Ulaanbaatar

I'm in UB now, enjoying the company of friends, making new Peace Corps (M20) friends, enjoying delicious food, delicious beverages, and also trying to get a few of the details finished up on my projects. Life is good. Pics are from the past few days. I met up with friends from around PC Mongolia and also Nurbol from Olgii. I'm heading to Thailand soon and won't be on the internet much, as I'll be enjoying the company of my beautiful girlfriend Hanna, and the beautiful beaches of Koh Chang and Koh Phangan. :) I'll try to post pics from Thailand when I have some time. I hope everyone has a great holiday season. Happy holidays!

A sigh of relief....almost

Ok so the past two days have been really hectic but it seems as though I can breathe at least a small sigh of relief. Yesterday I met with my director (boss) and my friend, student, and part time translator, Gulim, we hashed out the details on the grant and on some of the costs, I made the necessary changes to the grant, and today we set up the joint bank account in which we will receive the grant funds. I need to complete a bit more paperwork, we're waiting on the grant to be translated into Mongolian by an English teacher who works at Bastama school(where I teach fifth and seventh grade English clubs), and I'll see how things go from there. There was a little confusion and some miscommunication on the bank account specifics but we got it straightened out with the help of Laura's counterpart Mara, a very nice, smart, hard working, and helpful English teacher. :)

Speaking of Laura, today I donated the majority of my English resources to her library. I had an assortment of movies, books, maps, crayons, colored pencils, markers, magazines, construction paper and numerous other English resources that I felt would be more effective in the English library, where students will have easy access to them. I have used a lot of these resources in my teaching but as things have slowed down recently with my classes, I felt it would be much better for them to all be placed in the library. Most of these resources were sent by friends and family from the U.S. and I just want everyone who sent supplies to know that they are being put to good use. :) I was in the library today making some copies and there were a lot of students there checking out books and looking for American Christmas materials (songs, books, movies, etc.). Things are going really well at Laura's library, I'm very happy for her and glad I was able to help out a little bit. I have been meaning to take pictures of the library so people back home can see what I'm talking about. I'll try to get that done today or tomorrow and get them posted up.

Anyways, I have to finish up editing and typing the UNICEF proposal tonight, I've been so busy the past two days I've had very little time to finish that. I will definitely have it finished and sent to UNICEF Mongolia before I head out on my trip to Thailand. Tomorrow I have to pack my stuff and clean my apartment up a little bit. Saturday morning I head to Ulaanbaatar, next week I have my flu shot and a dental appointment and I will be heading to Darhan for Christmas to visit my friend Cristiana and meet some of the M20s. After that, I head to Thailand for a little over three weeks of vacation with Hanna. More pics and updates to come, as always. Hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far. :)

When it rains, it pours

When it rains, it pours. I can't think of a more appropriate idiom or expression to explain what's happening to me right now, hahaha. I have been bored, frustrated, impatient, and waiting for things to happen over the past couple weeks. Suddenly, it's the week before I leave for vacation and I find myself busier than I've been in a long time, almost running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to get things done. In addition to finding out that my grant has been conditionally approved, yesterday I received an email from the head of UNICEF Mongolia telling me that they are interested in possibly helping out with some projects in our community. My work finally lets me know that the aimag (province) government has decided to provide funding/support in the form of 30 million tugriks. This money, plus another 120 million from ngo World Vision, will go towards building a completely new children's 'palace' next year, provided we can get additional support and funding from UNICEF and/or other organizations. Marta, one of the English teachers at Bastama, where I teach a few English clubs, translated the children's center's project proposal into English for me today and I am currently editing and typing it. I'm hoping to finish and email it to UNICEF tonight.

I have a meeting in a few minutes with my boss and my student (and incredibly helpful translator and friend) Gulim to discuss the changes that need to be made to the grant. I need to check on some costs, clarify a few points, figure out how we'll have the grant translated into Mongolian, open up a joint bank account with my boss, fill out some SPA (small project assistance) paperwork, and get this all submitted to Peace Corps before Saturday morning. I'm going to dinner with Laura, Ashlee, Bek and a couple of travelers tonight. I'm hoping to talk about the projects a bit more and some other ideas to go with them, with Ashlee and Laura. I know that Laura's family and friends collected thousands of books to be sent to Olgii for her English library and we're looking for funding to have the books shipped..and I also have a number of friends and family members who are interested in contributing books or money towards projects here. Any books that can't be used in the English library will probably end up in the children's learning center. As soon as we figure out what our plan is and what we think is the top priority, I'll update my blog and send out some emails clarifying things.

