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.

Swine Flu Vacation! / 350

1.) The Government of Mongolia & The Ministry of Education has announced they will close all secondary schools on 26 Oct 2009. This school closure is earlier than the usual Fall break and may be extended.

2.) At present time there are 135 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in five Aimags in Mongolia.

Tyler's school will be closed all next week. However, Khovd University will not be closed and Rachel does not get any time off.

Today is a beautiful Saturday with fresh snow on the ground. We will both participate in an international clean air campaign called "350". http://www.350.org/understanding-350

My Aunt Tererai on Oprah

This morning, I watched my aunt Tererai's story online. She was on Oprah! I'm so proud of her. She has worked so hard and has such a beautiful story and now she is sharing it with the world! Check out this link:

http://www.oprah.com/media/20090925-tows_tererai-dream-education

Lately, I have settled into my work routine and I have been missing home and feeling a little down about the work that I'm doing here. Small daily frustrations weigh on me and make me aware of being so far away from my family and friends, but seeing Tererai's video on-line makes me feel connected to home and gives me inspiration at the same time.

Khovd University's 30-Year Anniversary

Here are some of my friends, English teachers at the university, dressed up for the anniversary show. They performed a military-style dance at the concert.

This is where I sat for the opening ceremony at the stadium--with the honored guests and international visitors.
This is the opening parade.
This is the synchronized aerobics performance. In Mongolia, aerobics is also called "gymnastics".
This is a picture of the wrestling competition.
This is a picture of me with the winning horse.
Horse race!
This is a picture of the panel of distinguished people at the awards ceremony including the governor of Khovd Aimag.
This is a picture of the Academic Conference.

Last week, Khovd University celebrated it's 30-year anniversary. This event was top priority for the University (over and beyond classes) as well as a very important event for the community. Several local secondary schools canceled their classes in order to allow teachers and students to attend. International visitors came from 7 countries for the Academic Conference held on the second day of the anniversary celebration. First however, everyone assembled at the stadium for the opening ceremony.

The teachers and students marched into the stadium in parade formation and the students gave musical and aerobics performances (279 students particpated in the synchronized aerobics performance). Naadam style celebration came next complete with wrestling, archery and horseback racing. I touched the winning horse, which is very good luck.

Later, everyone assembled for a giant awards presentation in which the governor of Khovd, former director of Khovd University, presided.

The first evening, a giant concert was held in the community theater. The teachers and students gave musical and dance performances for nearly four hours. Unfortunately for me, I was one of the unlucky 200 that was locked out of the theater--it seemed that everyone in Khovd wanted to attend the concert.

On the second day, I gave two ten minute speeches at the Academic Conference. Mine were not presentations based on long reasearch projects, but rather short speeches that I wrote these last couple of weeks. One of my them was entitled Shakespeare's Macbeth: One Example of Why English Language Students Should Study Literature, the other was about teaching methodology: Teaching Adult Students Using the Communicative Approach. I was the only person there representing the United States as well as the only person to give speeches in English. My friend, Amraa bagsh, who is the head of the English-Chinese department at Khovd University, translated for me. I wish that all of the other speakers (who gave their speeches in Mongolian and Russian) would have had translators as well because I couldn't understand very much of the other speeches!

Khovd City

Check out this website:

http://www.gohovd.com/wiki/Main_Page

The last picture was taken from my balcony (the red building is the community theater where live performances are given at least once a week). The other pictures are of the main street in Khovd (you might notice that there is not very much traffic) and a statue in the main square. The square is just past the theater on my walk to work. The agricultural university is there and the governor's building is there. The statue is of Ard Ayush.

Ard Ayush lived in Hovd from 1859 to 1939. He was not a general of the military; he was a common man. However, he led the people in a fight against the Manchurians and they won. The statue that honors him wears traditional, civilian clothing. His full name is Aldarjaviin Ayush, but he was later given the name "Ard", which means "People" in Mongolian.

For more information about Ard and Khovd in general, be sure to check out this very cool website: www.gohovd.com

The countryside

• Last weekend, the principal of Tyler's school, Oyunchimeg bagsh, took us to meet her mother in the countryside. (That's her in the purple del.)
• As soon as we got there, the goats were ready to be milked.
• After milking, EEJ (mother) served us cream and mongolian vodka (which is distilled from milk).
• Later, we went horseback riding and ate roasted mutton and watermelon around a campfire.
  

This is the road that we traveled to get there.

Khovd Vegetables

Tyler and I are really happy to be placed in Khovd, a city famous in Mongolia for watermelon and vegetables. Here are some pictures from a recent harvest festival / handicraft fair.
















Look how big that cabbage is compared to Tyler's hand!

Peace Corps Mongolia on MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32736713#32736713

Peace Corps Mongolia has been in the news this last week. Follow this link to listen to our director, Jim Carl, speak about our work here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/anna.keegan/Mongolia02?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvoq_Hh6ojlLQ&feat=email


My friend Anna has posted some pictures from our training.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school in Khovd, not only at the university where I work, but also at the seven secondary schools. This morning, on my way to teach American Literature to 3rd year English major students, I walked past many children in new school uniforms with new backpacks and new shoes. Smaller children were led by there mothers, holding mom's hand. Older children walked in groups of 4 or 5, arm in arm, speaking to eachother happily and with excitment. There were so many more people than I had ever seen at once crossing the city square! The announcers were blowing and instruments were playing and at every school opening ceremonies were held: songs were sung and speeches were given. When I arrived at my classroom at 8:00, the students were not there and the door was locked. They were all at the opening ceremony!

My students arrived at 9:28, two minutes before our class was scheduled to end. Needless to say, I didn't give the lecture that I had planned for today, but I did get the chance to speak to my new students and introduce myself to them. I am very excited about the new school year and getting to know my students! I will also be teaching Freshman and Senior English Practice classes, running the university English club, and teaching a seminar for the English teachers.

Now that I have a set schedule and access to the Internet in my office, I will be making more regular blog entries... I have many pictures to post. I hope that you all are well. Tyler and I are very happy in our new city, Khovd or "Hovd", the center of Western Mongolia. This is a very interesting city with many different ethnic groups and cultural events.

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!