the axe and he will no longer let me do it. If he senses that I’m getting the notion to chop some wood, he’ll beat me to it. They are VERY protective of me. Sometimes someone will come in to my comfortably warm ger and stuff my stove with wood in order to make it a sauna. About every day, a local will ask me if I am cold. I’ve learned that the answer is, “I’m just fine right now. The winter hasn’t started.” If I admit that I am cold, they’ll laugh and remind me that I haven’t seen anything yet. This winter is forecasted to be especially severe. The coldest portion, which is typically –40 degrees, is supposed to last longer than the typical 1 or 2 weeks. Last year was bitter as well, much of the livestock died, and now the cost of meat has gone way up from the year before. Things are going really well all in all. I absolutely feel that I am exactly where I ought to be right now. Right down to the area I live in, in this small town, in this province, of this beautiful country, in Asia, right now in this year. I suppose this is something we ought to feel a lot, but I’ve never felt it so convincingly as I do now. I was sick for about a week, with lots of the usual sickness activities. I miss American food like you wouldn’t believe. I was working really late this last week, so I’ve been coming home to reheated food. I actually took notice that it tasted more like American food. That’s a little funny I think, reheated and stale foods remind me of home. I really miss pizza and hamburgers. I really miss fries and spices. I think heading it all off is how I miss the choice. I miss being able to say to myself, “What am I in the mood for?” and go out and get it. I really do like to food here, to a degree. But I think, in comparison to food in Atlanta, I’d call it monochromatic. There are a couple of choices for flavor; salty, fatty, or maybe sweet. They never mix spices here. You may get garlic, or onion or even black pepper, though rarely, but you’ll never get onion, garlic, and pepper in the same meal. As winter advances, the availability of fruits and vegetables goes from slim, as it was in the summer, to none. You can still get apples, but no other fruit, and apples will soon be gone. You can get tomatoes and onions now too, and I think we’ll have that for the whole winter. My favorite activity right now is hiking. I go every couple of days. There are mountains everywhere, so there is always somewhere new to go to, though I have a couple favorite spots. I’ll try to send out some pictures and maybe even video soon. That’ll probably be in email form. Feel free to message me your email address if you want those (and you know I don’t have it). My language is getting to be pretty good, if I can pat myself on the back. I met a group of Christians from the capital that were visiting for the week. They were impressed with my skillz, yes I wrote skillz. They’ve been a lot of fun. They go back on Monday. Last Sunday we took the Eucharist. I have video of this. This was before the others came. Being here has forced me to think, or rethink, many of the things that make up who I am and what I believe. If I have the rare privilege of meeting a Christian here in this country of mostly atheists and Buddhists, is it also my privilege to inquire of the person’s exact doctrinal understanding or creed or “worship style”? I do in fact find out that Mongolian Christianity has many obvious differences from what I am used to. I might even say that the differences are nearly as unique as Mongolia herself is from America. But I am learning that these variations suggest something very powerful about cultural identity and diversity and understanding about the way the world works. There is a goodness about the differences in the same way that it is good an apple should taste different from an orange, and an orange tastes different to a person who has eaten mainly apples than it does to a person who eats mostly oranges. What I mean is that there is relief to know that Mongolians have their own identity in the faith as they do in other areas of life. It is liberating to know that oranges don’t become apples. I’m using as strong language as I believe I am permitted to use, so forgive my ambiguity. English club and counterpart development are underway. Soon the computer lab classes will begin as well. I know that the director is pushing for that to begin ASAP now that the Internet is up and running. I am going to be very busy very soon. There is a Halloween party in the aimag center next week. I’ll be happy to go. I haven’t left my site in a long time. It’ll be good to hang out with Americans. Thanksgiving dinner will be served in Ulaanbaatar for Peace Corps volunteers who want to pay for the journey. I’m definitely going to that. Then, abound Christmas, we are all going to meet back in UB for in service training. Many of us will celebrate Xmas together. Another volunteer, Laura, and myself are looking to find a church with Xmas services while in the capital and go together. So be pleased to know that there are a lot of things going on to be excited about. I hope to be calling a lot of you on the phone using Skype in the next little while, so answer your phone, even if the number is odd. Thank you all for your support. I have moments where I don’t know how I’m going to make it. I’m finding ways of coping with the isolation and loneliness. You know it will probably happen, but it’s odd when it really does. There is so much to write about. I might try to get to some of it later. Over it all, I am very happy and thriving (and my thriving has nothing to do with my medical coverage, you might be surprised to know). I love y’all. See you soon. Peace.

I didn't hve time to prepare an entry before I came, so I will need to be brief. I'm also typing straight into the blog and not into Word (with a Mongolian keyboard), so the quality of my typing and spelling may be lower than usual. I've settled in pretty well into my town. We still have not set up the Interet in my classroom. I'm not sure when tha will happen, so my only bet right now is to travel 100 km and use the Internet in the aimag center, which is what I am doing right now. The connection here is ok.

