Taiga Project Photos

Here are a few shots I took while I was working on the Taiga Project in Khuvsgul a few weeks ago.

The Taiga Project is a community focused summer camp organized by PCVs and the Dukha community in the Taiga region of Khuvsgul province. My group of about seven PCVs will be spending our week in the East Taiga working with HCNs on health behavior change, youth leadership, and community empowerment. The Dukha community is the smallest ethnic group in Mongolia, consisting of about 200 people. These families make their living herding reindeer and selling goods to the tourists who come up each summer.

This is a strange dog.

Playing Lamb and Wolf.

Morning stretches

English lesson on clothes and colors.

Talking about what makes a good leader.

A curious dog interrupting our lesson.

Building a birds nest.

The results!

Solar charging our electronics.

Boat building and racing.

Rainy day coloring.

One of the student portraits.

Shooting Film In Mongolia

This past weekend I rolled down to Dornogovi aimag to checkout some monasteries with my coworkers. Knowing I’d come across some good photo ops, I tossed a few rolls in my pack and grabbed my M6. Since picking it up back in January, I’ve moved away from shooting my M9 and have been working more with film. Thanks to my dear friend Sandra, I had  been able to load up on some stock that should last me through the summer until my trip to Korea.

Prior to service, I only wanted to bring film to Mongolia. My hesitation was knowing whether or not I’d have the resources to get my shots developed and scanned. Plus, knowing I’d be doing some traveling outside of Peace Corps, I was paranoid about my film getting trashed by x-rays all over Asia.

When looking for info on film labs in UB, I came across an analog shooter from Mongolia, Ebb, who’s currently studying in NY. He gave me the skinny on a place called PhotoMan that still sells, scans, and develops film. Thanks to Ebb, I’ve been able to shoot my M6 without a worry.

But why shoot film in the first place? Isn’t it an outdated medium? Why bother with film when the advantages of digital seem endless?

When trying to shoot film.

The answer, for me anyways, is simple: Shooting digital photos doesn’t compare to working with the physical material of the medium. In most cases, I’d say the same would be true of any other art form. I’m sure there are plenty of sculptors who would love to work in VR, for example, but I’d bet there’d still be people who want the real thing.

The best thing about shooting film is sharing my negatives with my students. I grew up on disposable cameras, but nowadays, drug store film has been replaced with camera phones and preset filters. When my students look at film negatives, it’s like they’re seeing something magic. Film just isn’t something they can wrap their heads around, and it’s given me an idea for a possible secondary project next year (more on that later).

With my summer full of exciting stuff (Arkhangai, Taiga Project, Korea, etc.) I’m stoked that I can capture these moments on film.

But really.

IST

*In-Service Training

As I sit in the lobby of the Park Hotel, I’m left to reflect on this past whirlwind of a week. I’m the only volunteer still here and have no idea when I’ll actually be heading back to site. Such is the life of a PCV.

This was my first time seeing many of the other volunteers in the past four months. Jenni said it was like coming back from summer vacation and seeing all your old school friends again. To be honest, the entire week I was swelling with mixed feelings about being surrounded by Americans again. One of the M25 trainers, Tyler, mentioned what he calls “soum anxiety”, which is the feeling of being overwhelmed by the presence of so many Americans again. I’m not sure if it was that or something else but this week was difficult for me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing everyone but sorting through all those emotions will take time.

Your relationship with other PCV’s is strange. You spend three months growing extremely close with this group of random people only to be shipped off all over the country. You might only see some of those people 2-3 more times over the next 2 years and yet they’re still your best friends. Hell, you might never even talk to them while at site but there’s still this unspoken understanding of one another. It’s hard to put into words.

What was nice was how productive this week was for my counterpart and me. Although she’s a bit shy, she really got into the sessions and seemed to learn a lot. This week definitely broadened both her and I’s professional horizons. I’m excited to see how it all translates back at site. It seems that CP’s and HCA’s see Peace Corps as this distant entity they don’t really interact with or know much about. I think this training helped in making Peace Corps the agency seem more real to them.

