Work is Picking Up

Sorry for the delay in new posts. I am going to do my best to keep you updated with posts on my work and new pics. I've started teaching again the past two weeks. I'm running English clubs at two schools in town, one a private school near my work and the other a public school where one of my Kazakh friends is an English teacher. Right now I teach one group of fifth graders, two groups of seventh graders and one club that's made up of everything from sixth graders to ninth graders. So far the classes have been a lot of fun and the kids really seem to enjoy learning from me and spending time with me. I feel a lot more confident in the classroom this year than I did my first year. I am doing my best to get all of the students involved and to incorporate activities and games that help the kids improve their speaking ability and their confidence in front of others. After just a few lessons most of my students have responded very well. I can tell they are having a lot of fun and they are learning the material. I've had some of my plans for other classes pushed back but it seems like I get busier and busier with each week that passes, picking up new lessons and students every day. I'm starting lessons for more students next week. I will be teaching some of my more advanced students from last year a couple times a week, preparing them for the concourse English exams (they take these to get into college) and discussing the TOEFL test and study abroad options. I will also be passing out flyers to all the schools for three other classes I'll be teaching, three different levels of American English clubs. I'm hoping to get those lessons started no later than next Tuesday and to run them up until December. I'll be taking my vacation and going on a trip to Thailand from December 27th to January 20th so I want to get as much done between now and December as possible.

In other work related news, I finally got most of the information I need to work on my big project. I sat down with the student council, my coworkers and my friend Nurbol and we hammered out the details for the extension to the children's center. This extension will be a learning and advisement center for Olgii's children and will be used to hold seminars, meetings, classes, and to provide students with access to computers and online learning programs, English learning software, and books on career development and life skills. There are no grant funds available through Peace Corps until November so I have until then to get my grant written. I am going to get it started hopefully soon and send a rough draft to Peace Corps to see what changes I need to make. Another challenge is that I need to have the grant accurately translated into the Mongolian language. We also need to talk to a couple of local organizations about contributing to the project, whether it be money or resources. I also just received some good info on past life skills book projects so I can start my grant for getting the HIV/AIDS life skills curriculum translated into the Kazakh language and have books printed and brought to Bayan Olgii.

I'm feeling really good about the work I'm doing and the projects we've got going on. During a meeting last week, both the student council and my director asked me if I'd stay a third year. I was very flattered and that really made my day but unfortunately I can't. After my time is over here, I think it will be time to move on to grad school or some other work in a different country. I'm hoping to get as much accomplished as possible before I leave for Thailand so that when I get back, I can help finish some things up, teach my classes, and conduct some training seminars. I have less than a year left in Mongolia and I want to make it count. More pics and updates to come as things progress. Hope all is well back in the U.S. :)

Adventures in InterAimag Travel

So this past weekend, Laura, Rike and I decided to go to Hovd to spend some time with the new PCV's placed there and our friend Kat who's been there for the past year. Much like we have for past weekend excursions, we went to the market in the afternoon to catch a jeep to Hovd in the afternoon. Earlier in the day Rike had met with a driver she was familiar with to let him know three people would be coming to him for a ride. As always, we got there at the time the driver wanted us to, about 3:00, and then spent about an hour waiting around, doing nothing, while the driver chatted with his friends and did pretty much nothing. Eventually the driver left the driver's lot near the market and we were (we thought) on our way. We made it about a half a mile before the driver stopped and got out and started talking with some people in another car. We sat around for a bit and then a porgon (Russian van) full of locals pulled up. Our original driver told us we would be going with the van to Hovd, to which we said 'no thanks' because there were already about fifteen people in the van. Eventually after a lot of haggling and negotiating, we convinced (or so we thought) the original driver to take us to Hovd. The driver left and headed in the opposite direction, back towards the market, much to our dismay.

We arrived back in the driver's lot a few minutes later and the driver pawned us off on another jeep and its driver. After a few more minutes of doing nothing, we finally left. We ended up having three other people and still had to pay more than the normal price, supposedly because the price of fuel went up recently. The driver decided we needed to stop and visit his family for tea in a small soum (town) a little out of the way and a few hours later we finally arrived in Hovd a little after midnight. We stayed with another Laura, an M20 who is now working at the American Center, a sort of library learning center in Hovd. The weekend was pretty chill and relaxed for the most part. We partied a little bit, chatted with the new volunteers and enjoyed the surprisingly warm weather.

After a couple laid back days in Hovd, our adventures were not over yet. On Monday afternoon we went to the Hovd market to get a driver back to Olgii. We sat at the market from 3:00 to 6:00, moved back and forth between two vehicles, while the drivers kept telling us we were leaving 'now'. Eventually we left, only to stop five minutes later to pick up a bunch of random supplies from some building nearby. After another twenty minutes we got on the road, only to stop fifteen minutes later and watch as the driver and his friends got out of the van, walked down the street and drank vodka after telling us that another vehicle was coming to pick us up. After another half hour to fourty minutes we got back on the road without this 'other vehicle' showing up. We stopped what seemed like every two hours over the course of this trip, including an hour long stop for some food halfway between Hovd and Olgii. After a long, exhausting journey, we got into Olgii at about 4:00 am. What a great weekend journey.

In other news, I'm trying to get my classes started as soon as possible. I met with Ashlee, my M20 sitemate and her counterpart at the health department and discussed our project to get the HIV/AIDS life skills curriculum translated into the Kazakh language, met with my friend Nurbol to discuss Kazakh language lessons, my learning center project and the website for Olgii. Next week I'm going to be starting my work with a couple local schools on English clubs with different groups of students and this week I'll be passing out my fliers with info for my English lessons at work. I've got the ball rolling on the projects I want to be working on for the fall and I think in the next week or so I'll be alot busier during the week. I'm looking forward to getting as much done as I can over the next few months.

