"She is Ashlie. She has clean ger."

I love Autumn. And yes, as of last Thursday it is now officially here! It doesn't look the same in the Gobi as it did in Texas, but the feeling of magic from the coming Holiday season is still in the air (even if we will be one of the only people in our whole province celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas). Autumn marks the day of warm baking. If you know me, you know I love to bake. It proved to be pretty difficult here. We have a small toaster oven, a tray and a metal mixing bowl (used as a cake pan, pie pan, bread pan, casserole dish and any other bakeware you think essential). Banana Bread and Apple-Peach Crisp have been a favorite in our ger (banana bread being my fav. and Apple Crisp being Justin's fav.). Bananas have been available sporadically, but I know as the temperature drops the less we will see them; Apples, though, I'm pretty sure will stick around....I hope. I have seen canned peaches and sometimes canned pineapple-- which have broadened our variety.

Some Banana Bread:


Thankfully, my family sent a package this summer with some autumn scented candles (Pumpkin Spice and Autumn Wreath). They have worked miracles! There are not a lot of things that smell nice here. A ger is definitely not one of them-- especially when your fuel consists of animal dung (have a couple candles going at the same time as your warm dung fire and viola!). Also, traditional gers are owned by herders, and herders are milkers, butchers, leather makers, etc. All of these jobs take place inside the little ger, so imagine the aroma--to Mongolians this is a beautiful scent. A scent of labor, competency and success--of life! This is where we differ. I like mine to smell a little more like lemon cleaner and a warm sweet pastry. Mmmm...



Though it is challenging (baking, that is), I definitely have the time to play around and try to bake. Professional jobs are a lot more laid back here. I like it some days, but others-- it just drives me crazy! Justn and I have sat down and discussed why we feel this need to be busy all the time. We completed an entire weekend of TRYING to find things to do. Why?! Cannot we sit and ponder without feeling guilty, or afraid of being caught 'lounging around'? I'm not saying I will completely adapt to this way of living. But, it makes sense, sort of. Lesson learned: sit down, ponder...(breathe!) every once in a while. The world will stop for you if you let it.

Our yard dog, Dzoltzig. He likes to give me his paw.


He often waits by our ger door for scraps or a scratch behind the ear. We love him.


Justin and I know that making a difference isn't easy. We know that it takes time, patience, talent, relationship building, practice. We have agreed that it's okay if we only make a difference and bring inspiration to one, at least one. We would like to be remembered for our work and diligence in promoting peace and change. However, right now people know us as "the ones with the clean ger". And that's okay! I like it! Everywhere we go it is stated in our introduction, "they live in a very clean ger, it is very comfortable and clean". Thank you! I like it. They may think we're weird. But I'm okay with being remembered as the clean ger keepers.

Not that crazy...

The reason I don't blog more often is because I don't really think that the daily minutia of our lives here in Mongolia is that strenuous or exciting. There are certainly things that make me chuckle to myself (reassembling a live electric wire from the telephone pole to the spliced wire running from our ger for instance or saying all of the things to my students here that I would have never gotten away with in America because they don't speak English). But Ashlie has pointed out that maybe I should write them anyway because they are a part of my experience here. So a quick run down of events...

- The aforementioned wire splicing

A major windstorm snapped the spliced wire running from the telephone pole to our ger that provides us with glorious internet. Yesterday, I mentioned to my haasha father that is was broke and he said something about calling the phone company tomorrow. Then I saw the hamster in his mind wake up, jump up on the wheel and decide this would be a teachable moment for Justin. He then took me over to the other side of the house and pointed to our neighbors roof. I thought, "Oh damn, it's up there, oh well." Then I realized he intended me to scale the wall, jump on the roof and retrieve it. So I did. I felt like freakin' Aladdin jumping across flat roofed, adobe buildings, looking for the wire. The woman's house on which I was jumping came out and watched me. I was probably disturbing her, but she was so surprised to see a white man climbing on her roof, that she was speechless. Then I jumped down and my haasha father and I began cutting and tying the wires back together. At first, he was doing most of the tying, then he said, "Yana!" Depending on the tone and pitch used, yana can range from 'whoopsie-daisie' to 'holy shit that hurt.' I figured the electricity had got him. Immediately after, he decided it was time for my hands on training, and I got to tie the wires. I was doing pretty well and was almost finished when I too got a spine-straightening dose of electricity and he took it away and finished the job. Thanks to some good ol' Mongolian engineering I am now able to blog.

