Mission Impossible

This weekend I made the trek to the aimag center and later UB for dental work. I ended up grabbing a kilo of mozzarella and four packets of sliced cheese while I was there. I also got to see all the other Khentii M26’s which was nice, and we all went out to dinner the day before I left. Did I mention I got car sick 4-5 times on the ride to the aimag center? Friday I was offered some sort of warm milk beverage while taking photos of one of my coworkers classes. I took one sip and thought to myself, “Yeah, I’m going to be sick today.” It wasn’t pretty. On the plus side, I got some good pictures of the students.

I hitched a ride in the Peace Corps medical car after getting my flu shot and ended up in UB at around 5 PM. After grabbing dinner, I ran into Marrissa and Mary while heading back to my guest house. We ended up having dinner with a bunch of other M26’s and M25’s who were in UB for project reviews. The next few days were filled with lots of food, drinks, and shopping as I tried to enjoy my few days in the capital. I ended up having a fever most of the time which was annoying. On the plus side, I got to meet some new M25’s while I was there.

I have been told by one of my Mongolian friends who’s currently studying in New York there’s a shop you can buy 35mm film in UB. The State Department Store, PhotoMan, and a camera shop down Peace Ave all carried various film cameras, which made me assume buying film would be at least possible. Nope. The State Department Store only has film canisters for show, the camera shop flat out didn’t have any, and PhotoMan wouldn’t sell me the film they had. In a display case on the counter there were 5 rolls of expired film. When I asked how much they were, I was put on the phone with a random person who I assumed was the owner of the store. Our encounter went something like this:

Me: How much is the film in your display case?

Guy: You want to scan film?

Me: No, I’d like to buy the film in your store.

Guy: Oh! That film is expired, you can’t buy it! Haha.

Me: That’s okay, I’ll  buy it anyways. It’s okay that it’s expired.

Guy: Buy expired film? Hahaha, you can’t do that. It isn’t for sale! It’s expired!

Me: …

I was throwing money at this guy and he didn’t seem interested. This couldn’t have been an easier sale for him but he didn’t seem to think the film was worth anything. You can still shoot expired film and usually get some pretty interesting photos with it. Luckily, Sandra, an M25 CYD’er, is heading back to the States in November and she offered to pick me up some rolls. God bless her soul.

My experience with the dentist the following morning was interesting. I’ve heard a variety of stories from other PCV’s about what their experience was like with the dentist here and wanted to make sure I had all the info I needed before having work done. It was a slight struggle, but ended up getting exactly what I wanted done in the end. I’m really happy with the way it turned out and my tooth feels good as new.

The real adventure started once I was on my way home. As I’ve mentioned before, I got a cat from another volunteer. I’d be taking him on the three and a half hour ride on dirt roads back to my soum that night and was worried how both he and the Mongolians driving me back would act. I tried to stuffed Mission into my messenger bag which he didn’t like it. I ended up having to put him in a box stuffed with towels and treats. Caleb was nice enough to help me carry all my stuff out the car which subsequently never showed. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. We retreated back to the apartment to avoid the rain and I was eventually found by my schools training manager. I held mission in my lap once we got in the car and he was great aside from a few freak outs. He’s now happily sitting in my lap and seems to be adjusting well.

Hey! Here are some quotes from this weekend:

Dylan: “How do you actually flush your toilet? Because I think I pushed the lever into the tank. It’s now broken.”

Caleb: “Dylan, you’re drunk.”

Dylan: “Who’s wine is this? It’s mine now.”

And now onto photos.

It’s Been One Week

Today marked the end of my first week at school with classes starting on September 1 countrywide. The first day of school is a big deal in Mongolian with everyone dressing in their best clothes, singing songs, and giving speeches in honor of the new school year. The day before school started, my soum had a sort of “mini-Naadam” with horse racing, wrestling, and awards from the previous year.

I got up at 9 on Monday to be whisked off to the countryside for a horse race which started at 10:30. One of my counterparts told me 17 horses ran in last years race and this year there would be over 30. The race was 10km long and started far outside of town. I was in a car with 3 random children, my CP driving, the school’s music teacher, and a dad of one of the students in the race. Once we had arrived to the starting line, I saw a lone red house off in the distance which I wanted to take a picture of. Not all the horses had gotten to the starting line yet so I figured I’d have a few minutes before the race got going. About a 30 seconds into walking towards the red house I heard a bunch of yelling and the horses rumbled off. I had to awkwardly run back to the car hopping over the tall grass and desert shrubs so we could catch up with the horses.

