Deadbeat

Yeah, sorry, I've been pretty remiss on posting recently. But that is of course because a lot has been happening! First off, I believe when last I posted, it was just prior to the English for Tourism course we'd been working on. Seems like ancient history now, but I do recall that it went pretty well, in spite of the entire city of Tsetserleg losing power for four days straight at the end of the week. Made printing materials and playing the dialogues we'd recorded somewhat challenging, but whatever. We managed. The students' levels weren't quite as advanced as we'd planned for, so only about a third of them wound up passing, but that's the way lots of English courses turn out around here. Although in school settings, failing students looks bad, so even if a kid doesn't speak a word of English, he'll likely pass every course he ever takes. It's the single most devastating challenge TEFL volunteers face. Anyway, that pic above is Kaede and me with the whole class in front of the Arkhangai Museum, which we got to see for free after having the curator come give a guest speech to the group. It was pretty neat. I especially liked this painting on the wall which glorifies the Stalinist purges of the Buddhist monks which occurred in the 1930s and which, as I may or may not have mentioned, were perpetrated by the man after whom my humble city of Choibalsan is named.


After the class, we took a few days to relax, first by hanging out around the apartment and then by going for a lovely overnight camping trip! We hiked three miles through a painful hailstorm to the river south of town, set up camp, did some fishing, built a big fire, and had a wonderful time. That's when the picture at the bottom was taken. Dornod is nice and all, but it's kind of a shame that I couldn't move to Arkhangai. It's honestly one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been in my life. Following the camping trip, we got to cleaning and packing, which was quite an endeavor. It took a few days, but as stressful as it was, actually getting all her stuff (as well as two pets) a thousand kilometers across Mongolia was even moreso. We broke it up with a few days in UB, which took a bit of the load off, but when we'd made it to Choibalsan last week and hauled all her stuff into the apartment, it was quite a relief. The next week was spent moving Kaede into the apartment and setting everything up in the homiest way possible. Peace Corps wound up setting her up at a school right near my place, so moving is somewhat unnecessary, although my apartment is a bit small for two humans, a cat, and a dog. Whatever. We can deal. Especially seeing as this is a country where a family of six will live in a single ger ten feet in diameter.

Yesterday we took a five hour ride south to Sukhbaatar province. Tomorrow, we'll go with our friend Sarah to her small town, Dariganga, which is right on the Chinese border, to help with an English summer camp she's organizing. A lot of our other friends from last summer will be there, so it should be nice. We're packing a lot in, however, as next week we'll return to Choibalsan for all of a day to pack for the states and tie up our loose ends. Then we'll head back to Arkhangai for Naadam, the festival of the Three Manly Sports. Following Naadam, it's UB for a couple days and then, on July 16, AMERICA! Total craziness.

Нэг жилийн дараа

Well, believe it or not, one year ago today, I was touching down on Monglian soil for the first time (there I am saying goodbye to the fam), along with all the other M21s. And perfectly enough, the M22s, Peace Corps Mongolia's next generation, have just arrived themselves. A lot of volunteers go in to UB to welcome them, but unfortunately Kaede and I are much too busy with our English for Tourism project. So busy, in fact, that that first sentence is actually a lie. I meant to get this post out yesterday, but the class has officially started, and now we barely have time to sleep, let alone blog. It's worth it though, as already, in spite of the challenges and setbacks we've faced, this feels like one of the most useful things I've done in my service. How appropriate for it to begin in earnest exactly a year to the day after I arrived in country.

I've mused enough on this blog about the nature of time and how it flies and yet barely seems to crawl along at all and all the things that have happened and changed in the past year, so I'll spare you all of that (partially because I just don't have the time to get into it), but suffice to say, it's been a hell of a year, and I can't believe we're halfway done.

Anyway, it's late over here, so I gotta try and get some shuteye. I will, however, share with you Baagii's one-year-in-country present to Kaede and me: his stunning impersonation of a pie.