-Attacked by dogs

I was attacked by two dogs yesterday in the country while on a hike. They came ferociously charging and barking at me so I immediately began arming myself with stones and throwing as fast and hard as I could. A very large stone hit one of the dogs and it let out a loud yelp and both of them retreated. Justin 1 Mongolian dogs 0.

I'm going to leave on the high note of my victory over the dogs. Until next time.

Lazy Weekends...

Again, it is such a beautiful fall day today (Saturday). Justin and I had the pleasure of sleeping in and having a great breakfast: eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, fried heam (a mongolian sausage--who knows what's in it..oh wait, probably unmentionables from mutton) and toast.

I was making breakfast when Justin was called outside by our Khashaa Dad. He wanted Justin to help him pull weeds. So I continued making breakfast, and Justin is still working. An hour later he is still working (I thought it was a silly idea to pull weeds when the only thing on the ground IS weeds-- and they cover the entire Khashaa). So I start handwashing the laundry. This normally takes me about an hour and a half to do. And I finish. And Justin is still working. 3 hours later, he comes in--not finished. But at 1pm we finally get to sit down and eat our glorious, cold, breakfast.

Children's Concert (Typed Sept 17th)

Today was such a great day! Not only is it Friday, but everyone has just been so nice and friendly. After school I had to walk across town to the ATM. I was greeted by several older Mongolians (usually I just get stares and *maybe* a smile, mostly just strain-your-neck-stares), waves from children, and Hello's from my students. Feeling welcomed is just such a nice feeling when you are the outsider and minority. All the while, I was thinking 'I REALLY need to get better at Mongolian, so I can show these people that I really do care about them'. They try so hard to speak English, so it makes it easy for me not to speak Mongolian to them--- but I can't afford to lose my Mongolian.

I made it to the ATM and there was only one person in line. I stood behind her and quickly a line of several people formed behind me. Then one woman behind me handed the person at the ATM her card, told her her security code and told her how much to take out. Then another woman passed her card to the lady at the ATM, gave her her security code and told her how much to take out. My high from all of the friendly people outside of the ATM quickly dissolved. But I didn't want this to discourage me. Mongolians have no concept of lining up, whatsoever. AND because I am a minority I usually get served last. Justin and I got a lot of this at the bank this summer. It is VERY frustrating, but what can we do? Back at the ATM-- I shrugged it off, waited for the last person to get her money out, then got my own and went my way. It is a beautifully sunny autumn day here. My students were still walking home from school and several called my name 'Ashlie Teacher, Ashlie Teacher! Hello!'.

Justin and I had the opportunity to attend a children's concert tonight at the local theatre ('TEATP' in Mongolian) It was amazing! They were all so cute and very prepared. Here are some videos from tonight:


The Teatp:



Mongolian Throat Singing:


Mongolian Morin Khuur (Mongolian Violin-ish):


Mongolian Long Singing "Urtiin Duu"


BTW, it did take me longer than 24 hours to upload these THREE videos. LONGER THAN 24 HOURS! That's how slow our connection is. I've had my computer on the entire time. But it is finally finished. It is 1:30am, so goodnight!

The Marathon

Peace Corps is not easy. It is a hard thing to completely put your life on hold for 2 years and forget about all the comforts of life that we've all grown accustomed to--no, that we all expect and demand. With the many hours of "thinking time" we have (we just spent an entire weekend without electricity) I've already seen myself go through many stages. First is excitement (let's do some good!), then doubt (Did I make the right decision to come here? Am really making that much of a difference?), then justification (As long as we can teach one person our duty is done. At least I am getting out and doing something about what I believe), then fear/longing (But, if I was home right now I could be having cheese and steak and fruits and cereal, mexican food, and McDonald's, and etc./What if I early terminated? What would people think of me?), then your second wind comes and the cycle begins itself again.