As Mikey and I were packing up our stuff this morning we had our classic jam session which has become tradition since staging. Mikey put on “What A Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers and I turned to him and said, “If we ever had a movie together this would be the song they’d play over the end credits.” He laughed. When I was rooming with Mikey for the first time during staging he asked me, “Do you like The Doobie Brothers?” to which I, of course, answered yes. For some reason that moment felt like the true beginning of my Peace Corps experience. Not just because it was the actual first day we all arrived in San Francisco but more because it marked the first connection with a friend in my cohort. The rest is history and that song has grown to become my favorite of all time.

Although this post was unorganized and disjointed, and wasn’t all that much about IST, it hopefully gave some insights into what it feels like to be me right now.

Rock the Casbah

One of the greatest challenges of being a PCV is getting your bearings in a new culture. Before arriving in country, I thought I’d handle the process of integration well and without major incident, but after being here for over six months it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Currently, time management has been a big hang-up for me. On Monday I was supposed to teach an English class to my coworkers at 2. When I got to the school it was completely empty and no one ended up showing up for the lesson. I eventually went home and wasn’t all that surprised as these things happen frequently. The following day I was asked by my counterpart if I had taught my lesson the day before to which I told him I hadn’t. When asked why, I explained no one had showed up. My next lesson was slated for Wednesday and I figured since everyone had missed the previous lesson, people would be a bit more sensitive about showing up this time. Each lesson is 40 minutes and begins at 2 PM. At 3:30 as I was walking home, I could see teachers starting to roll into the school one-by-one. They all looked confused as to why I wasn’t getting ready to teach. I explained to them our lesson started at 2 and it was now nearly 4. I could tell by the looks on their faces they didn’t understand. I reassured them it was okay but reminded them to please try to be on time for our next lesson.

Now, sure, I could have gone back to school and taught my lesson even though people showed up late. I didn’t have anything else to do and was going home to make grilled cheese sandwiches. During PST we did an activity where we were presented with different scenarios and had to choose whether or not we felt they were worth fighting for. The point being you had to choose your battles carefully and in this instance I had decided to stand my ground. Here’s an excerpt from my friend Jenni’s blog which helps illustrate my point:

“More than anything, this week has been about deciding what matters and what doesn’t. In American workplaces, it’s all about that Outlook/Google calendar, cancelling or rescheduling appointments with notice, and sharing agendas before meetings begin. We operate on timelines, deadlines, check-ins, and follow-ups.  Through college and the few years I worked/interned in D.C., I learned that this was the way things got done.”

And she’s right. As Americans, we plan our days with emails and color coded schedules – it’s how we get things done. That said, if we’re to truly make progress as individuals and with our community, PCVs need to develop habits which work for both Mongolians and volunteers. By that, I mean PCVs must be willing to set aside their predisposed notions of how work should be done. It’s our responsibility to offer flexibility and approaches to challenges which work for our HCAs and HCNs. This is point in which I still need to grow.

My biggest frustration has been personal space and privacy. In Mongolia, if something isn’t put away and locked up it’s fair to others. I’ve had people open up every drawer and cabinet in my ger, sift through the food in my fridge, and even start rearranging my furniture all without saying a word. At school teachers will pick up my camera or laptop without asking to use them without a thought. I’ve had random people on the street pull out my headphones to try and talk at me. I’ve had students reach over me and across my desk to try and grab some chips I’ve had. The list goes on.

I can’t lie, these are things I have a very hard time dealing with, and especially so when people come into a space I would normally view as “mine.” Like everything else, it’s an adjustment and growth which will take time. I usually try to take these moments as opportunities to explain how I feel with others but it’s hard to tell what sticks.

Anyways, I do need to brag about my students for a second – two in particular. Last week I didn’t have class with my 5th graders because for one I was alone and the other was cancelled. When we came back for class this Tuesday, two of my students showed me homework they had made up themselves and wanted me to check. I was blown away. Students don’t start learning English here until 5th grade and these two girls were already trying so hard. I mean, look at these notebooks!