I've been teaching, which takes up most of my time. I typically teach 3 classes a day. Somedays are less. I think on Mondays I'll be teaching only one class. This schedule is subject to change at any moment, so I try not to take it too seriously yet. The students come to me. The range of English in each class is so varied that one or two kids in every class are bored out of their minds, while the other 30 are struggling to understand what I am saying. I teach using only English. This is how I learned Mongolian, and I think it's the best way. The students have to work out for themselves what it is that I am saying. I think, in the long run, this will prove to really enhance their listening, speaking, and recognition skills. For now, it seems my counterparts are whizing by my classes. They are going through their lessons about 50% faster than I am, but I really think my kids will cme out on top.

I have a lot of resources (for Mongolia). I get to brag to the other volunteers that I have my own classroom, I have an unlimited supply of chalk, etc. My kids are great. The younger ones seem more into the learning process than the older ones. But I think theyar ecoming around. I played a game with the older class and they actually got into it toward the end.

I wish I could go on and on about the cultural differences. I don't think it would really translate though, and it's not the same just talking about these things. Like, how Mongolians clap in unison at the end of a performance, or how it is not considered rude to blast music from your phone in a closed, public place (buses, post offices, banks, restaurants). There are no lines here. Going to the bank is simply a bunch of people crowding around the teller and elbowing eachother out of the way. The weirdest part about that is nobody ever gets upset with the guy who walks in and pushes his way to the front and throws his money at the teller. No one ever gets mad at an ATM when a person walks to the front, pushes buttons for the person at the machine until they are done, takes out the other person's card, and inserts his own.

There is the way that there is no sense of personal ascertion of what and how much a person drinks at social gathering. There is not even the idea that a person can chose what situations he'll walk into where there will be drinking. There is a server that passes out the alcohol. You MUST accept the drink. If you are lucky (from my perspective) you can touch the vodka, beer, or airag to your lips and hand it back. This is usually not the case. The server will not accept the bowl or cup until he or she feels you have drunk enough. And of ourse, since I am the special guest, it is never enough. I try to explain that my stomach hurts, they say voka is good for your stomach. I try to say that I've had enough, they say that I don't decide that. I try to say that I am a Christain and I can't drink that much. That sometimes works, but once a person told me. "There is no god, only men, drink". That was frustrating. They asked us before we swore in what was a deal breaker, what will be the one reason, if any, why we would pack it up and go home. This is the one. This is the only time and place where I really think about leaving and going back to Atlanta. I do not see why people are not allowed to assert their own will when it comes to drinking, especially when you consider the alcohol problems that everyone is aware of. That's all I'll complain about it. Let's just say, I blew up at this one party. I offended a bunch of people by breaking their custom, set the vodka down (without permission, very bad), and said I would not drink any more. I haven't been invited to social gatherings since. They still drink airag, in the middle of the day at teacher's meetings. They still try to give it to me. I politely say that I will not drink before going in to teach a class. No one understands this, but I've decided to be ok with that.

I found out that there is some sort of Christian gathering on Sundays at 11am. Where? All I know is that it is on the opposite end of town (about 45 min to an hour walk). I'm gonna try to go tomorrow. We'll see. My friend asked me if I would attend if it were a mormon church (something that is pretty common here). I don't know. I'll have to see. I don't support Mormanism by any means, but I'll have to check it out. I'm simply hoping it's a simple church that does simple church things. I'll follow up on that later.

My health is good. I am very happy on the whole. I'll have to work things out about the drinking issue, but I'm sure it will be resolved. Other volunteers have been refusing as well. I seem to be having the worst time of it though. I think it's because I'm a guy and a big one at that. It's pretty uheard of to not want to drink alcohol for no reason other than, you don't want to. I understand why it's hard for them to understand. Everything is great. I still eat with my neighbors everyday. I still have to work out being bored sometimes and the pain of being away from the Friends and Family.

I'm getting through.

Love ya'll

In Grace and Peace.

