The Adventures of Jess and Clayt

We’ve been everywhere…

2009-11-08T02:12:00.000+08:00

So, since we last gave you any depth here on the blog, we have seen some other parts of the country, but not nearly enough. I took a trip to Ecuador to study Spanish intensively for 2 weeks. Jess and I have been to Bogota, and we’ve travelled a bit in the area outside the city limits. To begin, because I have some pics here, I’ll talk a little about our trip to Bogota.

Our friend Juan Carlos is from Bogota, and was nice enough to invite us to visit Bogota with him over Semana Santa this year. We visited his family and friends, and saw the city. It was a great trip! But first, we had to get there… a 10 to 12 hour drive through two mountain ranges.

As this picture makes clear, my dog had to be drugged for the trip. He gets non-stop carsick, so we had to get him some traveling medicine from the vet. He looked out of it.

Near one of the many towns we past, we spotted some of the local youth who preferred not to walk up the mountain to get to the center of town. watching the mount and dismount was much more stressful than the ride…

Finally, we made it to Bogota, where Juan Carlos and his family took us to see the sights. We went to a beautiful (but cold) spot to look out over the city. It is a big city, with something like 8 million residents. It was a clean, modern city with a good public transport system, and the climate is kind of like fall at home, all the time, except the trees and grass are green. Here we are, not looking over the city with our friend Juan Carlos.

The owner of a restaurant at that overlook took a liking to us, and sent us a free drink inside a pineapple, which you can see Jess enjoying above. There are more convenient vessels, but who am I to complain? Jessie may or may not have eaten the entire pineapple thereafter.

Jessie and I ventured out on our own on one of the holy days (don’t remember which one, sorry) and found the modern art gallery, MAMBO (Museo de Arte Moderno). We had some fun with this exhibit of poster styles through the 20th century. A striking resemblance, don’t you think?

We also saw this shaving chair for siamese twins, or at least that is the only use I could think of for it. Can you spot Jess in the picture?

When we left the museum, we found ourselves in the parade route, which was awash with people, entertainers, vendors, etc. etc. etc. This little clown man would remain completely still until someone gave him a coin, He would then do a happy little mechanical clown dance! There was also a Michael Jackson impersonator, which fit with the spirit of the season, I think.

We were invited to a birthday party for Juan Carlos’s girlfriend and mother. Late in the night, an ominous knock on the door revealed a 9-piece Mariachi band ready to serenade the birthday girls. It was louder than it looks, but what takes a party to the next level like mariachis!

They tried to draft my little Jessiachi, but she was too shy to make the career change. The fashion accessories, however, she can live with.

While in Bogota, I played a show with Juan Carlos and his friend in a small bar. We practiced 3 times and then played a ten-song set. It was a good time, and I was automatically a good singer because I don’t have an accent when singing rock songs!

Aureliano, my dog, played with the band too…

We took a trip out of Bogota to visit the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá an underground cathedral built in a salt mine. It was a tasty trip. I can honestly say I have never though about salt for such an extended period in my life. There were movies and signs and brochures and free samples. My blood pressure couldn’t handle any more.

Jessica explored many career opportunities in Bogota, including “salt miner.” She liked the fringe salt benefits, but the Lupus was a deal-breaker.

And those are just some of the highpoints of our trip to Bogota. Contemplating careers, playing in shows, supporting local arts; all just another excursion into the great wide world. Until the next…

Seasons? I don't need no stinking seasons!

2009-10-29T02:03:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone.

Jessica may have made the complete transition to Facebook, but I still enjoy a more cohesive narrative. Call me an old-timer, say I do not appreciate our new, fragmented, quick-hitting age, but I enjoy spinning a yarn now and then. So... I'm bringing it back.

Here we wait in the land without seasons (OK, there is one season... summer), while many of you are packing away the last of the single layer, short-sleeved relics of the hot summer-gone-by. Nope, not us. We are still sporting the shorts, still going to the river on the weekend, still watching hot garbage blow down the street (only sometimes). But I miss those seasons.

So, it is with that spirit of sighing nostalgia that I gladly inform you (if any of you are, indeed, out there) that Jessica and I will be home for the holidays! Home long enough to pull some doughnuts in parking lots, take a snowball in the ear, and see Jessica's famous upside-down snow angel!

Hope we catch you while we are there. We will be the one's shivering and cursing the cold. Can you believe that, only a little over a year removed from Mongolia? Damned adaptable bodies.

Looooooooong Overdue!

2009-07-01T09:46:00.002+08:00

Hello All!

So as you may have noticed, we have been VERY negligent in keeping up with the blog posts. The truth of the matter is, now that we are both on Facebook, we use that much more than this blog. The photos upload through the facebook program much more quickly. So, as a compromise, we have created a photo album on facebook which you can access here from the link below. In this album you will find lots of photos of what we've been up to in the past few months, along with captions.

What you won't find there is this: Clayton was hired full time at an NGO here in Cali, and we have decided to stay here one more full year! We are enjoying our time here, and both doing some really rewarding work. So, we will be heading home mid-July and start of August (sadly, not together) to visit friends and family. Hope to visit as many of you as we can! Without further ado, here is the link to the photos! Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90472&id=587007983&l=38696a7ba2

Lasagna and Karaoke!

2009-03-24T04:17:00.006+08:00

Last weekend we went to a friend's house to show him how to make lasagna the "american" way. He and his family were all impressed with clayton's cooking skills. And as if they weren't impressed enough, we sang karaoke after dinner and clayt blew them away with his heartfelt rendition of "My Way." Here are some pictures from the fun.

Just when you start to feel comfortable....

2009-03-21T07:26:00.000+08:00

.... the US Embassy sends you an email like this:

U.S. EMBASSY
BOGOTA
WARDEN MESSAGE
March 20, 2009

The United States Embassy is sending this Warden Message to remind
American citizens traveling to or residing in Colombia that Bogota and
other parts of the country remain a high threat environment for
terrorism and crime. This month is the first anniversary of what the
FARC is calling "Black March", which marks the deaths of three senior
FARC leaders in March 2008. While the Embassy possesses no information
concerning specific and credible threats against Americans in Colombia,
Americans traveling or residing here are strongly encouraged to continue
to exercise caution and remain vigilant.

American citizens and U.S. interests remain targets for terrorists and
criminal elements. All U.S. citizens are encouraged to exercise
caution. All official and personal travel outside of Bogota by Embassy
personnel is subject to review. In addition, the Embassy advises all
American personnel to avoid areas where foreigners are known to
congregate. Throughout Colombia, Embassy personnel are prohibited from
taking mass transit (e.g., public and private buses, metros, etc.) and
frequenting outside cafes and street-side exterior dining areas. The
Embassy strongly advises all Americans to refrain from using mass
transit as well.

U.S. citizens in Colombia should be proactive in taking security
precautions. They should vary their travel routes and the times of
their arrivals and departures, and remain aware of their surroundings.
U.S. citizens in Colombia should avoid large public gatherings or
demonstrations.

For the latest security information, Americans traveling abroad should
regularly monitor the Department's Internet web site at
http://travel.state.gov , where the current
Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts can be found. Up to
date information on security can also be obtained by calling
1-888-407-4747 toll free in the United States, or, for callers outside
the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.
These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time,
Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). American citizens
traveling or residing overseas are encouraged to register with the
appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate on the State Department's travel
registration website at https://travelregistration.state.gov
.

In case of an emergency, please contact the Consular Section at the
Embassy in Bogota, Carrera 45, # 24B-27, Bogota, D.C., Colombia.
Emergency telephone contact may be made 24 hours a day at (571)
315-0811.

We get by with a little help from our friends.

2009-03-03T22:11:00.005+08:00

One of the things that makes living here so nice is the people we meet. So, here are a few photos of our friends and us, enjoying good times together!

Here I am with some of my co-workers from the Colombo Americano. Andres, Me, Alejandro, and Carla (the boys are Colombian, and Carla is from Taiwan, and happens to live right next door to us!)

Here are Juan and Clayt, moving our game of RISK, so we can eat the delicious dinner his mom cooked for us. We were at his apartment for the night to meet his mother, who was visiting from Bogota.

Here are Ximena and I, at a nightclub called LuLu's. Ximena is also a volunteer at the Defensoria with Clayton, they work on a lot of projects together. She is the one who invited us for the Calbagata, and to celebrate New Year's with her family.

Me and Alejandro, a co-worker from the Colombo, who has the best English i have ever heard from someone who has never been to the States!

Clayton with his co-workers, the Defensor - Andres, and Ximena, out for a night interview that just turned into a night of fun.

Clayton and Juan - apparently Juan did or said something very funny! Colombians have great senses of humor, it's nice to be around people who always make you laugh!

Recent Activities

2009-03-03T04:24:00.007+08:00

We have finally figured out the secret to uploading pictures successfully! So, hopefully that means we will be posting more regularly again.

About a month ago I started a volunteer job at an orphanage called Casita de Belen. It houses about 40 young orphans (children who are left on the doorstep, some as young as 7 days old, and other children who are removed from their families because of abuse). During the day they also have a school program for children from very poor families. The children are there for the school day, get lunch and snacks, and after-school care until their parents can pick them up. The place is swarming with children. I go on fridays, my day off from my regular job, and help with the babies, play with the kids, and teach 2 hours of English lessons. The kids are so warm, so loving, so eager to hug you. It's been a great experience so far. So, I was telling my one class of students (at my regular job at Colombo) about my experience, and they were interested in helping. So, they came with me twice, to help with giving lessons to the kids, and to visit with the little ones. I think it was a nice experience for my students and the kids as well.

Here's one of my students, Natalia, with one of the little ones.

Me with a little guy who liked to touch my face!

Snack time!

This little one wanted to be held a LOT, cried whenever we put her down, which is of course understandable, and sad.

Another shot of snack time.

Reviewing the english names for animals with the grade 3 students.

My student Diego with his group, playing a memory game i made for the kids.

Then, this past weekend, we were invited to go to the "finca" of the family who founded Casita de Belen. A finca is like a summer house, outside the city where people go to spend the day on the weekends. This finca was pretty impressive, with a large main house, 3 smaller cabins for staff and etc., and a stable for 17 pure-bred horses, seen below.

Here we are in the front yard, enjoying the rare opportunity to have our photo taken together!

Here I am in front of the house, enjoying the view. There were beuatiful flowers everywhere you looked, and an amazing view of the mountains.

Here we are horseriding! The horses were tall and strong, and a little willful, which made it a little scary for me... but we enjoyed it nonetheless, and had good company too, as the people we were riding with have been riding horses for over 13 years!

Some of the beautiful flowers around the house.

There were 3 baby horses born within the last month, and this was one of them!

Another picture of the vast array of flowers around the grounds.

And, lastly, a current event that wasn't so fun. About 11 days ago I was walking past clayton in the kitchen, and hit my foot against his heel in passing. Hurt pretty bad but we thought it was probably just bruised. 9 days later when it still hadn't improved much, I finally went to the doctor to get x-rays. They confirmed I had broken it, and ordered me to stay at home off my feet for 8 days. So, no going to work for me this week! Unfortunately, I didn't help it heal much in those 9 days before going to the doctor - i thought it would just get better, and was trying a little tough love, trying to do things like normal - going running twice, and even out for a night of salsa dancing... apparently not the best thing to do for a broken toe...
So, here i am at home self-medicating with ice on my foot and a glass of wine!

Christmas and New Years!

2009-02-15T06:20:00.001+08:00

We have spent the last 4 christmases and New Year's in 4 different countries: USA, Mongolia, China and now Colombia. This year the holidays were pretty low-key for us. Christmas and New Year's here are holidays centered around the family and a few traditions.

So for Christmas Eve we went downstairs to visit with our landlord and her extended family. They all sat around having drinks and a few small snacks until almost midnight. Traditionally, here they don't eat christmas dinner until midnight, and then open gifts afterwards. Dinner was delicious, turkey, salad, and a few other side dishes, and then some dessert. After dinner presents were opened. It was certainly different from home. Only 2 or 3 gifts at the most for the kids, and some of the adults got gifts, others didn't. It was very low key, but everyone was happy and enjoying themselves.

After dinner, but before opening gifts, they pulled out this little book of - i don't know exactly - songs or prayers or chants, about the birth of jesus. They also pulled out some maracas, to shake while they took turns reading verses, singing, and chanting prayers. Even clayt and I got a chance to read aloud for the group (in spanish!).

For New Year's, we went to the house of a girl who works with clayton at the Defensoria del Pueblo. There was a very large group of her extended family there for the celebration, maybe over 50 people. Again it was a late night celebration, with dinner after the countdown at midnight. At about one minute to midnight, everyone gathered into a big circle, and counted down to midnight. At the strke of 12, everyone cheered and shouted "feliz ano nuevo!" Then, all 50+ people proceeded to circulate and hug and kiss each and every one of each other! It was a lot of love! After all the hugs and kisses (the most I have ever gotten in one day i think, besides our wedding day) everyone sat down to a big dinner, dessert, and more drinks. I think the biggest difference was that it was all family - here New Year's is all about family, not a night for going to the bars with your friends, like we tend to do back home.

A few days after New Year's a friend invited us to join her with her family for an annual tradition, called a Cabalgata. This is a horse riding trip that starts in the afternoon, lasts about 5 hours, and ends with a big dinner. Their extended family is fairly large, so there were about 40 of us altogether. Important detail - while on the horses, everyone drinks a lot of aguardiente, the local liquor of choice, made from sugar cane. So, by the end of the trip, lots of people are drunk on horses, riding through the forest in the pitch black. Luckily the horses knew the way well, because we couldn't see 2 feet in front of us at some points! We went across rivers, up and down steep embankments, and 3 people fell off horses. Clayton was one of those people, although he claims he jumped over the horse... He went to get on the horse, and sort of fell over the other side, into the mud. Everyone was very amused.

Unfortunately, uploading photos to this blog has been difficult from here, which is why it's taken so long to post this. So, we're going to try something new. Below is a link to the related photos on my facebook page. Just cut and paste the address into the address window, and you should be able to see all the pictures there:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55136&id=587007983&l=28b0e

Then a few days afterwards, we were invited to go to a place called calima lake with our landlord and her family for a few days. We would call it a "misdventure" of sorts, which I think Clayton may write a specific post for in a few days. So, here are some photos of New Year's and Calima Lake as well:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56498&id=587007983&l=43cf9

please let us know if there is any trouble seeing the pictures.

Confrontation with an owl

2009-01-03T05:24:00.005+08:00

Are you familiar with this bird? It is the Tropical Screech Owl. Don't worry, I wasn't either until last week, when I ran afoul (get it?) of him. Let me tell you the harrowing story:

Most Saturdays I play racquetball with a guy who takes spanish lessons from me. He is an eye surgeon, and lives in a pretty swank pad in the North of Cali. There is a racquetball court there and he gives me a weekly beating (usually I start with a 10-0 lead, then lose 13-15). I am not too proud to take a beating, so it works.

Anyway, as we got ready to take the court last week after a 2-week absence, we noticed some dirt and bird feces near the door. Hmmm... this should have raised some suspicions, but, as I don't ride around in a van solving mysteries with my dog, I didn't get any sort of feeling. I just waltzed onto the court to clear more debris. Then I noticed something sitting at the far end of the court. At first I thought it was a piece of wood or something. My mind was really cranking trying to figure out what this thing was. You see, owls and racquetball courts don't go together in my universe of discourse, and my brain was struggling to catch up. Then, as it became clearer, I realized I was closer than I wanted to be to this wild animal, and stumbled back a bit, drawing nervous laughter from my companion.

Back out the door we went. We needed to formulate a plan. What would McGuyver do. First, inventory. We had racquetball equipment, a bag, two extra shirts, a small towel, and a long, weathered piece of wood that was leaning against the outside wall.