They did this all on their own and I truly can’t find the words to express how proud I am. They even made color coordinated flash cards which I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of. These girls are the future of this country.

Номинэрдэнэ (Nome-ing-ear-dun) and Номиндарь (Nome-ing-dare). My two favorite students!

On an unrelated note, I had my leave request approved by Peace Corps, and I’ll be heading to Japan with fellow volunteers Jenni and Sandra in January. We’ll be skiing the days away and eating a lot of good food. I couldn’t be more excited. I hope everyone is doing well back home and hope you have a great day.

I don’t mind when this lady uses my camera.

My favorite table.

Some of my coworkers with out soums flag.

Not creative enough to come up with a title

Now that I’ve been at site for over three months things are a starting to settle down. I have daily routines set out, I’m not surprised by the craziness of day-to-day life in Mongolia, and the novelty of being “the foreigner” has started wane. While it sucks to have the initial rush of getting to site start to dwindle, it is nice to have things slow down and have this place start to feel like home.

My desk at work. I sit across my the math teacher and my CP.

My 9th grade class wanted me to draw everyone. A very attractive bunch. 

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with my hashaa family lately which I’ve enjoyed greatly. Evenings usually consist of my little sister, Zaya, dragging me around the house to play with Mission. Something I’m eternally grateful for is my families acceptance of Mission. Cats are seen as mean and bad luck which makes their enthusiasm about him pretty astonishing. At first, Zaya was terrified of Mission but now she won’t leave him alone. This is both good and bad as it’s obvious to me Mission sometimes needs a break from being carried around like a doll all the time. Nevertheless, I accomplished my goal of changing my hashaa families view on pets and cats at least somewhat.

My brother, dad, and sister.

Zaya.

Since my site visit things at work have really picked up. In addition to my normal work, I’m teaching an English class to all the teachers in my school three days a week, doing two English clubs on Wednesdays, speaking practice with my CP’s twice a week, and leaving methodology materials in the teachers room once a week. I was also made aware of all these new project on less than a days notice, which I can’t lie, was rather frustrating for my American brain.  “You will do English class for all school workers and English club lesson tomorrow.” Lovely. The lesson ended up going really well and all the teachers did a great job. Everyone seems really enthusiastic about learning English. I’m hoping to use my time teaching my coworkers as an opportunity to showcase different styles of teaching. The hope is, assuming all goes well, they’ll enjoy all the activities we do and want to learn how to do them for their own classes.

My Thanksgiving was extremely uneventful. Plans in our aimag never really developed so it looked like I’d be alone for the holiday. I had tried to talk with my CP’s about the it but no one really took any interest in it. They did ask if I celebrated on my own to which I just shrugged and said, “No, not really.” I ended up just laying in bed with some hot chocolate and my cat which was good enough for me. I definitely missed everyone at home and was fortunate enough to talk with them during their Thanksgiving dinner.

Then on Friday there was a student concert which featured dancing, singing, poetry, and performances on traditional Mongolian instruments. I was originally told the concert would take place on Saturday at 3. On Friday one of my CP’s told me part of the concert was starting today and I should go take some photos. I got to see my favorite class, my 5th graders, do some snazzy dances and songs. Afterwards I just went home and ended up doing a puzzle with my hashaa dad for 2 hours. Later I stopped by the cultural center again only to find out the entire show was today. I ended up missing most of it which stunk but got to see a lot of my students again which was nice.

Look at that outfit!

My 5th graders.

This looked like a very Russian dance.

Shiny pants.

Beyonces in training.

My brother playing the morin khuur or horsehead fiddle.

Now I’m gearing up for a late Thanksgiving next weekend with some the other Khentii volunteers and IST the week after. IST will be filled with fancy dinners, friends, and most importantly, hot showers. Star Wars will also be in theaters here starting Christmas day, so I’ll need to make plans to head back to UB so I can see it. Hope everyone’s Thanksgiving back home was a good one.

Mission enjoying his care package bed by the fire.

And remember, folks.