Music Video of the Week. Pepper : Too Much

One of my favorite songs :)

Pics from July and August

Here are a few more pictures from July and August. I'm working on getting more uploaded but it's taking some time. Enjoy. :)

Haircuts, Mid Service Training and Returning to Olgii

Well this past week the M19 group of Peace Corps volunteers had our mid service training. We had a resource fair for organizations in Mongolia that could be helpful in our work and in projects, sessions on cross sector (mixing work sectors such as youth development with health, TEFL with business, etc.), and shared our work and project experiences with each other. We were able to discuss what has worked, what hasn't been so successful and talk about our goals for our second year in Mongolia. It was interesting and useful and was also really nice to get most of our group together again and do some socialzing and networking.

After the training was over my site mate and I flew back to Olgii. We had a pretty early flight at 5 AM so needless to say, I am exhausted. Luckily work doesn't start back up again until Monday. This year with the M20 group, Olgii was lucky enough to receive two new Peace Corps volunteers. Scott and Ashlee are a married couple from California. Scott will be working as an English teacher at the school where my friend Agii works and Ashlee, a health volunteer, will be working for the health department. I met them today and spoke with them for a little while. It's very exciting to have two new volunteers in our town and I look forward to working on projects with them and getting to know them over the next year.

The pics above are from mid service training, I'll upload some more onto my flickr account soon. Some of my friends decided to take advtage of what I believe is the only golf course around and played nine holes. Also, as you can see in one of the pics. I finally cut my hair after around thirteen months. It's much easier to deal with now. :)

Tasty Cheeseburger Recipe, Real Mongolian 'Barbecue' and the Joys of Being Thrown in a River

On Friday morning, one of my coworkers came to my apartment and told me we'd be going out to the countryside children's camp for a couple days, leaving that afternoon. I ran a few errands, packed my things (including books, frisbee, etc.) in anticipation of spending a weekend with a bunch of kids, teaching, playing games, etc. After a two hour drive southwest we arrived at the camp. When we got out and started walking around I saw a few people here and there but quickly realized there were no children around. I talked to my coworkers and they informed me that we had come out to the camp to spend a 'holiday' or vacation weekend and we'd be sleeping in tents by the river and pretty much relaxing. I was pretty surprised but happy nonetheless. The weekend was filled with milk tea, water fights by the river between me and my coworker's seven year old son, a little dancing at the makeshift disco, a lot of reading, listening to music and relaxing in the sun, and a short hike up a small hill/mountain. On Saturday we had real 'Mongolian bbq' which is nothing like what you'd expect. Basically they take meat, season it with wine and some other spices, add potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc. then heat up rocks in the middle of a fire, and put the rocks in with the meat, cover it and let it cook. It was really good and although I've been here for over a year, the first time I'd tried it. On Sunday in the afternoon before we left my coworkers decided that since I hadn't been in the river yet, they were going to put me in the river. I was picked up by five or six people and dragged over to the river and thrown in. I managed to pull two of them in with me but unfortunately I lost my glasses and was blind for most of the rest of the day. I have an extra pair but I'm hoping I can get the other one replaced in Ulaanbaatar next week when I'm in for a mid service training session with the other volunteers from my group.

Not much going on in Olgii outside of my weekend adventure. I'm going into the office this week to meet with my coworkers and practice my Kazakh. Another thing that came up that I'm interested in getting started soon is the idea of a website for Olgii. My friend Jason, who was a PCV in Hovd, helped to develop a website for that city which has a lot of good information for travelers. I'd like to do something similar and talk to some of the local hotels, businesses, tourist orgs, etc. about putting their information on the website. A decent amount of travelers and tourists make it out to Olgii in the summer and fall so it would probably be a helpful resource and would make navigating around Olgii and Bayan Olgii a bit easier, plus it could possibly get a bit more exposure for Olgii and educate the curious on what the Kazakh culture in Mongolia is all about. This isn't really related to my primary work assignment but I will probably start working on it with my friend Nurbol soon in my free time. I'm also hoping to meet with a local school before classes start to talk about helping out with some of their lessons and possibly organizing some life skills and English language clubs.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend in the countryside. I will get more of them uploaded to my Flickr account as soon as I can and then post up a slide show.

Back in Olgii

Well after two weeks in Ulaanbaatar, three weeks in the U.S., another week in UB, and a two day bus ride...I'm back home in Olgii. It's really nice to be back in my apartment, in my town. I've been running into neighbors, friends and coworkers the past few days, getting readjusted to life back here. My boss and many of my coworkers are out in the countryside vacationing and many students are either in the countryside visiting family or in the summer camps outside of Olgii, so work has been pretty much non-existent. I also got pretty sick this week, possibly food poisoning, so I'm trying to take it easy until I feel better. Next week I'll be heading around town more to meet with some new people and talking to my students about when we'll restart classes and start working on some projects.

We just found out that we'll be getting two new Peace Corps volunteers in Olgii in August, a married couple from the M20 group. I haven't met many of the M20's yet but it will be interesting to have some new PCV's in Olgii for the last year that Laura and I are here. Hopefully we can all work together and maybe put together a project or two that will benefit all of Olgii.

I think things will be pretty slow until the first week of September when school starts. In late August I will be going back to Ulaanbaatar for a Peace Corps M19 mid service training session, should be about another week away from Olgii but when I come back, I'll come back with Laura and it will be right before school starts.

I haven't taken too many pics lately, just pics with friends and family from Ulaanbaatar and the U.S. I will try to put a few of the good ones up. I've got a new computer and camera and am still getting things organized. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well back home. To those I got to see and spend time with, it was great seeing you and I look forward to seeing you again whenever I make it back to the U.S. To those I didn't see, there's always 2010/2011. Stay in touch. :)