More to come as things progress. Hope all is well. :)

Great News!!!

Ok so this is just a quick post to let people know that I received some great news today. My grant was conditionally approved! I have to make a few changes to some of the details and I need to have it translated into Mongolian. I am going to meet with my coworkers today to work out some more of the details and figure out how quickly we can have the translation done. I will be discussing options and ideas with Laura and Ashlee tonight at dinner as far as how friends and family back home can contribute to the project, to Laura's library, or to both. I'm leaving for UB on Saturday morning and I won't be back in Olgii for about a month so I need to get this done in the next few days. Wish me luck.

More to come soon! :)

Pics from the English Teaching Seminar

Here's a few pics from Laura's English teaching seminar. Laura went over the benefits of using games and activities in the classroom, curriculum and lesson planning, and I taught pronunciation and how to teach it to students. Thanks to Laura's counterpart, Mara, for taking pictures during the seminar and helping to keep things organized/defending us from the unexplainable wrath of the school director.

Christmas Cards, a Seminar for English Teachers, and Potential for New Projects

The past week has been interesting...I've spent a couple nights at my friend Bek's house and we've been discussing some ideas for when I come back from Thailand. Bek is an NGO worker and summer tour guide who I've known since August of last year. He's a really smart, motivated and hard working guy who's done a lot of good things for the community, especially the smaller towns outside of Olgii. He's worked with his organization to build three kindergartens, he's helped provide supplies for schools in the smaller soums(towns) and he recently opened up his own tourist ger camp in Olgii. He works with tourists in the summer and sometimes in the other seasons, taking them to Saxsai and other soums to show them eagle hunting, local Kazakh traditions, etc. and he's also starting to be involved in bringing ecotourism to Bayan Olgii. I've been to his home a few times and I've met his family, they are very nice and always happy to see me. His two daughters are so sweet and cute. This week I went to his house twice to have dinner, discuss project ideas, show him a little info on getting his company's website started, and help with his laptop a bit, getting him better antivirus software and hooking him up with some movies and tv shows. :)

Info on ecotourism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotourism (just in case you don't feel like typing in 'ecotourism' on Google.) ;)

We're talking about doing some health and English teaching training sessions and seminars in the smaller soums, helping provide some nomadic families with easier access to water in the areas where they spend the summer, and a few other ideas. I'm excited about what we'll be able to work on when I get back in January. It's looking like between teaching, my work at the children's center, helping with Laura's library, and these other potential projects, I'll be able to keep busy, be productive and get some good work done from January until I leave the country in July.

Also, I met with my friend Agii this past week, the English teacher who I worked with in February on the English olympiad. We're looking to do that again in February or March but this time we're going to expand it to include different subjects and different age groups, so more students will be able to participate. This weekend I'm going to be helping him with speaking portions on his private English lessons with intermediate and advanced students and I'll be helping out a couple days next week before I head to Ulaanbaatar. I'm really excited to go to UB and then to Thailand with Hanna but I'm a little sad, as I always am when I leave Olgii, to leave my students for so long. When I get back from vacation I want to make the most of my time and put as much as possible into the lessons and time I have with my students.

This past week I did lessons on Christmas with my seventh grade English clubs and we all made Christmas and holiday cards. The students seemed to really enjoy that and they do love singing traditional Christmas songs, which are really popular in Mongolia.

In other news, today Laura put on an English teaching seminar for Olgii's English teachers. It lasted all day and we had about nineteen teachers attend. I helped out, providing comic relief, candy, and even taught an hour on pronunciation. :) It was pretty fun and it seemed like the teachers enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I'll put some pics of that up in my next post.

That's all for now, I'm sure I left something out but I'll update it when I think of it or before I head to Thailand. If you haven't checked out my 'snort monsters' videos yet, take a look, they are hilarious. Hope all is well!

7th Grade Snort Monsters Part 2 :)

Here's the second video...hope you enjoy it.

7th Grade Snort Monsters :)

Here's my latest video, it's of some of my seventh grade English club students playing a funny game. Check it out.

