After a wonderful and far too short trip to Berlin, I’m slipping back into the world of gers and mutton and my work. School has started again after a short break in January, and this past Friday was “Teacher’s Day” in Mongolia. A day when teachers pick a student representative to teach their classes for [...]
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Thank you Aunt Liz, Aunt Ann, and all the 1st graders from Montclair Elementary! I’ve been busy numbering the books and keeping track of each one in an Excel spreadsheet. Here’s what our new library looks like so far. That bookcase is almost bursting at the seams!
We all got some very sad news about fellow Volunteers in Mozambique today. You can find the press release here.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of the first graders at Montclair Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska, and from my very own Aunt Liz and Aunt Ann, the library here in Mongolia is growing by leaps and bounds! This is absolutely incredible. The first boxes began to arrive about a week ago, and last Saturday we [...]
Midwinter spring is its own season Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown, Suspended in time, between pole and tropic. When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire, The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches, In windless cold that is the heart’s heat, Reflecting in a watery mirror A glare that is [...]
HuffPo has a good article about failure from a recently returned volunteer. Read it HERE.
It’s been a slow process making friends in the soum, but I count myself lucky. I’ve got lots of acquaintances and most everybody knows my name, even if I don’t know them. Word about the one foreigner in town gets around quick. A few relationships have taken on a more interesting shine this second year [...]
A primary goal this year has been the development of a skeletal plan for extracurricular, English-language activities for the students that can hopefully survive after I’ve gone home. The reality of teaching ESL is that 40 minutes a day isn’t nearly enough to bring the language to any sort of usable level—I wanted to provide [...]
I’ve spoken briefly, more likely at great length, about what podcasts have meant to me here. I spend so much time alone in my ger (more depressing than I intend it to sound), that many of these radio personalities have come to feel like friends. Really, I need time to unwind, and being by myself [...]
For the last few weeks, I’ve quietly been working in my own library. I think I’ve always harbored a secret desire to be a librarian albeit without the ambition to actually seek the necessary credentials. Back in September of 2010, I wrote a post about “legacy,” wondering just what mine would be here in Mongolia, [...]
This is a mixed bag here folks. I’ve had a backlog of pictures just waiting to be put up on account of an uncooperative camera–turns out all I needed was a little digital elbow grease (and a new software driver). I’ve got photos here from the party that follows the first day of school, some [...]
In the absence of a satisfactory article from yours truly, I’ll also give you a few tidbits from a recent National Geographic article. Be sure to look at the photo gallery that goes along with it.
Podcasts are a pretty regular source of entertainment when you’re locked in a felt tent, battling a maliciously cold winter for nine months out of the year. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Peace Corps show up as an episode on one of my favorites, “How Stuff Works.” Give it a listen on your [...]
Tsogttsettsii has its own canine emperor. As I’ve explained before, dogs are rarely pets in Mongolia. You might find a few dogs as pets in big cities where Mongolians have adopted the more modern custom of keeping them. In the countryside though, they are guards or strays, most running around without leashes and never invited [...]
In danger of being predictable, the title is again courtesy of Bob Dylan. I did just turn 25 after all, and the “getting older” thing is starting to feel repetitive now at a quarter-century. I’ve returned to Mongolia after a few weeks at home. The sensation is strange, not least because in some ways [...]
How does one step back into the stream of a lifestyle he’s so radically departed for thirteen months? Gingerly, I suppose. I don’t intend to sound overly revelatory after only one year, as a whole crop of volunteers that have been gone for a full twenty-seven months are now returning to the states and rediscovering [...]
Volunteer ger-dwellers live with a Mongolian family. When I say “with,” I mean in the same enclosure. I’ve got my own ger, but my neighbors are all within the same fence. The result is a pretty close relationship to my haasha (fence) family; we often share meals, chores, and conversation. Almost all of them are [...]
My mother shared this article with me from The Washington Post today. President Elbegdorj will be meeting with President Obama to discuss America’s relationship to Mongolia, but most intriguing were Elbegdorj’s words of wisdom to an American “empire” that appears to be waning. If any country has the historical perspective to this line of thought [...]
I’ve got some old photos to share that I finally managed to organize on my computer. School officially ended on June 1st, but the graduation ceremony took place on a Sunday morning about two weeks before. I took the opportunity to take some photos of the festivities. That afternoon, the town also had a small [...]
It’s a grim reality we forget, but Mongolians are still suffering from the severe winter two years ago. Have a look at the photo essay that appeared in Foreign Policy yesterday, a pretty striking collection of evidence showing the countryside refugees that are now streaming into the capital city because their herds have been decimated, and [...]
Alright, so my last post was premature. I’m writing from saved battery on my computer after charging it for a few hours this evening when my neighbor started up his little gas generator. Today officially puts us at three weeks without electricity–when I think on it, probably the longest time I’ll ever have to go [...]
I’d apologize for not having written in a while, but frankly, I’m not going to take the blame. This afternoon marks the end of a 6-day power outage here where, by day one, the bulk of my electronics were dead, including my phone. I’ve been fortunate I think, in being able to stay fairly well [...]
I woke up in the wee hours of the morning last Friday feeling like my ger was about to take off. I felt a little like Dorothy about to be blown away to Oz. This wasn’t Kansas though, and the wind wasn’t a twister, but a straight-line, uninterrupted blast full of sand and dust going [...]
…is impossible in Mongolia. The chief offender is below: This was probably my first real Gobi dust storm during my service. I’ve seen sand get kicked around and blow over quickly, but this one sat down on us for a good 30 minutes. I was sitting in my ger grading papers when my support poles started [...]
