Meet My Kids and Co-Teachers

I thought I'd begin this blog entry with the faces of some incredibly cute kids. Actually, I have to say that Mongolian children, in general, are absolutely beautiful. These three are the directors of the "Hello!" chorus we hear every time we leave or enter our building. Originally the refrain sounded more like "Gaddo! Gaddo!" but they're saying "hello" like old pros now.

I also think it's about time that I introduced you to some of my kids and other English teachers at my school. This is my 7th grade class, very proudly showing the animal (and animal parts)

drawings they did. They are a rambuncious group! Like 7th graders everywhere, they LOVE to
chat and mess around with their neighbors in class. They make me absolutely crazy, but they're so lovable. Most of them are enthusiastic about learning English; many have ambitions to study in England or America some day, and some just might get there. I will, supposedly, be teaching these same kids for 2 years, and I'm so happy about that. I hope to be able to really see growth in their language skills, and 2 whole years together should allow me that opportunity. We've done a little bit of singing, but not nearly enough. That's all gonna change next semester, let me tell you!

They love to sing as much as I do, and they sing really well. So, I'm going to start regular fluency practice using songs (just like I used to do with my Flood Brookers) next week, when we begin Semester 2.


On October 30th, we had a Halloween party for the 4th graders and my 7th grade! My English Club kids (10th and 11th graders) ran mask and decoration-making activities, and I did some Halloween games and songs. There were 2 shifts of about 50 4th graders each, and only 3 English club kids present, so it was a rather chaotic
affair. It fit well with one of the songs I sang with the kids, which had the line, "Have you ever seen such a hullabaloo?" in it. I don't know if I ever have, really. But all the kids seemed to have a great time! I took the three English Club kids out for an ice cream afterward. They were absolutely beat.

So, in this picture to the right are some of my 4th grade students. I have 4 4th grade classes, and we meet twice a week. It's almost all games and songs, so I love it. It's a great challenge teaching English to someone who doesn't speak any at all. It forces me to be creative in ways I would never have thought I could be.


One of the nice things about having so few things here, is that it actually makes it easier, sometimes to make decisions. For example, my Halloween costume:












I happened to have brown pants and a green shirt, some construction paper (thanks, Mom!), and Jimmy's hat. Voila, bi mod baina! (That's French and Mongolian for "And so, I'm a tree!") Notice the bird perched on my "crown." Very proud of that one. I think it was Jimmy's idea, though. Halloween has never been a big holiday for me, but it sure was fun to see kids getting so excited about it, and about my costume!




Now, on to my co-teachers. There are 7 other English teachers in my school, and I work with all of them. I have 3 English classes a week for them -- 2 classes with half of them, and 1 with all of them.

I love this picture because most everyone is at least kind of smiling. Usually, Mongolians don't smile for pictures, but they all look happy here! Back row, first woman, is actually a Russian teacher, so I don't really know her. Next is Chimgee, then Ariuntuya, Enkhtuya, Tuul and Saranchimeg. Front row is me, the other Russian teacher, and Zoloo. Sarantuya wasn't there for this photo. They are really a fun bunch of people, and there is plenty of laughter when we work together. I work most closely with Tuul, since she is the other 4th grade English teacher. She has a great sense of humor and is very kind to me. I'm looking forward to getting to know them all better in the next two years.

Finally, here's a picture from the outside of my school, during the opening day celebration, September 1st. The school is huge, though you can't really tell here. There are about 1800 students, but many only go to classes in the morning or afternoon.

The instruments the boys are playing are called "murrinhores, " or "horse-head fiddles." They are strung with just 2 strings, and have a very deep, rather haunting sound. The girl is dancing a traditional Mongolian dance. Her performance was brilliant.

Hope you are all "autumning well," as they say here!

BeauSox

A tip of the hat to the Yankee Wordsmith, my uncle Bill of Manchester NH for treating me to that moniker. Yes, even here in Mongolia I can follow the exploits of my favorite sports teams. I can use an online feature that gives play-by-play accounts of any baseball, football or basketball game played in the States in nearly real time. This is how I "watched" the Boston/Cleveland Game Seven, yesterday morning.

While there is some excitement in this method, I confess my acute homesickness in times like this. I knew this would be an issue before I left for Asia in June. New England sports fans anticipated a terrific Red Sox season, and why not? They had a 13 game division lead when Julie and I boarded the plane. We anticipated a special Patriots team with their new offensive weapons and look at them - a 7-0 start and on a pace to break the NFL season scoring record. I read of the acrobatic catches Moss makes. It is not the same as watching and cheering them with friends on the couch. Then there's Boston College's great season and the new-found promise of the reconstructed Celtics. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with the DVD season-ending recaps. Sure am looking forward to those.

In the meantime, I will enjoy the best I can from afar and take heart in knowing the fellow fans that I love are having a fabulous time. GO BEAUSOX!!!!!!

Yasan Bay?

What happened? On Friday October 5th, it was 70's and shorts. On Saturday, winter hit...