I am convinced that I will have a wonderful time for the next two years. The official two-year clock began on swearing-in day, August 16, 2008. So I’m in it ten days. I was in Ulaanbaatar for a day. Some people were able to stay nearly a week because of flying scheduling to places that can’t be reached by road or because their Mongolian counterparts had different schedules. My CP and I needed to leave early the next day, so I wasn’t able to see much of the city. I ate at this western style pizza place that had pretty good stuff. The quality was like a really good American frozen pizza. There were westerners everywhere in that place. We struck up a conversation with a Brit and a New Zealander who drove from London to Ulaanbaatar in four weeks. Its called the Mongolia Rally, and it happens every year I think. The cars are bought and driven over. Then they are sold at auction for charity, and the drivers fly back home. It was nice meeting them. That part of Ulaanbaatar was packed with white people. It felt strange. We left the next morning on a Post Office bus. The Post Office bus is one of the most on-time and predictable travel arrangements in Mongolia. They have a schedule (that they stick to) consistently for delivering packages that arrive in UB to the rest of the country. Since there is typically a lot more room on the bus than the packages take up, the sell the rest of the room as seats for travelers. They pack the people in too. Everyone has a ton of bags and things, plus the mail, so you end up sitting on bags or holding them in your lap. The trip is scheduled to take eight hours (on a good day). It took us just over nine to get to Khujirt with a stop for lunch and outhouses. There is only so much your knees can take, sitting in the same position for so long. I think I found my limit. I’m grateful that I have so much experience sitting in a vehicle for hours and hours at a time, growing up driving to Michigan and back for summers and holidays. It reminded me of the family of 6 taking an Escort to Michigan with one of us in a car seat. Yeah, that’s about right. Khujirt is a beautiful, beautiful place. I’m sending some pictures of my town and my ger and swearing in and stuff in a mass e-mail today, since I don’t really want to start a photo bucket account (Thanks Wes). It is full of rivers and mountains. The town is pretty big, something like 8000 people. So it has a lot of the things that bigger cities have. It has some big stores and stuff, but, of course, there are a lot of things that you can’t buy either. I’ll say it like this. There are a surprising number of things you can buy, compared to the town I trained in (1800 people), but there is a surprising number of things that you can’t buy for a town so big. There isn’t Coca-Cola, something that I’ve found everywhere else. I couldn’t find a fly swatter, etc. I did find a good amount of things for my ger. The first thing I bought was a water boiler/dispenser for tea. I use it for everything. The water here can be drunk if it is boiled for at least a minute. I boil water for tea, cleaning, washing, etc. I cook with an electric wok. It works out well. I was able to find a few spices. They are expensive but worth it. I don’t need to cook often. I live in a yard with another family that live in a ger next to mine. They insist on cooking dinner for me everyday. They also make airag (fermented mare’s milk) and milk tea everyday. These are becoming my favorite drinks. I thought airag was the worst thing ever when I first tasted it. It’s so good now. The alcohol content is half that of beer, and it’s a milk product, so there’s not a high likely chance of drinking too much. That’s not to say Mongolians don’t try to make me. I really think airag will be one of the things I miss the most two years from now. The milk tea is very good as well. I told the family that if they keep feeding me, I would buy them a cow or horse this winter (meat). The other volunteers here say that horsemeat is one of the best. I also hear that yak is good. The well where I will go to get water is pretty close, a five minute walk. I think I’ll need to get water once or twice a week. I bought a 25-liter water canister. I’ll use a dolly to carry it back and forth. The big store in town said that they’d be getting rice cookers in soon. I think I’ll buy one as soon as they come in. Rice is going to be my best friend for the next couple years. There is no promised church in this town. I think I’ll have to start one OH>>>JUST KIDDING JIM CARL. What I meant to say is that I think I’ll download sermons online once we get Internet (soon), and I’ll use the Christian volunteer social network that we started for support. Plus, thanks to Lara, I have a worship CD from Trinity Vineyard Church that is a good sing along. I’ll be ok. Right now I am in my “resupply” site, Arvaikheer, the aimag center. It’s a 2-hour van ride. I was able to buy a hoodie at a second-hand store, and I found deodorant at a shop (I bought the whole supply). I will be traveling here once or twice a month for things that I can’t find in my site. Really though, I’ll be coming to visit with the 8 volunteers that are working in this city and speak English at a normal pace and protect my sanity. All-in-All, I’m really excited to be here. Thank you for all of your support. I hope to make you proud. Let’s keep in contact. Peace and Grace

Mongolia took the Gold in Judo. Everyone is very happy. It is their first gold medal ever.

That is all

Oh, one more thing. I found out that Amazon.com will deliver to my soum in Mongolia. So will a bunch of magazine subscriptions. Neat, huh?