Plan 1: Roll racquetballs at the owl to scare it. It should then fly away. This plan was based on the false premise that owls are scared of racquetballs. I thought they would be, like any form of technology above owl-level would be frightening. I was wrong. This is science. This is why we do it. So, we proceded to roll racquetballs at the owl. A few misses, then a direct hit. We laughed. The owl hissed at the ball. Its mouth, when open, was huge. It was like half its head opened up. This drew more laughter and conscious positioning toward the door for escape routes. The last ball drew a kind of beak strike from the owl. This plan failed. Back to the drawing board.

Plan 2: Scare the owl away with a display of power using our racquets. The premise here was that, although unintimidated by our superior technology, the bird would fly away in the face of our sheer physical superiority, mental acuity (using tools), and loud voices. I took two racquets: one to flail around menacingly and another to cover my face with in case of owl attack.

So, we stomped and yelled and flailed. The owl hissed and put its wings out to show us its physical presence. I must admit, I was a little intimidated. More than once our display of power was interrupted by the owl doing something unexpected (turning to face us, for example), which drew jumps and unmanly screams. This is especially funny given the macho culture down here. Plan 2 failed. Like Wile E. Coyote, back to the drawing board.

Plan 3: We can obviously get really close to this thing (we were within 2 feet of it at one point). Let's give it a tap and see it fly off. Show it we mean business. And here let me tell you a brief and related story. The whole time I was really the one out front. The Dr. was a little farther behind me. He kept telling me "it can't see you in the daytime, it is kind of blind in daylight" Then the thing proceeded to look RIGHT at me and hiss. I question the veracity of his hypothesis. If it can see well at night, shouldn't it be able to see in the day?

But back to plan 3... So I crept close to the god-aweful, evil looking bird. It was not moving. It was staring me down with its wings out. For a size estimate, I'd say the bird was about the size of an american football. Maybe a little bigger. But with its wings out, it looked at least the size of a basketball. Now would you want a basketball full of wings and talons and beaks flying at your face? So I got within 2 feet again (damned racquetball rackets are short!), and I gently nudged the bird while protecting my face with the other racket. The bird flew up, we panicked and ran back, the bird came back down about 3 feet from where it had been. I turned to look at the Dr., as we both felt the adrenalin surge. While my back was turned, the bird flew up again, scaring the crap out of me.

OK, we've got movement. I decided to be a bit more bold. Have you ever tucked the edge of a tennis racket under a ball on the court floor, then whipped it up quickly, propelling the ball into the air and across the court? Well, it seemed to me that the same principle applied. So, overcoming my fear (kind of), I touched the bird with my racket. It hissed and looked really angry. It would have been angrier if it knew what was coming next. I whipped the bird into the air, and it travelled about 12 feet, then settled back to the ground. Don't worry. I didn't hit it, I merely shoved it. Or shoveled it, or something. It didn't fall. It flew back down.

Emboldened by my success, the Dr. got the large piece of wood (maybe 5 feet long), and used it like a hockey stick to nudge the angry and rumpled bird further toward the door. Again, he took no slapshots, but kind of pushed the reluctant and petulant bird toward the exit. We both took turns moving the bird until it was near then door. I had to get closer than I would have liked to in order to position it in front of the door. Then, triumphantly, I shut the door, pushing it outside. No feathers were lost, and the whole process took about 20 minutes.

relieved, I opened the door to our stuff. But like some horror movie, where the antagonist can never quit be killed, the owl was still there, right outside the door! That scared the hell out of me. I slammed the door shut, and cursed at the bird, calling him stupid and worse. The Dr. however, had an insight. The owl was not stupid. We were the only people who used the court. We hadn't played in about 2 weeks, so the bird had flown in the open window and set up a nice, roomy home. He was fighting against eviction. He didn't want to leave. Evidenced by the amount of bird droppings, he was used to this place.

So, in one last effort, I cracked the door, and nudged the bird again with my racket and it was off, flying high over the apartment complex and away. That was the last straw and the owl decided to find a new place...

or retreated to his hide-out to plot his revenge.

Cali Nights

2008-12-25T00:58:00.008+08:00

Today is a little bit surreal. I am walking down The Sexta, a thick vein of bars and salsa clubs and sketchy dark corners that runs through our neighborhood, down to the main grocery store. The street is covered with flour. Everywhere are people with hoses, looking a little hungover and pissed, cleaning everything (kind of how I picture the other Keebler Elves who weren't in the commercials). All the tables, all railings, even all the morning-after garbage is covered with flour. I just passed a man having a friendly conversation while balancing a mounted ox head on a park bench. My glasses are halfway across town, hanging on someone's Christmas tree (an idea I knew would probably turn out badly, but that I pressed on with anyways). And I know all of these disparate events are somehow related... to... America de Cali, winner of the Mustang Cup - Championship of Colombian club soccer.

So, as I walk, I allow my mind to wander to Cali in December. December in Colombia features the soccer championship tournament. In Cali, it is also a perpetual party. Party here means Aguardiente (distilled from sugarcane, the name literally means firewater) and Salsa.

The last few weekends Jessica and I have spent some time in the sweaty salsa halls of Cali, kinda like Dirty Dancing; Havana Nights, except lose the hunky, cut-up leading man and insert John Kruk. Luckily, there is sometimes a bit of Vallenato, Cumbria, and Merengue mixed in But then there is Bachata too, which is even more difficult, incorporating a little last minute hip hitch that is all but impossible for me. Those of you who know us well know that I dance like a stub-toed clod. Jessica, on the other hand, moves effortlessly through these new dances. But I don't want to take you to far along the wandering stream of my mind. Instead, we'll get back to the oddities of today.

So, I had planned to watch the final of the Mustang Cup Championship game at a salsa establishment of the masses (all places were broadcasting the game), El Viejo Barril (the old barrel). However, Jessica's friends from school advised that it could be a little hairy in that area. This idea was reinforced by the SWAT vehicle parked kitty-corner from the bar. So, instead we went to a less intense location featuring Mexican Ranchera music. It is hard to get too rowdy with this music playing.

Setting: America de Cali has won the first game against Medellin 1-0. As we settle into our booth at the bar, among bottles of Aguardiente, cups of water, and slices of lime, the crowd crackles with excitement. With a win or a tie America wins the championship. A one-point loss will bring penalty kicks for the championship. Since America won the first game, you cannot walk outside without being assailed by speeding cars, horns blaring, with the shotgun passenger hanging out the window waving an America flag.

Soon the game began. We sat with a collection of people, some Jessica's coworkers, others their friends and relatives. Soccer games in Colombia are broadcast with an almost endless barrage of in-game commercials, which make it essential to watch closely. You can easily miss a great play and end up cheering without knowing why.

America got out to an early 1-0 lead, and the crowd reacted appropriately. One woman in our group in particular really let loose with ear piercing screams. As America went on to win 3-1, we got a lot of exposure to her exceptional lung capacity. At a certain point, I figured, if you can't beat her, join her, as pictured below:

So, after the game everyone was excited. You could hear fireworks and screaming from every direction of the city (in fact, a gun battle between police and some criminals went unnoticed in one Cali community because the neighborhood residents thought it was fans celebrating). On this community high, it was generally decided we would hit a local salsa joint for some dancing. As usual, Jessica hit her stride quickly:

I, however, did not:

But, all in all, it was a productive night. I got some much-needed salsa lessons, and Jessica was able to dance with people who actually know salsa. The dancing continued until the wee hours, finally releasing us into the fog of the early morning, slightly sweaty and (for me at least) with slightly less self respect.

Here are some more views of the evening:

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

2008-12-10T08:04:00.020+08:00

So here in Cali December is like Summer vacation. School is out for a month, and there are tons of events leading up to and during Christmas. One of the big things here now is the festival of lights. There are lighted decorations up all over the city, but primarily along the river. These are no ordinary christmas lights, they are fairly intricate and show scenes typical to this city. We walked about checking it all out on 2 separate nights, as did the entire rest of the city - it was so crowded! Anyways, here are some photos of the highlights:

Here is me and Luc Estella, under some of the lights, and a little girl came up to see aureliano just as clayt snapped the picture.

He is Clayton hamming it up with one of the light figures.

These last 2 pictures are from the teacher's picnic the Colombo had this past weekend. As you can see, it was a good time!

Our Apartment

2008-12-04T10:01:00.009+08:00

Here are some photos of our apartment on a good day - usually it is much messier, but nobody wants to see that!

In this first one you can see or our little 2 burner stove (at least it's gas). And, there are these strange open parts above each door and window. It is great for fresh air, but not so great for keeping out every sound your neighbors make.

We actually have a pretty big kitchen!

Here is the bedroom - the bed base and tv stand were built by clayt and a friend. The closets came with the place. There are 2 windows in this room too.

This is the bathroom. I took the photo from the shower, which is like a double wide. Stretching our shower curtain as wide as it goes still doesn't reach wall to wall.

Our living room - the tapestry came with us all the way from Mongolia!

The other side of the living room - and our most valuable piece of furniture, the computer desk - where we email, talk to friends and family back home, watch movies, do our work, and listen to music.

Catching Up!

2008-12-02T02:19:00.011+08:00

Now that we have internet at home, we can post more frequently. So, here are some photos and stories that have been left out until now.

Here is a picture of Luz Estella and me. This picture was taken from our kitchen window, from where we can see down into their kitchen below, as they have the open air style kind of place. I was down there heating up rolls for thanksgiving dinner in their toaster oven. Luz Estella is our very sweet landlord.

Here is Aureliano in our washing machine, wondering why we are so mean to him sometimes.

On Halloween night, Clayton and I (well mostly clayton, i bought bread and cut it) cooked dinner for Luz Estella and her family, who live downstairs from us. With her lives 2 of her 8 brothers, her husband, son, and sometimes her mother. The smiley guy closest to the camera is the "family lawyer" who was pretty drunk when we got there. Clayt made some curried chicken, rice, a garbanzo beans dish (spicy!) and brought a bottle of wild turkey whiskey to share, which was polished off quickly!

These are some indigenous Colombians, in town for a protest march (for the rights of displaced people). Here they are checking out some souvenir jewelry.

This is a really pretty church in the downtown part of the city.

In the park, on the day of the march. You could absolutely see a difference in how these people looked compared to the people we usually see in the city. It felt like a big picnic to us, everyone was just sitting, lounging in the park peacefully, waiting for President Uribe to show up to begin dialogue.

The day of the protest was really hot, and most of the people in attendance had been walking for over a week to get there. Here you can see how crowded it was, and the vendors lined up selling cold drinks and sweets.

A mango tree! (we think...)

There is interesting grafitti all over the place down here. This wall is near our place, and kind of fun to look at.

Clayton and Aureliano in one of the bigger parks in the downtown area. Sundays are our days to get out and about, so we usually take the puppy for a long walk, giving all of us some much needed exercise.

This is a HUGE tree in one of the parks, with strange roots that come down from the branches. Apparently we aren't the only ones impressed by it, as they have lights installed around it. It must look a little spooky at night...

Seems like every time we're out on a walk, we spot some new birds.

Another bird, this kind we see all over the place.

Another common sight in the park are the lines of ants. The lines come down the trees, across the park and up another tree, carrying big bits of leaves. I love to watch them marching along, so often and so many of them that there are literally "ant paths" worn into the grass.

One benefit of living somewhere tropical is that things grow easily here. So, abundance means low prices! Long stem roses like these cost about 7 dollars for a dozen. I get roses from Clayton all the time now! :)

Here is our friend Juan Carlos with Clayton, goofing off. Colombians are pretty fun-loving people!

People here are so relaxed, and there never needs to be an excuse to make a party. We were coming back from dinner and were invited to join Luz Estella and her friends on the patio for some drinks. Her husband, Gerardo, busted out the guitar, everyone sang loudly, and had a good time. Singing in key not required.

A view of everyone from the smaller patio on the top floor.

Our Christmas break is coming in 2 weeks, and Clayt and I have been talking about maybe going to Ecuador for a week or two! December is a really big month for Colombians as well, with a lot of different holidays and celebrations, so we'll be sure to keep you all posted on the festivities!

Thanksgiving in Colombia

2008-12-01T11:08:00.004+08:00

Thanksgiving went well this year! Our friend Juan Carlos joined us for the meal, and it was his first ever thanksgiving dinner. We don't have an oven, so we had asked the woman who lives downstairs if we could use hers. She said it was fine, but then at the last minute (when clayt brought the turkey down) she told us the oven wouldn't work well and that she had a friend who would take the turkey to his house and cook it there, in a better oven. He would cook it for us in exchange for a piece of the finished product.

Clayt said it all happened so fast, and the turkey was whisked away to be cooked in some oven in some house nearby by some guy we didn't know. We were a little nervous! Did he know how to cook a turkey? The correct temperature? The correct length? What about covering it, and keeping it moist? Would it come back burnt, undercooked, or worse yet, would he just take off with the turkey into the night, never to be seen again?

...as you can see, we ended up with a pretty nice turkey!

Juan Carlos enjoyed the food, and even took a plate of leftovers home! They don't have gravy here, so he was pretty interested in watching Clayt prepare his plate - then he did the same with his, even making a little pool in his mashed potatos for the gravy.

Reach out and Touch Someone

2008-11-27T03:12:00.003+08:00

Here is our phone number for those of you who might need (or, want?) to get a hold of us at some point:

From a phone in the states, you dial -- 011-57-310-452-8669.

This has been mother tested and really works!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.
We are thankful for all the friends and family that have kept in touch with us over the past 2 years! Geographical distance can feel like a handicap sometimes, so thank you so much to all of you who have kept in contact with us, kept our spirits high, and made us feel loved wherever we are.

(a blast from the past, this is our last night on our last camping trip in Mongolia, sleeping under the stars)

So, still waiting on home internet...

2008-11-19T08:52:00.004+08:00

Well, as is to be expected outside the customer service mecca that is the USA, we signed a contract for internet service over 2 weeks ago, but haven't heard from the company to instal it since then. We haven't paid anything, and the contract doesn't technically start until service is hooked up, so I can't find a reasonable explanation except incompetence. In any event, when that finally resumes, we'll be able to post more often. As it stands, I am balancing my computer on a wash basin in a rare case of being able to steal internet.

So, lately Jess and I have been really busy. I am volunteering full time at the Defensoria Del Pueblo as well as taking Spanish lessons about 3 nights a week and teaching english two nights a week. Jess has negotiated her hours down because she was working pretty much all day, every day, but that hasn't taken effect yet. So she is still working all day, every day.

We are picking up the language little by little, and we are making some friends. In addition, I am shedding my Mr. Bean-like persona (I think). However, in this city people seem very conscious of their appearance, which is fine for Jess because she looks good. Me, however... man of rumpled shirts and unkempt hair, of the biweekly shave and obligatory white socks... I get the feeling I don't quite cut the mustard (what does that even mean?).

In other news, the Feria de Cali is coming. This technically takes place from Christmas to New Years, but as I understand it, really embodies a celebration for the better part of December. It is Colombia's biggest festival, but as of yet no one can tell me what happens, except a lot of drinking and dancing.

Also, in regard to the election, many people here seem to approve of the Obama election. I have a hard time believing anything will be all that much different in regard to overall US policy (I've lived with A bit of Carter, Reagan, HW Bush, Clinton, and W Bush), however, from our current vantagepoint, even a return to the status quo is a welcome change. Here, despite the (very popular) Colombian President's strong ties to Bush, people really seem to like Obama. Maybe it's just fun to say his name.

Strange...

2008-11-18T11:13:00.003+08:00

If you type "the adventures of jess and clayt" into google, it suggests "the adventures of jesus and clayt."

Some Random Videos

2008-10-27T04:29:00.002+08:00

Here are some videos we have taken of things since we have been here. this would qualify as a "grab bag":

La Brujita
This is the small railway car we road on, propelled by a man that pushes it skateboard-style.

