Hovd Trip Pictures

Here's a few photos from this past weekend's trip to Hovd. I'll be uploading the rest of them to my Flickr account as soon as I can and posting a slide show.

Journey to Hovd for an Early Thanksgiving

The Olgii PCV's came to Hovd for the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving weekend a little early. Ashlee has to leave for her IST (inter service training) the Monday following Thanksgiving so it's just easier for us to all get together this weekend. Laura and our friend Brad who was visiting came to Hovd earlier in the week. Scott, Ashlee and I caught a ride yesterday afternoon expecting to make it to Hovd by midnight last night. Because almost all Mongolian road trips are rather unpleasant and unpredictable in length, we were preparing for the worst (in this case, typically six to nine hours or so). There was quite a bit of snow outside of Olgii and the roads were frozen in some places but it wasn't impassable or impossible. Temperatures were well below freezing but with six people scrunched together we were kinda cozy and warm. Two hours into the ride our jeep started overheating so our driver stopped, tinkered around in the engine bay and we were on our way. Over the next twenty minutes the same thing happened two more times and eventually we resorted to waiting for someone else to come along and help us out. A small convoy stopped and talked with our driver a bit, hoping to help(Mongolians and Kazakhs are incredibly reliable when it comes to helping one another out on the road).

After a few minutes another jeep tied a rope to our jeep and towed us to the closest town, a lake side soum called Tuval, where the driver had some family. This resulted in us coming pretty close to freezing our asses off and whiplash every few minutes. What's a Mongolian travel experience without something painful to discuss the following day? :)

Anyways, we ended up having to stay the night at the driver's family's home, which was fine. They fed us, gave us some tea, and a place to stay for the night. The family was very nice, the kids friendly and curious, the house warm, and the food good. We woke up around nine this morning and got ready to go, getting on the road by 9:30. After making a couple stops to drop off the other two passengers, a few rugs, and a few stops to help other stranded travelers, we made it to Hovd around 2:30. We're warm in our friend Mona's apartment, enjoying the company of the Hovd volunteers, Laura and Brad. More info and pics to come as the weekend progresses.

Peace Corps Partnership Program

Here's a video with a little information on the 'Peace Corps Partnership Program'. I'm running over a few new project ideas with my work right now and I'm hoping we can find a way to utilize this program.

I finished up my grant for the learning and advisement center, submitted it and a Peace Corps staff member went over it, made suggestions and gave it back to me. I went over the grant again and made some changes and revisions after discussing it with my coworkers and I submitted it again. I'm hoping that it gets approved soon. The sooner the grant gets approved the sooner we can purchase materials and start construction. More posts to come as things progress. :)

Wishing Nurbol Luck....

My best friend in Olgii, Nurbol, is leaving tomorrow to Ulaanbaatar for a month of training with Ezniz, an airline in Mongolia. We're very excited for him and very proud of him. He's been doing work as a guide now and then with travelers who come to Olgii but it isn't steady and he's been looking for a good steady job for a while now. He's very smart, his English is excellent and he also speaks fluent Kazakh, Russian and Mongolian, and he's very motivated, hard working, and charismatic. He's been my best local friend since we met in March and he's helped me out so much with translating, projects, and the Kazakh language. We took him to dinner tonight at the Turkish restaurant and talked a bit about the gig in UB. He told us he's training for a little over a month and then has to take a test. If he does well on the test, he gets the job with the airline and will be coming back to Olgii to work, starting in late December. The Olgii PCV's will be in and out of UB in December so I'm hoping to at least be able to meet up with him for a beer and to chill and talk about how things are going with the training. It's only a month or so but we'll definitely miss him. Good luck Nurbol, have fun! :)

Remembering the 70s: Peace Corps Afghanistan

http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/remembering-the-70s/2009/10/09/the-peace-corps-in-afghanistan/

Interesting article on the Peace Corps in Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion and a look at what Afghanistan was like before the past few decades of violence and turmoil.

More stories from Peace Corps Afghanistan..

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/2016140.html

Veteran's Day and the Marine Corps Birthday

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day and today is the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Oooorah! Semper Fi Marines!

http://www.whiznews.com/content/sports/local/2009/11/09/marine-corps-marks-anniversary

Peace Corps in the News

Here's a few articles I found in the news today that are related to Peace Corps.

Michael McCaskey, the current CEO and Chairman of the Chicago Bears was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia.

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-11-08-voa16.cfm

This month the Peace Corps is celebrating 'National Native American Heritage Month'. There are currently sixteen Peace Corps volunteers serving in fourteen different countries who identify themselves as having Native American heritage.

http://nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2607:peace-corps-celebrates-national-native-american-heritage-month&catid=49&Itemid=25

Muriel Johnston, an 85 year old woman from Florida, is the oldest serving Peace Corps volunteer, currently working as a health volunteer in Morocco. Here's an article on secretary of state Hillary Clinton praising her service.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/11/03/morocco.us.peace.corp.senior/