alright, now its really hot!

Okay, I just realized that my most recent entry is not in the correct format and I can't post it, but rest assured I will be back with the internet in two weeks and will ensure you are able to follow the crazy adventures of Brian in Mongolia...sorry about that, if it helps, I am annoyed too...this internet cafe is like a sauna, which is helping matters....
my site mates and I are off to see a monastery and camp out tonight, then back home for work, Mongolian and my attempt to please my family with my "exotic" cooking...I'll be in touch, cheerio

beginners blog

Hello to all of you, I should really try to apologize as you’ve not heard from in a very long time. There is so much I could ramble on about that surely you would bash the back button with great intent, so I’ll save some for another entry. Sincerely, being part of the peace corps is a 24 hour job, and being part of something which we hope will create more avenues for learning is quite fun, as long as you believe all the rhetoric that comes along with it. Which I am somewhat inclined to do. Maybe that’s me being too much of an optimist, but I need to see if development in the sustainable sense is a functional reality. Watch this space.

06/28/08

I had an interesting chat today with one of my fellow trainees; although it might not seem like what we are doing is going to have that much of effect, it’s possible that opening the eyes of one or two other people to something different is the key to this kind of work. You can’t help everyone, but you can make something seem more interesting and easier if said people are willing to explore other avenues of learning. I’ll get back to that idea in another entry but suffice to say, I am hoping I can offer another train of thought to those who want to work outside the proverbial “box”. I’m here to give people the benefit of the doubt, which doesn’t always seem to be a prevalent idea.

21/06/08

I’m sitting on the floor in my room in Javflant, which is about 4 and a half hours north of Ulaanbaatar. It’s raining and somewhat cool, but this is apparently a very good thing as more rain and sun= good harvest. Airraig will be in abundance! For those of you culturally unaware (shame on you), this is fermented mare’s milk, which tastes like cheese water but just happens to be around 3%. It’s pretty good but drinking more than one cup might induce gastrointestinal nuclear warfare, so moderation is key.

The rain is very much another key fixture here as the summer festival Nadaam (Festival of Manly Sports) is coming up in a couple weeks. During this time, wrestling, archery and horse riding are exercised on a grandiose scale. From what I’ve heard, Boatz (meat and onion mixture in dumplings), Airrag and Vodka are all prevalent. It should be quite a party, and it just so happens I will be back for it on my birthday. Before that I Darhan, a town with internet which is the main reason you are reading this. So think of me suffering in the hopefully warm sun being treated to dumplings and cheese water. It might be better to put this all in a bit of context actually; I am 45 minutes away from a town with internet and have to go back for training sessions, which just happen to coincide with everyone in my entire group being there, so there are a few social occasions and friendly chats to look forward to. After three months of language, culture and teacher training, I will be posted to site. Which one I don’t know, but a site nonetheless; more to follow on that as well. After having spent some time with my fellow Peace Corps M-19 trainees, I must admit I am unusually surprised at the amount of people who I enjoy being around. I sadly assumed being out of the USA for the last 5-6 years would make it a tad difficult to develop relationships but as you might know, assuming things about people is generally moronic. Being a genuinely easy person to get along with, this shouldn’t be a surprise but I am still amazed at how much we all seem to get along. I suppose group mentality takes over but suffice to say my colleagues both new to Mongolia and old are a diverse and interesting group of people. I have no doubt that this idea of education and “development” will become topics for several posts, if you’ve any comments on what you think I’m doing I would be happy to hear them, just keep them toned down; not doing so makes you and me look bad, so use commonsense.

Peace Corps regulations aside, I am supposed be trying to help teachers make better use of their English abilities, and I look forward to hopefully have in some input on curriculum development for Mongolia. At least, I think that’s what I am doing! An ambiguous description was given to me and I expect things to be somewhat of a learning experience from now on. So far, so good.

06/30/08

After spending a few days in San Francisco (sorry Hui and Jan, time was not our side, I’ll make it back that way again!) and a week of training in Darkhan, I’ve been in Javlfant for the last 4 weeks. After being in San Francisco for 2 days of training, through which we covered unimaginable amounts of information about being a foreigner in Mongolia and how to integrate in our communities. Peace Corps won’t allow me to make comments or full names of people, but I feel I owe some sort of debt to Jim in DC and Jim in Mongolia, who’ve been able to put a more practical twist on some of the theatrical training topics that have been covered.

Moving swiftly along, after sleeping in a Ger (circular Mongolian tent) on the first night we were rushed out to Darkhan, which was one week full of fairly boisterous socializing and rather intensive cultural and practical training. After inhaling Mongolian food, alcohol and various bits of information, my group of 60 some trainee volunteers had come to believe that in the first two weeks we were going to be:

A.) Seriously raped or molested , B.) Ripped to shreds by vicious dogs, C.) Suffer serious harm from drunks D.) Empty our entire body of all waste products from every potential orifice

Well, as you might not know but do now, I have not suffered from any of the above afflictions, other than having to scare off a few dogs who thought it might be fun to get too close…Other than scaring us, the training wasn’t too bad and it was nice to build some rapport with both traineers and trainees. Anyway, life here is just different and run on a different time scale, which is fine by me. I am enjoying the people, my trainee friends and the food has been quite nice, albeit a little on the salty or oily side at times. Thankfully my host family like Kimchi (spicy Korean cabbage), which makes things a little more flavorous. How I miss fruit though! If anyone wants to send anything, dried fruit would be wonderful. I’m not begging but would certainly enjoy it. I can give you my address but not right here, so email me if you are feeling generous and I’ll let you know the details.

Okay, this is what I going to try and do; divide the last couple weeks up and give an entry for each one, when you finally read this I will have returned from the city with internet, as where I am now simply doesn’t have it. Hopefully I will have all these entries by the end of July, sorry for not posting them here but it has been very busy and I‘ve just returned from a trainee vs. trainer dodge ball game, and am in need of a finally running water shower before I return to bathing with well water, soap and a large basin. I will be back in the city of internet at the end of July, so feel free to say hello and I’ll do what I can to reply then. I wouldn’t mind making a quick comment about the riots, although to be honest I haven’t read much on the internet or newspapers yet, but suffice to say it is the worst it has ever been...They’ve even banned sales of vodka, which certainly means things are bad. Naturally, it is possible to get around this, but what do you expect, that all underage people in the USA don’t drink?

hahahahaha

Anyway, hopefully this finds you well, I’ll do best to let you know what’s happening within the next month…ciao