Another Saturday hike/picnic

Memorial Day 2009

This Memorial Day, try to take some time to remember our fine servicemen and women who get the job done consistently, despite huge mental and physical sacrifices, and who are often misused and unappreciated by our elected 'leaders'. Let us remember and honor those who have given their lives in service to our country.

Music Video of the Week!

DJ Smash - Moscow Never Sleeps (original)

Saturday 'End of School' Picnic

So today Laura had planned a picnic for the end of the school year with her 7th graders. We took them to a spot near the river on the west side of town. We had some food and snacks, played hacky sack, played football, soccer, team tag, and had a huge water fight. I'm pretty sure that I'll end up with pneumonia this week but it was a lot of fun. Laura's students were pretty crazy and a lot of fun to hang out with. It was pretty windy and that made it chilly at times but other than that the day was perfect. Pictures are in the picture links list but here's a few random shots from today.







I'm thinking it might be fun to plan something similar with my students for a day before I leave for Ulaanbaatar in June. I will talk to my students this week and see if they are interested.

Pics from the hike in Hovd

Birthday weekend, etc.

This past weekend Laura, Rike and I went to Hovd to visit the Peace Corps volunteers there and celebrate my birthday (May 17th) and Rike's birthday(May 18th). We left on Friday afternoon and got in late that night. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The countryside between Olgii and Hovd is just amazing. My camera's pics do not do it justice. On Saturday we helped a couple PCV's out with a small project and then had a picnic by the river. We ate stir fry/lettuce wraps, played softball, threw a frisbee around and just had a good time enjoying the amazing weather. That night we went out partying and dancing and had a blast. On Sunday a few of us went on a really good hike just outside the city. The hike involved a lot of problem solving/rock climbing and was really fun and challenging.

I added two more picture albums and there are almost 120 new pics from Olgii and Hovd. I will put up some more pictures as soon as I get them uploaded.

In the meanwhile, here's a few more pics of my students and I from last week.
First pic (left to right): Abdullah, Bakhai, Muhammad, Akjol, Erku, Erdos, Allazi, Janbubi, and Kunnur.

My students

Last week I brought my camera into class with my youngest students (11-12 years old) and we had a good time taking some goofy pictures. This group is a lot of fun and they are very smart. I think they have bright futures ahead of them if they stay focused.

Pictures from the weekend in Nugunur

I added a bunch of pics from the weekend to the Facebook album Mongolia 2009 part 3 so check that link out again. Also started a new album with the rest of the pics. I'll put the link here and in my picture albums list.

Mongolia 2009 part 4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053327&id=72206395&l=fd76bde51c

Like I said the weekend was a lot of fun. We left Olgii Friday afternoon around five, in a jeep packed with twelve people. It was raining all day and started to sleet and snow as we drove out of Olgii. It took about three hours to get to Nuganur and the weather there was much nicer. We spent the first night at one of Sabid's uncle's houses, drank tea, ate dinner, hung out with the kids a bit and then went to bed. The next day we moved our stuff over to Halat's house, another one of Sabid's uncles. We hung out there for a bit and then took off in a jeep to the countryside to go fishing. We walked down the river for a while and the guys spent a lot of time checking out a few spots with no luck before we finally found a spot where we could see quite a few fish. Laura and I mostly chilled, read our books, and enjoyed the sun and warm weather while the guys we were with fished. After a few hours they caught one fish, then eventually five. We went to a nearby ger for some tea and snacks, went back out and spent a few more hours on the river. Eventually one of the guys brought out a big net and they managed to catch over thirty fish in about thirty minutes, after catching six over the course of the day using fishing poles, lines and spears.

We had some more food at the ger and then headed back to town. We relaxed at Halat's house for a while, drank some tea, ate a little bit of meat and soup and then went to bed. The next day was very nice as well and we woke up pretty early to catch a ride back to Olgii. The weather was perfect on the way back and the van wasn't as crowded or uncomfortable as the jeep we had taken there. I slept most of the ride and in about three hours we got back home. That afternoon I had my home visit from Peace Corps, everything was fine, no issues. I'd like a working fridge if possible but I managed to survive the past 9 months without one, I'm sure I can make due another 16. :)

In the afternoon on Sunday we went to our friend Janka's party. She's an English teacher who works at Laura's school and Laura, Rike and I are good friends with her. She just recently completed her masters in Ulaanbaatar and is going to Kazakhstan for the summer. There was a lot of good food and drink at the party and we all had a good time.

This week I'll be doing some more meeting with my coworkers and the student council to discuss projects and doing my usual teaching. More updates as things progress.

NPCA blog of the day

So I just received a comment from Erica Burman of the National Peace Corps Association and I guess my blog was the Peace Corps 'blog of the day' on the NPCA's Twitter feed. I thought that was pretty cool. :)

Here's the message she left and the link.

Congrats Matt! You're the "Peace Corps Volunteer Blog of the Day" on the National Peace Corps Association's Twitter Feed (http://twitter.com/pcorpsconnect).

The weekend in the country side was a lot of fun, very beautiful area. I took over a hundred pictures and will get them up as soon as I can. Happy late Mother's Day!!

Interesting hidden restaurants, upcoming adventures, and new opportunities

Interesting hidden restaurants: On Tuesday I went to my office and met up with a lady named Ainur, who is a local dance and performance instructor. She works with the children's center because most of her students are young children and because she uses the dul club(run by the children's center). Anyways, she's a very nice lady, in her early 40's. I have spoken with her a few times and she has kept asking me to meet her at the office so she can take me somewhere. What I always got from the conversations was that she wanted me to go with her to lunch but I wasn't sure on the details. Things kept coming up but I ran into her Monday after she'd just gotten back from a trip to China. She told me to meet her at the office. Of course, being the idiot that I can be sometimes, I totally spaced it, forgot and was rushing to get dressed when she called me fifteen minutes after I was supposed to meet her. I eventually got to the office and after apologizing a few times and jokingly trying to explain that I am just trying to adjust for 'Mongolian time', we left the office and started walking towards the bazaar.