Ok, so I owe all of you a better blog. I’ve gotten sick again. The PCMO says it is just a sort of after shock to what I had last time. I’ll last through tomorrow probably. I’m feeling good enough to write though. For more information on where I will be living. I will be in a four-wall ger. The ger will be inside the hasha (yard) of one of my counterparts, an English teacher. I’ve met him, and he seems very nice. I am taking over the life of someone who just finished her two years and recommended that someone should sustain the projects that she was working on. I read the report she left of her town and what she thought she accomplished. She had ONLY good things to say about the school, the school’s director, the kids, the town, how beautiful it is, etc. This is making me very happy, despite the bacteria living in my colon giving be bathroom trips every 20 minutes. Pre-service training is coming to a close. Saturday, we swear in. I will be an official Peace Corps Volunteer with all of the benefits and bragging rights. The ambassador to Mongolia will officiate the ceremony. Then, we will go to Ulaanbaatar for the first time since we flew in and receive a tour and eat really good food and buy things that are not available anywhere else. The town I will stay in is rather secluded, but it is large and it is one of the tourist attractions on Mongolia’s to-do list. Sumo wrestlers frequent there because it has hot springs and spas. I heard there is even a place to get mud treatment, not that I could afford that on a trainee’s salary. For those of you who are wondering, yes, I do occasionally wear traditional Mongolian garb. I have my own del, which I will where to the swearing-in. I found out that there is a Catholic church and a Christian NGO called World Vision, a very respected and very helpful org, in my soum. I may check them both out. As many of you know, I am most concerned with taking the sacrament over anything else, but I will also weigh which place I may learn songs and meet friends when I make my decision. The Christian PCVs here are talking about starting a non-official Christian support group for each other. We all agree that it is an extra stress that we face being Christian here: one, because there are so few of us and many of them don’t want to “come out” publicly, and two, because there is sometimes the (somewhat warranted) suspicion of people who are Christian PCVs, both internally and externally. I think if we bond together well, there is enough support to get us through. All and all I think I’m going to enjoy my stay here. I know now what the challenges may be, and PC does a really good job of making us feel prepared for them. Please leave your questions for me. I want to know what you want to know. To answer some of the questions I've gotten: 1. The person in the picture with me is one of my siblings in the host family I stayed with. The house in the background is where I lived for the last three months. The blue in the top is the gorgeous Mongolian sky. 2. I got a Novice High on the final Language Proficiency Interview, which means I am exactly average for my group. 3. I've lost over 30 pounds since I arrived. (The picture is a little old) 4. I probably got sick from eating food that was cleaned with unclean water. Probably fruit. That is the general idea, although it could have been a number of things.

Keep in touch. I will receive my cell phone soon. When I do, I will send an email out to those I want to have it. Kidding, I simply don’t want to post it on the blog. I’m pretty sure I’d get in trouble for that. I will include the address where mail can be sent in my new site in the email too. Love ya’ll Grace and Peace

I'll be going to be living in Ovorkhangai Aimag in a soum called Khujirt. The soum has 8000 people. I'll be the only American for 100km, but 2 hours away there will be five PCVs living together in the Aimag center. I'll probably be able to visit them once or twice a month. There is one computer in the soum with internet. I'm not sure how fast the connection is though. I'm going to try to load a few pictures up to the blog with captions. We'll see how that goes.

I'm loving everything. The language is decent. I can understand most things people say if they are talking directly to me and I don't worry about catching every word. Responding is getting better all the time. I was sick for five days this last week. It was very physical and manifested itself in various ways. I couldn't eat for almost three days. I'm fine now. The Med teem is very efficient.

I wish I had more time to write. Its really late here, and the cafe will close soon. I'll try to write again tomorrow, but we are supposed to meet our school directors and hang with them all day. We'll see

I'm going to try to post pictures below....

...nope. I think I need a photobucket account or something.

Wes, do you know whats to do???

Love, Brandon

We are stopping by Darkhan for a couple hours. What do we do? Internet. Here is the latest update. I received some packages yesterday. Yes they do get here eventually. Thank you all. Mom, Ben, Gwen, Lara, and Lindsey, I got stuff from ya’ll. I’d like to educate you guys about Fixed Rate packages. The post office has these packages that they do not weigh. It is the same rate to anywhere in the world, no matter the weight, as long as you can fit it into the box. Therefore, buy the box, pack it full, and you don’t have to spend $80 to send it. I think there is one that is a pretty good size that goes for $40 and even lower. The language is getting much better. I talk with people everyday. It may not sound wonderful, but my point gets across and I can understand people as long as they speak a little slower than normal. I just don’t like having to use the same 5 verb tenses every time. I’ll go through the typical day right now: I wake up without an alarm to my Mongol mother making breakfast. It’s usually eggs, but sometimes I get served this “Cream of Rice” thing called sutai bodah. I’m always served bread and jam and this awesome milk spread called Suzski. I get tea or instant dissolve coffee. There is usually some other side that she’ll put out for me. After dressing and whatnot I pack my book bag and head out to make the 15-20 minute walk to school. Every child along the way greets me 10 times. They all know “hello” and seem to think that saying it again gets them farther into a conversation. They are so cute here. At school we spend 4 hours in language training. Our teachers are pros. We often reflect about how crazy it is that they took us from knowing nothing to where were are today, and they don’t speak English. All the learning is stylized to force us to make sense out of what they say. Once a person figures out something for him/herself, they’ll remember it forever. After school we walk home for lunch. We have an hour and a half. Lunch is mostly Sheul (soup) or noodles (with all of the normal sides). After, we walk back to school for work. We are now practice teaching to a group of 15 or so kids. We meet every day at 3:00. I team-teach with Julia. Sometimes, PC trainers will stop by to observe and offer teaching advice. PC gives us amazing training. After class, we discuss how the lesson went and what we think worked and what we need to adapt. We spend an hour doing this and creating a lesson plan for the next day. We need to be home by 7:00 for dinner. Some people eat at 8 or 9. I was once served dinner at 10:00. I’m typically finished by 8:00. If so, I can go out to the field and play in the guaranteed volleyball game going on. Many times, the 10 Americans like to get together at each other’s houses to hang or watch a movie on a computer or drink. We all like each other pretty well, so it’s a lot of fun hanging out like that. I do the whole thing again the next day. I have plenty of time to myself to do what I want, but I’ve been teaching English language, songs, and stuff to the church here in town. In return, they do the same for me. Those are some all right guys. This whole country is just awesome.