Dancing in the street
The day we came home from the zoo, there was a parade of dancers from a nearby department (state) dancing their way up our street. Many of the people from Choco are Afro-Colombian. After the organized dancers, a mob of people following the parade and dancing came through the street. Here is a little taste.

Aureliano
Finally, a video of our puppy, taken a month ago or so. you can see that he will be a vicious guard dog.

A parade just to celebrate dancing!

2008-10-27T03:44:00.005+08:00

When we returned home from the zoo a few weekends ago, there was a parade in process on our street. There were people from all different parts of the country, representing different schools of dance. Luckily we had our camera on hand and were able to get some good pics from our balcony!

This last photo is a picture of where we live. The big light greenish house (next to the garish turquoise) with the people standing on the patio is our place. The people on the patio are the family that owns the house, and we live upstairs, in one of four apartments.

CORRECTION

2008-10-23T06:54:00.001+08:00

our mailing address is as follows:

Jessica and Clayton Maring
Avenida 8 Norte, No. 14-35
Barrio Granada, Cali, Colombia
Sud America
Telefono Celullar: 310-452-8669

we had previously posted the street as 8a, but it is only 8. Sorry about that!

The Cali Zoo

2008-10-13T05:50:00.008+08:00

This past weekend we made a trip to the Cali Zoo, proclaimed by locals as one of the best in the country. While it was not the largest zoo, it was pretty impressive and allowed you to get fairly close to the animals (at times it felt like a little uncomfortably too close). So here are some photos of our favorites.

La Cumbre!

2008-10-13T05:37:00.005+08:00

Jess and I had the chance to get out of the city recently and head north for a little over an hour. We arrived in La Cumbre on a Sunday afternoon to retreive the son of our landlord from a birthday party. The town is over the mountains, and it was a twisting, winding ride. Our dog did not appreciate it. He was throwing up and foaming a the mouth. I guess he should have taken his dramamine.

We went to the home where the son should have been, but wasn´t (we found him later). We were quickly surrounded by a group of interested kids. Whether it was Jessica or the puppy that drew them, I couldn´t tell.

The most interesting thing about the trip was our ride on the "bruhita," which is a small car placed on the railroad tracks that is manually operated (by this guy). Luckily for us, we arrived on a Sunday, when trains do not operate on this track. Not sure what they do on the other days...

Here´s a closer look at the vehicle in question. It can build up a head of steam on the downhill portions, but is pushed not unlike a skateboard the rest of the time. It was kind of exhilarating, like being one of the little rascals or something (I mean, come on. Who else has something like this?)

When we stopped, we were at a clearing in the forest, and some entreprenuer had constructed a series of rickety zip lines. For $2 you could zip through the forest canopy. After watching another man of large proportions zoom across the line, only to fall short of the landing zone because of his weight, I declined.

I must also mention that we were with a guy from downstairs that we refer to a "the uncle" because we can´t seem to remember his name. He talks a-mile-a-minute in Spanish and never stops. He is always very animated about his topics. We don´t always understand what he is talking about, but he is good company. He was quite impressed with the zip lines, and the relative value. He mentioned this a number of times.

While there was a little town, this picture gives you a good impression of what you see at La Cumbre. The bruhitas are entertaining, but also quite functional. People live along the railroad line, and it appears to be the main thoroughfare for many people. There is a walking path along the side, but some people prefer to save time and take the bruhita. Just off the main road through town, dense forest began. There were waterfalls and cows, coffee and tea. It was a pleasant outing for us (but not the dog. he had an hour-and-a-half of feeling sick on the way home). Although I wanted to sleep on the way home (as Jess was doing in the back), I was instead forced to try to communicate in Spanish for the duration of the ride, as the uncle´s relentless barrage continued.

3 Cross Hill...not to be confused with the WB hit series One Tree Hill

2008-10-02T10:50:00.005+08:00

2 weekends ago we atually felt energetic enough to climb the mountain we can see from our kitchen window, known to the locals here as simply "Three Crosses." It was a perfect day for it - hot, sunny, and a Sunday, which means not so many people. The hike up wasn´t bad, only slowed for the fact we had aureliano with us and nobody can resist petting an adorable puppy that is trotting by. At the top was a great view of the city and some vendors selling juices and fresh fruit. We drank fresh squeezed orange juice, ate a few slices of pineapple, and marveled at all the GREEN around us. There was even a little outdoor gym, in case you are a glutton for punishment and the hike up wasn´t enough to exhaust you. Here´s a few photos from the trip:

Clayt with an exhausted Aureliano with Cali behind them.

Me and Aureliano enjoying the view, a little more than halfway up.

At the top, a peek at the city through the trees.

The Gym for the Self-Punishers

One of the few butterflies Clayt was actually able to get a picture of.

Giant Bamboo, on the way down the mountain.

A very big spider, which was fine, until we saw a bunch more...all around us... I got itchy and headed directly for the sunnier part of the path ahead.

Vicente Fernandez, Mexico's Idol

2008-10-02T10:19:00.004+08:00

True to her nature of embracing the local music, Jessica fell in love with a song by the illustrious Vicente Fernandez called "Estos Cellos." While Vicente is technically Mexican, he is a popular choice for drinking music in these parts. After this, he will be in your neighborhood as well. I mean, come on; those eyes, that silver hair, the finely groomed mustache and eyebrows... that sumbraro... and matching outfit.

Here is a picture of the 3-disc set we bought for Jessie's birthday. It turns out that there is only really one good song in the entire collection. There is an interesting one about the death of a chicken farmer though (no, I am not kidding). Good thing the set only cost about $2.50

And finally, how could we leave you without the song that started the obsession. Enjoy.

Apparently this guy is a little more important than I thought

2008-10-01T21:58:00.006+08:00

While doing some research on Colombian history (I don´t know it so well), particularly the history of conflict, I ran across a name I had seen before: Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. If you recall, I briefly referenced him when talking about Colombian Currency.

So, this guy was a populist and a liberal, and was running for president in 1948. It seems that he was likely to win. On April 9, 1948, a young Fidel Castro was waiting to meet with Mr. Gaitán. As the colombian politician left his office, he was shot in the head and chest. He died shortly after.

To make a long story short, this murder sparked rioting and killing, and is widely held as the beginning of political unrest and violence still plaguing Colombia today. Also, it is speculated that the incident had a strong impact on the young Castro, and pushed him to question the ability to initiate change through electoral politics. Of course, that is speculation. Also interesting speculation, our own beloved CIA is one of the potential perpetrators.

Mr. Gaitán's death directly impacted the histories of two Latin American nations, maybe more. I apologize for giving him such short shrift. I wonder what other important people died out there that I am unfamiliar with?

Colombian Pesos

2008-09-25T10:00:00.000+08:00

Below, you can see the currency we are currently spending. The largest bill is 50,000 pesos (about $25 USD), at the top left.

I really like the pictures on the currency. The faces have a lot of character. According to Wikipedia, these people are:

Jorge Isaacs (50,000), a famous writer and politician from Cali.
Julio Garavito Armero (20,000), a child prodigy and distinguished scientist. A crater on the moon is named for him.
Policarpa Salavarrieta (10,000) was a seamstress who spied for the revolutionary army of Colombia at a time when Spain was trying to regain control of S. America (for which she was executed).
José Asunción Silva (5,000), Colombia´s most celebrated poet.
Francisco de Paula Santander (2,000), a military and political leaders during the struggle for independence.
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (1,000) an early to mid 20th century politician and populist leader who was assassinated.

The coins are quite pretty as well:

Curiously, to me anyway, there is no bill featuring the man widely considered the architect of the independence not only of Colombia, but almost all of S. America: Simón Bolívar.

Thinking of visiting?

2008-09-25T09:58:00.000+08:00

Just a quick note that flights are cheap!
At least from NYC...
NYC - Cali ($407) here

People In Motion

2008-09-19T12:24:00.000+08:00

[Disclaimer: we did not take this photo]
While leaving one furniture shop the other day, I noticed traffic was non-existent on what is normally a very busy road. I was pleased, as I needed to cross, and was in too much of a hurry to contemplate my good fortune. But in a few brief moments, it became clear: there was a march heading my way. This was much larger than the student march I described earlier, with participants extending for about half a mile. I couldn’t make out the sign the leaders were holding, nor could I understand the chants as the bullhorns they were using further distorted a language to which my ear is still green. The animated crowd were at the head of the procession, and they drew a crowd of onlookers, including women holding children on balconies and a gaggle of otherwise bored bombaros (firemen). The participants ranged in age from young adults to the middle-aged, and I got the impression that it had something to do with workers rights, as all participants appeared to be blue-collar workers. As the procession continued, the energy levels definitely dissipated. A few younger men with bullhorns were interspersed in the crowd, trying to create some energy, but many of the marchers seemed unmoved to such an extent that they couldn’t muster the steam to wave their red cloths, but instead tied them around their necks or tucked them loosely in their pockets. And I wondered if this lack of enthusiasm, mostly from the older participants, signaled disinterest or apathy bred from a history of unacknowledged alienation.

When my contemplative leering pulled a pair of eyes from the forward progress of the march, I turned to my signature move: I smiled stupidly and waved. But at least I didn’t trip.

Enterprising Businessmen

2008-09-18T01:29:00.002+08:00

Where there is a will (and a market), there is a way. It is the invisible hand at work! I´ll let one of the fine reporters at Reuters tell the story:

U.S. captures $187 million drug haul in submarine
Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:48pm EDT

By John McPhaul

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - The U.S. coast guard captured a submarine-like vessel equipped with sophisticated navigation equipment and stuffed with seven tonnes of cocaine, Costa Rican authorities said on Tuesday.

In a difficult nighttime operation during the weekend, U.S. officials arrested four Colombian smugglers on board the 59-foot (18-meter) steel and fiberglass vessel in international waters before they could sink it.

"The boat was partially submerged but you can't call it amateurish. The drug traffickers are not amateurs," Jose Pastor, a spokesman for Costa Rica's public security ministry told Reuters.

Several makeshift submarines toting drugs have been captured recently on the high seas. In July, the Mexican special forces captured a similar submarine carrying 200 tightly wrapped packages of cocaine.

On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard sent a team of special agents on small boats to surprise the smugglers after a U.S. Navy airplane spotted the sub. When the traffickers realized the agents were on their deck they shifted the boat violently in an attempt to throw the officers into the sea.

After that failed, they complied with orders not to open hatches designed to sink the craft, said the Coast Guard.

"This was the most dangerous operation of my career," Todd Bagetis, the lieutenant in charge of the Coast Guard team, said in a statement.

Official photos showed the craft packed full of 37 bales of cocaine with a street value of $187 million.

The vessel was likely capable of traveling from South America to the U.S. coast without stopping for fuel or supplies, said the Coast Guard.

The U.S. ship that nabbed the traffickers was set to arrive to the Costa Rican port of Caldera on Wednesday with the drug boat in tow, Pastor said.

(Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg, editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Things we are eating that you are not: Papa Rellena

2008-09-15T03:41:00.005+08:00

Today we're going to give you the first installment in what will surely be a semi-regular series about food we are eating that you are not. Today we will discuss papa rellena [ray - AYE - na], which means something like stuffed potato, shown above. This is a ball of rice, meat, and potato, encased in a doughy ball, then covered with a batter and deep fried. There is definitely cumin in it as well. It is kind of greasy, but awesome. Best of all, these are CHEAP. Streetside vendors and small restaurants offer them all over, and they cost between 60 cents and a dollar for a ball as big as your fist (or bigger, if you have small hands). So good for us, too bad for you (that you can´t have it). See the tasty innards below:

Summer with the Hedmans

2008-09-15T03:34:00.001+08:00

So, we spent the majority of the summer in Charlottesville (where I contracted a most virulent strain of poison ivy that only recently dissipated). It was nice to share the family vibe with my sister and hers, despite the fact that we were gone somewhere or other just about every weekend. It passed much faster than I had anticipated, wiling away the days in the idyllic woodlands of southwestern Virginia. So much so, in fact, that our time was almost exhausted before we realized that we hadn’t taken many pictures.

So, highlights of our time in Virginia (not including the poison ivy) included: a trip to Water Country USA, introducing the Hedmans to a number of foods they likely would have been better off without (including falafel and fish sauce, but not together of course), playing with the dogs, frequent trips to the hot tub, trying to breathe through a pvc hose while patching leak in the pool underwater (which didn’t work so well), seeing Ben transform the space above their shed into the start of a wonderful bed-and-breakfast, being unintentionally groped by my sister (don’t ask, you don’t want to know), and reminiscing about events that only seem funny among siblings. Thank you Hedmans (and everyone else we stayed with), for extending such boundless hospitality.

Jess loving Tug

The Hedmans in their natural habitat

Colombian rides

2008-09-14T15:28:00.000+08:00

I always enjoy seeing what kind of cars are driven in other places, and in Cali there is quite a range. You see legions of tiny cabs, smaller than the iconic Chevette, then the occasional SUV preferred by the affluent. Renualts are popular here as well as Latin American Chevrolets you’ve never seen, and a horde of motorcycles and scooters, mostly under 100 cc.

The real treasures, however, are the older cars that have made their way here and have been kept in operating condition (which is a relative term). Here are photos of two such gems we stumbled across recently (not literally):

Here is a Hudson in surprisingly good condition.

And a type of car I have never encountered before, a Zastava 1300:

Contact Information!

2008-09-14T05:38:00.002+08:00

So now that we have an apartment and a cell phone, here is our contact info.

Jessica and Clayton Maring
Avenida 8a Norte, No. 14-35
Barrio Granada, Cali, Colombia
Sud America
Telefono Celullar: 310-452-8669

That last part is our cell number, and if you send us something it would be good to include it after the address. To call it from the states however, you would need to first dial the coutry code, 57. If you use skype, just choose the country Colombia, and it will add the country code for you.

Our apartment is a good size. A bedroom, living room, bathroom and big kitchen. Lots of windows and high ceilings make it feel bigger than it actually is. 3 locked doors stand between us and the general public, so it feels pretty safe too. It´s only 2 blocks from my school and 7 blocks from where clayt will start volunteer work on Monday (a human right organization, more on that later from him). Hope you can come visit us sometime, we would love to share this beautiful place with all of you!

Shopping for The Essentials (and I don´t mean Neal Diamond records)

2008-09-12T03:01:00.008+08:00

Fact: Apartments in Colombia generally come two ways – fully furnished or completely empty. By completely empty I mean there is no refrigerator, stove, or even hot water heater (people don’t seem to use hot water for much beyond showering here). As the furnished apartments cost about double that of the bare apartments, we went with the latter. We were lucky enough to find a place that did have an electric hot water heater in the shower and a gas double-burner in the kitchen. And so, we have been on the streets buying the first appliances of our lives, as well as the necessary furniture. It has been a daunting process. Given our limited Spanish, the conversations have gone something like this (from our perspective, of course):

Salesperson:
Blah blah blah blah?

Us:
…We need a refrigerator.

Salesperson:
[gesturing at a much too large fridge] Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah?

us:
[looking at each other]… did you get that? Me neither…

Salesperson:
Entiende? (Do you understand?)

us:
…No…

Salesperson:
OK. [gesturing at the much too large fridge] BLAH.. BLAH.. BLAH.. BLAH.. BLAAAH. BLAH.. BLAH.. BLAH.. BLAH.. BLAAAH. Blah blah blah blah?

us:
[with uncomfortable smiles]… ummmh… Mas pequeño por favor…

And so on, until we are sitting at a desk and they are writing a sales slip for the items we looked at. No, we are not buying said items. Salespeople here insist on writing you a sales slip so that you can bring it back if you decide to buy it (or maybe they just wanted to avoid doing this all over again next time). Given my comparison-shopping, I must have collected 20 of those slips.

