New Students, Patiently Waiting for Money, and PIZZA!

Last week was another week of ups and downs, typical of Peace Corps Mongolia. I found out that my work had set up the wrong type of bank account in order for us to receive the grant funds, despite me telling them numerous times the type of bank account we needed. Apparently Peace Corps tried to deposit the money seven times and each time it was rejected. Finally, Peace Corps called me and explained to me what was wrong, I met with my work again, and we got it fixed(hopefully for the last time). I haven't heard anything back so I'm hoping that there are no more issues and we will be receiving the money this week. As soon as we have the money, my coworkers and I can start purchasing the materials we need and start construction. It's getting down to the wire here, as I only have five and a half months left.

As I had posted earlier, I met with Erkegul the week before last, the English teacher at another school in Olgii, a private school called Darin, about starting some English speaking clubs. She met with her students, worked out days and times that worked best for them, ran it by me, and I started teaching three new classes at Darin last week. All three of the classes are English clubs, with an emphasis on speaking and listening. I have one class that is 8th and 9th grade combined, one 10th grade class, and one 11th grade class. All of the classes went very well, the students are very well behaved, focused and excited to improve their speaking. A few of the students were in my classes at the children's center last year but most of them are new, students I've never met or taught before. Anyways, the first week of classes at Darin went very well and I am looking forward to teaching them the rest of the time I'm in Olgii. I also picked up a couple more classes at Bastama, the school where I teach seventh graders. I am teaching two short speaking sessions to ninth graders. They aren't as well behaved as the Darin kids and the classes are a lot bigger, so it didn't go as well. We still had fun though and I think they will be fine.

At first I felt a little uneasy about helping out so much at the private schools, because obviously the kids who go to these schools are a little bit better off than most of the kids who attend public school. I don't worry about it now because I have put myself out there to all of the public schools numerous times, receiving very little enthusiasm. I have found that the teachers at both these private schools have been much more enthusiastic and proactive about having me come to help their students. I can only put myself out there and respond to those who show a real interest in receiving my help.

Today I met with Scott, Ashlee, Laura, Agii, and a couple of teachers from Scott's school. We met to discuss this year's English and general knowledge olympiad, which we will hopefully be expanding greatly. Laura, Agii and I are meeting with World Vision on Wednesday morning to give them our plan and proposal, hoping they can help us with most of the funding. We're planning on having around 180 students participating, competing in English, general knowledge(kinda like trivia), computers, and mathematics. We're getting the details worked out this week and will hopefully be meeting again before the weekend to put together flyers and study guides for the participating students. I'll keep the blog updated on how this all goes.

Anyways, not much else going on. I've been trying to eat healthier, working out daily with my dumbbells and trying out different exercises, walking and running around town when I have time. One of my personal goals is to get into top shape over the next five months, before I head to Cambodia. :) I'm doing well so far, just gotta stay focused and consistent. Laura made pizza and mac and cheese on Saturday night. It was delicious. Cheers.