Happy Thanksgiving, and other stuff!

J- Our Thanksgiving this year was in no way traditional, although we did try to include some elements from home. We had our celebration at our friend's house, Meghan and Chris, two americans who work at MercyCorps with Clayton. We had mashed potatoes, green beans, onion salad, biscuits (which turned out badly thanks to our 500 year old russian oven), stuffing (clayt made from scratch!) and mutton. No turkey here in Mongolia, so we settled for a giant leg (and they threw in a neck piece for free, yum) of mutton, and had mutton gravy too. Everything was good, but you know its just not the same as being home with everyone. Then for dessert we had apple pie - square apple pie, since I didn't have a round pie tin. Here's a photo of the work in progress.

Also, the other night the power went out just as we were about to make dinner. It was out for about half an hour or more, in which time we got really bored sitting in the silent darkness. This is just one of many photos that were a product of this boredom.

Last night one of the teachers from our school was over to borrow our dvd player. The box with the speakers inside was way in the back of a cupboard where we couldn't quite reach. Just then our little neighbors came up to visit, and the littlest one was a big help.

So this is the newest teacher at our school. He is a science teacher from Zimbabwe. He has a wife and baby at home, and is pretty lonely and bored here so far. So we took him to dinner last night, then showed him how to use our dvd player and let him take it home with him. Clayton enjoyed the chance to talk about life and politics in Zimbabwe with someone who has experienced things firsthand.

Here is Munkhtuul, showing me her contortionist skills. I wonder if they learn this stuff in gym class?

And here is Munkhtsetseg and Munkhtuul. They are such sweet, helpful girls. I love goofing around with them when they visit.

And, here I am trying to get in on the contortionist act. I don't think I'm cut out for the Mongolian circus just yet.

So, what's up with you?

C - Hello. I have been letting Jess handle most of the heavy lifting on the blog lately. I make no excuses or apologies... but I know you missed me. I know that my prose gently lulls you into fond remembrances of the mellifluous tones of my voice, and the wonderful times we've had together.

So, lately I have been busy. I am teaching from 8:30 until 12:40, then making a quick run home for a 10-minute lunch and off to Mercy Corps until 5:30. Then Jess and I are off to the gym (or, as Steven corrected, the fitness studio) - that's why my muscles be all big. In the evening I am often studying about something that has me boggled at Mercy Corps (such as finance in the 3rd world, the finer points of InDesign, value chains, etc.). Somewhere in there I try (stress try) to read some books, do some writing (currently talking with Steve Yahn once a week about this), and pay some mind to my beautiful wife, see some folks, and think about the future.

Some people have asked what I do at Mercy Corps. Mostly, I am put in situations where I feel pressure to learn in a hurry. There are a lot of great people around who know a lot more than I do, and that helps. I recently completed a report on business development services (BDS) in rural mongolia with the BDS officer. That involved going to the countryside over the summer and collected data, then analyzing it. Right now I am helping a team develop an assessment of gaps in financial service provision in the Mongolian countryside to inform the services of a forthcoming NGO that will be spun off our organization (thanks to Dave Petro at ICBA, who was kind enough to chat with me about the subject the other day). I also write content for the website and produce print and web publications, and edit a bunch of reports. That is that.

On a related note, for anyone who doesn't already know: Jessica and I have forgone our current opportunity to join the peace corps. We got an offer for a placement as teachers in Asia (kinda big isn't it?), but I don't really want to put another few years into being a teacher. I got this internship at Mercy Corps, and Jessica is already teaching, so we decided to stay here a bit longer - its already kinda like peace corps.

So, on to more interesting brain fodder:

Today, winter became real for me. It was the first day that my face was stung by the morning air. It was the first day the cold ate through my pants and bit at my thighs. It was also, incidentally, the first day I put down my earflaps on my hat. And a fine hat it is. Another surefire sign that it is winter? When we came home this evening some people were hauling a frozen, skinned sheep onto the elevator. It is now cold enough outside that the animal will remain frozen out on the porch. We'll be seeing a number of carcasses going up the elevator now.

[changing gears abruptly] So, there are some wonderful things about Mongolia. I got off the bus today with a man that looked like he just stepped off the silk road. Jessica and I encountered a gentleman the other night who looked like a Mongolian buddhist deity - he had a long white beard, full traditional mongolian outfit, big white eyebrows, and a look of complete surprise, or possibly enlightenment... or possibly drunkenness. These states can be surprisingly hard to distinguish in elderly Mongolians, with faces like an old baseball mitt.

Some things, however, can be perplexing. For example, when you go to the grocery store the clerk always piles all of your groceries into one bag. If the bag is too heavy, they double bag it. I have commented to Jessica on many occasions that they could make this easier (and easier on my arm) by just splitting the groceries into two bags in the first place, but they NEVER do. I don't know. A small inconvenience. I guess it only bugs me because of my extremely efficient, Taylorist bagging training at Quality Markets. Maybe that's how I can make a difference here. hmm.....