Today we are visiting the biggest Buddhist Monastary in Mongolia. I got the package with my camera just in time. It's costing us 15,000 tugriks each, which is a pretty hefty sum of our allowance, but everyones excited.

Have fun in America. See you later.

I am in Darkhan for middle of training evaluations. Things are going really well. I recieved a Novice-Mid on my language tests. My language instructors said that I deserved a Novice-High. I miss all of you. I’m not really sure of the best way to describe my experiences. Should I go into how difficult the training is or how rewarding the results are? Should I talk of the great food or the diarrhea (a way of life here in Mongolia)? Should I talk about hiking up mountains and drinking beer in fields or 10pm sunsets and 4am sunrises? There is so much going on. I am learning the language enough to have simple conversations. Sure, all I can talk about are where I come from, where I’m going, and what type of fruit I like; but it is an awesome feeling to be understood. Today we went to the black market. I think I held my own with the locals. I feel confident ordering food and calling taxis.

I know some of you want to hear about it all. I’ll give some observations. The other day I was walking to school. The walk is about 15 min. As I was walking, the wind swept by and picked up some dust from the ground near my feet. The dust twirled and danced around in front of me for a while. After a moment, the wind took it away. I witnessed the dust devil go to the peak of a nearby mountain and dissipate. You’d have to be there to grasp how staggering it was. Just yesterday, I took notice that I haven’t heard an airplane traveling overhead in a month. When a truck drives by, it has a distinct smell. Exhaust has a smell and a feel. It doesn’t blend in with the environment like it does in the States. Nighttime is DARK. I never realized how odd it really is to walk outside at 2am and be able to see nearly as clear as in the day. You can’t do anything after the sun goes down. Traveling takes a long time at night. You can’t see your feet. Any given step could be a ditch or something to trip on. The best part about the dark is the stars. There are so many. I honestly did not even know. I had dreamed about seeing the heavens at night. Out here, you can loose time just staring into the sky. There are a lot of things that, I have to say, make me feel like Mongolia is the place to be. After using an outhouse for a month, I don’t miss toilets. I do miss taking a hot shower (any bath really), and having the Internet at my fingertips…but less and less. I went to the church here in town a couple of times. Apparently, it is very rare that any soum, especially one as small as Javkhlant would have a church building. Somehow, I am not surprised that I ended up in one that did. The believers there were so happy to see me when I walked in the first Sunday I went. It was a bit overwhelming. They wanted to ask me a bunch of questions. Mainly, do I believe? Secondly, are there other believers in my group? From what I gather, they call Christians “believers” here. It was odd having to explain that there aren’t really that many Christians in the States, and they shouldn’t expect any other Americans to come. They wanted to know how big my church at home was. They were wowed when I said 400. I reminded them that Atlanta has millions of people in it. Still, it made me realize how fortunate I am to have so many Friends. The church here has about 25-30 members from what I gather. There are a lot more around. Since I am known as the Believer, and since there are no secrets in this town, everyone tells me when s/he is a Believer or if her friend or sibling is. Many of them go to the city, about an hour drive, on the weekends, so they go to a church there. The service is neat. They pray Korean style, everyone at the same time. They pray a lot too. Everything is started and finished with prayer. They sing and there is a lesson. The whole service can last between 25 minutes to a couple hours. It all depends on how many people give testimonies, a major part of the service. Most of the time they hang out and listen to Mongolian Christian music. I am glad to be here. I was trying to ask if they were part of a denomination. I tried a bunch of different ways, but they didn’t know what I meant. I finally asked if the church had a name. They pointed to a sign written in Mongolian. I asked what it meant. They said, “God’s good place”. I looked up the words in my dictionary. It means "Waking Life Church".