Reebok knockoffs, idle time, self doubt and and a video you can't help but smile at

^ Thanks to Laura, I am the proud new owner of a pretty sweet Reebok coat. It cost less than five bucks, hell of a deal.

One thing that you learn during Peace Corps Training, that has proven to be true time and time again, is that in Peace Corps service, the highs are really high and the lows are really low. When things are going well, it's one of the greatest feelings in the world. There have been moments over the past seventeen months where I've been so happy and it's made me realize just how much I love being here. It can be the smallest, seemingly trivial moments or occurrences that can turn an average day into the best day. On the other hand, when things go wrong or you have too much free time to spend in idle thought, things can feel pretty bad. For me personally it's often too easy to get down on myself and question my effectiveness as a Peace Corps volunteer. I keep reminding myself that this is a learning experience and that things don't always go as planned. Right now I feel as though I'm having one of the lower moments. Work has been slow, I've been teaching, but not as often. One of the biggest challenges I face with not being a traditional teacher is that I have to find my students or they have to find me. When something like the H1N1 flu causes school to be cancelled (including my voluntary classes), it makes it difficult to get back on track once I'm able to teach again. It's also bad timing because I'm a few weeks away from leaving site for a month for my vacation. I'm waiting (impatiently) to hear back on the two grants I applied for, I've had a hard time arranging meetings with student council members (many of whom are 11th graders getting ready to graduate and preparing to take multiple tests before they head off to college), my translator, best friend, and assistant is in Ulaanbaatar for job training, and I've just had too much idle time lately.

The best thing to do with idle time is to find different ways to be productive. I recently contacted a book foundation in the U.S. to help Laura out with her English library and they are supposed to be sending 30 lbs of books soon. I'm also going to be spending some time in the library, learning how things work so I can help out and work there a few days a week before I leave and hopefully when I get back in late January. I'm hoping to hear back about my grants before I leave for Thailand. Also, when I'm in UB I will be picking up the TIP (Trafficking in Persons) dvd and a number of English booklets and CD's (listening practice/conversations). My plan when I get back is to make copies of the TIP dvd, put on a few TIP seminars and distribute copies to all the schools in Olgii and other organizations, along with some more basic information on the topic. I'd also like to do the same with the English CD's, distribute them to English teachers throughout Olgii.

I'm also trying to get caught up on my reading as much as possible in my free time at home. I always feel a lot better when I rip through a few chapters of a good book instead of wasting time mindlessly browsing the internet. I'm currently reading 'Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam' by John L. Esposito, it's a good read so far, almost done. I've got a pretty good size pile of books I still need to get through before I leave and I'm also going to start looking through my Foreign Service Officer exam study guide this weekend.

Anyways, it's pretty late and I need to get some reading done and then get to sleep, I'll write more over the weekend or next week. In the meanwhile, take a look at this music video put together by the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon to raise breast cancer awareness. I dare you not to smile while watching it. :)

Nothing too Exciting

Work has been rather slow this week. I have been back to teaching my seventh grade English clubs on Mondays and Fridays and I'm supposed to begin my 5th grade lessons starting on Monday(I hope). I was supposed to have a meeting today with the student council but that never panned out. I wrote an email to a foundation in the U.S. that donates free books for PCV's and other groups throughout the world, hoping to hear back from them about getting new English books for Laura's English library and for the children's center. I gave out some HIV/AIDS (basic info and prevention) flyers to a couple schools yesterday and I've been brainstorming some new ideas to attempt when I get back from vacation in January. Not a whole lot to report at the moment but I'm hoping to get a bit more done and hear some feedback on my grant applications before I head to UB in a few weeks.

Here's a short video clip I uploaded today. It's footage from the opening ceremony parade of eagle festival in October. It's not the best quality, I really need to invest in a decent video camera. Not anything spectacular, but check it out.