PS – I’m working on a collaborative blog post with another volunteer which will hopefully be done soon. What I mean by that is Jenni’s done a lot of work on the post and I’ve been slacking. Now she can officially hold me accountable to get this done.

Country Roads

TAKE ME HOMEEEEEE!

This past week marked the end of the first school semester in Mongolia and as a result schools are on break all week. In hindsight, I should have made some plans to travel in Khentii, or really just to do anything at all, but wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Instead, I’ve been sitting in my ger all week watching movies and napping. These couples days of loneliness gave me something to think about: Isolation.

I first started seriously thinking about this topic last weekend when I was on the way back to my soum from the aimag center. We had gotten lost near the end of our ride home and were low on gas. The trip back to my soum is 100 miles on dirt roads with no road signs, lights, or any real signs of civilization aside from the occasional ger or passing motorcycle. On that ride it really started to settle in how out there and alone I was. Sure, I have friends in my soum and know a few people who speak bits of English but by and large connecting with people beyond small talk is often difficult.

Khentii’s country roads.

Random ger we stopped at to ask for directions.

Another go at taking star photos.

I’m actually quite good about being alone. It’s never been something I’ve found troubling and is usually a source of relaxation and comfort for me. This type of alone-ness is different. Whether it’s my culture, language, or physical appearance I’m drastically different from everyone here and because of that everything is magnified. It can be big things like feeling uncomfortable when people come over and start going through my things or small things like having people think I’m weird for saying “thank you” all the time. It’s strange to experience but it’s these moments that broaden your perspective not only in terms of what it means to live abroad but also about the experiences of different people back in the United States. The experiences you have as a PCV aren’t limited to your time in country of service.

On the plus side, I’ve been extremely fortunate in terms of integrating into my community. One of the benefits of living in a soum is that everyone knows who you are. Since my town is so small, I end up seeing the same faces everyday which makes it easier to get to know people. The hope is these connections will make future projects and life in general run more smoothly.

On a different note, I went for a short hike earlier this week and got to see hundreds of Mongolian antelope. They’re super skittish, so I was never able to close too any but did manage to get a decent picture of some.

6th graders.

I’m trying to get better at taking portraits.

A friendly soum dog.

Sunsets and solar panels.

The closest I was able to get without them running.

Cat Fight Club

Last Wednesday I was out for a walk after dinner and was dragged into the cultural center by some of my 6th grade students. As it turns out, there was a student singing competition so I decided to stay and watch. A bunch of my students were participating, and I got to see a lot of my coworkers and other friends from the community who had kids participating. It was fun to hangout with my students outside of class and to get out and do something with my evening other than sit around in my ger playing Mario Kart.

Saruul’s little sister at the singing competition.

The next day my haashaa dad wanted to hangout after I got home from work. It was fairly obvious he had a few drinks before I got home. He gave me three strawberry yogurts, three hyams, a small cake, and talked about how I am his son and apart of their family. “You are my son. You are my other sons older brother. You are my wife’s son.” It was sweet but likely didn’t need to go on for over a hour. Men here get pretty close, particularly when they talk. My haashaa dad had his arm around me, other hand on my knee, and was only a few inches away from me as he talked. He then wanted me to take pictures of him with the various animals in our haashaa. He was able to catch our goose but had no such luck chasing the ducks and turkeys around the yard. I should probably mention it’s odd our family has these types of animals in our haashaa. Everyone has been trying to get me to buy the turkeys from my family so we can have them for Thanksgiving. After our first photoshoot, he wanted me to go get Mission from my ger. Once I brought him out, he took Mission out of my hands and put him on the ground. Fortunately, he just rolled around in the dirt until my dad started throwing feed by him so the chickens would come over. My haashaa families initial concern about me having a cat was it would possibly kill one of their chickens. Now, my haashaa dad was trying to get Mission to fight one in the yard. Mission took a few swipes at one when it got close but I ended up swooping him up and taking him back inside. Crisis averted.

My haashaa dad and his goose.

Couldn’t quite catch the ducks.

