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.