On a side note, I forgot it was veterans day the other day. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. I celebrated the hell out of soldiers day here. Does that count? You know that during WWII, Mongolia sent 35,000 horses to the Soviet Union to fight fascism? There is a monument in Russia of the Mongolian horse - the same horse that served Chinggis Khan so well...

Fire Fighting, Mongolian Style

Yesterday while we were putting away groceries I looked out the kitchen window and saw a pretty big fire down the street. We couldn't tell what exactly was on fire, but it had happened pretty recently (or maybe not) as there were no firefighters on the scene yet. So, naturally we grabbed the camera and quickly made our way towards the fire to see what was going on and snap a few photos. When we were almost there, the firemen showed up, and in the time it took us to cross the street, the fire had been put out and all that was left when we arrived were giant billowing clouds of white smoke. Notice the firemen here aren't as lucky as the ones back home: no special wardrobe (unless you count the little cape that says FIRE on it) and no masks or oxygen tanks to help them breathe. These poor guys were just in there, in all that smoke wearing what looked like costumes of canvas. There were more spectators earlier on, but after getting sprayed with the hose accidentally (in 20 degree weather!) they dispersed.





Graffiti in Mongolia is fairly tame compared to back home. We have seen these various messages: "Pussy Cat Dolls" "Bone Thug (singular) and Harmony" "Sega" and the mind puzzler on our own building, "Life is a death, death is a..." I have to say however this little guy might be my favorite. We get to see his bellybutton, nipples and silly smile every morning on the way to the bus stop. We feel so lucky. Imagine if someone sprayed a picture like this on a building with your name and an arrow pointing to it - Whoever "Todoo" is, I wonder if this picture does him justice.

Wears you down sometimes...

So, we really don't like to complain on our blog here. But sometimes it just builds up and we feel like sharing our frustrations with you, so you can feel happy about where you are and happy that you aren't where we are...

Clayt went to get on the elevator the other day. The doors open and there is a woman and her kid standing right inside the doors. Clayt waits for them to move back or move over so he can get in, but they don't move at all. So, he had to just push through them to get in. Elevator etiquette is non-existent here in more ways than one.

This little story goes back to when we were out in Bayan-Olgii. We had lost our cell phone and needed to call our boss about our schedule and so went to the central post office/communications place. You had to go up to the teller desk and tell the lady the number you wanted to call and she would dial it on the computer and hand you the headset. Well, I went to the window and told the lady I wanted to make a phone call (with caveman speaking and gestures, but understandable). I tried to hand her the phone number, but she just looked at me and then shooed me away with a gesture and turned her back to me. Didn't say one word. (I didn't leave, and just bugged her until she gave in, but boy it was irritating to be shooed like that!) :)

2 weeks ago I saw a semi-violent fight out in a lot behind our school. It involved grown men attacking each other - one guy had blood all over his face and was barely able to stand and 2 men showed up and began to kick him and punch him. A third guy showed up with something he had grabbed out of his car and hit the guy in the face with it. Then the fight moved over to next to the car, where a man stood outside the driver's side talking to the guy inside the car. One of the men came up behind the guy with a big rock and hit him over the head with it. Then the fight moved out of my line of vision from the school window, who knows what happened next...

So the very next day on the way to school we saw a dead man lying in the road. The police were there, but hadn't moved the guy, just had a shirt over his face, lots of blood along the whole side of the torso. We got a clear view as he was still in the middle of the road and we drove right past him. My third graders (who had all seen the same sight) informed me he was hit by a bus.

We got on the bus this past Saturday night to go to dinner. The bus system is strange here - if someone doesn't pay the bus fare, it's the job of the bus fare collector to either shame them into getting off the bus or physically remove them. Unfortunately, more than a few really drunk guys like to try to ride the bus for free, and the fare collector is usually a woman. Well on this evening the woman was rather young, and small. She was trying to yank this guy out of his seat, but he wouldn't budge. Not only would he not budge, but he continued to smack at the lady's arms. So, Clayt just got out of his seat, picked the guy up by the collar of his coat, tossed him out the door, and sat back down. The men sitting around us just kept staring at Clayt with not-so-friendly looks on their faces. We were surprised that with so many men on the bus none of them would try to stop someone from hitting a woman. And even if not for moral reasons, didn't anyone care that this guy got to ride for free while they all had to pay?

After that dinner we went to see some live music at a nightclub and saw 2 fights within the few hours we were there. Surprisingly, after being removed, everyone involved in the fight was allowed to reenter. In fact, one of the girls that was in one of the fights came in the bathroom after I did - I was waiting for a stall to open and when one did she just stepped in front of me and went in. She looked right at me and said, "Sorry!"

On a lighter note, I taught at my volunteer job 5 nights last week. On the last evening, I was trying to teach the young ones fruits and veggie vocab out of my picture dictionary. It didn't go so well, since they basically didn't know what most of the items were, and have no word for them in Mongolian. Avocado? never seen. Broccoli? What's that? Blueberries? Don't know! raspberries? asparagus? eggplant? They were all mysteries to them. I know a shop where you can get some of these things, so I think we might need to have a food party one of these days and let them check some of this stuff out!

alright, enough complaining for now......(the weather is now below zero at night)......