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.
Chasing Mongolia 