From left to right: Hall, Oates, Mrs. Burger, Goose, Ralph, Turkey Burger, and Rooster.

Mission making new friends.

That weekend I went into the aimag center to meet up with the other Khentii M26’s and M25’s for the weekend. We originally planned on having a potluck but it would have been tough to have 7 people crammed into a tiny kitchen to cook for the evening. We ended up going out for a late lunch/early dinner and having snacks and drinks afterwards. We also stopped at the black market where Cassie and I were able to pick up some rad prayer beads. Black markets in Mongolia are places to find things cheaper than you would in bigger stores. No illegal weapons or organs for sale here. It was nice to finally meet Cassie and have a chance to hangout with some M25’s.

Phoebe, Dylan, Ashley, and Cassie at lunch.

Apartment hangin’.

Unfortunately, getting back to my soum proved difficult as it often does, but I was glad to get home and see Mission. This weekend was also the first time we saw snow stick. It’s lightly snowed a few times previously and I’ve seen very small amounts of snow before, but now it covers the ground giving it a nice white reflective shine. It’s about time Khentii joined the other aimag’s and got some snow. I’d seen other volunteers post about getting a foot of snow in September and most other aimags have been cold for sometime now. Here though, things have been fall-like and I’ve enjoyed it. Seeing the snow put me in a good mood though as winter is my favorite season.

When I got to work today I was surprised to see students at school. I was originally told this week would be a break for the students while teachers came in and worked. I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on to be frank (Update: Yes, I do indeed have classes this week). These sorts of miscommunications are frequent here and it’s all part of being a PCV. It can be frustrating, especially so at times, when you have no set times or idea of when (or if) things will happen. The other evening Sally pointed out that you’ll sit around waiting for hours, sometimes days, for things to happen and when they finally do we feel the need to rush ourselves to accommodate people. Our Americanness starts to show when we feel the need to try and not keep people waiting or always been on time. It can be annoying but it’s just something you need to adjust to.

My outdoor cat, Mira.

View of my soum.

Things you see on hikes around my soum.

One of my 6th graders rocking my sunglasses.

I think they understand Halloween? Maybe a bit too well.

Countryside ger.

Countryside Khentii.

Some of our schools UB exchange students with one of our teachers.

I’m not sure if my school is doing anything for Halloween. It’d be nice if they were but I’ve yet to hear of any actual plans. It’ll be weird to celebrate with snow on the ground. My plans are to have a scary movie marathon in my ger if nothing else is going on.

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.

Context-less Quotes

I was deleting old texts in on my Peace Corps issued Nokia brick when I came across some texts that gave me a chuckle. We volunteers get 100 texts a month we can use to keep in touch with other volunteers, or more importantly, to text Whereabouts! Let me share some of my favorites with you.

Mikey (on the first day with our host families): How are ya doing buddy?

Me: (probably sent a response about eating meat globs and endless amounts of milk tea).

Mikey: Lol be strong for all of us

Mikey: If I have one more bowl of milk tea today I think I’ll set the record for the most consumed in one day.

Renee: Come over please! I am currently making awkward conversation with idk who pls rescue

Mikey: Hard boiled eggs and cake for lunch. Just like home. Also, have you seen XXX (Mikey drunkenly downloaded this one night during staging) the movie? Might be one of the worst things I’ve seen.

Mikey: Finally killed my first animal today. Not as bad as I thought. I held its mouth closed to stop the screaming though.

Ashleigh: You have a new baby. It was only a matter of time.

Hana: Agreed. And really hope your host fam walks in on you dancing alone in your ger.

Seki (my Mongolian language teacher): I don’t like cats.

Mikey: Good news. We are roommates again. Bad news. We are one the fourth floor again.

Mikey: The Orange Market is having a sale on lube.

Hana: You over dramatic? What a concept

Hana: Agreed. Harper also pointed out that it tastes like bile as I was drinking it.

Random person from my soum: *soum name” sum ymar bazar bne gert bna u baishind bna u hoolo hij chadaj bna u.

Me: ???