'Babies' - Movie Trailer

Check out this trailer. It's for a documentary titled 'Babies' that follows four babies around the world in the U.S., Zambia, Japan and Mongolia. The Mongolian baby is the cutest. :)

Thanksgiving Number 2, Christmas Decorations and Fusion: Beer Bottle Innovation

This week we had a second Thanksgiving dinner, this time with just Olgii people. It was me, Laura, Scott, Ashlee, Kala, and Lauren, a Fulbright scholar and falconer who's here studying and hunting with eagle hunters. Laura and Ashlee put together an amazing dinner of chicken pot pie, mac and cheese, stuffing, yams and marshmallows, biscuits, green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and three different pies. It was amazing and we had more than enough food. Everyone got seconds and we still had plenty left over. We had some wine, beers, good conversation and even played a couple exciting hands of 'Disney Princess Edition' Uno. O_o

Thursday was a day off that just happened to fall on Thanksgiving. November 26th is Mongolia's Independence Day. In addition, today (Friday) was a Kazakh/Islamic holiday so work was pretty much nonexistent. I still managed to meet with one of my seventh grade English clubs for a fun afternoon lesson, with five of my older students for some grammar testing and speaking practice, and to tutor a hospital worker.

Ashlee leaves for UB for her IST (inter service training) tomorrow morning and she'll be gone for a couple weeks so tonight we had our Olgii 'Christmas get together'. We ate the leftovers from Thanksgiving, decorated Laura's house, and put up our sweet Christmas tree. It was pretty fun and with the combination of two plates of delicious leftovers, beers, and the warmth of Laura's fire, I pretty much went into a food coma.

Small success today: I picked up my plane ticket for Ulaanbaatar in December. I'm going in a few days before Christmas to get my flu shot and for a dental appointment. Shortly after that I'll be leaving for Thailand for a little over three weeks with my girlfriend Hanna. I'm pretty excited...never been there before and it will be really nice to spend some time with Hanna after being apart for four months. Warm weather, the beach, and delicious food will be a nice temporary break from the Mongolian winter. :)

Fusion: Mongolian beer bottle innovation. Check out my short video describing and demonstrating the awesomeness.

More Photos Uploaded to Flickr

I'm almost caught up on uploading my latest photos to Flickr. Here's a slideshow of my latest album. Enjoy. :)

The Joys of Care Packages

Ah care packages. Boxes full of exciting deliciousness thrown together by our friends, family members, and loved ones. No matter how many you receive over the course of your Peace Corps service, they always bring feelings of joy, appreciation, and a big smile. Flaming hot cheetos, pretzels, cheez its, combos, beef jerky, easy to make meals, and not to mention, oh so healthy 'Easy Cheese. All wonderful items that cannot be found for the most part across Mongolia (some occasional exceptions in the capital). I've been fortunate enough to receive a few care packages over the past couple weeks, plenty of goodies from my mom, dad and stepmom, my girlfriend, and even a book of great children's books from my grandma. :) The books, once I go through them, will be either used in the children's center's new learning center or will be donated to Laura's English library in her school.

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks, show my appreciation for, and show off the latest goodies I received. :-D

Thank you!

Unfortunate News From Peace Corps Morocco

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1507

I just saw this article on the blog of another Peace Corps volunteer serving in Morocco. A 23 year old Peace Corps volunteer passed away in Morocco on November 16th. This is very sad and unfortunate. :( Please keep her family, friends and Peace Corps volunteers in Morocco and across the world in your thoughts and prayers.

World AIDS Day and TIP

December 1st is 'World AIDS Day'. Peace Corps has given us a number of resources to provide our host communities with more information on HIV/AIDS and prevention. I've been discussing this with my fellow Olgii PCV's and we're going to try and put together a seminar or presentation before next week. Ashlee gave her counterpart all the resources and she said she wants to put on a seminar for all the doctors in Olgii. I'm going to print out the information flyers in English and Mongolian and take them to all of Olgii's schools before the end of the week. I am going to try and meet with each school's English teachers and explain a little bit more about the significance of the day and the resources, maybe encourage them to give at least a short presentation to the students in the higher grades. I'll post more about next week depending on how it goes.

Also, I just found out that two of my site mates, Laura and Scott, have the TIP (Trafficking in Persons) information and resource packets from Peace Corps. I tried contacting a few other volunteers about these packets because I've been wanting to put on a TIP seminar and show the video to Olgii's teenagers. Little did I know, my site mate has had this the whole time. -.- We're going to talk to our friend Kala and my work to see if we can put on at least one seminar, information session, and video showing before I take off for my vacation. I'll keep the blog updated on how that goes.

