Great Article

http://gizmodo.com/5370752/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-persistence-jury+rigging-and-ingenuity-against-all-odds

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 :)