Many families had driven to the starting line in their cars and on motorcycles to follow the race. Family members drive very close alongside their children so they can yell out different strategies to them. No pressure, of course. While I was fortunate to have a window seat which was nice for taking photos, at one point I ended up with a Mongolian dad in my lap as he yelled out to his son who was in 4th place at the time. Mongolian horses are smaller than what you’d typically find in America. The fastest horses were all quite small and lean in size. Even though the race was 10km, the fastest the horses managed to sustain around 44kph.

The back of the pack.

5th and 6th place.

Battling it out for 3rd.

Some student wrestling.

Some of the kids were pretty young.

1st and 2nd.

My hashaa dad, hashaa brothers friend, and my hashaa brother.

Community members at the awards ceremony.

The next day I got to the school at 8 AM where people were had already started setting things up for the first day of school. The music teacher had setup an enormous speaker system which was blasting kids pop music as students showed up with their families over the next hour. At 9 the ceremony began with a speech from my hashaa mom, our school’s social worker, followed by a speech from the school’s director. After the celebration was over, the students went inside with their homeroom teachers and I headed to my first class. I ended up spending the next hour and a half working on my class schedule instead with my counterparts and hashaa mom. I was eventually told to head home and come back at 4 to work on some more planning for the year. No actual classes were taught that day.

Everyone showing up and getting organized.

Some of my co-worker’s.

My mom doing her social worker thing.

They look thrilled.

School director giving a speech.

The white bows and pink backpacks and very popular.

D’awww.

At 4 I met up with both my CP’s and hashaa mom who pulled out my “First Four Months at Site” form and started to outline how we’d complete form. They proceeded to go through the entire four month plan and try to fit all of it into one weeks worth of activities. They tired to get me to start projects with everyone before I eventually explained I needed to shadow teachers and talk with them first before I could decide what projects we would do. Still, it’s a great feeling to see so many people who are enthusiastic about working with you.

My first week consisted of observing all of my CP’s classes and co-teaching my first Mongolian English class. My largest class is my 5th graders which has twenty-two students. In Mongolian, 5th grade is when kids begin learning English and a lot of my 5th graders already had a grasp of the basics. Both my CP’s are easy to work with which is nice. Although my trip North tested my patience at times, it also created strong connections with the teachers at my school. It’s made working with everyone much easier than it would be otherwise, I think. It’s left me hopeful for what the future holds.

To top it all off, my students are all (mostly) great. When I got up for the first time in front of my 5th graders it was completely silent, but once I started going through our new words for the day all their faces lit up like I’ve never seen before. Now all my younger students wave when they see me at school and yell “sain uu, bagshaa!” (hello, my teacher) when they see me around town. The older one’s will come around in time (Update: The 7th grade boys did not).

Chalkboard from my first class.

My 5th graders.

I’m also apparently getting a kitten. I had expressed a possible interest in getting one and now my kitten is waiting for me in the aimag center at Sally and Caleb’s apartment. I haven’t really got all the details smoothed out yet. My main concern is freaking out my hashaa family when they realize I have a cat in my ger. Pets aren’t really a thing in Mongolia. It’s pretty rare to find families with pets and even more so with cats. Finger crossed it won’t cause any major issues. If anything, I’ll use it as a point for cross cultural exchange or at least try. My cat’s name is Mission after a Star Wars KotoR character (Knights of the Old Republic). Sally claims he “has an attitude” which is why I picked Mission. See the photo below.

“Mission” from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Sally and Mission!

And now, some bad news. The other night I was eating some aruul (dried curds) and chipped one of my back molars. I’m not in any pain or discomfort but it’s obviously annoying. I’ll be heading to UB to get it checked out and taken are of. Hopefully it’ll be an easy gig and I’ll get a nice day in UB as a result. I hope to grab some film for my camera while I’m there, too.

That’s all for now, folks. I’ll be back soon with more stories and photos soon.

My soum from far away…well you can’t really even see it, haha.

A typical jothlon (outhouse).

Broken glass which you see everywhere.

My soum.

The delguur (store) I frequent.