Mongolia!!!

week two in mongolia is now complete.  The M24 group of peace corps volunteers (PCVs) arrived safely in Mongolia, toured Ulaanbaator, tripped to Darkhan for Orientation, and are now split up in different areas for our 3 month training while living with host families.  I am in a soum outside of Suhkbaator (about 10 miles from the Russian boarder) living with a family of five. 2 adults, 3 kids- ages 21, 16 and 15, with the eldest away at university.  Now that outlines the basic things, here is the fun stuff:

1. the welcome
We arrived in Ulaanbaator at about about an hour later at night then we were meant to be.  We had to get ourselves through customs before we would meet up with our country director, Darleen.  She met us right on the other side of the customs booths, and greeted us with a welcome face.  After the chaos of baggage claim and the overall relief that came as both my bags made it also safely to Mongolia, I left the area and walked into something fantastic.  A group of current Mongolia Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) were waiting, chanting, cheering welcoming me to their home. I got to walk through there manmade tunnel high-fiving and smiling to my hearts content. I felt so welcomed and I felt apart of something huge.

2. one of the coolest things that has happened to me.
Leaving the airport, we were shuttled down a dirt road in a bus with the most fantastic of curtains to a ger camp.  It was freezing outside and pitch black, but with the help of some flashlights, we found our way to a ger to sleep in.  After settling in, I was fast asleep.  Now if that wasnt a cool enough story right there, let me tell you the amazing part.  There are no windows in gers, but there are windows on the roof to vent the ger.  The sunlight came in through the roof of the ger about 5am, to which i awoke.  Being a tourist ger, complete with western bathroom, I got up to use the facilities and walked in to see one of the most amazing sights I have seen out the window (the bathroom had normal(to your standard) windows).  . We had no clue what was even around us when we arrived in the darkness, but we were surrounded by mountains and the most blue of blue skies.  There were hawks soaring about and horses grazing in the field behind...and in that moment that my eyes discovered my whereabouts, I knew I was in the right place.

3. toilets
squatty potties forever.  It is a little surprising that they dont smell that much.

4. mutton
whats this? oh. mutton. more mutton?  sure why not?  mutton. ya mutton. with a side of mutton.

5. more mutton.
yes, even more mutton.

6. Bow
a bow is like this bread pastry thing, kind of like maybe like a plain doughnut, but not really...but just these little cut up pieces of pastry.  Mongols leave these sitting out for weeks, and they just get hard over time.  Usually it takes quite the effort to break it apart and just leave the pieces soaking in your tea/coffee/hot milk until it cools enough for you to drink.  I tried this once, and after about ten minutes the bow was still hard as a rock.  I threw one to Bartok (the dog) the other day, and he couldn't eat it either.

6. initial host family awkwardness.
I am writing this after I have been here a few days, and me and my family are meshing more and more.  I can only speak random words, and cannot really communicate, but we are pushing through.  My host father is great, acts stuff out, and speaks in simple words...my host mother on the other hand is very rigid, acts nothing out and speaks in only sentences.  I have perfected my 'i understand' face though and just try to repeat what she says to me.

I gave my family some Kansas City bbq sauce, since it was local to my home state.  They tried it, but quite did not like it...but they keep using it with EVERYTHING.  In the soup, on these rice sushi roll things...pickle dipping sauce...EVERYTHING.  I keep telling them it is a sauce for meat, but it seems to be lost in translation.

my host brother, plays the guitar.  he and this guitar are inseprable.  it is kind of sweet.  He also put the como derby dames sticker I gave him on it.  It was touching.  I went with him on a photo adventure in suhkbaator.  we brought the guitar, of course, to photo with it.  we also brought a harmonica. we did not play these instruments, they were only for props.

my sister is pretty cool.  she has (just) a few english words in her pocket...like 'sheep,' 'horse,' 'name,' 'how are you'... and the ever suprising, 'present perfect.'  I was trying to tell her in broken Mongolian that Bartok  was asleep...which at my level, translated to 'Bartok sleep.'  Then she told me to use the present perfect.

7. cows.
cows and livestock roam the soum freely.  It is cool.  Ocassionally, when my family leaves the gate open to our yard and we turn our backs for a couple moments, some cows come in and start eating the yard.  It will never cease to make me smile when someone runs out with open arms to chase them out screaming in Mongolian.

8. the tupin
I have this wash basin, it is called a tupin.  it is for washing both me and my clothes.  I used to hate doing laundry...but clearly i didnt know how easy I had it before.  It takes some serious strength!!! My host mother has such technique.  lets just say the cloths she wrung out dried the same day...the clothes I wrung out took a couple days to dry.

9. Hapaa (Narah)
Narah is now my name at home. Apparently April was too hard for them to say, so they gave me a new one.  Naraa means 'sun' in Mongolian...so cool, whatever, I'm flexible.  The funny part of the story is that there is another PCV, Cody, that lives a block away from me, and we walk to school together.  My family can never remember his name, so they just call him April.  They dont seem to struggle saying it.

these are just a few cool things so far.  My soum has no internet access in it, so it is a bit of a half day trip to get somewhere that has it, so I will try to post when I can, but I might just try to keep a running blog post and post blogs when I can.
In the mean time, pc training has begun, and learning Mongolian is definitely hard.  There is a complete new alphabet with only! 22 vowel sounds and switched up consonants.  For example, an 'h' is an 'n' and a 'p' is an 'r' amoungst many others.  Reading is super tough. It is like being in kindergarden as an adult- so it is a little more frustrating, with no letter people and a time limit.   It seems like everyone has a different pronunciation for each word, but it is all definitely a cool process.   The school that i go to is about a 15 minute walk from my house, and it is so lovely to walk down the sandy dirt roads speckled with random dogs and livestock.  Children flock around us 'meriks' to say hi and whatever other english phrase they might know along the way, and it is fun to share the few mongolian phrases that i have in my pocket with them.

Oh.  Also.  I have an address and a phone number if anyone wants to write letters or text/call.  It doesnt cost me anything to receive texts or calls... and you can text for free through google voice.  For the phone number, you have to enter the (+) when dialing, and for the address you have to put both the english and mongolian version.

Phone number: +97694412694

Address for the next three months:

 (name)
Энх Тайвны Корпус
Тов шуудан
Шуудангийн хайрцаг 1036
Улаанбаатар 13
Монгол Улс 15160
Mongolia (via China)

(name), PCV
US Peace Corps
Central Post Office
Post Office Box 1036
Ulaanbaatar 13
Mongolia 15160 (via China)