Here are a couple of links worth checking out.

http://www.worldaidsday.org/

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

Nyle - Let the Beat Build

I just saw this video posted on another blog and had to post it here as well. Great video and a great song. Apparently this video was filmed in one shot, with video and audio being recorded simultaneously. Impressive.

New U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia and Day Dreaming of the Future

http://mongolia.usembassy.gov/ambassador_bio.html

I just received an email from Peace Corps Mongolia director Jim Carl informing us that we have a new U.S. ambassador to Mongolia, Jonathan Addleton. The above link is from the U.S. Department of State's website and has a short bio on the new ambassador. I met with the former ambassador, Mark Minton, on a couple occasions and he was a really nice guy and very interesting to talk to. I also met one of the vice consuls who came out for eagle festival. It was really nice and informative talking with him as well. A career in the foreign service is something I am considering after the Peace Corps and grad school so it's always nice to learn a bit more from someone first hand who's actually in that field.

With all the free and idle time we have in Mongolia, especially when classes are cancelled for a month, it's almost impossible not to daydream and think about what's next. Time flies by in Peace Corps Mongolia and with each day that passes, I realize more and more how little time I have left here. I have thought a lot, done a lot of research and reading, and engaged in countless discussions with friends, family members, fellow Peace Corps volunteers, and loved ones about what I want to do next. Since I first started studying political science as a junior in college, I've been interested in the idea of working as a foreign service officer for the U.S. Department of State. I'm very interested in and intrigued by international relations, politics, and affairs, conflict resolution, diplomacy, and of course, the many different cultures, languages, religions, and people of the world. I've done some reading on what foreign service officers do, I have the study guide for the FSO written exam, and I have some of the books on the recommended reading list. I'm still weighing my options and keeping myself open at this point but I think once I'm back in the U.S. (or Korea possibly) at some point, I'd like to take some time to study and prepare and take the written exam. It's a career field I'm very interested in pursuing but it's not the only thing I'm looking into.

I'm also very interested in pursuing my master's degree in international studies, international relations, peace and conflict studies, or something along those lines. I'm very interested in the idea of spending at least one semester or summer abroad studying when I'm in grad school and I've also thought about the possibility of getting my master's at an international university, maybe in Europe. I've looked into teaching in Korea or working somewhere else in Asia or Southeast Asia to gain more international experience and save some money for graduate school. I spend some of my free time reading job and career descriptions within different international organizations and a stint with the United Nations is also something that I think could be very interesting and rewarding. I've got a lot of ideas in my head but nothing is concrete yet and I'm trying my best to stay focused on getting as much done here in Olgii with the Peace Corps as possible before I finish. As my time here draws to an end I'm sure I'll spend even more time looking into what my future options are and I'll make some decisions. The only thing that I know for sure is that I want to see and experience as much of the world as possible and I want to do some type of work in international relations.

Anyways, reading the article on the new ambassador just made me think a bit more about what I've been daydreaming of and what I want to pursue. More pics and posts coming soon. :)

Oh yeah, also for anyone who is interested in following Mongolian news a little bit (in English) here's a link to 'The UB Post', the 'Leading English News' of Mongolia.

http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/

Hovd, Thanksgiving Dinner, the Journey Back to Olgii, and Back to Teaching

Thanksgiving dinner was really delicious and we were fortunate to have more than enough food. We had a couple of chickens, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, pumpkin bread, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mac and cheese, chili, carrots, and even some Korean food. We also had a plethora of pies :) including cherry, pumpkin, and pecan. There was enough for everyone, the Olgii PCV's, the Hovd PCV's, and some Swiss and Korean volunteers who live in Hovd as well. We even had enough for a leftover brunch the following morning.

