September 1st = start of new school year!

If it's September 1st in Mongolia, it must be the start of a new school year!  Here again, already!  Summer is still hanging on a little...., but the familiar nip of autumn is in the air is the same as back home in the US. 
Of course, school starting means the flags and banners come out and are flying, children are dressed in their finery (except the cooler, older students who love their jeans almost as much as I do! ) and the teachers look happy and relaxed!

happy students and teachers!

green popsicles-breakfast of champions

It also means performances by students, (which I thoroughly enjoy) and speeches by important adults which I don't understand.  After the performances and speeches are over, the mad rush for the building begins!  The school bell is rung by two adorable little kids, then by the school director, announcing the start of the day and year.  Chaos commences, as class assignments were just posted and parents and children alike make their way to the lists and the building.  Let the learning, the fun and the angst of a new school year begin!

  

Summers Fly!!!

Just like when I was a kid, summer always flies by entirely too fast!!! The long daylight hours still fool me into thinking the warm weather and sunshine will last forever! The slow relaxed pace of this season makes it my favorite. I relish the warmth and serenity of gardening, being outside more and just taking it easy. Not only is it refreshing, renewing and restorative, it's a magical time of year.

Anyone who has ever had the opportunity to garden or grow anything from seed has witnessed one of the greatest miracles. To see this on a large scale during the summertime is amazing! It never gets too familiar or old for me.

As usual, I tried to cram as much fun into the season, while still relaxing, enjoying and relishing the summer time. During this slow season when the school kids were gone, I gardened a bit. Though my garden is only surviving here in this desert, I am already planning for next year- think greenhouse! I have been away for almost 3 weeks and need to go see my garden plot tomorrow.... I should have some tomatoes, peas and beans to pick......maybe even more lettuce and spinach!

In addition to having my sister visit for almost 2 weeks in July, enjoying the big Nadaam celebation in my town, I also traveled a bit this summer. I went to a neighboring town (5 hour bus ride) for Sharayah's birthday. After we celebrated her birthday with many Mongolian friends, I hung out for 2 days, then we ventured to the city together. The bus ride to UB is 13 hours and we were unfortunate to have the very back seats, that when we hit the huge bumps, we flew up........ Never a dull moment! Once in UB we stayed with another PCV for 2 days and saw many fellow PCV's. The good food available in restaurants in UB is always a big draw for me and I enjoyed burgers and fries! (every bite and more than once:)

Five of us then traveled north to Darkhan to witness the new PCV's at their site announcements. I recall this as being such an exciting and scary time and was reassured by having other PCV's there to meet and greet me, so I wanted to extend the same to our new site mates! I welcomed 3 new PCV's in my city and 3 more in outlying areas! Darkhan is the second largest city in this country and from what I saw of it, is much cleaner and nicer than UB. Being so far north, there is also a lot more green stuff there, including trees! Man, do I ever miss trees!

Just another hour by meeker is my fellow CYD Pedro in Selenge aimag, where 4 of us went to spend a day and night. The scenery there is so different from most of the country, that it looks like Russia, or eastern Europe in comparison..... The lush green landscape, covered with many trees, actual crop fields and lots and lots of water! Kate, Sharayah and I all ended up with congestion and allergy symptoms after one night there! We are definitely used to the desert air!

Then back to UB for a few days R & R prior to our mid service training.... Vacation, as well as summer in general, was a whirlwind! Horseback riding (half of it in the pouring rain) was a big highlight of the training, spent at Terelj National park where we stayed in gers.

As I rode home from the city on the bus yesterday, I sadly noticed it was getting dark around 8 pm... when did that happen? Wasn't it just last week that it was still light at 9? School starts in a few days and there is a nip in the air........Goodbye summertime....I shall miss you dearly.....

Nadaam in Arvikheer, Uuvrkhangai 80th anniversary celebration!

This year's Nadaam celebration here in Arvikheer was exceptionally big, festive and special! The reason for this huge celebration was the 80 year anniversary of both the city of Arvikheer and the aimag of Uuvrkhangai.

Unlike the national holiday set aside for Nadaam (in mid July) ,this year our city celebrated Nadaam on the 28, 29 and 30th of July. The late dates allowed those from smaller soums and outlying areas to attend the big celebration.