Mongolian BBQ

This past weekend, we experienced a version of our first "Mongolian BBQ." Jim's co-workers invited us to the countryside for a picnic in our honor and to "welcome us as friends." Very, VERY sweet!!!

The standard picnic includes a day at the river. It was a typically hot day with temps in the 90's. The Kherlen River is a clean, cool meanderer that was very refreshing for Jim and his new friends. The boys, Jim included, were without bathing suits, but not shy about stripping down to their underwear. To Julie's disappointment, Jim is just shy enough to keep pictures of same off the blog, though. Immodesty has its limits.

The "BBQ" consists of meat, usually sheep or goat, and veggies in a dish called Horhog. The chunks are put into a small can that resembles a milk can we've seen at home. River stones and a little water are also mixed in and the covered can is buried in a fire. Here's the result.

Other standard picnic items include tomatoes, cukes, a bologna-like substance called "hyam," bread and cookies. Beverages are typically sugar-laden fruit juice (apple, peach and pineapple are popular), bottled water, vodka and beer.

We were joined for our feast by a local goat herder who was minding a flock of about 200 for cashmere. After eating, the gang insisted that the two of us hop onto his horse for a brief stroll. I was afraid - not for me, but for the horse, which was a small yearling that would have suffered chronic back trouble supporting me. Julie has a much lighter touch and made another fast friend.

We also had fun playing 2-on-2 soccer with an over-inflated basketball, having river mud fights and singing Mongolian traditional tunes. Julie and I spent a couple afternoon hours exploring a nearby lake and birdlife that included cool species like Palla's Sandgrouse, Eurasion Spoonbills, Saunder's Gulls, along with Swan and Bar-headed Geese.

The closing scenery was quite an impressive end to a fun day!

Our New Town

We have arrived in our new town! The plane ride from UB was only about an hour and a half, and despite the fact that it was a very small plane, the ride was smooth as silk. I'd been worried about that! Another unfounded concern.

There are 2 other PCVs from our group "stationed" here and 2 who are half way through their service. This town is not on any tourist itinerary, so there are far fewer non-nationals than in UB or the western part of the country. So, even though there are, including several VSO and other service agency volunteers, about 12 non-Mongolians living in town, there are still few enough that we get the wide-open stares most everywhere we go. The little kids don't usually stare -- they just say "hello, hello, hello" over and over again, and as many times as we say it back, they continue. Then, at some point, as we continue past them, we say "good-bye," and then the "good-bye, good-bye, good-bye" chorus begins. They are absolutely adorable kids! Our new town, while topographically challenged, is actually a pleasant town. Even though it's the largest city in the eastern third of the country, it's still more like a big town -- much smaller feeling than Keene or Brattleboro. There is no grass to speak of, but there are people who pick up trash around town, and even brightly-colored mushroom and soccer ball-shaped trash cans for people to use! These are the first public trash cans in wide use that we've seen in Mongolia. (The photo above is the view from our 4th floor apartment window.)

There are several kindergartens, too, all of which have brightly-painted animals and other objects to climb on. Again, we've not seen much of this kind of thing in other parts of Mongolia where we've travelled.

The streets and ubiquitous playgrounds are almost always filled with children. Children of all ages walk freely among the buildings, unaccompanied, and moms and dads don't have to worry about them. Emays and Ovwos (grandmothers and grandfathers), in their traditional deels, are also here, although their numbers are quickly declining. The young people have little or no interest in the traditional clothing; we feel so fortunate to be here when there are still those that do.

We love how we can address any old woman or man as grandmother and grandfather. There's, essentially, no such thing as a person who chooses not to have children, so virtually all older people have grandchildren. And other adults, we refer to as "ekch" (older sister), "ahk" (older brother), or "doo" (younger sister or brother). The words for woman, man and child are rarely used. I love that! Instant extended family!

Our apartment is very nice! We actually have 2 bedrooms! The paint is peeling and there's a weird smell that comes from the bathroom drain, but other than that, it's great!

Here's our kitchen.

Here's our living room.

It's everything we DIDN'T expect to be living in when we came to Mongolia! We have grieved our lack of a countryside placement (and ger-living), but are allowing ourselves to fully appreciate what we do have here.

Jim has begun his work as a business trainer and consultant and school starts for Julie this week! More to come...

Successes!

Chapter one closes and chapter two begins with some great feelings of accomplishment. Last week, at our "Host Family Appreciation" ceremony, Jimmy,

the man whom I have tried to teach to waltz for, oh, about
17 years now, won a dancing contest! It was a formal, waltz-
type dance, and his partner was his language teacher. The teachers all got to choose who they wanted to dance with, and Jimmy's teacher, Tuya, chose him. Smart cookie, Tuya. Tuya is about 5' 1" and pregnant, and she and Tom Bagway (Mongolian for "Big Bear" - the name most other PC folks and many Mongolians call him) looked ridiculously cute
dancing together. We think that may have been the real reason he won. The other medal was indisputably deserved,

however, since it was for volleyball, and Jimmy's team was, by far, the best (of 6) to play. The Mongolians take their competitions very seriously, and since Jimmy does too, it worked out beautifully for everyone. We both felt, though, like it was very surreal to experience Jimmy receiving a medal for dancing. Another one of those highly unexpected experiences here. I also sang a song with my little sister, and I wish you all could have heard her sing. Absolutely lovely.