You may be surprised to hear that we were able to procure all of the essentials in this manner.

An Early Birthday Gift

2008-09-11T03:18:00.005+08:00

Last Saturday Clayton came home (we have an apartment now, more on that later) with an early birthday gift for me - a mini-pinscher puppy, and he´s just a month and a half old. He is of course one of the cutest things in the world (see photos below) and quite the charmer. When we are out and about, women of all ages flock to him and kiss him profusely. His name is Aureliano. I named him after the main character in the book 100 Years of Solitude, my favorite book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who happens to be a Colombian author. So, it seemed a fitting name. He has vaccines and papers, which means bringing him home to the states when the time comes shouldn´t be an issue.
So, here he is:

Real Quick!

2008-09-10T23:04:00.002+08:00

So things have been very busy! We have an apartment, we have a new little puppy, my job is going well, clayton is tutoring and looking for work and studying spanish, i got a great evaluation for my first teaching observation, we are enjoying colombian food, and we´ve made a few friends! We don´t have internet at home yet so posting has been difficult. We´ll try to post pics and info about everything soon. We´re doing just fine!

Well... that´s new!

2008-09-04T02:56:00.003+08:00

So, a couple of days ago a car bomb went off in the middle of the night. Apparently, it was pretty loud. It went off a couple of kilometers from us. We slept through it. Unfortunately, many poor people here sleep on the streets under business awnings and the overhangs of entranceways. Some of these people were sleeping in front of the justice building where the bomb went off. In terms of safety, remember this for some perspective: about seven years ago Jess and I were only a few miles from the Pentagon when it was struck by an airplane. For more, here is the Reuters article:

Four killed in suspected Colombian rebel car bomb

BOGOTA (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and around 20 more wounded by a car bomb in the Colombian city of Cali in one of the worst urban attacks this year, authorities said on Monday.

The suspected guerrilla bomb hit the local court building in Cali, near Colombia's Pacific coast where drug traffickers transport cocaine shipments north to the United States and Mexico, officials said.

"The bomb was located near the court building ... and unfortunately four people were killed," Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina told local Caracol radio.

Police said they believed FARC guerrillas were responsible for the attack.

Violence from Colombia's four-decade war has ebbed under President Alvaro Uribe, a hard-liner who has used billions of dollars in U.S. aid to send troops to drive Marxist FARC rebels back into the remote jungles and mountains.

Urban bombings are more scarce, but fighting continues in some rural areas, especially regions where coca leaf is grown to make cocaine that has helped fuel fighting.

Seven people were killed when a bomb exploded in a small town in mid August. Authorities blamed rebels who they said were retaliating against efforts to eradicate coca crops.

FARC guerrillas have been battered to their weakest in years by Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign and several top commanders have been killed this year. But rebels remain a force in remote areas, aided by profits from drug trafficking.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey, Editing by Sandra Maler)

The adventures of Mr. Clayton

2008-09-01T03:32:00.001+08:00

The sidewalk area on many roads is not a public sidewalk per say, but more of an extension of the building in front of it. As most buildings in our neighborhood are connected within a block, the walkways are also connected. However, each building owner appears to have the privilege of selecting the materials to construct the walkway, and of choosing the height of said walkway. This makes for a rather hazardous walk, like walking across abutting mini-plateaus. This requires vigilance. However, because we are fairly new here, we are often looking at this or that, and can be lulled into a false sense of security by any unusually long stretch of consistent walkway. This can end in tears. And then I think to myself, how can I hope to be vigilant against the terrorists if I can’t even be vigilant about the ground beneath my feat? A side note, did you know you are at a much greater risk of foot injury when wearing flip-flops? It must be true. I saw it on TV. Knowing is half the battle.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I am like Mr. Bean here. I don’t speak the language well, so I don’t say much and make a lot of dumb faces. Also, I look somewhat different. I am a bit more stout than your average Colombian. Also, Colombian men do not tend to wear shorts or baseball caps, which I wear just about every day. So, I amble around the streets, looking like the square peg, smiling and nodding dumbly, or possibly saying “Good evening” in the afternoon.

And then there are silly situations I come across where I try to help others. Sometimes it comes off; when I picked up a woman’s hair clip or pointed out a few pesos a man had dropped. Other times it is awfully Mr. Beanesque. Today, for example, I was walking down the road on my way to the grocery store. I had just had a pleasant exchange with a man that wanted to sell me “big shrimp” (I declined, but it ended amiably enough), when a brillo-type pad fell at my feet (picture Mr. Bean). This was more of an industrial abrasive pad, I guess. I look up to see a young man looking down at me. We both looked at each other for a moment. The young man three stories up, so I wasn’t sure if I could get it back up to him.

He didn’t indicate that I should, but I picked it up and gave it a perfect toss, but alas, he fumbled it and back down it came. Like a good Mr. Bean, I picked it back up and gave it another toss, this one somewhat errant. Keep in mind, we are on a busy street and I have some onlookers now. Down the pad comes. A third time, I give it a mighty toss (it takes a lot of force to throw a brillo pad up three stories), and this time it is just out of reach. On its descent, the wind catches it and pulls it into the first floor balcony. The young man gives me a “that’s OK” wave off, but I’m sure he was thinking “why didn’t I just go down and get it? I’d be back up by now.”

As I walk away, I am struck by an odor. It is coming from my throwing hand. Now don’t get too worried. It wasn’t an unpleasant odor, but rather a familiar odor: pungent, yet somehow addicting, with a faint trace of petroleum. Walking down the street I must have smelled my hand about five times (Mr. Bean-style: wrinkling my nose as I take it in, a hint of investigative tension in my furrowed brow). And then I place it and a Prustian moment washes over me: it is chrome polish. I am transported to the first thaw of spring in years gone by, when I would pull out the cleaning supplies and give my motorcycle a good scrub, then shine it to a brilliant gleam (Again, see Mr. Bean: face turned to the sky with a faraway and wistful expression).

But I am pulled back to this world in one of those all-too-human moments, when the ground under my feet deceives me: the level drops a half-foot or so, and I am sent stumbling and flailing past a busy open-air restaurant of lunchers. I do not give them the satisfaction of looking back. And I carry on…

Looks like we made it...

2008-08-22T01:31:00.008+08:00

OK, OK… lets get the preliminaries out of the way. We arrived safely and on time in Cali, only minus a few bags. We got those Tuesday, so overall, it was a successful trip. A guy was waiting for each of us, identified by a sign with our name on it (we had separate flights due to my circuitous frequent flyer ticket). I’ve never had the guy waiting with the sign with my name on it before. I always thought I’d feel more important. I didn’t.

When I got to the hotel, Jessica was already there. You can see our temporary digs below (Jessica has an obsession with showing you foreign bathrooms; luckily for you, unoccupied). The hotel is fine, and is in a great part of town. My cooking is suffering, given the fisher price cookset I have, but I will remedy that.

Cali has a lot of palm trees and foliage, and couldn’t be less like Mongolia. It rained for two hours yesterday. I am pretty sure that is longer than the sum of all rain activity over the year and a half we were there.

Jess has a good feeling about her job. She got a warm welcome, and the school appears very organized, well-established, and well-supplied. As we speak (or as I speak, I guess) she is teaching her first class. I, on the other hand, have no job, no prospects, and no way to ask about it much (porque mi espanol es muy menor). I am enjoying strolling about during the day, doing some grocery and supply shopping, tracking down various things, and making an ass of myself while I attempt to speak Spanish.

Case in point, when people come up to me to panhandle (it appears that there are a number of homeless in the city), they often begin with a long explanation in Spanish telling why they need money (I assume). Because everyone here speaks Spanish, this is perfectly reasonable. I however, have difficulty understanding when people talk quickly, and string a lot of sentences together. For my first few days here, my stock response was “thank you… no,” instead of the “I’m sorry… no” that I had planned. This drew strange expressions from the panhandlers as they struggled to understand what I was thanking them for.

In any event, I’m sure we’ll have many stories to tell about my fumblings and bumblings in Spanish. For now, let me give you some of my quick thoughts about our new surroundings (please take them with a grain of salt, as we have only just arrived):

1. Spandex is popular among the women here, for both tops and bottoms. Tube tops are especially popular.

2. We arrived on a holiday weekend, and the city seemed calm. Now that I have seen a typical day, I can see that this is a vibrant city. Music pushes in at you from multiple directions. People flow through streets narrowed by street commerce like blood cells. I saw a student march today aimed at keeping education affordable. They chanted and marched in perfect unison, and the strength of their voices was invigorating.

3. Learning Spanish well will be difficult. Walking through the streets, attempting to transact and interact show me that it is much easier to say “I’m going to learn Spanish there” than to actually do it. Luckily, the fact that most of my job opportunities depend on it should keep the fire stoked. I think it is just easier for Jess.

4. We again find ourselves in a valley of mountains, however, unlike Ulaanbaatar, these mountains are steep and green with trees.

5. One of Jessica’s co-workers today told me that they have something like 2,500 fruits here. If we stayed here for a year, we’d have to try 6.8 fruits a day to try them all. On a side note, they do not have the 2,500 varieties of dairy that Mongolia boasts.

We’ll leave you with a few more pictures from our first few days here, and the promise of more to come.

here´s the shower head, electrical wires exposed but the water is hot so who cares?

our hotel room kitchen, nicer than our mongolian apartment kitchen!

a view from our kitchen window of a hill, 3 crosses glow all night, every night.

the bathroom - small, but oh so normal.

a view from the kitchen (no other windows in our room!) during the morning.

City streets on a holiday weekend.

Another city street with Jessica walking ahead, not wanting to stand next to the tourist taking photos.

It's been a great summer!

2008-08-15T07:14:00.007+08:00

We leave for Colombia in 2 days. We just wanted to thank everyone who went out of their way to help us out this summer, or took the time to visit once or twice! It was great to see so many people while we were home, and I think everyone has heard enough about Mongolia for a while! :) Here are some photos of the rest of our summer - we've enjoyed all your company, and hope some of you will come visit us in warm and sunny Colombia!

here's clayton opening his birthday present - 12 hand selected specialty beers. I think he liked it!

We got to reunite with our kittens (now manly cats)! But I don't think they remembered us.

We went for an overnight visit to Virginia Beach to spend time with my sister and her family. It was great to see them, and fun to play in the ocean too!

Me with 2 of our nieces, before having a nice dinner on the boardwalk.

Me and my sister Elaine!

Clayt and Paul during the very fun DC monument bike tour, enjoying each other's company.

We went camping for a weekend at a state park in Kentucky with my brother, sister and her family. Here's me and bella hamming it up while playing frisbee.

Here's Clayt, being the ever antagonistic uncle!

Me and Hannah -- it's a rare thing to get this sort of smile on camera from her!

Here's all of us, except Bill (he was taking the picture) - Hannah, Miranda, Clayton, Jessica, Bella, Dawn, and Brian.

And lastly, we went to Annapolis last weekend to visit friends Molleda and Koy. Here we are after a few hours of singing karaoke!

We'll post again once we're settled in Cali. I start work on Tuesday and we need to start apartment hunting right away, and find a place for Clayt to take spanish lessons. So, once things are under way, we'll post with details on everything!

Congratulations Mongolia!

2008-08-15T05:33:00.002+08:00

Here is (part of) an article from ESPN describing Mongolia's first ever olympic gold medal!

Mongolia has won its first Olympic gold medal ever with Tuvshinbayar Naidan's victory over Kazakhstan's Askhat Zhitkeyev in men's 100-kilogram judo.

Naidan, who upset defending Olympic champion Keiji Suzuki of Japan in his opening bout, scored a waza ari with just under two minutes remaining, then added on two yuko to seal the victory Thursday in Beijing.
Azerbaijan's Movlud Miraliyev took bronze by scoring a waza ari over Poland's Przemyslaw Matyjaszek. The second bronze went to Henk Grol of the Netherlands, who defeated Georgia's Levan Zhorzholiani.

Naidan, 24, who switched to judo in 2000, used a traditional Mongolian wrestling technique to humble Suzuki in their opening bout, and then trounced Zhitkeyev in the final.

"There are no words that can describe my happiness," Naidan said. "After winning this gold my first thought is to thank my parents, my coach and all the people who have supported me in the past."

While not lacking in skill or technique, the burly Mongolian achieved success largely through his brute strength and determination.

After arrogantly throwing Suzuki off the tatami for ippon and automatic victory, Naidan bullied, barged and bruised his way to the final, where a hapless Zhitkeyev was the victim of three scoring throws.

Mongolia, wedged between Russia and China, has a population of only about 3 million. It is probably best known as the home of 13th century warrior Genghis Khan.

Zhitkeyev's silver gave Kazakhstan its first judo medal, and added to an already impressive haul by central Asian athletes.

"This medal has been a long time coming for my country … And now there it is. I am thrilled and happy," Zhitkeyev said.

Our First Month...

2008-07-30T06:46:00.002+08:00

...We'll be staying at a hotel close to my school. Here is a link to the hotel website, and the contact information (address and hotel phone number) are on the site: http://devgroupcolombia.com/clients/sunriver/index.html

And here is a link to the school's website: http://www.colomboamericano.edu.co/

Cali, Colombia

2008-07-19T00:49:00.003+08:00

Here's a map of Colombia, so you can see where we'll be living next! We will be leaving on August 16th. We'll be living in Cali, which is the third largest city in the country, and about an 8 hour drive from the capital city, Bogota.

If you want to read all about Cali to know more about what we're getting ourselves into, check out the info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cali
We will keep this blog going rather than start a new one. So keep checking back!

We left just before it all hit the fan....

2008-07-02T20:48:00.002+08:00

Here is an article about what's been going on in Ulaanbaatar this week.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AFP) - Mongolian President Nambariin Enkhbayar declared Tuesday a four-day state of emergency as protestors went on the rampage in the capital claiming that weekend elections were rigged.

"From 11:30 pm (1530 GMT) on Tuesday there will be a four-day state of emergency," said a presidential decree read out on state television.

The decree warned that anyone caught on the streets after the 10:00 pm curfew without documentation would be arrested. Public gatherings and independent media broadcasts were also banned.

The action came after thousands of people took to the streets of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator on Tuesday to voice their outrage at weekend elections they claim were rigged.

The headquarters of the former communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) in the centre of Ulan Bator was set alight and looted, according to an AFP reporter and other witnesses at the scene.

Some of an estimated 6,000 protesters from the rival Democratic Party -- which claims the MPRP bought votes and used other tactics to win Sunday's election -- threw rocks at firefighters arriving to put out the blaze.

Police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas but the clashes continued and the violence later spread to other parts of the capital.

A police station was attacked when protesters attempted to free rioters imprisoned earlier in the day.

Part of the Cultural Palace, which contains an art gallery, a museum and a theatre, was on fire early Wednesday as violence continued despite the emergency decree.

TV images showed riot police around the Cultural Palace apparently arresting people and firing rubber bullets in an attempt to secure the area. Later images appeared to show the situation was calmer.

Early reports said 30 policemen and 25 civilians had been injured.

A European photographer said he was been beaten by police when he attempted to take photographs of police violence.

Politics in Mongolia, a country of 2.6 million people sandwiched between China and Russia, has a recent history of turmoil and disputes, but such violence is rare.

The technically neutral President Enkhbayar -- previously with the MPRP -- summoned Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar and all opposition party leaders to an emergency security meeting earlier on Tuesday.

At the meeting, broadcast live on the privately run Eagle television, the MPRP-affiliated Bayar renewed his calls for restraint while blaming the Democrats for inciting the rioters after losing the elections.

Democrat leader Tsakhia Elbegdorj countered that MPRP corruption had prompted the riots and torching of the party's headquarters.

Before the unrest erupted, Elbegdorj said bluntly that "illegal activities" had robbed the Democrats of victory.