We went down a side street just before the entrance to the bazaar and through some alleys I'd never been through where there were lots of shops, auto shops, and some construction going on. We eventually came to a small guanz (cafe) and she told me to sit down and have some tv. Then she took off her jacket, put on an apron and went into the kitchen, started yelling at people, cleaning things, preparing food, etc. It was pretty entertaining to listen to and watch. There were a few other people in the cafe eating dishes that looked quite different from what I'm used to seeing in Mongolian or Kazakh cafes. Eventually I was brought a 'salad' with hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, mayo, and a few other things. After I finished the salad I was brought a dish that looked very similar to Chinese food we eat back home. It was beef, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, noodles, potatoes, peppers, and some spicy red sauce served with white rice. The food was delicious and I ate the whole plate, drank some more tea and sat down to talk with Ainur for a bit before leaving. Turns out, she is 'Uyghur', a Chinese ethnic minority similar to Kazakhs. The food is also Chinese Uyghur food, the only restaurant in all Olgii that serves it. Before Tuesday I had no idea that she also managed a restaurant, let alone one that serves food very different from what you can get here. So anyways, she wouldn't let me pay for my meal and told me to come by whenever for tea or lunch. I want to bring Laura and some of my other friends to check it out when they come visit Olgii. It was definitely an interesting and unexpected experience and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon before teaching.


Upcoming adventures: Tonight I am heading out to a soum in the countryside called Nogunur. Laura and I are going out tonight with her host brother Sabid, staying with some of his relatives, fishing on Saturday and coming back on Sunday. It's been a while since I've been out to the countryside and I have only been fishing once since I came to Mongolia. I think it will be nice to get away from Olgii for a little bit and be out in the beautiful countryside. It's actually kinda chilly and raining in Olgii right now but hopefully tomorrow will bring better weather. Even if the weather isn't so great, I'm sure we'll have a good time with the Sabid's family. Also, next weekend (which happens to be my 27th birthday) Laura, Rike and I are going to Hovd. We are just going to see the other Peace Corps volunteers and celebrate my birthday (and Rike's which is the 18th). It should be pretty fun to hang out with the Hovd volunteers again, especially since a couple of them are leaving Mongolia in the next two months and we probably won't be able to see them again.


New opportunities: Since I first came to Olgii and started working at the children's center, one thing that has always bugged me is the lack of a real place for kids to spend free time, have access to fun and educational resources, have meetings, or just hang out and not be bothered by adults. Initially my first thoughts on a solution this problem, being a new and relatively inexperienced development volunteer, were that Olgii need's a new children's center, similar to the YMCA's, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc. that we have back home. Once I realized that a project of this magnitude would take years to complete and a vast sum of money, I started thinking of other solutions and ideas that might be more realistic and attainable. I really liked the idea for the project that Laura is working on at her school. She is currently putting together a small library and English resource room that, when completed, will have hundreds and hundreds of books, a computer and printer, and will be a place for students to hang out, study, do homework and practice English. I was thinking that something similar to this would be a great way to improve the children's center.

The children's center currently consists of four offices in a section of the Olgii soum government office and the dul club, the large room where I teach my bigger classes and used to play sports and games with my students. I spoke to Gulim, one of my students and a student council member, about the children's center donating one of the offices for a resource or children's room. We spoke to my boss about the idea and she also presented it to the other student council members. Everyone thinks it's a good idea but unfortunately my boss said the children's center can't give up a room for this. The next idea was to see about a local school donating a classroom. This is a great idea but I'd prefer it be in a neutral location so that students from all schools have access to it and know it's available. Then, Doman and Gulim came up with a really good idea, one that might work.

The dul club is a large room with a bunch of chairs, benches, a stage, and a lights setup. It's basically a multifunctional room where different teachers and groups hold different functions. I teach English there sometimes, Ainur teaches dance there, the tae kwon do classes are there, student council has meetings and events there, the soum government and police use it as a meeting space at times. I never thought of it as an option because it's used by so many groups and I want a place where the students can come whenever during the day and use without being kicked out or bugged by adults. Doman and Gulim proposed sectioning off the back area of the dul club and putting up some new walls with a door, fitting the area with electricity and internet access(when we get computers) and making it the new children's recreation/learning/meeting space. They showed me some of the walls that had been built in other parts of the government building to make new rooms and it actually seems very feasible. If we did it the way we have talked about, the area would be a really good size and bigger than two or three offices together in the children's center.

Next week we are going to have some meetings and discuss the costs/labor associated with the construction and see what we can come up with to get things started. If we can make some progress in the next couple weeks as far as meetings, planning and ideas I think I can start putting together a list of what we'll need, how much it will cost and where we can turn to for the funding and resources. I'd like to get as much of the planning and number crunching done as I can before I leave for my vacation. That way maybe things can get started while I'm gone or at least we'll have a good start for when I get back. I'm definitely going to be writing grant proposals for the Peace Corps if we can come up with a concrete plan and I'll be talking to other ngo's and potential donors.

I'm very excited about this project possibility and I think if it is successful it will significantly improve the children's center and provide Olgii's children with a much needed resource/learning/recreation center. I'll write more as meetings progress. Wish me luck!

Hope all is well back home, I'm still loving life in western Mongolia. Cheers.