This week we are in UB (Ulaanbaatar) for final training sessions, to meet our supervisors for our new jobs, and for our official Peace Corps swearing-in. My supervisor is Sarantsetseg (Mongolian for "moonflower"), who is the principal of my new school, and who seems really willing to work closely with me. The school has about 1500 students and 80 teachers, and I'm slated to teach 5th, 7th and 11th grade English classes, work 6+ hours a week on teaching methodology and English language lessons with other language teachers, 2 hours a week teaching English to non-language teachers, 3 hours a week running "English Clubs," and 2 hours meeting with and tutoring my principal in English. I've been told that that schedule is highly preliminary, so we'll see when we get there what I really end up teaching. Jimmy's supervisor, Enkhbaatar, is a jovial young guy who Jimmy feels will be really flexible with him as well. In the photo, that's me and my supervisor, Sarah and Cassandra (who will be in the same town with us) and their supervisors, and Jimmy and Enkhbaatar. The photo was taken at the theater in UB where we had our swearing-in ceremony.

The "tsamts" we are wearing (check out the sleeves on mine!) were custom-made for us by our host families. That's a standard, and incredibly wonderful and generous gift that host families most always give to their PC trainees. Mine is absolutely gorgeous.

I was asked to sing the same song I sang with my sister at the appreciation event, at the swearing-in ceremony. It went over really well! One Mongolian teacher actually told me that my accent sounded like a real Mongolian was singing! I couldn't have had a nicer compliment.

And, finally, I thought you might like to get a look at some of the folks with whom I have spent the last 2 1/2 months, laughing, learning and exploring. In the photo are 8 of the 11 PCTs who trained in the same school as me, and our two teachers. Starting on the left, it's me, Cassandra, Agee, Tsetsgay, Dwan, Chris, Jacob, Alli, James, Charlene and Peter. Peter and I did our practise teaching together, and had a blast the whole time. His wife, Cady, lived right next door to Jimmy, and the two of them also had a great time together this summer.

We've now already said good-bye to most of these folks, until we meet again in December for our In-Service Training week back here in UB. We head out at 5AM to the airport, then take a 2+ hour flight to our new city. It's going to be so weird to have our very first apartment-building experience take place in Mongolia! We also have our PC issued cell phones, which everyone is having fun watching us try to figure out.

So, in our next entry we'll be able to tell you all about our new community of Choibalsan! Meanwhile, happy back-to-school for many of you, and enjoy these last glorious days of summer.

Julie's Family's Turn

Now it's my turn to tell you all about MY wonderful host family. Wish I'd had time to do it earlier, since, at this point, we have actually moved on. But I certainly intend to stay in touch with these lovely people while I'm here in Mongolia and beyond.

My mom, Haltar, is an absolute stitch. She cracks me up every day with the way she pretends she is going to have a nervous breakdown if I don't eat more dinner. She has so many endearing mannerisms, including referring to herself in the third person all the time. I think that might be a cultural thing; mothers here are very highly esteemed, and moms wear their titles as well-earned badges of honor. She loves to laugh and does so most of the day. She is also highly respected in the community, as she is a medical doctor. Everyone knows her. When I come home from visiting Jimmy in the center of town, all I have to tell the taxi driver is "I'd like to go to the doctor's house." They say, "Oh, Haltar," and take me right to my door. My dad, Nansungsuring, is just as cute and sweet. They're both around 57 years old. They both treat me like I am truly their daughter, and they treat each other with a tenderness and affection that is, apparently, quite unusual here. They are the world's cutest couple.

My sister, Boloroh, who is in the photo with us, is 17, with the maturity of a 25 year-old and the playfulness of a 5 year-old. She has taught me bunches of games and 2 beautiful Mongolian folk songs, that I will sing at our "Host Family Appreciation" ceremony this weekend. She sings like a sweet songbird, and she's just as beautiful, inside and out. Everywhere we go, she puts her arm in mine. She is also an incredibly patient and helpful teacher. I don't know how she can hear me ask the same questions a dozen times and, each time, act like it is a perfectly reasonable question. I don't know what I'd have done without her.

My 19 year-old sister, Egee, is in the photo to the right. She was only here with us for 2 weeks, since she's a university student in Ulaanbaatar now. Her impact on me was great, though. She is also a beautiful, patient and loving young woman.

The best thing about my family, though, is the laughter. We laugh constantly! Sometimes we laugh at my language mistakes, but usually we just laugh at those things that don't require language to understand. I feel like the Peace Corps couldn't have done a more perfect job in placing me with my family. We all have similar sensibilities, plus there are no little kids banging on my door at all hours, like some of the other trainees have. Those other trainees are fine with their situation, too, so I think we were pretty much all put with families into which we fit great.

So, this week we said very tearful good-byes to our families, with great hopes of visiting often during the next 2 years. These people will certainly live in my heart forever.