"This was a dark moment in the history of Mongolia," he added.

The MPRP, which ruled for decades under the protection of the former Soviet Union, says it won 45 seats in the 76-seat Great Hural while the Democrats have reportedly won 21 seats.

The General Election Committee has yet to make a formal announcement on the ballot.

"This election was run by one party. It is a false election," one of the protesters, Galsan-Namjillin Sukhbaatar, told AFP outside the MPRP headquarters.

Another protester, Enkhamgalan Dorjsuren, 34, said: "The people have come here to fight for their freedom."

The MPRP ruled Mongolia from its independence from the Chinese in 1921 until 1996, when it was beaten in elections by the Democratic Party.

In 2004, Mongolia's last general election, the MPRP and the Democrats were forced into a coalition that produced three different prime ministers.

The instability held up economic reforms and shook investor confidence, but the nation's economy still grew by 9.9 percent last year thanks largely to its vast deposits of copper and gold.

Enjoying Family and Friends

2008-07-01T23:58:00.005+08:00

Some highlights since we've been home...
and our phone number is 202-527-8762.

Clayton with Linda (my mom)

me with my big brother Kenny.

My nephew and nieces, Nelson, Sara and Rachel.

The Whole Gang, my brother's family.

Me and my mom in Rochester

Bruce, prior to a frantic outbreak of hot-dog cooking.

Brett and his uncle at Wing Night at The Office in Kennedy, NY.

Clayt and Me, happy to be home.

Uncle Spencer, Grandma Pat and Clayton.

Zach enjoying a hot-dog.

We're Home!

2008-06-19T22:05:00.002+08:00

For those of you who actually read this blog and have been checking for a new post, sorry it has been so long. Right now we're in Rochester and will be heading to DC on Saturday. The trip home was long, but we made it home safely and our first american meal was at a Denny's at 3 in the morning - delicious! We have been surprised by some things and less impressed with others... We thought it would be difficult to control the amount of fast food and junk food we eat, but it has been surprisingly easy. We thought we would love to hear everyone speaking English, but we simply find it distracting, whereas in Mongolia the speaking around us was always just background noise. We've been pleased with the roads, the beds, the dryer machines and the public libraries. I was shocked when I saw the size of the produce, it seems (is?) unnatural... When we get a cell phone number we'll post it, and then it's up to you to give us a call! We're here only for a short while before heading off to the next adventure... We will post a few photos soon.

Short and Long Term Future

2008-05-19T12:06:00.002+08:00

Well we've got only 18 days left here in Mongolia. Due to the hand-foot-and-mouth disease outbreak (which has now infected over 1,000 people) I taught only 6 out of 32 hours last week, and will do the same this week and next week. It's kind of a bummer, as we wanted to be able to say goodbye to the little students.

So, we'll be in NY for 2 weeks visiting, and then we head down to DC for all of July and August. We will work, try to save money, and try to have a little fun too. Then at the end of August, we will move to Colombia where I have a teaching job waiting for me, and Clayt will find something either before we go or once we're down there. We look forward to the change in climate and diet!

And of course, we look forward to seeing all of you very soon as well!

Hand-foot-mouth disease hits Mongolia again

2008-05-12T11:03:00.004+08:00

The government here has cancelled classes for grades K-2 for this entire week, and up to grade 5 for today. We will find out more tonight, as they will make an announcement on TV. Things certainly are never dull here! Below is an article about the situation:

Hand-foot-mouth disease hits Mongolia again
Monday, 12 May 2008
Deputy Prime Minister Enkhbold is heading an emergency committee to deal with the issue of nearly 200 suspected cases throughout Mongolia, including the capital Ulaanbaatar. Elementory schools have suspended their classes for Monday and several public events have been canceled.
The first case was reported last Thursday and since than the General Authority for Emergency Management (GAEM) has seen a rapid increase.

Disease Characteristics by the Community Health Administration
Hand, foot, and mouth disease is usually characterized by tiny blisters on the inside of the mouth and the palms of the hands, fingers, soles of the feet. It is commonly caused by coxsackievirus A16 (an enterovirus), and less often by other types of viruses.Young children are primarily affected, but it may be seen in adults. Most cases occur in the summer and early fall. Outbreaks may occur among groups of children especially in child care centers or nursery schools. Symptoms usually appear 3 to 5 days after exposure.
People can spread the disease when they are shedding the virus in their feces. It is also spread by the respiratory tract from mouth or respiratory secretions (such as from saliva on hands or toys). The virus has also been found in the fluid from the skin blisters. The infection is spread most easily during the acute phase/stage of illness when people are feeling ill, but the virus can be spread for several weeks after the onset of infection.
The rash appears as blisters or ulcers in the mouth, on the inner cheeks, gums, sides of the tongue, and as bumps or blisters on the hands, feet, and sometimes other parts of the skin. The skin rash may last for 7 to 10 days.

It's been a long time...

2008-05-10T13:24:00.006+08:00

..since we've posted any photos! So below are a bunch. We've been so busy lately, and now time is just flying by. Clayton was hired as a consultant by Mercy Corps for a month-long project, which is really good for his resume and wallet! I took on a second job as a private tutor, and am enjoying the good amount of cash-in-hand that it provides me with. I also had another trip to the Mongolian hospital, this time for 5 days because of kidney trouble. Things are ok now. Since our last post, we have had 2 school picnics, a Mongolian Day at school, 2 going away parties for friends, 2 snowstorms, were on a Mongolian kids TV show, and I met with my students from CNCF one last time. So, here's what you haven't seen yet:
Enjoying the sea-saw

Meaghan and I on her last night in Mongolia!

A good-looking group of Americans living in Mongolia!

My last day of teaching with the students at CNCF.

Clayt and I on Mongolian Day at school, that's Clayt's own Deel, mine I borrowed from my friend Rachel.

Clayt with a khazakh student.

Me and the Tenth Grade Girls.

Purevdorj and Ariguun.

Here we are with our e-tickets home on the day we bought them. Can you tell we're excited?

Clayt teaching the boys how to play american football. It was an interesting game to watch, lots of touchdowns.

Me in front of a camel who looks unhappy about being tied to a rock.

On the set of the TV show "Let's Sing Together" which is hosted by 2 friends of ours. Once our episodes air on, they should be on youtube and we'll post a link.

This is our building's elevator. Cozy, smelly, and unpredictable!

Lastly, here is a photo of what the toilets look like here. We don't have these in the states, but here they are what are used in most public places and schools. I think it took me the first 6 months to get used to them, and I still don't like to use them. Notice the handle on the back wall to turn on water which acts like a flusher, but sometimes the water isn't running... notice also the ribbed sides for foot traction. Notice also the lack of toilet paper.

Coming Home!

2008-04-16T12:55:00.002+08:00

We will be arriving in Buffalo, NY on Friday, June 6th, at 9:50 p.m.

We just bought the tickets last night. Having computer issues so we won't be calling anyone for quite a while it looks like. Feel free to call us however!

For more info about our future plans, just shoot an email our way and we'll fill you in.

Room with a View

2008-04-04T19:10:00.006+08:00

From our newly renovated patio, we have a clear view of one of the many manholes in this city that has residents. I know for a lot of people, this is hard to imagine. Turns out, a few weeks ago 2 of the residents were coming home from returning bottles, and were completely intoxicated, so I was watching them try to get the manhole cover off the hole. Partly worried about their safety, and partly curious. Unlike most of the manholes which people live in because they are very warm from the steam pipes, this is doesn't connect to the steam pipe system. It was built when the apartment buildings behind us were built last year. We have yet to figure out the purpose of this underground space, besides to be a bunker for the homeless. So, in a rare chance to take some photos without being intrusive, we thought we'd share what we see on a regular basis with you.

A Full Social Calendar

2008-03-30T10:43:00.011+08:00

Lately we've been fairly busy! We celebrated St. Patrick's Day 2 weeks ago, and then last weekend we had a party at our house to celebrate the end of our spring break. It was a "Hammer Pants" party, where folks put on their best baggy MC Hammer-like pants and rocked out to cheesy music from the 80's and 90's. The following night was a "James Bond Gala" fundraiser, which I went to with some friends. Then this weekend was the birthday of one of the teachers at our school, so we took her out for dinner and karaoke this past friday night. So, here are a few photos of the highlights. Only 2 months left here now, and we're trying pack as much fun in as possible!

St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-19T17:58:00.011+08:00

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with some friends here in UB this past saturday. There are actually 3 irish bars in this city, so we did a "pub crawl." We started a 3 pm and some of us lasted until the wee hours of the night, while some of us didn't...

Random Notes

2008-03-14T13:49:00.009+08:00

Today is the first day of our spring break vacation. We had initially wanted to go to the Gobi during this break, but decided it would be better to save our money for the quickly upcoming return to the US for the summer. More details on our homecoming will be posted here as soon as we know what the plan is. Now for the randomness -

As you can see, we aren't the only ones excited about a week off from school! Here are the scholarly and intellectual students of the second grade.

Clayt and I decided after living here a year and some months that we wanted to finally try to clean one of our patios. We never tried before because of the layer of dust and dirt that covers the whole thing - there is no drainage for the patios, so there is nowhere for the dirty water to drain. Here's a photo of me busting through the caulk along the bottom of the patio, to make our own sort of draining system.

Clayt brought me bucket after bucket of hot water which I mopped to the homemade drains in the corner. I was a little worried, as the water was just running down the building, onto the patios of all 7 floors beneath us. Nobody came to complain.

This is a poor little frozen puppy. We see him every day on the way to work. When I first saw him, he was on the ground, frozen stiff in a position that made it apparent he didn't pass on peacefully. Clayt and I were (still are) perplexed as to how an animal can freeze in a position of struggle. More disturbing is that one of its legs is missing, chopped off, either before or after it froze. So, at some point somebody took the time to place the thing on top of a concrete block that covers a steam pipe. The steam has relaxed his posture, as you see in this photo. Actually, now that it's getting warmer, I think being on top of the hot steam pipe might cause more problems - i'm not sure if anyone will bothering moving it again. Anyways, these are the kinds of things we see on our way to and from work each day.

Well it was almost a year ago that I had my appendix removed. Here is a photo of the torture chamber/hospital. This is, in this city, one of the best places to be treated if you're sick. Would you have surgery here?

We saw this near our apartment a few weeks ago. This is somebody's patio with a clothing line strung with drying meat. Dried meat here is called Bortz, and we know from experience that it just might be the toughest substance in the world to chew. I'm sure this batch will have a nice "smoky" flavor from the coal dust. You can't really see because of the glare on the windows, but the row of meat goes the whole length of the patio.

Terelj National Park, Tsaagan Sar Holiday

2008-02-17T17:39:00.007+08:00

Here are some photos from our 3 day weekend in Terelj. We rented a Ger with a couple of friends and enjoyed the peaceful quiet, the fresh air, and beautiful scenery.

we went on a short hike and clayt decided to try to barrel roll down a hill, but it got a little out of control and he ended up sliding down most of the way backwards, on his back.

Clayt wasn't very happy with the amount of snow that went down the back of his pants in the process.

We rented horses for an hour and got to see some more of the park, and got really cold feet from the metal stirrups.

Here is Clayt in his Deel (dell), the traditional mongolian attire. People actually pulled over in their cars to take photos of him while we were horseback riding.

A shaman rock pile, be sure to walk around it 3 times and toss three stones on the pile for good luck.

Khazakh Eagle Hunting Festival

2008-02-03T18:05:00.000+08:00

We were supposed to go sledding. Fortunately, on this day it was too cold for first grade babies and we were able to go to the Eagle Hunting Festival in Terelj - a truly excellent national park about 50 km outside of UB. We went with our friend Sainaa (we had originally asked him what we should charge a cab to take us - he said he would take us, which was much more convenient. Later, we found out that he hated Kazakhs). It was one of many beautiful days in Mongolia. The key to beautiful days in Mongolia is to look up. The sun is always shining and the sky is always blue. If you look up, you don't notice the squalor around you.

Eagles are pretty big birds. The one above is about five months old. I was going to try to perch it on my arm, but the handler said it may be a bit unpredictable. Just touching it is enough I guess (it did whap me in the face with its wing. they are strong bastards).

I do not believe there is a PETA branch in Mongolia, and rightly so. In most of America, fur may be murder, but here it is survival. I was a little jealous of this coat because no amount of synthetic down can compare. Fashion-wise, it has its drawbacks (being mistaken for a polar bear), but warmth-wise, it is unimpeachable.

These gusy are the real deal. Jessica and I met one of the hunters outside of Olgii (in Bayan-Olgii Aimag, Western Mongolia) over the summer. He lived in the middle of nowhere. We happened to drive by his place and notice two falcons on the fence. We stopped and a crowd of people and kids materialized. The man who lived there eventually came out. He and his brother would perch the falcons on their arms with no cover. There was no such machismo with the eagle, however. The man got out a seriously thick leather-and-padding glove. The same man came to the eagle festival. I guess it is a small country, if not a small world.

Look closely. One of the events at the festival was apparently a tug-of-war with a dead goat carcass. The men would swoop down from their saddles while riding and grasp the carcass, then return to the saddles to try and pull the carcass away from the other rider. It was more entertaining than I had anticipated, mainly because of the skill of the riders. Sometimes on guy would be virtually pulled off his horse, but would maintain a handle on the carcass and control of his horse. I can't even do that sitting up.

Mongolian horses look like My Little Ponies, minus the pastel. I wouldn't tell these guys that though.

Like I said, Terelj is an incredibly beautiful place, with unmolested snow and striking rock towers. Add a Mongolian and an eagle, wings spread, and it is right out of an Asia video, or an airbrushed tee-shirt (also minus the pastel). But really, it was pretty incredible. Everywhere you could here the shrill shriek of eagles - it is unmistakable. You know a predator is in your midst. Also, while these birds are obviously well-trained (they are snatched from the nest at a young age and raised by their handlers), there is still an element of wildness. Sometimes eagles let loose to attack carcasses dragged behind horses would veer off the path and swoop daingerously low over the crowd. Somewhat disturbingly, our ticket said "Do not wear reddish yellow or foxfur clothes."

As we were leaving, Jessica spotted the camels. I think it is fair to say she melted a bit. They do seem lovingly indifferent (until our friend got to close to one - it hissed and spit at him). Jess was happy to admire from afar, but our friend was literally pushing her toward the thing. They get much bigger up close. Sainaa and the lady who brought the camels kept pushing Jess closer through her protestations until she found herself on top of the laying camel. Jess then said "OK, it isn't going to get up, right?" as the lady was pulling on its rope (tied to a piece of wood through its nose). As the camel rose, Jessica wore her surprise on her face... and in her voice (oh! oh! oh! Ahh!). It entertained everyone around. Then they started waving me toward the other camel. I figured I could join Jess, since she had been a sport. I was surprised at the height of the standing camel. It was quite a bit higher than any horse I've been on, and unlike a horse, it felt like you could easily go to sleep just by leaning forward into it (the advantage of the bactrian camel I guess).

Overall, it was an excellent trip out of the city (where the air is clean, and doesn't feel like breathing Drain-O). I guess I am going to miss being able to see things like this on a whim... or the lack of legal waivers involved in doing so.

I can see clearly now.....

2008-01-31T16:17:00.000+08:00

Oh wait, no I can't.

This winter is significantly colder than last, and therefore a lot more coal is being used, making the air look like this at noon. Its not just unhealthy to breathe, but it smells bad too!

Below are some photos of our neighbors. We visit with them usually on Friday nights, but sometimes they find any old excuse to come drop by - showing us a new hair clip or notebook, or giving us some candy. They're good kids.

Lastly, do you notice anything different? :)

THE GREAT WALL!

