The Matt Becker blog has arrived !!!! Prepare yourselves!!!!!

Ok so I finally got around to starting a blog. Most of the people who will be reading my blog initially are probably on my email list and have been receiving somewhat regular updates on my adventure as a Peace Corps volunteer in western Mongolia. That being said I will probably post up some information from the past six months so others can read about what's been going on. I am working on uploading a number of pictures onto my photobucket account so I can make a slideshow or two, some of the photos are in my facebook albums, some aren't. I'm going to do my best to keep this blog updated with pictures, videos, stories, thoughts, reflections, ramblings, and what not.

Despite my experience with facebook and myspace in the past, I am pretty new to the whole 'blogging' thing. It seems pretty cool so far and I am looking forward to learning more as I work on my blog. It might take me a little while to get up to speed so bear with me. I will be spending a few weeks in Ulaanbaatar so hopefully my friend and fellow PCV Travis can help me out. He already has a great blog up, it's linked on my page under 'Advance Humanity'. Take some time to check it out, Travis is a great writer and has a lot of interesting thoughts on a variety of topics. There are a few other PCV's from my group that have blogs as well so I will probably try to link a few of those soon.

Ok so here's the latest: It's now been six months since I first arrived in the beautiful country of Mongolia. I completed the two and a half months of preservice training and enjoyed my host family stay in Sukhbaatar, spent a few days in Darkhan for swearing in, spent a few days in Ulaanbaatar and then came to Olgii in the far western aimag of Bayan Olgii in mid August. Things have been up and down, exciting, interesting, dramatic, difficult, back and forth and stressful, but ultimately I am very happy to be here and very happy to have this opportunity.

Most of my work right now consists of teaching English to a few different groups of students but I have a few promising projects coming up in the next few months. My sitemate Laura and I are planning on continuing a trash cleanup and dumpster/trash can installation project that our M18 (volunteer from last year's group) started. We are also planning an afternoon physical education and sports class for kids of all ages. If things go as planned this will consist of helping to promote a healthy lifestyle for the youth of Olgii through activities like stretching, aerobics, kickboxing, and teaching various athletic games and sports. Another project I am really excited about is the possibility of working with the the local health department on some life skills courses for teens. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to meet with the lady in charge of training for the health department and she has worked with PCV's in the past. She was really excited to meet with me as well and hopefully we will get the life skills classes going not too long after I return from Ulaanbaatar.

Anyways, the weather has been really cold lately. I spent a chill holiday weekend in Hovd aimag, about four hours southeast of Olgii. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with the Hovd PC volunteers and a couple volunteers from other countries. Pictures coming soon from that adventure.

Well this is the start of my blog, I hope you enjoy it. So far I have a list of links I really enjoy for news, entertainment, and causes, a list of books I recommend, and a couple pictures. There's a lot more to come. Pictures, videos, and more detailed information on the past few months as well as the coming months.

Matt