Fire Wagon

A fun little story, a preview of things to come. There is not much time. I took my first resupply to Darkhan, it was a very enjoyable experience. Not only did we manage to fit 13 people in a car made for 5, but it broke down to boot! Eventually, with a few taps here and there the decrepit Audi started up again.I had a little girl on my lap and there were two people in the driver's seat. I could not help but laugh the whole way with the rest of the Mongols, it really was hilarious; you know that clown car cliche. The rest of the trip was uneventful, which is a good thing. I will write more in a month on my next resupply. It will take me a while to write everything out. My Hashaa family rocks.

UB Days

UB is a big city. And big cities have positives and negatives. It is a small shock to be around so many people again; I am excited to head out to site on Sunday morning. Peace Corps has done a decent job of showing us around the city. Unfortunately they decided to bar us access to our settling in funds till tomorrow; then decided to schedule a two day conference, our swearing in on saturday and finally our exodus on sunday, thus leaving us very little time to shop on our own to buy needed supplies. On top of that they have not given us cell phones, which frustratingly complicates matters.

We went out to a local bar last night, about 30 of us. It was 50 cent drafts, so of course we became fish for a few hours. It was a blast, reliving summer events and contemplating future journeys on a scale comparable to the Odyssey. Tomorrow we meet our supervisors thus revealing exactly what grades we'll be teaching and how many hours we'll be expected to work (basically what we're doing here, what are we doing here?). I look forward to another exhausting day.

Peace Corps says this is Kevin's blog, not Peace Corps'. His opinions are his. They do not represent a buracreaucy's instition's opinion, namely the Corps of Peace.

Five Furious Weeks

Finding a starting point is difficult. The last five weeks have been full of antics beyond words and pictures give only a small black and white perspective (though, pictures will be coming soon). Peace Corps would not appreciate many stories I would like to share therefore I will give a brief synopsis of events so a glimpse of life in Mongolia can be seen.

Strange events erupt without notice, such as a random dude pulling up to my host family's house with two other PCTs wanting to go to the countryside to drink, ride horses and pet jerky camels. Another day my brother woke me up while I was napping, explained "You're going to the river to drink with mom and dad" and we met up with two other PCT's families and a couple hours later ended up back home. We went camping on a mountain and my buddy picked me up by my feet and dunked my head in the fire. Luckily I caught myself on the searing rocks, avoiding a fantastic face burning. My eyeballs have never been so close to a fire. One time we ended up in a countryside restaurant, singing Mongolian tunes until the wee hours. Or there was the other time we forced a restaurant open at 1 am and played go fish for a while. Then there was dancing on the mountain with an 80 year old man, in the pouring rain, with his shirt off screaming "HEY HEY HEY!!" He invited us into his house and we sat down on his bed and it literally exploded underneath us. I could go on and on. I'll have to write a book once the two years are up. Things are just so ridiculous and amazing. You never know what the next minute will hand you, just make sure your hands are open and ready.

I passed my PC Mongolian language test so everything is on track. We get sworn in, down in UB, in a week (that's right I used "in" three times, well done kevin, well done). I will be living in a ger for the next two years in a small Soum of about 2200 people in north central Mongolia. Gers are a lot of work. Chopping wood in -40 degree weather does not sound like fun, but welcome to Mongolia.