2008-01-26T17:44:00.000+08:00

Clayt and I joined a day trip to the great wall of china while we were visiting Beijing. We left at 6:10 in the morning, and it took 2 hours to get there. We signed up for the 10 kilometer great wall hike. Apparently we thought all the McDonald's we had been eating for the previous week and a half wouldn't slow us down much. It was pretty cold, but still beautiful. They dropped us off at one part of the wall, and then the bus was waiting for us at the other end of our 10 k's. What was nice was that we got to see 2 different parts of the wall - an old, unrestored section, and then a part that had been restored. So, 10 kilometers may not seem far to you, or maybe it does. But now imagine that entire 10 kilometers being stairs (uneven, broken, steep) either up or down. Our legs were almost jelly at the end. But it was totally worth it. We both thought it was the best part of our entire trip.

Above, me struggling at the end to make it up the last bit of stairs. Below, clayt decided to take the quick way down - the zipline! Look closely at the second photo below, you'll see clayt out over the water. He's that little dark speck.

Miscellaneous Photos from China Trip

2008-01-21T21:17:00.000+08:00

Now, don't you feel ashamed of yourself? This was a sign posted inside the Forbidden City.

Which site would you like to check out first? They all sound lovely...

Above is the sign inside our train from Shanghai to Beijing. It showed our speed and the temperature. Clayt was pretty excited when we reached 200 kilometers per hour.

Below - We bought this picture from this man. He was awesome. He spoke to us in Chinese for half an hour, and didn't seem to mind that we couldn't understand any of it. He showed us newspaper clippings of himself, sounded out the chinese characters on his paintings for us, made us repeat, and told us that the big bamboo in the picture are us, and the little ones are our future children. (you know, he said it in chinese with gestures and we got it) He even stressed about it raining and our bag being insufficient for carrying his artwork so he tied it all up in plastic for us so the rain wouldn't hurt it. He also hand painted us his business card, in case we ever want to come back.

Above, Clayt and I out on the town, getting our photo taken by a friendly stranger.

Below - If you are very hungry, a snake probably won't cut it. But if you are one of those who are only a little hungry....

Clayt in a popular noodle restaurant. We liked the paintings on the walls.

Forbidden City, Beijing

2008-01-21T20:39:00.000+08:00

A more detailed update on the Killer Vodka

2008-01-10T18:25:00.000+08:00

ILLEGAL VODKA PRODUCTION UNCOVERED IN POLICE RAID
Written by Ch.Sumiyabazar
Thursday, January 10, 2008.

An illegal vodka distilling factory in the Songinokhairkhan District of Ulaanbaatar was discovered in a police raid last Sunday.
The Uurag Altai company, whose operation license was halted two years ago, was found distilling vodka with the fake label “Morit Khangai”, whose vodka has killed 14 people and hospitalized dozens of others. Also found were 200 liters of chemicals used in producing vodka, fake covers and print labels. “The small room where this business was conducted was horrible, small, and had a terrible stench. A container used for mixing chemicals was unclean. There were no safety or hygienic standards at all,” said a police officer.

Last week, two additional deaths were reported due to tainted vodka produced by the Asian Wolf company in Baganuur District that killed eleven people on New Year’s Eve. The deaths followed an emergency situation banning sales, distribution and bottling of alcoholic products in the metropolitan area. More than 60 people are receiving medical treatment in local hospitals in Baganuur, around 30 are in UB hospital due to poisoning. Relatives and families of those who died, received compensation of Tg900,000 each by the Government.

Chief officers of the professional inspection agency and local police department of the Baganuur District were released from their posts and held responsible for the situation. The Government of Mongolia last Friday invalidated production licenses of 11 alcohol producers including: Akhmadiin Khuch Cooperative, Mon Service, Gazriin Sudas, Tasiin OD, En Trade, Nomin, Lenda, Mongolyn Alt, Durvun Khangai, Setgeshgui Tergel, and Gun Galuut companies. In addition, production of 44 alcohol-bottling companies has been suspended for an indefinite period.

The Government has said that a number of laws on vodka production will be tightened in an effort to reduce illegal alcohol production and marketing. Several laws will be amended including those on commercial advertising, telecommunications, public radio and television, the application process for a special license of operation, and laws against drunkenness.

The Deputy Premier M.Enkhbold, appealed to the public not to celebrate the upcoming holiday, Tsagaan Sar lunar new year, with vodka. The city Mayor’s office, together with the metropolitan police department, raided all vodka businesses in the city and closed down 3,949 shops temporarily, where 39,400 liters of vodka were seized, sealed down 1.2 million bottles of vodka, and shut down the operation of 11 distillers.

“The local authority is buying specifically labeled vodkas from local individuals and destroying them,” said G.Gerelmaa, an officer of the district government. She denied recent media reports that said the drinking water and sanitation system of the district was polluted due to people disposing of toxic vodka.

Inhalation, ingestion or skin absorption of methanol is extremely dangerous to humans and ingestion is fatal. It is hazardous to the kidney, liver and heart. Exposure may cause serious eye damage including blindness. A number of workers from the Asian Wolf vodka distilling company were hospitalized, as they were bottling the tainted alcohol. “The Director General of the company, S.Monkhbat, is also in the hospital from drinking the poisoned vodka he produced,” said Gerelmaa. Also, two police officers came back to Ulaanbaatar hospitalized after they worked in Baganuur, loading trucks with poisonous vodkas. “Seven men are under investigation in connection with the importation of 600 liters of methanol, industrial strength alcohol,” said M.Ganbold, Chief of the General Police Department. After the strict ban was enforced, the police said crime rate dropped dramatically. The Metropolitan Police Department said it has lifted bans in small number of shops in Ulaanbaatar, but the full ban in Baganuur District continues.

Day trip to a Watertown

2008-01-08T17:14:00.000+08:00

Pearl Tower, Shanghai

2008-01-08T13:12:00.001+08:00

This is the pearl tower from the outside. It may be the most bizarre structure I've ever seen.

Above clayt is looking out the window at 350 meters up, viewing the world's next tallest building. Below, you can see how it makes all the other buildings look

Modern Art Museum, Shanghai

2008-01-08T11:10:00.001+08:00

time out from photos - BREAKING NEWS

2008-01-08T08:08:00.000+08:00

Here is a story I cut from the UB Post online newspaper. After we returned from China, clayt tried at several places to buy a few beers, but was either told "no" by the person at the checkout, or found that the store had placed tarps over the entire alcohol section of the store - no beer, no vodka. We couldn't figure out what the heck was going on, until a mongolian friend filled us in last night. He said the people died of ether poisoning. Below is the official story.

11 DEAD, DOZENS OF OTHERS POISONED BY TAINTED VODKA
Written by Ch.Sumiyabazar
Thursday, January 03, 2008.

On December 31, eleven people died and dozens of others were poisoned by tainted vodka. The substandard vodka was produced and sold by Aziin Chono or Asian Wolf alcoholic beverage production company located in Baganuur, a satellite district town of Ulaanbaatar.
The number of those poisoned was at 28 on January 1, but at Wednesday’s government meeting, the Deputy Premier, M. Enkhbold said the number of victims had grown to 52.
“220 local people in Baganuur District have come under voluntary medical testing. 52 people were found to be poisoned. 27 of them are in local hospital. Health conditions of three victims are critical now,” he said.
The said that the Government of Mongolia has declared the year 2008 as the year for food safety.
Seven of those who were seriously poisoned people, were transfered to the Central Military Hospital located in Bayanzurkh District under intensive medical care. The health condition of two of them is critical, said hospital administration. The rest are in a local hospital in Baganuur.
According to a conclusion by the Professional Inspection Agency, the bottled vodka was made of a methanol alcoholic spirit that was not for human consumption, but for industrial purpose.
The police arrested a man in Nalaikh District, called Bayaraa, who was charged with selling 600 liters of the material to the Asian Wolf company. The man said in his affidavit that he purchased the spirit component from Chinese nationals two years ago. The police are continuing their investigation.
The government has banned the sale of vodka in the capital city for an indefinite period. The inspection agency warned the public, especially those in eastern provinces where the company’s products are believed to have been sold in large quantities, not to buy any vodka that has the titles “Bugat Khangai”, “Kherlen”, “Anist”, “Aziin Chono”, “Tsatsal”, “Morit Khangai” and “Tansag”. The agency said that the company could have produced 3,000 liters of vodka with the 600 liters of the poisonous component. However, no cases have been reported in the eastern provinces. The agency said the first symptom of poisoning may appear 10-20 hours after consumption.
In conjunction with this case, Metropolitan police have begun a close investigation and examination of those vodka producers located in Ulaanbaatar city. There are over 40 vodka producers in the city.

New Year's Eve

2008-01-05T20:00:00.000+08:00

New Year's Eve was an interesting day for us, certainly an interesting way to close out an adventurous year. We discovered in the morning after breakfast that we didn't have our bank card. As we had taken the train the day before, that meant our bankcard, our only access to cash, was lost somewhere back in Shanghai (we were now in beijing). We called our credit card company to find out about cash advances. They said we just had to go to a Citibank, and they would do it. We managed to find one, but the office was closed until January 2. We exchanged the last of our American Money ($200) and wondered how long it would last. We still had to pay for our trip to the great wall, which was supposed to happen 2 days later.

I forgot to mention that we didn't have the pin number for the credit card, as we have never had to use it for cash before. So we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get money without our pin, and the credit card co. wouldn't give it to us over the phone. Suddenly our recreational options felt very limited.

As it got later in the day, we were really torn about how to spend the evening. Should we go out as we had planned to a celebration that had a $25 cover charge (per person) and live it up or should we spend a quiet night in and conserve the money we had in case we couldn't get more after the holiday? We decided to throw caution to the wind and went for the "live it up" option. We had a great time! We won a free bottle of red wine. We danced to what some might call bad techno music. At midnight we were covered in a blizzard of shiny confetti. After our feet and ears were exhausted, we went to a more low-key bar, and pigged out on pizza, burritos, and a basket of popcorn.

Here we are at the end of the night, before falling asleep in our warm hotel room, with confetti still stuck to us.

Our own private concert on new year's eve - the owner of the hostel where we were staying was very friendly and played us several songs on this chinese instrument before going to get his violin to play a few more.
Sorry, you gotta tilt your head a little...

The Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai

2008-01-05T19:08:00.000+08:00

The Shanghai Aquarium

2008-01-05T18:55:00.000+08:00

Shanghai Streets - Crowded with people and neon lights.

2008-01-05T18:11:00.000+08:00

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-26T22:21:00.000+08:00

right now we are in shanghai. we are having a great vacation so far! the first few days we both admitted to feelings of anxiety - coming here from mongolia is a little overwhelming - there are endless options for food, shopping, things to do, and there are tons of people everywhere! the typical amount of people walking around (or riding bikes) is equivalent to the crowd you wade through leaving a stadium after a big football game. And its everywhere, all of the time! Surprisingly, despite the fact that there a loads more people here than in Ulaanbaatar, they somehow manage to not to push us, touch us, or ram into us with their shoulders.

we've done a bit of sightseeing, but i have to say our main activity so far has been eating. we've eaten at pizza hut twice, and had something from mcdonalds every day. i've also had sushi twice! We have enjoyed having hot water in the bath whenever we want, and most days have taken 2 showers! The beds are comfy, and the electricity doesn't go out. one of the best things is the weather. we wear jackets, but don't need the longjohns, mittens, scarves and hats.

so here is a list of some of the things we have enjoyed since arriving that we haven't had in over a year:
- a swimming pool
- reading lamps
- riding the subway
- parmasean cheese
- pizza hut
- cheesecake
- potato chips
- oreos
- fish fry
- shopping malls

Photos will come later, probably after we get back home. We are here until Sunday, and then we will take the train up to Beijing. We are excited to see the great wall of china. We will fly from beijing to ulaanbaatar on the following Saturday.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season at home. Our Christmas day activities included visiting the aquarium, some shopping, going to dinner at a pub (fish fry!) enjoying some live music and then going to a nightclub (really busy for a tuesday night) for some dancing. Nothing like christmases past, but unforgettable all the same.

I get no respect

2007-12-21T18:02:00.000+08:00

CM - So, I have wonderful students. See below the report some of my students turned in about a music survey they did of teachers. Don't laugh. It is not funny.

Grade8 - REPORT
Made by Heechan, Hosoo, Batzorig
WARNING: This report is hardly made by grade 8. You are not allowed to copy it for your own profit.

From now on, here’s our report that we interviewed from many people.[Thank you for your help principle Ally(x) ,Ali(o)]

We interview about what types of music does the different teachers likes. We worked really hard. You sure you don’t sneer at us. Even though there is lot of mistakes in our report.

Let’s talk about our main issue now.

Interesting thing was that Clayton teacher and Jessica teacher answered exactly same when I asked ‘Which kind of music do you like?’ Both of them answered ‘All types! It was quiet interesting. I sure that they have same hobbies also. Our ugly Clayton teacher said he’s favorite singer is ‘Rage against the machine’ what a long name. Actually I don’t know who ! the heck they are.

Jessica teacher said her favorite singer is ‘Javhlan, Christina Aguilera. They have different idol! Kkkk that’s interesting.

Now it is time to talk about interview with Principle Ali. He likes classical music for a best. And he’s favorite singer was ‘javhlan’ I also know him because I could hear he’s song everywhere in Mongolia. He’s song is quiet famous, right?

Next is our ICT teacher. He’s favorite type of music was POP and folk. Actually I don’t know what is folk music. Ugly Clayton teacher, do you know much thing about them? He’s favorite singer was POP singer.
He didn’t tell us exact name.

And our last is Music teacher. Her favorite type of music was Jazz. Even though I don’t know what is Jazz I like it. Its name has dignity. And her favorite singer is Dian. I don’t know even that is man or woman.

Well! These things were about different types of muse that different teachers like.
Our report ends here! Bye!
1.December1,2007 Fin…

So, if you don't know who Javhlan is, check out his video below. He is THE MAN here in Mongolia. Jessica and I saw him live, and Jessica almost cried. I threw my panties onstage.

Another box of gifts from Friends back Home!

2007-12-15T18:39:00.000+08:00

Wednesday we received a box from our friends Wyatt and Laura. Along with some great things for us, they sent medicine, crayons, hats and gloves for the kids at my volunteer job. I added them to the items my students collected, and I am sure they will all get used very soon. A big thank you to both of them for their help!!! They also sent me the Rudolph movie, which my second and third grade students LOVED. Thanks for helping us spread a little Christmas cheer here, in more ways than one.

A Meaningful Way to End the Semester

2007-12-14T17:01:00.000+08:00

About halfway through the first semester I talked with my 10th grade English class about the living conditions for people in Mongolia. Over 36% of the population here live below the poverty line. I suggested the idea of raising money for a charitable organization, and they were interested. I set our goal at $300 and 200 items. They brought things from home, and gave money from their wallets. We also had a very successful raffle, the first in our school, and raised a good amount of money from that. Today was the deadline, and we took a field trip to hand over the items and monetary gift.

We decided to give our gifts to the Christina Nobel's Children Foundation, as I already know the people there and could make logistics of a visit easier. Today we got to visit their main office and learn about what they do, and then took a trip to their Ger Village, to see some of the kids and see where gifts like ours are put to use.

Here are the grade 10 students in their classroom, surrounding the chart I made to keep track of our progress. On half was for money, the other side was for items. At the top it says "PARTY" as I promised them if we met the goals by the deadline, we would have a party to celebrate. We'll have a pizza party next thursday.

Here's the class president handing over our $300 to the Director of CNCF.

Here are some of the kindergarten students decorating their classroom for New Year's/Christmas. They all have sad histories. The little one in the white shirt was being forced to eat poison tablets by her mother. The grandmother brought her to CNCF.

Here is the whole class with Ozkan, their homeroom teacher, and Mr. Thornton outside the visitor's ger. Hopefully our fundraising project and our visit to the Ger Village will have an effect on some of the students and they will continue to try to help their fellow Mongolians in the future.