I asked about the table. They don’t break bread, but seemed interested in it. I said I would provide for this Sunday. I plan to attend regularly. They meet on Wednesdays for prayer too. My host family is great. Some people complain about their families, but I got the jackpot. They let me to myself when I want. They help me with my language, but they are not pushy. My host mother can cook brilliantly. She feeds me too much food. I am never hungry. I have four little siblings here, 4, 8, 9, and 17. They are a blast. Plus, many people come over to hang out a lot. We learn Mongolian games and customs. I’m learning Mongolian survival skills: chopping wood, fetching water, hand washing clothes, cooking, etc. My family has a garden at the river, about a 30-minute drive. We go from time to time to plant or tend. It’s great to go and swim, especially since there is no way to take a bath. It is impossible to keep track of time. I haven’t used a timepiece in a month. No need, really. The days are long this time of year. They run together. It both feels like I just arrived and like I’ve always lived here. It is so beautiful. I would like for everyone to see it someday. We play volleyball with the community from time to time. Once a game gets going, we’ll play until 10:00, just as the sun is fading out. You get used to the sense that there isn’t really police enforcement or watchdogs. This is good and bad I guess. They have a saying in Mongolia that laws are good for three days. Meaning either, people will obey once it is passed, but they will go back to how they always do things after three days, or that they follow laws three days out of the week. There are many expressions. My favorite is, “Snakes have spots on the outside. Men have spots on the inside.” Meaning, snakes at least have the decency to let you know if they are poisonous. Others, “Better is an experienced old woman than a doctor out of medical school”, “The donkey loves his old wooden dish”, and “Better to break a bone than your reputation.” I asked what the last one meant. I can mean that bones heal and reputations don’t, but it could also mean that it’s worth breaking bones to build a reputation. The culture here reflects a lot about what I heard about the East. They think communally, really, like the individual hardly exists on its own.

If you happen to be thinking about things to send, here are some ideas. Think simple. Blank notebooks would be wonderful. Think very simple. A Frisbee, pictures, marshmallows, must see/must have DVD (ones that can be watched again and again (including TV series)), etc. would all be excellent ideas. All in all, I don’t need anything. Do not worry about me. I am happy and content. Random things would be cool, like Christmas or something. Think very simple. Don’t worry about most essentials. But if you are intent on sending something, which would be cool just because it would be great, try to think of common, easily accessible things that may be good to have here. For instance, I don’t have a sandals (size 13) or seeds to plant veggies. Laura, that worship CD would seriously rock.

When it comes to post, know this, the post office here in town neither receives nor sends mail. They also do not sell envelopes or stamps (figure that one out). Mail has to be driven here by PC from the capital city. If I wanted to send a letter, I’d have to go to Darkhan or Ulaanbaatar. Meaning, it is hard to pick up mail and really hard to send it. The address for PC-Mongolia is in my notes on my facebook account.

The first of our group went home. He had back problems that couldn’t be resolved. You have to squat a lot here and there is a lot of walking on unleveled surfaces. I feel bad. I hope he is doing ok. Know this as well. No news is good news. If anything happened to me, my family would know pretty quickly. When I get my cell phone at the end of training, I will try to call you guys, but start thinking about this. It doesn’t cost anything to receive calls or texts on cell phones here. If you set up an account with an online communications site, like Skype, you can call anywhere in the world for the same rate. So whereas, a 30 minute conversation would cost me over 5 dollars (1/20 of my monthly salary) it would cost you a couple dollars (1/10000000000000 of your monthly salary). Also, there is a 12-hour difference between here and EST. I’m sure we will work something out, but this is just to get you all thinking. I’d do Skype, but I will hardly ever have internet here. I'm trying to keep touch as much as I can. I will let you know where I will be placed as soon as I know. Peace and Grace

So we are visiting the city to get more shots today, so I have a minute to blog. If I ever said that I was feeling ready to meet Mongolian culture and language, I am very sorry. Now that I am living with my host family, everything is different. My time is filled with awkward silence and awkward hand signals. People only try to talk to you once, but when they realize that you have no idea what they are saying, they forget it. That is why I love my Du, my younger siblings, they will talk and talk to you even though they know you can’t understand them. They will play games with me and let me win. When I mentioned how much Americans have, I wasn’t lying. We have SO MUCH. I don’t even mean that in the way I used to. I used to mean that we have what others really want to have, but I’ve changed my mind. We merely have a lot. It was hard at first to keep myself from saying, “This is how people used to live.” Because this is how people do live, yet there are things I simply do not miss: Toilets and plumbing, A/C, my car, my mattress and down blanket, etc. I am really having a great time even though I had an eye infection that took me out school for a day and a half. I’m all right. I am using an outhouse, as everyone around here does. It’s kind of freeing. Have I mentioned the people? They are amazing. From the little kid to the old drunk, these are the nicest, most hospitable people I’ve ever met. Um…what else? Candy seems to be a big thing here. It is polite to have candy in the house in case visitors come over. Also, I think it is customary to pick up candy from the store for the family if you go out. Don’t quote me on that, but it’s what it seems. The language and culture training is very demanding. It is coming on slow, but every once in a while it dawns on me that the language is sounding less and less foreign. I really hope that by the end of the summer I will be able to hold everyday conversations. I found a building with a big cross on it and found out that there is a church of some kind that meets there. I don’t think that it’s Mormon, although they are everywhere. I think there are more Mormon missionaries than Christians in this country. That is called hyperbole, but let’s just say that the first meal I had in Darkhan, two LDS guys walked into the restaurant. I’m going to try to visit the church this Sunday. I talked with one person who said that there is not really any set worship times but that people use the church as a general hang out place. We'll see

I'm pretty sure that the next time I will have internet will be in about a month.

