His First Haircut

In the fall, I was invited to attend the hair-cutting ceremony of my counterpart Saranchimeg's 3 year old son, Zolbayar. We had learned about this ceremony during training, but I had never been able to attend one, so I was really honored and happy to be invited. In my understanding, the ceremony marks the transition from "babyhood" to "childhood" for boys and girls, and occurs between the ages of 2 and 6. Infancy, especially for children in herding families, is a vulnerable time. Many herding families have little to no access to medical facilities. So, a child making it through this time is something worth celebrating. The hair-cutting ceremony is a ritual held, in part, for that purpose. Traditionally, a lama would tell the parents which year is best for their child, and many families still consult lamas for this purpose.

As with seemingly all Mongolian gatherings, there was an over-abundance of food, including the requisite aruul (dried milk curd), potato salad, carrot salad, buuz, fruits, and suutai tai (milk tea). Saranchimeg and her husband put out a lovely and delicious spread, and their young niece helped serve food. It was a relatively small gathering -- mostly the other foreign language teachers from our school, though the ceremony is sometimes much larger and sometimes even smaller.

Passing of the airag (fermented mare's milk) got the ceremony started. The airag was in a beautiful pewter bowl, and each person took a sip before cutting Saranchimeg's son's hair.

Zolbayar walked around the table, while each guest took a turn cutting off a small lock of hair and placing it on a pewter tray. Before cutting, we wrapped a ceremonial hadaag (silk sash or scarf) around our hand and the scissors. After cutting, each person said a small "prayer" for the child's happiness and well-being in the future.

He very patiently allowed each of us to cut his hair, a glass of juice and Mom's touch making it all a little easier. When the cutting was finished, we ate many buuz and talked about life, and I felt very fortunate to be part of this special gathering. Saranchimeg wrapped the hair in silk and put it away, to be given to Zolbayar when he is older. Zolbayar, meanwhile, was given the cash collected for the occasion, and though he didn't seem to know quite what to do with it, he seemed to understand that it was something to hold on to--and he did so for the rest of the time we were there!

My Camp Songs Obsession Finds an Outlet in Mongolia!

WE FINISHED OUR CD AND SONGBOOK!!!

As some of you know, my friend Kevin and I have been working on a project to create a cd and songbook for Mongolian and Peace Corps English teachers to use in the classroom. Now, after several months of scheming, proposal writing, budget planning (with LOADS of help from the budget-master himself, Jimmy, of course), materials purchasing, RECORDING, editing & mixing, printing and burning, our project is (practically) complete! We're burning the final of the 275 cds, and distribution of the cd/songbook 53-song sets will begin next month.

Kevin and I are both really happy with how the cds and songbooks turned out. And the process of creating them, while peppered with snafus and moments of frustration, was satisfying and loads of fun--especially the hours spent recording with my students. Kevin brought his laptop to Cho (he lives in Selenge aimag, north west of Ulaanbaatar, a 20-hour bus ride away), and we recorded everything on his Garageband program in classrooms.

One of the 4th grade classes we recorded with. They sang "My Grandfather Had a Farm" (we've been learning family names) and "Bingo," which featured "my grandfather" as well.

Most of the songs were sung by my 8th grade students, immediately after learning them. They're remarkably fast learners! Sometimes I would sing the song just once, they'd sing it 3 or 4 times, then we'd record. Now, I won't say they sound professional, and there are moments that my high school choir director would have had heart palpitations over, but the teachers and students who listen can easily follow along with the words and tunes of each song.

My 8th

graders in one of our smaller sessions.

The impetus for the project was a desire to share songs with Mongolian teachers that can be easily sung and memorized, in order to increase students' speaking fluency. Many teachers use full-length songs from pop singers to help with vocabulary and grammar study. But often those songs are really difficult to learn well. So I decided to use my love of camp songs, and (after 15+ years as a camp counselor) the vast storage of songs that dance around endlessly in my brain to create this teaching cd for English language teachers. Kevin, my exceedingly talented friend, agreed to take on the project with me and was just as enthusiastic about it as I was. He is a whiz with Garageband, and was able to turn a bunch of kids singing in a classroom into a real live, high quality cd. And, considering he has always hated "camp songs," preferring to write his own music in the vein of Pearl Jam and Tool, he was an awesome sport, even agreeing to sing a few of the songs (including "Itsy Bitsy Spider"!) himself. And speaking of "guest singers," Jimmy even puts in a performance or two (you should hear his sheep noises --uncannilly real)

Kevin & I during the "scheming" phase, in his ger in Selenge.

So now, as we receive help from our friend Boloroo at the Peace Corps office in UB in the form of cd burning, we have turned much of the project over to PC staff who will distribute the cds and songbooks to volunteers and schools. We are happy to say that Peace Corps Mongolia is also very pleased with the final product and has endorsed it and offered their help with it enthusiastically. I think that in the years to come, as I look back on this Peace Corps experience, this cd and the creation of it with my students and Kevin will be the thing I feel was our biggest achievement. I have such a great sense of satisfaction about it, and I look forward to sharing it with folks back in the States when we return next summer!

Following are just a smattering of photos from recording sessions and times when we made music JUST for fun!