So, what's up with you?

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

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

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

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

So, on to more interesting brain fodder:

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

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

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

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