Ok, that is the update. I’m really starting to miss you guys (and that general sense of that you aren’t that different from other people). Today a old man told me that I needed to wrestle in Naadam, the annual big Mongolian National Festival. They have archery and wrestling and horseback competitions. Everyone around here cannot wait to see me wrestle in Naadam. We’ll see. Bayartai. Taiwen

The big talk among volunteers today...Hot Water!!! We haven't seen a hot bath since San Francisco. The water was so amazing. My shower doesn't work, but I was able to take a bath. Ohhh. I've been sweating so much while I'm here. I've been taking splash baths.

I found out where I'll be and who I'll be with. I am going to Javklant. It is north of here. The family is a widow and her son in 10th grade and her daughter who goes to the Institute of Darkhan. I'm so excited. I'll meet them tomorrow.

There's lots going on, but I don't have much time. This might just be the last time I can use the internet for a while. So be safe everyone.

Peace.

Ok. I’m having a blast. I am able to make it back to the Internet today, and I might be able to tomorrow. Everything after that is very vague. We prepared to meet our host families today. Apparently there are many things that would be typical in the States that would not go over well in Mongolia. Using the left hand for certain things, playing the got your nose game, putting anything on the floor like a bag or a bottle. I met some volunteers who are in to indie music. Soooo cool. They know a lot of the bands I like. It gives me a lot to talk about. So….like…I know for a fact that this whole thing is going to change my life. I am falling in love with this country. The people are so nice. The culture here is a communal one. They are, here, what I would expect a church to be. Being alone is considered being sad. I don’t want to get bogged down in the differences. Mainly, there are too many more exciting things to think about. Also, talking about another people’s culture as if I could possibly understand it this early or ever would be a major error. I want to get the point across here that everything is so amazing that it is hard to talk about anything negative. That is the bottom line. Sorry to those who are disappointed, but I am pushing to live out in the Hutuu, the very rural country. This means less communication, but from what I understand, cell phones work just about everywhere, so it’s never too far. I love ya’ll. Have a blast in the States, and appreciate everything. It’s hard to explain, but we have so much it is kind of embarrassing. See it for yourself. You’ll understand. It’s like trying to tell you about how beautiful it is here. Words cannot express it. May the Master keep you all in my absence. Peace and Grace.

Sain Bainuu,

I am able to blog really quick. Thank you all for your emails and what not. It’s been just awesome here in Mongolia. I’m really happy to report that I’ve been doing a lot and having a lot of fun. There are some major differences from the states to Mongolia, and I hope to get used to them quickly. The PC program is very very helpful. It’s only been three days but I already feel much more adapted to language and culture than when I got here. The idea is cultural immersion and hands on learning. I will meet my host family in a couple days. I will spend ten week with them. Everyone says that the closest bond I will develop will be with my host family.

We are in Darhan. It is a 4 hour bus ride north of Ulaanbaatar. Look it up. We are pretty close to Russia

The people here are amazing, not to mention the scenery and the PC staff. We’ve been over fed. The food is very good so far. I get the feeling that things will change shortly. I still have some anxieties about being on my own for the two years after training and the cold winters, but I remain in high hopes. This will surely turn out to be a great adventure.

Thank you all for your prayers.

I will write when I can.

Peace and Grace to you all.

Bayar Tai

I'm finished with my staging here in San Francisco. It was a great time. We are all psyched up and ready to go. Our plane leaves at noon. We have a 13 hour flight to Korea and a four hour flight from there to Ulanbataar. I will not have much ability to communicate for the next three months during training. They will not give me my cell phone until the end of training, and internet cafes, while availible, will be hard to get to from where we are staying.

Keep safe ya'll. I have to do some last minute packing and don't have much time.

Peace.

I am in N. Carolina, layed over on my way to San Francisco.

I haven't slept in a while.

My mother says I was too hard on people in my last post.

Sorry.

I have a limited amount of battery.

Peace

I've been reflecting on what it means to leave, knowing you will come back. Many people say all sorts of things about what they will do while I am away. I believe a handful of them (if you are reading my blog, you're probably one of them), but I expect most people to forget that I exist until I return.

I've heard many things about how people will send me packages or keep me in prayer or write emails. Some of you have already started to, (and I haven't yet left the country!). probably 90% or so of the people that make promises will either put it off until it is too late (it's never too late until it's too late) or plumb forget. In fact, I'd rather someone never promise anything than promise and not produce. I can't be mad at someone for not writing me if they never intended to. What will the others do when I come back? I'll tell you what. Anyone that made the slightest effort to email me once, anyone that made one effort to remember me in prayer while I am gone, I will be happy to see when I come back. But what of someone that said over and over that they will remember me and then the next time I enter their mind is when I return and am standing right in front of them. I have to say, I will not think of them in the same way that I think of someone that kept a promise. If they wait until then to ask me how things were in Mongolia, would they really expect me to be happy to explain everything I've been doing since I left? How could I believe that they are interested now if they weren't interested for two whole years?