Uncle Walt made an appearance in the Times today, as a part of their series, “Disunion,” about the country’s descent into civil war. For my money, it doesn’t get much better than Drum-Taps. Things are starting to heat up for me around town as they cool down at school. After the academic olympics, people seem [...]
I headed north at the tail end of our spring break to visit some friends in another town here in the Gobi. We got to do a little sightseeing, and our best day of that was the remains of a Russian town just outside the main city. Courtesy of my friend Justin, I got a [...]
If you’ve set up your New York Times pay account already, you might have come across this article by Paul Theroux. It’s a pretty interesting examination and justification for “hard travel.” I’m not drawing parallels between the places he mentions in the article and Mongolia–his travels take him to dangerous spots: war zones, battlefields, and countries [...]
Things were quiet today so I took a walk to my favorite spot. Just walking in the desert is a little strange, I usually feel awkward and exposed until I can make it into the hills about a mile outside of town. I found some friends out there this time around (see below). I assumed [...]
Dear readers, My apologies for the long break in entries here. I was quite ill for about two weeks and was sent to the aimag to recover. I assure you all, I’m healthy now. Getting a chest x-ray in Mongolia was a little bit of an experience though. I wandered into the hospital in the [...]
A couple of weeks ago, the Peace Corps Country Office asked that I write an article for the White House blog to appear sometime during the month of March. The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation (SICP) is spending the month “celebrating service” and is collecting stories from around the US and abroad. Head [...]
Listening to jokes in the teachers’ lounge this morning, I’ve never wished I understood the language more. I suppose I’m conversational at this point, and as long as questions remain in a familiar realm, I can understand what’s being said to me. I regularly have a polite back-and-forth with my favorite shopkeepers around town: “How’s [...]
In honor of Mother’s Day, my counterpart and I organized a school concert in English. We’ve spent the last three weeks coaching students in pronunciation and memorization to perform dances, songs, and poems (all in English) to celebrate Mums. I sang of course, in Mongolian, but I learned a new song for the occasion–Minii Eej, [...]
The first is a picture of some Steak and Shake Chili Mac, thanks to a few care packages from my parents and Grandmother. The latter is just a really strange coincidence. Your eyes don’t deceive you, that is a “I (heart) NY” bag from your prototypical New York City souvenir shop. My only explanation is [...]
On March 1st, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10924 establishing a new government organization that had three simply stated goals: Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. Helping promote a [...]
Had a distinct longing for the good ol’ fashioned highland ceilidh lately…
“Memory believes before knowing remembers.” -William Faulkner, Light in August “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mongolia, and the Peace Corps in general, is often about small victories. A few of the things to add to the “win” column lately have been of a culinary nature. I just want you all to know I’m capable of occasionally living high on the hog (or in this case high on the chicken and [...]
I took my first wander of the new year this afternoon. I was pretty enthusiastic this summer and fall with hiking in the hills just outside town, but when the weather turned wintry and vengeful, I stopped. It did feel a little like rebirth this afternoon, walking in just a light jacket without a hat [...]
She’s a real lioness. I found her wandering outside my ger this morning, and between feeding her a little and playing with her, I’ve done my best to try and get her to stick close by. I must have done something right because she’s parked right outside my door again this evening. I might just [...]
…and a happy one at that, to all you readers out there. I’m sorry I didn’t get to this earlier, but Mondays and Tuesdays have become a trying deluge of class hours, so I was swamped. Valentine’s Day isn’t marked with a whole lot around here. From what I can tell, younger folks in Ulaanbaatar [...]
This past week has been wonderful, not least because it’s been a weeklong school holiday. Admittedly, I was becoming pretty worn out. Teaching, especially in another language, is exhausting. The lunar New Year is a big celebration in most Asian cultures. I remember going to a friend’s family’s Chinese New Year party back when I [...]
I caught this article on the New York Times this evening, and it sounded strikingly similar to my own experience (follow the link to read it). The shadow of Russian influence is certainly still visible here–any building more than ten years old carries that “socialist mystique,” which is to say, a complete lack of mystique. [...]
Dorky title, I know, but I couldn’t resist. These are shockingly common here, or at least it’s seemed that way through most of January. According to the Wikipedia article, the phenomenon occurs when hexagonal ice crystals are prevalent in the atmosphere on very cold days. The crystals act as prisms, bending the light and reflecting it [...]
My nightly tug of war with blankets and sleeping bags has come to feel routine at this point. I was remarking the other day that I honestly cannot remember what it feels like to wake up in a relatively warm apartment or house, and move comfortably from under the covers to a nice hot shower. [...]
In case it’s slipped by you, this year (2011) marks the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. It’s also the 20th anniversary of PCM (Peace Corps Mongolia). The video that I’ve linked below has been floating around volunteers lately, and we all think it’s pretty true to form. Somebody must have hired a pretty good [...]
I have a new pastime here. On days when it feels like I’ve had little or no personal interaction, I like to go shopping for the sake of shopping. When I say this I mean that I don’t particularly need anything, but the weather is so cold here that I can stock up on food [...]
I’d come to feel like I was perching on the edge of my life here in Mongolia. My default setting has always been “observer,” usually stemming from a cautious streak in my childhood that has mostly carried itself into my adult life in the form of indecisiveness, often annoyingly so (ask anyone that’s ever casually [...]
Merry Christmas folks! I’m wishing all of you happy holidays from all the way out here in Mongolia. I sure do wish you were here, or that I was there. Look at how festive Mongolians are… http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/photogalleries/reindeer_people/index.html P.S. Happy Birthday Mr. S. Kling!
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