Justin and I likened our experience here to our marathon. The first few miles are always the hardest, then you get a good pace going and kind of forget you're running for a while & start to daydream. Then pain hits you somewhere (your feet, your knees, your side, or even the heat on your brow--wherever) and brings you back to reality to remind you what you're doing (you're running a marathon-- what kind of weirdo do you have to be to get joy from running 26.2 miles?! This was a stupid idea!). Then you have a bad attitude again for the next few miles, until you're able to fuel up at the next rehydration-station. Once your mouth and tummy are happy you realize you're more than halfway done and continue merrily at a comfortable pace--until, yet again, you are disrupted somehow by a pain or thought.

So the whole experience of a marathon is a scale of hills, of really high highs and really, really low lows. As it is with the Peace Corps. We have now been here for a good (or bad, but mostly good) 99 days. Yet, we're only on mile 3 of our marathon. This should be the marker of thoughts such as 'What are we doing? What kind of stupid idea is this? Who in the right mind would leave a good life, a good job and settle down for two years in a tent as a non-paid volunteer?!' And we've had those thoughts...or I have anyway. Thus the reason why I likened this experience to a marathon. If I can run a marathon I can complete my two year service. Endurance.

I've just finished reading a book called "A Walk in the Woods" By Bill Bryson and have really enjoyed it. It was a hilarious book, and really inspired me. Maybe one day I, too, will hike the 2,100 miles of the Appalachian Trail (in fact, with all this time on my hands, I've already been researching it a bit...call me crazy). I don't know why I do what I do, as crazy as it is, but I love doing it!

Can it be?!

Exciting things are happening in the Newberry Ger. Last Friday, Justin's school kindly gave us a microwave. We had explained to them the day before that an oven would be appreciated greatly...but lost in translation, we got a microwave (not complaining, just explaining). However, our Khashaa family owns a small toaster oven and we were able to borrow it until they need it back. So now we have both, an oven and a microwave. It almost doesn't feel like we're in a 3rd world country. Then, a carpenter came in on Wednesday and added on another 18 inches to our 32 inch bed. Now our bed is a whopping 4 feet 2 inches. Also on Wednesday we received our stove and a shack full of chopped wood, coal and dung. But today...today is the most exciting of all-- an 'electrician' is kindly splitting our neighbor's telephone wires so they will run in our ger...not for a telephone, but for the internet! I am typing this not connected to the internet, hoping that by the time I'm finished the electrician will be also and I will be able to post this to our blog on our very own internet connection. We'll see.

I am also a little impatient for him to finish because I have a big grocery shopping day ahead of me! I heard that one of the stores has chicken again (since Justin and I ran out) so I will need to run over there before it's all sold (who am I kidding? We're the only ones buying it most likely...), and also I saw that a different store had bananas a couple of days ago, but I didn't have enough money on me at the time. Hopefully they have not run out. I am always on the look out for chicken, fruit of any sort and tomatoes (if you don't count them as a fruit)--none of those stay consistently stocked.

Update: Believe it or not, we now have internet in our ger! :)

Meet the neighbors…

(Typed August 30th, 2010)

Since Justin and I live in a Ger, we share a yard (Khashaa) with the landlord. A Khashaa is a fenced in yard (ours is about ½ an acre). Our “landlords” are called our Khashaa Mom (“Khashaa Eej” in Mongolian) and Khashaa Dad (“Khashaa Ow” in Mongolian). Our Khashaa parents are very nice people. They are empty-nesters; my mom is a Training Manager at my school, and my dad is PE Coach at another school. Gers also do not have running water, but our Kashaa family’s house does have running water, so we must fetch water almost daily (this is Justin’s chore).