Not to compare me with Christ but to make an analogy, I think this is a little bit like what Jesus was talking about when he said that he will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you" to the butt-kissers. In fact, I've caught myself wondering if anyone will actually remember me when I am gone. Just now I am reminded of when Jesus wondered out loud, "Will there be any faith in the world when I return?" I think it's worth consideration.

Things are going great right now. I am at my brother's in Pittsburgh. He is treating me like royalty, pulling all stops. Before we took off on the plane ride here, a flight attendant asked me if I would trade seats with a child to let her sit near her mother. I did, and a few minutes later the same attendant told me that they were upgrading my seat to first class because they under-sold the flight and I was willing to move.

Isn't life weird sometimes?!?!

Peace and Grace, brothers and sisters

I haven't updated mainly because I am in a period of transition at present. I moved in with my mother, who was gracious enough to take me ieven though she declared that, if I moved out, I would not be able to come back. I know that she wants the best for me. I've been using her computer for simple things like checking email, so I haven't really been motivated to write here, seeing that I only remember to when I look in my favorites.

I think I'm beginning the process of grieving for the life I am leaving behind. I've made many friends in the last year that I will miss sorely. I'd make a list, but I would fear leaving someone out. I am nowhere near the same person I was a year ago, and a year ago I was nothing like the tear before. The Paraclete has been at work in my life consistantly, and I want to acknowledge Him and thank Him. I do not think I would have joined the Peace Corps if I had the option a year or two ago. I think that, even if I said I would, I wouldn't have followed though with everything. What a wonderful gift is our Paraclete. Glory to Him forever!

I am very excited about what is ahead. I am visiting my brother from the 26th until the 30th. From there I go to California, and on June 1, I fly off to Mongolia (stopping over for an hour in Korea). It is so good.

If you are interested in mailing address information, send me a message and make sure I have your email. I don't really want to post it here. I have a feeling that it would be a bad idea. I can send you the information about where I will be for the first three months in Ulanbataar.

Especially Chelsea, who wants me two hand write letters to her. Yes, I am singling you out.

Peace and Grace

I need to get busy doing things for the Corps. I can't seem to get myself to write my mission statement and update my resume for the people in Mongolia. Instead, I keep listening to Mono and Russian Circles albums.

My friend Lara had an interview with the Peace Corps today. They told her that she may be nominated.

I see Explosions in the Sky on Sunday. That is promising to be a good time.

I've got nothing else. Just music.

Peace

So Brandon, you're going to Mongolia. Why do you stop blogging so?

Well self. I haven't much to say, but I did find Alexander Campbell's personal translation of the Bible online. It is rad. He uses unfamiliar words to express familiar ideas. Instead of "repent", he translates "reforn". Instead of "baptize", he translates "immerse". Instead of "kingdom of God", he translates "Reign of heaven".

Reform, be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ. The reign of Heaven is at hand.

Sometimes when translating "church" he translates "congregation', but my favorite is when he translates it "the disciples". So instead of "those who were baptized were added to the church" it reads, "those who were immersed were added to the disciples".

For real, the peace corps stuff is going really well. My plan is to leave for Pittsburg on May 26 to spend time with my brother and his family. Then I will drive with him to Michigan on the 29th to see family up there. I leave for California on the 31st. I have three days of training there, and I fly to Mongolia on June 2.

Holy twizzlers, its really happening. Thank you for the encouragement and the prayers, everyone. That is really all for now. I do not have much time right now for things like this.

Peace

It's Mongolia. Yes. That is awesome. I leave for orientation on May 31, and I leave for Mongolia on June 2.

I'm at work. I'll post more later!!

Peace

No word yet, but I am expecting something in the mail today. I will update the moment I know what country I am going to. If you want to know how hard this has been on me, go back and read how many entries have mentioned or even been dedicated to this portion of the process. Yeah, it was stressful and frustrating before, but now I know it will come today or at most tomorrow. I've run out of anticipation to fuel my anxiety.

The Passover Dinner slash Communion slash Foot Washing went excelent. There were 12 of us. We had a wonderful, uplifting, soul feeding time of worship, reflection, and cleansing. I am fasting from last night until Sunday Morning, as are most of the people at my house last night and others we know of. I've never done a two day fast before, but I think it will be alright, knowing that so many others are sharing it with me. The purpose is to reflect Christ who suffered this day, Good Friday, and spent all of Saturday in the grave, and rose again on Sunday. It is an identification with Him, a willingness to carry suffering, and a hope to find joy on the other side.

Peace