Christmas and Beyond

2007-12-09T09:55:00.000+08:00

On December 22 we will be heading to China for our 2 week christmas break. We are going to Shanghai for the first half, and then to Beijing. They don't really celebrate Christmas there either, but at least the weather will be warmer. Right now here its minus 13 degrees and in Shanghai its 55 degrees! That sounds just right to me. We can't wait. It will be great to do some sightseeing and eat western food for a while. And sleep in a comfy hotel bed, and have hot water whenever we want it (for the past 2 or 3 weeks here our hot water has become a scarce resource).

So, many of you are on our christmas list. We weren't able to find a cheap way to send things home from here, so we are bringing your gifts to china with us and will ship them from there, where it will be much faster and cheaper. This means you should be expecting something in January.

Our one year anniversary for living in Mongolia has come and gone, and now we have only 6 months left until our new contracts expire. We are now in the exciting process of planning out where we head to next. There is an internship possibility for Clayt at Mercy Corps which would keep us here through most of the summer, but we have no idea whether or not that will happen. We have been contacting people we know to help find us some work in Central or South America. One of Clayt's contacts (a man who was the translator for his group when he was doing research in the Dominican Republic) works at a school there now and said if we sent my resume to him he would pass it along with a high recommendation. So we did that, and hopefully we will hear something soon. It would be great to get things squared away early so we can plan out everything else. We are hoping to be home for a few months to visit everyone, regardless of which jobs we end up taking.

Now people here (our bosses and coworkers) have been asking whether we will be staying here, and when we say no, they want to know why. Oh, the list of reasons is very VERY long, but we tell them just the main reason. Clayton doesn't want to be a teacher. He has enjoyed it, but its time to move on to a place where he can continue working toward a career he is interested in. This means getting international experience working for an NGO or other development organization, and becoming fluent in a second language. He has to get his hands dirty in his field of work before he can be sure of getting a good job back home. And who knows? If we find a place we really love, we may become expats indefinitely!

Happy Thanksgiving, and other stuff!

2007-11-26T09:59:00.000+08:00

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?

2007-11-14T19:02:00.000+08:00

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

2007-11-12T19:44:00.000+08:00

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...

2007-11-04T22:03:00.000+08:00

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)......

A nice start to Autumn Break

2007-10-28T10:03:00.000+08:00

Friday was the last day of school for the first term. Now we have a week of vacation before the start of the second term. Friday during lunch we had a Halloween party for the little kids, and had fun. We played "Pin the pumpkin head on the headless horseman", listened to halloween music, ate lots of candy and played a game that involved popping lots of balloons. Here is clayt in his costume.

Then on saturday we had a teachers' picnic. We went to a really nice location in a valley with an old monastery up the hill. It was really cold however, and even snowed a little. Here are some of the photos from the day.

In the picture below you can see the ruins of where the old monastery once stood. The guide told us it was one of the many monasteries destroyed when the communist regime began.

A Big Thank You!

2007-10-19T16:59:00.000+08:00

We just wanted to write a quick post to tell you about what a great week we had. Within 2 days we received 3 packages from home! They were full of medicine, treats and supplies for the children at Christina Nobel's Children Foundation. I took the gifts into their office on Wednesday afternoon, and the director was really appreciative. He said gifts like the ones our friends were sending were always welcome and always put to good use. So thank you so much!

Thank you Kristi Miller for almost 40 children's story books and kids winter attire, among other things!
Thank you John and Vicki Kotlar for a wide variety of kids medicines, fever reducers, and school supplies!
Thank you Kim Hayes and Dave Pollard for the Stickers, food, fun halloween stuff and other various items!

The things you sent will help some homeless children have a healthier winter (physically and mentally)!

A good thing to know also is that things now arrive here more quickly. At least one of the packages sent took less than 2 weeks!

Getting back to Winter Time

2007-10-14T20:20:00.000+08:00

So now its cold here. Not extremely cold, but cold enough for the coat, hat, gloves and scarf. Only 2 weeks left until Fall Break, a week of no classes.

So things haven't been so exciting here lately, but we've snapped a few photos here and there, and thought we show you some of the more ordinary (?) things we see.

This is a building that is being built right behind our apartment. We were so excited that it didn't come any higher, but were rather disappointed when we saw the color they chose to paint it...

And speaking of paint... the whole building is being painted by these two guys with their little roller brushes! Notice one false step and there is nothing to stop them from falling all the way down...

This is one of the more famous buildings in the city here. This is The Wrestling Palace. Its where big concerts take place as well as of course wrestling tournaments. We don't really think its looks live up to its grand title.

Read the fine print inside the bubble. They don't want to held accountable for false claims.

We like their choice of words for this ad. "Inevitable." You can't avoid it. Just hand over your money, its going to happen sooner or later apparently.

This is the oh so pretty view we see as we walk to the grocery store. Notice you can see 4 construction cranes in the shot. This city is growing and springing up new buildings all around us at an amazing pace.

This is my third grade class this year. Aren't they cute? Please admire the nice way I decorated their board with the colorful paper Josh and Char Maring sent us...

And this is the second grade class this year - just as much little devils as they were last year...

Count Your Blessings

2007-10-01T19:48:00.002+08:00

You know, sometimes we forget to mention all the nice things about living here in Mongolia. Some perks of living here?
-- hardly ever being stuck in traffic - we walk everywhere!
-- no junk mail, ever
-- no tele-marketer phone calls, ever
-- a city apartment with a clear view of the mountains
-- interacting with real live nomadic herders - some of the last in the world!
-- never getting asked for ID at the store or bar
-- getting almost anywhere in the city by taxi for under 2 dollars
-- very cheap meat (ground beef at the fancy store costs 3 dollars for 2 pounds)
-- DVDs for $2.50 (new releases!)
-- several grocery stores nearby - no need to get in the car and drive at all.
-- not seeing or hearing anything about the political campaigns back home.
-- a new appreciation for the small comforts in life.
-- learning how to live simply and within our means (the meaning of "need" has changed a lot for us I think).

Only 3 weeks left in the term before fall break. We are counting down the days. Sometimes its really difficult to teach at our school - imagine teaching a bunch of really rich spoiled teenagers at a school where there are no discipline procedures and none of them can fail. It's not easy. :)

Back to the Grind

2007-09-30T21:49:00.000+08:00

And so summer is over and we are in the middle of the first term of the school year. I'm teaching grades 2, 3 10 and TOEFL. Clayt has grades 7,8,9 and 11. He's teaching 24 hours a week, and I'm teaching 32. Things seem to be going well so far. Last weekend we had a picnic with the younger students. It was a good time in general. Here's some pictures of the kids.

This is Mandy and Delgerchimeg, playing house.

Some of my wild 3rd grade boys. One of them later put a sharp stick into a hole at the bottom of the slide so it would stick into whoever came down the slide next.

A close up of one of my third graders, Munkhkhuslen.

On a different note, thanks so much to all of you who sent packages, called or sent emails for my birthday. It really helped make the day special. Clayt and I went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, and then got harassed by a taxi driver yet again. He wanted 3 times the fair amount, and when clayt offered a compromise, he tried to drive away with Clayt still in the car. So, clayt had to get out while the car was trying to peel out of the parking area.

For those we unintentionally left in the dark - we are no longer pursuing service with the Peace Corps. We received a nomination a while back, and were told it would be for spring of 2008, somewhere in Asia. We would both be English teachers. Clayt had been offered an internship at Mercy Corps here at around the same time. He figured that the opportunities offered working for Mercy Corps were more related to his career goals than teaching english for 2 years (after already teaching here for a year and a half). As for me, I can teach English practically anywhere, so I'm easy to please. So, after we finish up here in June of next year, the sky is the limit!

Here's another photo. This one is of 2 of the people that live in the little room downstairs. They are the sisters of the mother of the kids that come up and play with us sometimes. The one on the left is 17 and the one on the right is 24. And both look incredibly short when standing next to Clayt or me. They were really happy about having their photos taken.

and by the way - its getting really cold now. we're wearing winter coats and scarves already. aren't you jealous?

Marmot Plague! Say It Ain't So!

2007-09-17T21:41:00.000+08:00

Well I am sorry to inform you, boys and girls, but the vicious marmot of doom has again reared his ugly head in Mongolia. That cunning creature has sprung bubonic plague upon three unsuspecting Mongolians in Gobi-Sumber Aimag (yep, we went there, but missed the plague. Also barely missed anthrax in Arhangai - bovine bastards). I tried to get ahold of our illustrious President Bush - finally, the mystery is solved. Saddam gave his weapons to the wildlife of Mongolia... and they are trying to take the land back. Really. Send the troops. Mongolia is a proud member of the coalition of the willing. You can't turn your backs on us.

But really, there has been an outbreak. There is a quarantine in effect. If it hits the news, I'll post it.

Garbage Post

2007-09-08T13:07:00.000+08:00

Here are some quick notes that maybe didn't all deserve their own post:

1. That Russian jeep ride was way more surreal than we had described it. Take a look at this picture again. We load into this Russian Jeep that we happened to find in the middle of nowhere after our jeep broke down. Believe it or not, the first thing I noticed was not the lipstick on my fellow passenger; it was the van interior. It had been fitted with sky blue leather with black studs. Also notice what I can only guess is cheetah print on the seats and the blue curtains that filtered all light coming in an eery, dull blue daylight, palpable in the dust blowing everywhere (like one of those movies shot with a filter - think Traffic. So, we are sitting backwards, watching the rocky and desolate landscape of Western Mongolia fly by at 120 km/hr with the car radio cracked in and out (traditional Mongolian warbling) as it bounced on the floor between the driver and front passenger, complete with its own car battery. Add to this the Bowie-esque character, sitting quietly in flannel and ravishing red lipstick, exchanging furtive glances with us. If that all weren't enough, the driver stopped the van, opened the console serving as an armrest between him and the passenger to expose the running engine sputtering inside the cabin. He added some oil as it ran, then shut the lid and hit the gas. I don't know when I've felt more out of touch with reality while actually being present and lucent in it.

2. ANTHRAX. One of our first stops was in the ancient capital of Mongolia - Kharkhorin. We were supposed to go see the veterinarian here, but he had been called to a nearby soum because of an anthrax outbreak. A quarantine was soon established, but we were already on the road. I haven't been that close to a verified anthrax threat since we lived in Capital Hill.

3. Our milk is better than your milk! Here is one of the additions some bold young chinese exec in the marketing department decided to add to our carton. If it is good enough for the chinese cosmonauts, I guess it is good enough for us...

4. Real Business Challenges. When interviewing businesses and herders in rural Mongolia, I asked each participant what are the biggest challenges they face in operating their businesses. One herder said, as if it were perfectly natural, "wolves, eagles, and thieves."

Info From Our Perspective

2007-08-30T18:21:00.000+08:00

Recently my sister asked to interview me for a paper she is writing for a college course. She had to interview someone that has lived in a foreign country. After Clayt and I answered her questions, we thought maybe all of you might also be interested in the information we gave her. I didn't include her questions, as I think they are self explanatory from the answers below.

1. I am spending time in MG to teach English. Also to work a volunteer job (teaching english also). Basically I wanted to improve my teaching skills in various settings and get overseas experience (good for the resume!), along with helping people who might otherwise not get help.

2. There are so many differences between home and MG, where do i begin???
a. greetings: people here greet each other with a "how are you", "how are your cattle doing", or "how is your summer" (etc.)
b. courtesies: there is a mentality of serve yourself here, people will cut you in line, or push you to get on the bus. However, if anyone bumps or steps on your foot, they will immediately shake you hand, even if its during a basketball game!
c. Religion and morals are mostly from Buddhism and Shamanism, also the Soviet period has influenced their opinions about many issues.
d. Family is very important here. One of the interesting things we see is family members often smell each other instead of kiss (I mean, it looks like a kiss by the cheek or ear, but they don't give a kiss, they just inhale deeply). Scent is something special to them. Also, its the most important social unit here. Most of their relationships are based on family or who someone in the family knows. Outsiders are not easily trusted.
e. Entertainment: This varies alot depending on if you are in the country or in the city. For city folks, there are bars (drinking Vodka is a real problem here), nightclubs, a movie theatre, and Karaoke. People here really love Karaoke. In the country where there is seldom even electricity, the traditional Mongolian sports are the most popular form of entertainment - Wrestling, Archery and Horseracing (but drinking is a big problem there too).
f. Dress: you see a good mix of western clothing and traditional MG clothing in both the city and country. Traditional clothing is called a Deel (but pronounced like Dell) and its a robe type garment worn with a very long sash around the middle. In the winter they are lined with sheep wool for warmth. The sash is worn to prevent motion sickness and bruising from horseback riding. The clothing they wear today is in the same style that it has been worn for the past 800 years.
g. Attitudes toward work: this one can be frustrating for westerners. Mongolia was under Soviet control for most of the 20th century, and therefore some (or lots) of people in the city do not yet have an entrepreneurial attitude. There isn't really a concept of "the customer is always right" which we enjoy at home. However in the country I would say that life and work are not separate - you work to live, to survive. People in the countryside live off of what they can produce from their livestock.

3. The climate here is first of all really arid. In the winter it can get down to minus 40, and in this past summer we had some days up in the 90s. The summers are great, low humidity which keeps it cool in the shade and hot in the sun. Winter is by far the longest season, from October to about March. Spring, Summer and Fall are crammed into the other few months. Also, Mongolia is really sunny, with well over 300 days of sunshine a year.

4. Topography: Lots and lots of mountains! Biggest mountains in the west, flat grasslands called Steppe in the east, and the Gobi in the south. Mountains in the northern part (Khenti Mountains) are some of the oldest on the planet. Only .76% of the land is arable. There are also less than 2 people per square mile (its has the lowest population density in the world).

5. Political Ideology: (i copied this from the cia factbook since i can't say much) blend of Soviet, German, and US systems that combine "continental" or "civil" code and case-precedent; constitution ambiguous on judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction. Basically I know its a kind of democracy, but has a lot of corruption on many levels.

6. Live Here?: I have enjoyed my time here so far, but I would not like to move here long term. There are a few reasons for this, but mainly because it is a third world country. The health care is bad, the pollution is bad, the public services are bad. Life expectancy is low, infant mortality is high. The food is NOT good! :)

7. Other Countries Visited: I have visited Guatemala, Canada, Turkey, Thailand and China. I would say MG is the least developed country I have been to. Turkey had the best food. :) China is similar in several ways to MG, but they are definitely more developed - western chains of food and products, sky scrapers, comforts of modern life. Thailand is also really developed thanks to their tourism industry. You know about canada. :) Guatemala also had some severe poverty, but it just didn't seem as bad as in MG. At least they had the sea nearby and a tropical climate suitable for farming.

8. How Many Foreigners: I'm not sure how many other foreign visitors are here. In the summertime we see a good amount of foreigners, all tourists. Mongolia is a popular destination for folks who love nature, hiking, fly fishing and other outdoorsy activities, as long as they don't mind roughing it. The rest of the year however, there are hardly any foreigners. Those we see are other teachers or businessmen, investors (there are mining companies here), etc.

9. The mongolian home: The typical mongolian home is called a Ger (rhymes with hair), which is like a sturdy and cozy tent. It is circular with a wooden floor (only dirt in the summer), lattice wall, and 2 posts in the center for support. The outside covering is made of layers of felt, animal skins, and canvas. Beds line the inside wall along with traditional furniture (chests and shelves for holding everything), and the stove is in the middle with a pipe going up and out a hole in the top of the ger. The stove is heated with either dried animal dung, coal, or wood of any kind (bark, shrub branches, etc.). There is no indoor plumbing, and water for drinking, cooking and bathing has to be fetched either from a river or (if no river is nearby) the closest well (which is sometimes miles away). There is usually a small buddhist shrine on one of the pieces of furniture. They like to decorate the walls with many photos of family members, along with pictures of horses, famous mongolian singers, sumo wrestlers, Korean actors, etc. Their Ger is their living room, bedroom kitchen and washroom all in one. There is not the luxury of privacy, and many times people live with their extended family, grouping their Gers close to one another, like neighbors. ( think like our week up at the islands, where we all run in and out of all the cabins) Many of the Mongolian customs come from living in this type of home.