The town underwent many improvement projects in the weeks leading up to Nadaam, i.e., re paving streets, new street lights, repainting of fences, buildings, etc.... In addition, the huge town square block was completed and two grand new statues were erected in the square, along with four huge lights which glow like stadium lighting (and shine right into my apartment at night!) There were concerts and gatherings on the square each night during the festival, though after a full day of activity, I was too tired to attend! I was awakened one night at 2 am to an amazing fireworks display, which I enjoyed through my living room window.

Wrestling is the most popular event of the three manly sports of Nadaam, which also include archery and horse racing. Oddly enough (since they are known as manly sports), wrestling is the only of the three where men only are allowed to compete.

The story goes that wrestlers used to wear deels in competition and one year a woman (brother of a well known wrestler who had gotten ill just before Nadaam) participated and won! This was at least 100 years ago, thus the reason for the cute skimpy outfits the wrestlers wear is to ensure they are male!

Horse racing jockeys can be girls and the children are usually age 6 to 12 and the category of race is based on the age of the horses. These races are very well attended and quite exciting! It takes special care to raise a race horse, feeding them limited food at various times of day to maintain the optimum racing weight.

I watched some Archery in two different Nadaam's this year and saw many women participants.

My entire summer plans were changed so I could attend this amazing 80th anniversary celebration and i was not disappointed!

My sister's visit to Mongolia...a pictorial

It's been a while since my last post and part of the reason is I was enjoying my sister's company, right here in Mongolia! Though this place now feels like home to me, she had many of the same "culture shock" reactions that I initially did upon arrival here. There are so many amazing things to see and do here, that I wanted to share with my sister, though time was of the essence.....

We visited many of the museums in Ulaanbaatar, as well as several Buddhist temples, a quilt shop and the fair trade store, Martha & Mary. While in my home town, we went to both museums, one of the temples (where we watched and listened to the monks chanting), the horse monument for which the town is named, ate at the local vegan restaurant as well as a guanze in the market.

A weekend trip to a local soum for a small Nadaam celebration was also enjoyed! We had the pleasure of going with Leah and Haanda who were invited by the governor, so we were treated very well there! Seeing a horse race from a speeding Jeep was an awesome (though not so comfortable) experience! Sue got to enjoy airag, as well as plenty of vodka toasts during Nadaam as well. Sue told me that she was just happy to spend time with me and I have to agree, that was the best part of the visit.....hanging out, spending time together, talking or not... it was good:)

The one thing she really wanted to do that we didn't get to, was ride a camel. Hmmmmm.... perhaps after Mongolia I'll live somewhere else that has camels.....

Yak mania!

Yaks are some of the coolest looking animals in Mongolia. Webster's describes the yak as "a wild or domestic ox of the uplands of Asia that has very long hair". Their faces look like cows to me and their mournful deep "mooing" is low and reminiscent of a bull.

A weekend jaunt in a friends Russian Jeep through some very rough terrain, took 5 of us site mates a few hours away from our town to a national park valley teeming with yaks.

We had the opportunity to milk them and yes, as a farm gal, I have experience with milking cows and the yak was similar. Though cows have larger teats, it was surprising to me how natural it felt to be milking a yak! The herder gave me an old dress (which was inside out) to put over my clothes to protect them from yak hair. Though not a flattering picture of me, I have the proof that I milked a yak in Mongolia!

Our friend Andrew who had been to visit this family before, took us to meet them in their wooden house nearby. We stopped there to say hello and introduce ourselves first and were treated with the usual Mongolian hospitality, being served milk tea and some delicious yak yogurt and bread with sweet cream, called orum. (these treats of course were made with their yak milk)

After chatting awhile, we proceeded to a spot nearby next to a gorgeous river and set up our camp site. Unfortunately for me, later that evening during a rainstorm in the dark, I tripped over one of the tent lines and bruised some ribs. This kept me from our main event, horse back riding the next day!

I thought my ego was slightly more bruised than my ribs until the bumpy ride home Sunday evening.....ow... As I rest now trying to heal as much as possible in the next week and a half until the long awaited and excitedly anticipated visit from my sister, I am still happy to have gone on this adventure to see yaks up close and personal!

garden in the desert...