On Sunday we found a ride home and hoped it wouldn't be as crazy as the ride there. Surprisingly we managed to leave around 3:00 and were making good time up until we came to a rest stop for food and jeep maintenance. We stayed there for over an hour and when we left, we hit some areas of the road where the snow was really deep. We got stuck once and had to push the jeep back to get a better route up a snow packed hill and after multiple stops to help other drivers, we made it to Olgii a little after 11:00. Eight hours or so isn't bad compared the 23 hours it took us to get to Hovd. :)

Anyways, we're able to hold lessons again and school is back in session for 7th grade and up. I had a lesson with my 7th grade English club yesterday and it was really nice to see their smiling faces, even if some were hidden behind flu masks. I'm still waiting to hear back about my grant applications and I am hoping to have a couple meetings with the student council this week about more projects. December 1st is 'World AIDS Day' so us Olgii PCV's are gonna try and get a seminar or some type of presentation together before then. I'm going to print out some of the HIV/AIDS information flyers that Peace Corps provided us with and take them to all of the schools before the end of the week. I'm going to get the rest of my Hovd pictures uploaded onto Flickr asap. Above two pics are random shots from around Hovd and the third is our Thanksgiving feast. Hope all is well. :-)

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 Eznis, 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/

H1N1 > Mongolia

The temperature is dropping, snow has been falling, travel between aimags (provinces) has been shut down, and school and classes are cancelled until further notice. The arrival of winter combined with strange occurrences and the rapid influx of 'flu masks' has a lot of Mongolian Peace Corps volunteers wondering if this is the end. *cue ominous music* To be continued......

Hahaha, well I'm sure it doesn't help that the books 'The Zombie Survival Guide' and 'World War Z' have been circulating around Peace Corps Mongolia for the past few months. We've received a few emails from Peace Corps staff and Peace Corps medical officers keeping us updated on the craziness and chaos that the flu has created. Apparently there are confirmed cases of H1N1 in 17 of Mongolia's 21 aimags. Bazaar markets are closed, secondary schools and kindergartens had their school breaks extended for two weeks, and entertainment activities (discos, movie theaters, shows, plays) are closed.

Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to be getting H1N1 and regular flu vaccinations in the next month or so and a lot of us who aren't teaching in colleges or working in health facilities and hospitals are trying to find ways to keep ourselves busy and keep from going crazy. I haven't been able to teach any lessons or have any meetings with groups of children so I'm focusing on finishing my grant for the learning center, finding new methods of funding for projects through Peace Corps, reading, exercising, and day dreaming of my trip to Thailand next month. I'm also going to be trying to get some work done on the Olgii website and helping my friend Travis with his Peace Corps merit badges website. The merit badges project is pretty cool and interesting one. I'll be posting the link for that as soon as it's approved by the country director. Also, I'm currently reading 'Rogue States' by Noam Chomsky. It's a pretty good book, a bit depressing to read but it has some good information. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in political science or international relations.

My good friend Nurbol just got some great news. He applied to get a job working with Ezniz airlines last month, took the test and had an interview. He just got the call today that they want to hire him so this week he will be leaving for UB and doing training for a little over a month. I'm not sure if he'll stay working in UB after that or if he'll come back to Olgii to work. I'm very happy for him because he's smart, talented and hard working and he's been looking for a job for quite a while now but I'm sad because he's my best friend in Olgii and he's been so helpful with my work projects. Hopefully I will be able to see him when I'm in Ulaanbaatar next month. Best of luck with the new job Nurbol!

I will be posting the link to the Olgii website as soon as I make some more progress. I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy back home or wherever you may be at the moment. :)

Here's a slideshow with some of my latest pictures. I'm getting more uploaded as I find time.

Enjoy.

*Above 'zombie' pictures are not mine, I just found them in a google image search. ^_^*

Pics from Halloween

Our plans for a Halloween party event for Olgii's students were cut short because of the H1N1 zombie plague epidemic but the Peace Corps volunteers in Olgii still managed to have a little shindig at Laura's place with our friend Kala. We had some kinda makeshift costumes and played a few games, ate some dinner. It was a good time. Here's a few pics.

H1N1 Zombie Infestation and Other News

^ Here's a cow sneaking into my apartment complex. This is just one of the many enjoyable and entertaining daily occurrences that come with living in Mongolia.

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in updates. I've been sorta busy with typing grants, attempting to fix computers at the children's center, and trying my best to avoid catching the H1N1 flu, or as I like to call it, the zombie infestation that has gripped Mongolia over the past few weeks.