10. Wealthy or Poor?: On the UN Human Development Index, MG rates 116 out of 177 countries (thats not so good, as 1 is best). Mongolia is a very poor country. I'm probably not the best person to answer why. From what I can see (and getting clayt's opinion): the biggest reason is the harsh climate. So much of life here depends on herding and the nomadic lifestyle, yet the climate really hurts their efforts. They have a word here "ZUD" which basically means a dry summer followed by a harsh winter, resulting in the death of most of their livestock. If you experience a ZUD, then your food and income vanishes literally overnight. With no food, no money and no livestock, people are forced to move into the city to look for work. Also because of the long soviet rule, MG was a late entry to the market economy system. There is no market for or investments in industry, with China so close where everything is cheaper. There is poor infrastructure and few natural resources. The few natural resources they have are extracted by foreign companies with little money staying in MG due to greed of foreign investors and corruption in the MG government.

A Blast from the Past

2007-08-22T16:57:00.000+08:00

Here is a short video shot on the last day of the All Good Festival, which we went to last summer with Paul and Tia. Marvel at Clayt's brute strength as he wows the crowd.

Who says a payment services professionals don't have hearts?

2007-08-20T20:14:00.000+08:00

C&J- We recently received a package from our friends at ICBA Bancard (my former employer) containing things to help out in the kids here (as well as a few goodies for Jessica and I, which we very much appreciate). There were school supplies, toys, pain killers, vitamins, craft supplies, and other things I am probably forgetting. It took us some time to get it from the post office. The conversation went something like this:

me: "here is all the information, can you look to see if this package is here?"
lethargic mongolian postal slacker: [barely looking up] "no"
me: "can you look?"
lmps: "we don't have it"
me: "it has been three months. it should be here."
lmps: [still not moving a muscle to look through the antiquated log book] "we don't have it"
[at this point an english speaking mongolian woman intervened on our behalf]
lmps: "no"

At this point we are about to leave when, lo and behold, the package appears out of the back room. As usual, the postal slacker offered no explanation, apology, or friendly banter about our previous exchange. He just sent us over to customs.

We decided to take the items to Mongolian office of Christina Noble Children's Foundation, where Jessica volunteers. You can get more information from the website, but, in a nutshell, this is one of the most respected organizations here helping orphans, street kids, incarcerated kids, and poor families. The director already had a lot of ideas for the items all of you at ICBA donated. The organization goes out at night with a van to provide food, medical attention, and a warm place to stay to street kids - if only for a night. Apparently a lot of these kids have been complaining of headaches but the organization hasn't had any pain killers. Now they do. Also, they have kids that are awaiting surgery and will really benefit from those vitamins before and after their operations. The foundation serves about 5,000 kids here, so even with the generous number of toys sent, it isn't enough to stretch. However, in a few weeks the foundation will hold a week-long event for the kids, including recitals and singing as well as sports, art, and writing competitions. The toys sent will be used as prizes to reward the kids for their hard work and preparation.

This organization really does good work here and does everything they can to provide quality services to the kids here. Take a look at the website and see how your generosity is paying dividends half-way around the world. Again, thank you to everyone at ICBA. We'll take some pictures at the children's event and put them up here for everyone to see. Also, thank you to everyone else who has sent things for us, and for others here in Mongolia. We appreciate it, and we're lucky to have friends and family like all of you (or friends of friends, or just random readers, I guess).

Bayan Ooooooolgi...

2007-08-19T16:52:00.000+08:00

Clayton and I should have T-shirts made. They would say, "We went to Bayan Olgi and all we got was a stomach virus." We arrived in Olgi on Saturday night. We decided to check out the town on Sunday, and then we would head out for some hiking and camping on Monday. On Sunday evening though, Clayton made the terrible mistake of taking the invitation of a group of little kids to play some basketball. Next thing you know we're inside their home drinking airag and eating homemade soup. Actually, all of it was really fun and interesting, except the Airag. Clayton had to take a time out on the way home to purge, and then couldn't stop for the next 4 hours and felt ill the whole next day. Unfortunately, that evening I got sick also and then we were in trouble. With both of us feeling not so up to speed, our plans of camping were close to impossible.

We decided to take just a day trip, so that our entire time there wasn't wasted. We knew we wouldn't get another chance to visit this place, and it had been one we had wanted to see since we came to Mongolia.

So in our short time in Olgi we saw a few interesting things. We visited 2 families that hunt with birds - eagle and falcon. We also got to check out some old turkik carved stones from the 6-10th centuries way out in the middle of nowhere. We did some sightseeing around town as well.

Out in these parts you're more likely to see hawks than pigeons. This is a gaggle of them we saw hanging around a garbage dumpster that apparently had something fresh in it.

Now I can say I've actually seen people riding things like this around. I think four out of 5 we saw had "facial flair" - crazy mustaches of some sort seem to be a prerequisite for driving this kind of automobile.

This is a view from a little island in the middle of the river just outside of town. We had to take off our shoes and walk through the FREEZING cold river to get here.

We went to the town market on the day it was closed. It was a labyrinth of metal and wood stalls boarded up, but down one aisle we saw some people sorting through their goods - lots and lots of bright yarn.

This is a man we met that is a traditional Khazakh hunter - they hunt for food with trained eagles. They take them from the nest when they are babies and begin training them when they are one year old.

This is my favorite photo from the trip, a close up of the man and the bird - both looking impressive!

Here is part of the group of kids that came out to see us as we looked at the bird. They stared a lot, smiled a little, and each one shook our hands!

Here's Clayt with one of the Turkik stones. We hired a driver who took us out to see this. Its amazing to see something so old and historic just out in the open with nothing around for miles. Actually, one little boy did ride by on his horse, but he only stuck around for a few minutes.

We stopped outside another family's home and people literally came running out to see us. They had 2 falcons, and everyone gathered around to watch us take photos of them. Its strange to feel like such a spectacle. We couldn't talk to them as we don't speak Khazakh, so all we could do is smile at them as they stared.

These two enjoyed our reaction as they perched the falcons on their bare hands, and even posed for a photo for us.

Seeing that we enjoyed his falcons, this guy went behind the wall and popped back up with a big eagle on his arm! I wonder if that made the falcons nervous...

And here is our last view of Bayan Olgi from the airplane - these snow capped mountains are some of the tallest mountains in Mongolia.

2 little random notes - It was interesting (more like a little scary) to take off from a dirt runway in a prop-jet airplane. It was also interesting (more like actually interesting) to hear the muslim call to prayers while we were in Olgi.

10 Dollars well spent? You decide.

2007-08-19T14:50:00.000+08:00

J- After our 8 days in Khovd we wanted to visit Bayan Olgi, which we were told was a very bumpy six hour drive away. If we wanted to rent our own jeep and driver, it would have cost over 200 dollars. So, we found a jeep that was leaving on the day we wanted (actually, someone found the jeep for us, and made the arrangements) for just 10 dollars each. The price was right! We were told to be at the jeep at 2 pm. We got there at 1:30 to make sure it didn't leave without us. We sat on the sidewalk in the shade nearby until 3:30.

When we got in the jeep, it was us and one other guy besides the driver. After a few in-town stops, we were on our way at 4pm with 8 adults and 2 children in the car. This was not a van or SUV, it was a Russian, no frills, basic-as-you-can-get jeep. There were 5 of us in the back - Clayton sat in the middle seat and I sat on his lap where I could not sit up straight, but had to hunch over for the whole 6 hours to avoid smashing my head on the car ceiling every other minute.

5 of the people in the car were moving to Khazakhstan, and so had brought a good amount of belongings with them. The man sitting to the left of us had one big box on the floor between his legs, and another on his lap. In the trunk were our suitcases, sleeping bags, a few other duffle bags, and about 7 sacks of various produce, mostly potatoes, onions and mellons. To our right was an old couple. The old man was so happy to talk to us (in Mongolian, so we were clueless mostly) and chain smoke for most of the ride. The one baby in the front seat went between sleep, crying and vomiting quite a bit. There was no leg room, no elbow room, nothing! I can imagine that we actually really looked like packed sardines in there if someone saw us from the outside!

Now, on top of all that, imagine driving over the bumpiest terrain you can imagine in a crappy jeep that has no air conditioning in 90 degree weather and only 3 small windows. On top of that add the smell of exhaust and dust that chokes you and coats everything inside . We stopped every now and then thankfully and we made it to Olgi by 10pm. It was dark by the time we got there, so I took out our little book light to use as a flashlight. The old guy we were riding with was so impressed by it he pulled out (the equivalent of) 5 dollars from his wallet and wanted to buy it from us right then! I have to say, its pretty awesome as far as book lights go. We really wanted to give it to him as he would use it more than us, but it was our only light source and we would need it if we were going to go camping while we were there. I hated saying no. So, if any of you are thinking about sending things, apparently little book lights would be a big hit!

We don't recommend the jeep ride. We were supposed to take a jeep back to Khovd a few days later and then fly back to UB from there, but after the experience we decided to just fly straight back rather than abuse our bodies any more than we already had. Changing our tickets cost us only 17 dollars.

Photo of the jeep below at one of our pit-stops.

A Scenic Tour of Khovd

2007-08-17T21:17:00.000+08:00

Well, maybe not the prettiest picture to start a scenic tour with, but at least an interesting one. This is stacked dry fuel patties that families use for heating their stove and ger. They hand make it by taking waste coal (coal crumbs and ash) and mixing it with what our translator calls "fecals." The result is something that is less harmful that pure coal, cheaper, and burns odorlessly.

One family we visited had 2 cute baby goats that were running all over the place. During the interview, one even hopped inside the ger and started to eat the tablecloth covering a small table in the corner. This one we saw outside just before we left. It hopped onto the pile of linens seen in the picture and proceeded to produce "fecals" of his own.

Like all good summertime cookouts, there has to be at least 2 people manning the grill. In this case, our grill was a metal milk crate filled with sheep meat, carrots, potatoes, water, salt and very hot rocks. "Khorkhog" - our favorite mongolian food!

One of the before mentioned "Sleepy Towns."

Here I am along the main river right outside of the Aimag center where we had the khorkhog picnic.

This is Mr. Batsukh with Clayton. Mr. Batsukh was our guide throughout Khovd, and was a real people person. Even though we couldn't communicate very well, he seemed to like us and the feeling was mutual.

At least we can end this post with a nice view. In Khovd we saw small town after small town, and one beautiful landscape after another. - the places we saw and the people we met - it was a trip where we exercised a full range of emotions, to say the least.

Airport Delay

2007-08-17T20:51:00.000+08:00

The start of our trip out to Khovd was delayed by about 35 minutes as they shut down the entire airport about 20 minutes before we were supposed to board. The reason? The Emir of Kuwait was in Mongolia, and his flight had to leave first. So, we got to watch the excitement from inside the airport. At first there was just the airplane, with a rolled out red carpet which 2 women were repeatedly dusting off with little brushes. Then, a troupe of fancy black cars sped into view and pulled up in front of the airplane. And, here is one of the many, many, not-that-exciting photos we got of the action. We aren't sure which one is the Emir, any of you recognize him? :) All of the excitement was over in less than 10 minutes. I wonder what the Emir of Kuwait thinks of Mongolia....?

Western Mongolia: Do you hear an echo...echo...echo...

2007-08-13T12:59:00.000+08:00

(Here is Clayt conducting one of the many interviews where we went to a Ger, only to find out the man of the house was out herding, so we went out in search of him, and somehow found him! You can just see clayt near the back of the jeep, sitting and conducting research. You can click on photos for a larger view.)

So, I am writing this blog post from the aimag center of Bayan-Olgi, a town called Olgii. Its pretty interesting here. The roads are paved (well the 4 roads they have, that is) and most of the population is Khazakh, or some mix of Khazakh/Mongolian. Its strange to us to walk around and see very few Ger homes and nobody wearing Dells. It makes communicating a little tough, as you aren't sure if you should try to speak Mongolian, English, Russian or Khazakh.

While we travelled around Khovd to different Soums (towns) we
stayed in all kinds of places. Our very first night we stayed in a small sleepy town (they were all small sleepy towns of varying size) where there was no hotel or even a Ger for us to sleep in. So, we spent the night in the Hospital bui
lding, which was under construction repairs. There were no beds, so we slept on the floor on some kind of bed pad things. I wasn't too pleased as I don't care for Mongolian hospitals in the first place... But it was fine. Clayton got sick from drinking Airag at a herder's home and I needed to get some water for him. We went to 3 different shops and not one had bottled water of any kind. Can you imagine a whole town that doesn't have drinkable water? They use the river of course, but I'm not sure if that would have hurt or helped his stomach more.

The next night we stayed in a big concrete Ger - me, clayt, the translator, our aimag guide and the driver - no privacy. Also, the ger top was completely open, and as we were close to the river, the whole place swarmed with mosquitos. We were told to make sure we wore bug spray to bed and stayed covered. In the very nice and very very warm sleeping bags we got from the marings a few chirstmases ago, it made for a sweaty and smelly night. Oh and the driver and guide? They had the worlds loudest and most confounding snore-fest that night - Clayt and I can only describe it as a mix between the sound of power tools and dying opera singers. :)

Then we got the treat of staying in a "hotel" that only had electricity controlled by a generator, so you had no control over when the lights were on or off. No indoor plumbing. They also had a disco bar downstairs that blared unnecessarily loud music until the wee hours on a Monday night.

The following night our accomodations were the town Kindergarten building, I think in a room that was used for "nap time." It had recently been painted, so in case we had trouble sleeping with the dogs barking outside, at least we could pass out from paint fumes... :)

The best place we stayed at was in the aimag center. They took us to a hotel which wanted to charge us $40 a night (which for here, is a ridiculous rip-off) for a room with 2 small twin beds, and no hot water. We said no way. So, our aimag guide found us a girl who had an apartment between renters and we stayed there for $10 a night. It was pretty sweet to have our own little place - no hot water, but we had a hot-pot/tea kettle thing and we made our own hot water. We had a little electric cooler in there too to keep our beers cold. Not bad!

Despite the various confusions, frustrations and dicomforts, there was so much that made it worthwhile. The people were so friendly, and of course the surroundings often left us speechless. The food is never that great, but on the upside we have both slimmed down a little. No complaints there!

Here is one of the pretty views from where Clayton was conducting an interview. It was fun to play photographer while he did his work.

This is the wife and sons of a family that have the best vegetable garden in all of Khovd Aimag - they are award winners! Their garden was full of delicious vegetables and pretty flowers.

2 kids that worked up the nerve to say hello to us early in the morning in a town in the southern part of Khovd. We took their picture, which they thought was really funny, and maybe a little embarassing. Everywhere we go, the little ones love to say Hello, and then either laugh or run away.

This photo Clayton took because its a hard thing to describe without a photo. This man sat across from us in a Russian van we had to take back to the aimag center after our jeep broke down - its transmission broke. Click on the photo to see more closely, but he is wearing very pinkinsh-red lipstick. This is the second time we have seen this, and it confounds us. Our translator theorized that it may be a chapstick substitute, since they don't have any chapstick out in these parts. Still, its a little unnerving when you look over and this guy is staring at you with his bright pink lips all aglow.

More fun details to come, from the comfort of our home in UB a few days from now (that is, if we survive flying out of here from an airport without a paved runway...!) :)