Medical Separation and Interrupted Service

On January 28th, Tyler was medically separated from Peace Corps and I decided to take Interrupted Service. This means that we can begin the process to reinstate and return to Mongolia after Tyler receives medical clearance after about three months. I have been told that the reinstatement process is considerably less involved than the initial Peace Corps enrollment process, but that it could take from 3-5 months. We don't have any guarantee that we would return to our site, Khovd, but our country director has said that he would try send us back to Khovd if/when we reinstate.

As for now, we've returned to the United States and are staying with Tyler's family in Pittsburg Texas. His family is currently remodeling their house and have rented a large bed and breakfast, so we're living in the lap of luxury. Yesterday I washed and dried our clothes by machine!

I am currently seeking employment as a teacher and Tyler is setting up his appointments for physical therapy.

Things have not worked out according to plan, but we are glad to be home. Tyler's Papa (his mom's dad) suffered a heart attack this week and has been in the Intensive Care Unit in Tyler, TX until today. He is still in the hospital, but now he's been discharged from the ICU. We are grateful that we could be here now to spend time with Papa.

Medical Evacuation

This has been a very interesting holiday season. Three weeks and a half weeks ago Tyler dislocated his knee cap while wrestling with another volunteer in some approximation the Mongolian style. An MRI showed that he had torn three ligaments, including a bucket handle tear in the meniscus that made it impossible for him to bend his knee more than 30 degrees. Washington received the electronic version of the MRI immediately and the hard copy was also sent there. In the mean time, he stayed in a hotel in Ulaanbatar and we celebrated Christmas. I went to Nalaikh for the New Year to see my host family and Tyler stayed at the hotel. After two weeks, Peace Corps Washington replyed that he should go to Thailand for surgery and I was lucky enough to get to go with him since one of our Peace Corps Medical Officers was on vacation in Hawaii.

Thailand is so beautiful. The food is delicious and plentiful. There are flowers and green things everywhere. It is hot! We saw a traditional dance performance in which there were flying dancers, musicians, a river and elephants--I actually touched one elephant's trunk as it walked through the audience! We also saw the Avatar at an IMAX theater in 3D. The Thai people are very friendly and famous for their smile, but they don't stare at foreigners. In fact, in inclosed spaces like elevators they stare at the floor. It's easy to to get around in Bangkok. The sky train is easy to use, but there is also a river taxi and two types of street taxis--modern and traditional. It seems like everyone there speaks at least a little English. After Ty's surgery while he was sleeping in the hospital I went to the Grand Palace and saw where the King and Queen of Thailand live and I also saw the famous Reclining Buddha.

I didn't want to leave Thailand and I especially didn't want to leave Tyler while he's still recovering from surgery, but I'm grateful that I got to accompany him at all and to stay for the surgery. That really meant a lot to both of us. The Peace Corps staff in Mongolia and in Thailand have done so much to help us in this situation. The Thailand Peace Corps Medical Officer helped us make all of the appointment at the Bumrungrad hospital and she came with us to meet the surgeon the first time. That hospital is like a 5 star hotel.

I'm in Korea now posting from the airport and they've just annouced the boarding call for my flight to Ulaanbatar. Pray for Tyler to heal fast.

VOKI

Walking on rainbows

Yesterday, two of my friends came over to play games and color pictures: Boba, 4 and Esuixen, 8 are two of Tsagana's 3 children (Tsagana is a friend of mine from work).

Later, Tyler and I went for a long walk with one of my students, Nyamundral, to her grandmother's ger. Her grandfather, now passed, was a councilman who helped to plant the trees that now line the streets of Khovd. Near Nyamundral's grandmother's ger there are groves of Aspen and Willow trees as well as a large garden and current bushes. We enjoyed currant jam and hot current tea at her grandmother's ger as her two nephews entertained us. On our way home, we walked along the Buyant river which is now frozen.

It was my first time to walk on a frozen river. The late afternoon sun reflected on the ice and snow in lines of colorful sparkles that looked like a rainbow on the ground. In some places, the ice was thin and we enjoyed stomping and jumping on it until we fell through to the lower layers of ice crystals.



We had so much fun, but the temperature outside is already -20 degrees Celcius. When we got home I was very numb.

Halloween Party at Khovd University

In this game, the students gave each other oral directions in English. The goal was to dunk the bunny in the bucket.

Batna and Buyna (above) gave a good showing in the paper Dance Contest, but Khundiz and Tserenhuu (below) were the winners. The goal was to stay on a piece of paper that the moderator kept folding into a smaller and smaller piece.


The 2nd course English students (sophomore English majors) organized an incredible Halloween party this year complete with bobbing for apples, costume contests, singing, dancing, and other games that I have never seen before. It was a very exciting event. All of the English students attended and really enjoyed. I taught them how to do the Macarena and the Monster Mash and since then my students have not stopped telling me what an excellent dancer that I am! I love Mongolia. No one has ever asked me to teach dances or complimented me after seeing me dance before!

The latest news on the H1N1

1) As of November 4, there have been 859 laboratory-confirmed casesof H1N1 in Mongolia. There are 690 confirmed cases in Ulaanbaatar. The other 169 cases are in 17 aimags: Khovd (19), Darkhan-Uul (23), Govisumber (16), Uvurkhangai (15), Orkhon (13), Dornogovi (17), Selenge (11), Khentii (11), Dornod (11), Tuv (10), Arkhangai (8), Bulgan (5), Zavkhan (3), Bayankhongor (3), Umnugovi (2), Khuvsgul (1), Uvs (1).

No H1N1 cases registered in Bayan-Olgii, Dundgovi, Sukhbaatar and Govi-Altai provinces.

Just to lighten things up a bit I have decided to include a picture of me before I got a haircut. This is the longest my hair has ever been and after months of listening to- ahem- a person's request that I get a haircut I did so and just as Sampson of old I have now lost all vitality; colors are not as bright, food does not interest me, and even salt has lost its saltiness.

New guest columnist at Rachel's blog

Well, Rachel asked me if I would be kind enough to write a column for her blog and I thought that I would oblige her considering that she has been asking me to do so for five months now and anyway it looks like it will be another two weeks off from school for me and the rest of the secondary school teachers in Mongolia. That's right the H1N1 has shaken up the country and two weeks ago the education ministry got together and decided that it would be best not to take any chances so they decided fall break would come early this year and all the children rejoiced. Then those same guvment people started thinking that if one week off was good then two weeks ought to be twice as good, which was fine by me since I make the same nine cents an hour whether I am fighting for truth, justice, and the American Way or picking navel lent while using 3-D imaging software to make the coolest tree-house imaginable. Well, things were moving along pretty smoothly for me but the number of people infected with the H1N1 (I do that so as not to upset the pork producers of America. Times are hard enough as it is without having ignorant people think that eating the most delicious of God's creatures causes the flu. I get onto the rest of the foreign devils here whenever they say swine flu because anything that hurts bacon production hurts the U.S.A. and that's unAmerican. No joke, I would stab a unicorn in the neck for a lifetime supply of bacon.)
has about doubled and to keep things from getting even worse the education minister decided that a month off sounded about right. So I have included a picture of me at a Halloween party celebrating the H1N1 holiday. The Piggly Wiggly shirt was just a coincidence.