Due to an apparently large number of confirmed cases of H1N1, Mongolia has closed schools around the country. People are donning masks everywhere, the slightest hint of a cough or sneeze brings looks of terror, and the students seem to be on a school break with no end in sight. I've heard it called a 'quarantine' by some and I haven't been able to conduct any classes or meetings with my students. The only benefit to this is that I have had more time to work on the projects I've been planning the past few months. I recently submitted a grant to UNICEF on behalf of the student joint council. The grant is from the '2009 San Marino-Alexander Bodini Foundation Children's Awards' and is worth $20,000. Here's a link with some more information on the awards:

http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_4284.html

The student council put together a great proposal for the grant, I edited and submitted the grant proposal, and provided a letter of recommendation last week. The award is a huge sum of money and would provide the student council with a huge opportunity and improved access to more resources. The students are interested in providing for a completely brand new children's palace (center) if possible, increased and improved vaccinations for Olgii's youth, and improved education in terms of the dangers of smoking alcoholism, and increasing cultural appreciation and awareness. I just received an email back from a lady from UNICEF today and she told me that our nomination had been submitted. According to the information provided on the website, we should be hearing back within less than two weeks. Wish us luck!

In related news, I'm finishing up the grant to Peace Corps for the children's learning and advisement center. Recently Peace Corps staff were in Olgii to do our scheduled site visit and I had an opportunity to sit down with Peace Corps and most of my coworkers at the children's center. Both the Peace Corps staff members were very positive and encouraging in regards to the project and the children's center workers seem anxious to get started. I am hoping to submit the grant before the weekend and hear back from Peace Corps soon so I can make any necessary revisions or changes. Let's hope for the best. If the grant gets approved, I'm hoping to start construction in early December before I leave for my vacation in Thailand. If things go as planned, the center could be open as early as March. Wish me luck in that as well. :)

In unrelated news, I recently sat down with my good friend Nurbol and discussed the possibility of me learning the Russian language starting soon. I have enjoyed learning Kazakh but I almost feel as if I'm at a standstill in my language abilities and it's difficult for me to stay enthusiastic and motivated, knowing that I'm going to be leaving Olgii in nine months or so. I really enjoy the Kazakh language and though I'm often the most skeptical of my own abilities, I think I've learned quite a bit. I think it would be fun to start learning the basics of Russian and get a good start in the language over my last few months in the country. If I ever find myself working in a post soviet state again or even Russia itself, it would be hugely beneficial. Nurbol speaks Russian fluently and is more than happy to start teaching me whenever I would like to start. I'll discuss that more when the time comes.

We celebrate American holidays quite a bit differently here as you may have seen from my Thanksgiving and Christmas pics from last year but we still do our best to have a good time and enjoy ourselves. Halloween was this past Saturday and we dressed up in some somewhat creative costumes (given our lack of costume and party stores) and played some games. I'll get pics of that onto Flickr as soon as I can. More updates and pics to come as things progress. Hope all is well back home and you're doing your best to avoid the H1N1 zombie plague infestation epidemic. ;-)

Video of the week, how about a little old school grunge.

Winter is Coming *shivering*

Winter appears to have made its way back to Mongolia or is at least right around the corner. The temperatures have been dropping, the days are getting shorter and negative 40 degree temperatures are coming. In addition, to make the impending winter more exciting, the H1N1 'epidemic' appears to have caused a bit of chaos in Mongolia. School was cancelled this week and has been cancelled for next week. I wasn't allowed to conduct any of my classes at the children's center this week and since there is no school next week as well, I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to teach. In other work related adventures, I'm attempting to reformat one of the work computers at the moment. I backed up all the documents, pictures, etc. today and I'm hoping to reformat and set the computer up with antivirus, antispyware, etc. that my mom gave me a while back. I think one thing I need to do before I leave next year is have a few sessions showing my coworkers how to keep the computers updated and protected.

I purchased my ticket to Thailand for my vacation trip in December. I'm really excited about that, only two months away.

Not a whole lot going on right now to discuss but I added a few new pics to my Flickr account. I just realized I didn't upload more pictures from the eagle festival so I'll try and get that done soon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbeckeradventures/

Great Song From a Great Movie

I just recently watched the movie 'Garden State', one of the better films I've seen recently. I thought it had a great soundtrack so I looked up some of the music on youtube and found this video. It's a great song with some scenes from the movie, check it out. :)

'Draw a Monster' with my 7th graders..

