Nalaikh pictures

This is my host sister Batsetseg and me on the day that I left Nalaikh. The shirt that I'm wearing is a modern del that my host mom, Tsetsegmaa had made for me.









This is my friend Mona (another Peace Corps Trainee) with some children from another Ryan's host family and neighbor's family (Ryan is also a Peace Corps trainee).

This is picture of my host family's home--my host dad, Batrentsen, with Tyler and my host mom's younger sister.

Since everyone liked the Boetz, I have inclued a couple of pictures of huushuur. This is like Boetz, only bigger and fried. AMTTETEI! Very delicious!!

Universities in Ulaanbaatar

Last weekend I went to the capital city to learn about some of the unversities that are there. UB is a very modern city and the universities that I visited had computer labs and technologically advanced lecture halls.

We didn't have much time for shopping, but I purchased some hand-painted cards from an artist: this is him and my friend Baldra. She likes to make jewelry!

We also went to eat at an Indian restaurant. Delicious!

Peace Corps Training

Peace Corps has been keeping us very busy with many different types of training sessions. In addition to Mongolian language classes (everyday for four hours), we have also been participating in community development training, cross-culture training and TEFL training (teaching English as a foreign language). Most of this training has been very interesting.

For example, in one community development training activity we were asked to bring one member of our host family on a community walk. As we walked around Nalaikh, our host family members pointed out different buildings and landmarks and told us about them (one of our trainers acted as a translator for this activity). We visited several points of interest such as the cultural center built by the Chinese in 1958 in symbolism of Chinese-Mongolian friendship, the large statue dedicated to the local coal miners, the cookie factory, the newspaper office, the surgery hospital, the kindergarten, the post office, etc. Then, we returned to the GOLOMT school (where we have our training classes). There, our trainers divided us into two groups (Peace Corps trainees and host family members). Each group was asked to make a map of the city, to circle the three most important community landmarks or places, to designate the places where we spend time, and to list at least three things that the community needs. Although both groups listed a youth sports center as one of the things that the community needs, our host family members pointed out that the city was in need of a public library, new apartments, and a dry cleaner. These were all things that we hadn’t even considered.

For one of our cross-culture training sessions, we visited a local family’s ger. We were served milk tea and milk treats as their five-year-old daughter, Tuul, recited a very long and beautiful poem about all of the good things that mothers do for their children. We learned ger etiquette, how to build a fire, and we talked about how to winterize a ger. Then, we went outside and learned to saw and chop firewood. We were all very impressed by their garden and greenhouse. I really enjoyed this hands-on training session!

Our TEFL training has included practice teaching. We have been working with a partner since we are most likely to work with a Mongolian counterpart once we get to our sites. It has been very helpful to practice teaching English to Mongolian students and to learn different techniques for teaching foreign language without using translations.

I feel that this has all been very good preparation for the work that I will be doing after training... but even if it isn’t, I have been enjoying!