Now I ask you, who would be silly enough to take on a major and overly ambitious gardening project in an area which is essentially desert. That's right....me; silly excitable enthusiastic gardener that I am.

Now that it's past mid June, at home in Ohio I would have most everything planted and the garden would be a green living thing of beauty. Here, not quite the same. The garden bed (or at least part of it) has been mostly prepared, and planted with lots of hard work and many wonderful helpers, especially the girls of the English Garden Club.

These students, in grades 7-10 volunteered to help me work in the garden, 3 times a week for an hour each time for the opportunity to practice speaking English. I am delighted and grateful for their help! The watering alone for the approximately 50' X 10' bed involves countless trips into the dorm and filling up buckets in the sink then carrying them back out to the garden. It's a time consuming and good exercise, but a tedious task.

Our garden bed is a fenced in area in front of the school dorm, conveniently located and at least partially sheltered. However,much to my dismay an ornery dog has found his way in and likes to traipse over the beds; I have caught him running through!

The ground in these beds (one on either side of the entrance) is filled with sandy dirt and lots and lots of rocks and stones, not to mention the fire weeds that sting like chiggers. The initial preparation involved hours of digging, then adding in some decent soil (thankfully school got bags of it for us) and some manure (mostly bagged as well, that we added in, while attempting to remove most of the rocks. In addition to the club students, occasionally another student or school worker has pitched in and dug or pulled weeds and rocks with me!

Seeds planted in the garden have come mostly from my sister Sue and my friend Stephanie back home and include my favorites, which may or may not fare well here. Huge amounts of green beans, peas, radishes, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs and about 40 tomato's have been planted thus far. (all from seed except the tomato's which I nurtured on my bedroom window sill.) This week I anticipate planting a few cucumbers which I've started and perhaps a few flowers to fill in some spots, as well as working on preparing the other side garden, which though smaller, is extremely rocky.

My plan for this smaller side includes "the three sisters" as the trio of sweet corn, pole beans and squash was called by Native Americans, though I don't know how well they may do. I think I'll try it along with a few small areas of potato's which are a big favorite here.

Hesitation and angst permeate my mind lately and my garden efforts here.... I have made such a big deal of my gardening abilities that now if it fails I will "lose face"....(oops...at least many of them have seen my lovely indoor garden). The location is not as ideal as I'd hoped (almost 7 hours sunlight a day) and the director warned me that people may take (i.e. just up and steal) plants and or veggies from the garden, plus the poor soil and the tremendous amount of physical labor involved.... This is the experimental garden year, I have now started telling folks; we will see what will grow, and the soil will be enriched just by growing plants in it this year. By next spring our compost will be ready and I will have a clearer picture of how to adapt my gardening practices to Arvikheer. Plus, I think I will attempt to write a grant for a greenhouse project here for next year!

Children's Day

Children's Day, a national holiday in Mongolia, is celebrated on June 1st. Technically, I believe it's Children's and Mother's Day, but kids are really celebrated on this day. Women's Day is celebrated in March, when all women, not just mother's, are honored. Here in Arvikheer, a new Children's Park has been built since my arrival and the park was crowded and appreciated by many on Children's Day. The ferris wheel has been up for months, (before winter) and the rest of the rides and area seem to have appeared since late April. It's amazing to me how quickly some things happen here, i.e., construction! With the limited number of good weather days (above freezing, long hours of sunlight, etc). when things need to be completed, it happens!

I had just been walking around the area of the park a few weeks earlier (yes, looking for dung for the garden) and it was pretty empty.... All the sudden there is (in addition to the ferris wheel), several other rides including a merry go round, a tall hanging swing ride, a pharoh's boat ride, and an above ground pond where paddle boat rides were offered! It is an amazing little place for this small town and is located right next to the new (as of last summer) soccer field (where teams pay to play there) and across the road from the new sports complex (also new last year).

A couple friends and I walked around, enjoying watching the kids have fun and admiring the festive atmosphere! It was quite crowded and most children were all dressed up; even in the dry dusty park!

Just outside the park area were vendors selling ice cream, drinks, snacks and toys of all sorts... Lots of happy children everywhere! Children are a society's most precious resource and though there are issues with child welfare and safety, (just like everywhere!), it is heartwarming to experience a day dedicated to the celebration of children!