I teach/run a couple of English clubs for seventh graders at one of the local schools two days a week. These lessons are pretty laid back and fun, allowing the kids to practice their English, learn some new games, and learn a bit more about American culture, people and holidays. Yesterday we did a fun lesson that I learned during our Mongolian language lessons last year. I did a quick review of body parts vocabulary, something that most of the students know. Then I passed out paper and markers and had the kids draw a 'monster' according to what I'd describe, i.e. two heads, six arms, ten legs, wings, horns, etc. It's pretty fun to hear the kids react to certain things and to see what their interpretations and artwork look like at the end. At the end of the lesson we reversed roles and the kids came up with the description while I drew a monster on the board.

A Couple of Sojourners: Ashlee and Scott

http://www.sojourningcouple.blogspot.com/

Here's my M20 site mates' blog. Scott and Ashlee are a young married couple from California. Scott works at a school as an English teacher and Ashlee is a health volunteer. They've been in Olgii since August.

Music Video: Some Canadian Hip Hop

Canadian hip hop artist 'Classified', cool song called '5th Element'

Olgii: Views from the Center of Town

The weather in Olgii has been perfect, absolutely beautiful since Eagle Fest. No wind, sun's been out, blue skies, and temps in the 60's and 70's. Rike, the German volunteer who's been here since last November just left to head back to Germany. On her last day we spent some time hanging out in the main square in the center of town and I took a few pics of my friends and of different things going on around the square.

Slideshow: Photos from the End of Summer

I'm still in the process of getting caught up on photos from the end of summer and recently. I'm uploading pics onto Flickr as fast as I can and I should be caught up soon unless I exceed my monthly limit. I took a lot of pictures during the Eagle Festival and around Olgii recently that I'll be putting up asap. Take a look at this slideshow or click on it to just sift through all the pics I've uploaded over the past few months. :) This is July and August. Enjoy.

Eagle Festival, Peace Corps Friends and Meeting New, Interesting People

So this past weekend was the Bayan Olgii Golden Eagle Festival. Those of you who have looked through my facebook photo albums probably saw my pictures from last year's festival. The new main picture on my blog and the five pics above are from this year's festival. This year, PCV's from my group (M19s) were able to make the trip here to enjoy the festival and see a bit of Kazakh Mongolia. Many of the volunteers who made the trip out are good friends of mine so it was really nice to have them for the weekend. The festivities were soured a bit by a local who was working the 'tickets' for the event. Despite the fact that we explained we are all Peace Corps volunteers who make very little money and are living, working, teaching and helping all over Mongolia, he refused to give us a discount or bargain. We spent a good two hours and were involved in some not so exciting drama before we were finally able to get into the festival with the help of a good local friend. Needless to say, this experience made the start of the weekend very frustrating to myself and the volunteers who made the long trip to this side of the country.

When we finally got out to the area where the festival was being held, things took a while to get started. It seemed like there were many more tourists, travelers, journalists and photographers this year than last and we met some really interesting people (more about that later). There were more eagle hunters this year than last and I was able to take many good pictures. Also, I have been in Olgii for over a year now so I ran into many local friends and many of my students at the festival. That, in addition to having my Peace Corps friends around, made things fun and interesting. I spent a lot of time conversing in Kazakh and although I feel I really need to increase my vocabulary and improve my grammar, I feel a lot more comfortable communicating than I have in the past. There wasn't any crazy drama involving rogue eagles tearing out of the skies and attacking tourists in funny hats or small children, but the eagle festival was still fun and enjoyable.

The time away from the festival consisted of some mild partying, catching up with friends, and meals at the Turkish restaurant. One of the interesting people I met was a freelance photographer and journalist from Indonesia named Augustine. He has traveled and worked all over central Asia and lived in Afghanistan for two years doing some work with the UN. He's a really interesting guy to talk to. Augustine is writing a book on his experiences with the Kirghiz people of Afghanistan and may also write some on the Kazakhs and Tuvan people of Mongolia. He has some amazing stories and beautiful pictures, speaks something like ten languages, and has just made me realize even more how much I want to work in other parts of the world and continue learning about other people, languages and cultures. I'm posting a link to his website below. Check out his pics, they are absolutely amazing.

http://avgustin.net/gallery.php

Anyways, I am continuing to update my Flickr album, trying to get caught up with my pics from the past month and will be putting up many pics from the eagle festival. I'm starting more classes this week so I will be getting busier and working with more students. Keep an eye out for my Flickr photo updates and