And here are some other general funny quotes that have made me laugh over the past few months.

Mikey: Mongolia vodka is harsher than any lover I’ve ever had.

Logan: Ed Helms was in “Remember The Titans”

Jenni: Isn’t Bob Dylan black?

Zena: So why is it important to teach grammar?

Alex: Trick question, it isn’t!

Nik (from the Khutul Rap): Sportin’ good looks in my deel, can’t see my skids don’t mind the smell.

Paul (also from the Khutul Rap): My glutes by goy. I’m rockin’ with my boys. I throw rocks at cows, I got problems with my bowels. That ain’t no shit. So pull up your shirt show that bellybutton gleaming cuz parties don’t stop till 10 in the evening!

(Goy is the word for “cool” and are gluteus are goy because we walk everywhere. The next line is fairly self explanatory. Mongolians also do this thing where they pull up their shirts to just expose their bellybutton. It’s been deemed the “Mongol half-shirt.” And are curfew during PST was only 10pm.)

Dylan: *Somewhat drunkly singing “Space Oddity”*

Many of these probably won’t make much sense to people back home but to my fellow M26’s included here they hopefully provide a good laugh. I’ll have a new post up after this weekends trip to the aimag center and UB.

The Lone Ranger

Queue Western music.

This week kicked off with a small trip outside my soum with my hashaa dad. I wasn’t sure where we were going at first but in typical Peace Corps fashion I just went with it. He wanted me to hop on the back of his motorcycle which is a no-go as far as Peace Corps is concerned. This is now the second time I’ve been offered a ride on a motorcycle since being here. We instead took a stroll outside our soum and talked about horses, meat, his work, and stuff I’d do in my free time back in the States. These are all fairly typical topics of conversation for me now. All we were missing was for him to ask me if I was cold or could make a fire.

I continued to observe one of my CP’s and did a bit of co-teaching with another. Although, co-teaching was really just drilling my students on pronunciation which isn’t quite teaching. The first two weeks of school are meant for me to observe and evaluate the different aspects of my school’s classes, community work, and teachers. From there we can put together a needs assessment to further identify what my school and community does well and build upon it. Things were going well until today when I was told I’d have to teach a few lesson alone because my CP had to work with our schools training manager. Before I had a chance to let my CP know I’m not supposed to be teaching alone (Peace Corps rule) she shuffled out the door and I was on my own.

The class was small, only having twelve 6th grade students in it. I decided I’d teach this lesson solo, but would let my CP know that Peace Corps doesn’t want me alone in the classroom. I pulled out an old practice teaching lesson I had done with my partner, Bryan, during PST and used it for the class. It was lesson focused on activity vocab: play basketball, cook food, watch television, etc. We ended up doing some fun drilling activities (loud, quite, singing, like a robot) and playing hot potato as well as vocab darts. The students loved it. As Bryan would say we “crushed it.”

Mongolian classes don’t normally use activities or games as teaching methods. Teachers teach directly from the book and students copy down whatever gets written on the board or repeat whatever’s said by the teacher. Part of our goal as TEFL volunteers is to broaden our CP’s approach to teaching and strengthen their confidence in the classroom. My hope is to slowly start bringing in these different elements in over time rather than making any sweeping changes from the start.

I’ve also become my soums certified IT guy. I’ve help fix a printer, numerous corrupted files, our TM’s laptop, and all the computers at our cultural center. With the combination of YouTube and Wikipedia you can learn to do just nearly anything in 15 minutes. However, I wasn’t able to fix all the viruses on my CP’s computer. When I sat down to look at it he had over 7359. Big yikes.

I was also invited over to one of my co-workers ger’s to hangout. He showed me a bunch of old photos of his family from when his mother was a kid. As a photographer, I ate it all up. It was a great feeling to have a Mongolian be so excited to share parts of his life with me. We also played Counter-Strike 1.6 and Plants vs Zombies.

Next weekend I’ll be heading to the aimag center, as well as UB, to get my flu shot and tooth checked out. Hopefully all goes well and it’s an easy fix.