Well tonight, after much nagging, Justin went to get water and did not come back for some time. I thought I’d be nice and go over to our Khashaa parent’s house and try to bail him out. That’s not what happened. I walked in and saw he was sitting at the dinner table with a bowl of rice and sheep innards in front of him (this made me laugh inside!). Thankfully I let it be known very early that I don’t eat meat (for that very reason: ANY part of an animal could be fed to you at any time). But I failed at bailing him out. We were invited to the living room, offered candy, stumbled through a semi coherent Mongolian conversation, then shown a couple hundred pictures. Then somehow we’re convinced to come back over at 9pm to help with computer data entry?? We didn’t get home until about 10:45 at night.

Ger Living

(Typed Sept 3, 2010)

You know, living in a ger isn’t that bad. I was really bummed when I found out that Justin and I were going to be spending the remainder of our 2 years in a small, round, one room tent.

Before coming to Mongolia I knew that a great percentage of its population lived in gers. I was excited once I found out that I would be living in a ger during our 2 month long summer training (because I knew that living in a ger during the summer is rather easy). I didn’t have a great experience with it (my ger was a really old ger, leaked everywhere, infested with hundreds of spiders, things like that), but I was happy that I could say “yeah, I lived in a ger for a summer”-- and be done with it. I also knew that since I am married PC will not put married couples in gers for their two year duration. So once summer training was over I was confident that Justin and I would be moving into an apartment (with plumbing! I was so excited about having running water and a toilet!).

No. We received our site announcement and our housing agreement (or should I say ger agreement). A ger?! For two years?! Living in one of the coldest countries, in a tent, for two years?! I was only mad at myself for not expressing this dislike for gers to my training staff, so they could pass it onto the housing staff and we *might* have been set up in a concrete box known as an apartment (but remember, having running water and toilet is magical here).

Instead on dwelling on the negatives (well, I shouldn’t say “instead” because I still continued very much to dwell on the negatives-- maybe I should say “in addition to dwelling on the negatives…”) I started to see some positives. 1) not only are we getting ‘bad-ass’ credit for living in the Gobi Desert for 2 years, but we are now (to everyone’s knowledge here) the 1st married couple in Mongolia to be placed in a ger. Major bad-ass points. 2) I will be major skilled in making fires, preserving water, fetching water, knowing where to put things so they don’t freeze during the night (ie computers and all electronics need to be put inside of our sleeping bag with us while we sleep, because we could be waking up to a ger that is 30 degrees inside-- or colder), and don’t forget how skilled I will be at crapping over a hole in our very own outhouse (that we share with at least 2 other people).

Justin and I are already growing closer through this experience. We are constantly only about 6 feet away from each other. Maybe by the time our 2 years is up and we arrive in the beautiful US of A, we will have separation anxiety. Who knows?

My Birthday and other things….

(Typed August 30th, 2010)

I had a great birthday! Justin planned it all out. I had a surprise party (Aug 13th), and when I walked in I saw that he was making EGGPLANT PARMESAN! I didn’t think it was possible in Mongolia! He really had to pull some expensive strings to get a hold of eggplant and mozzarella. It was delicious! All of my American and Mongolian friends were there. They made a big card for me. My Mongolian Language teachers gave me a gift of hand painted chopsticks. Justin also got a hold of a cake somehow…it was a Russian cake. It was just a great birthday!

The next day (Aug 14th ) my Host Family threw me another surprise party. They served all sorts of fruit and got me a box of chocolate. My Host Mom even made chocolate apple hushuur (like chocolate apple fried turnovers). It was amazing. I felt so loved and had just an awesome day!

Then on Sunday (my actual birthday) we left our training site and went to Zonmod to meet one last time as Trainees. We were finding out where we were being placed for two years! I received many other birthday wishes from fellow Trainees, Trainers and PCVs. One of the married PCV couples (Ashlee and Scott) even made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich-- doesn’t sound like a great present, but IT WAS! Any type of American food is heavenly. We are so deprived in Mongolia.

Justin and I are really enjoying living on our own again! We live in a great town in the Gobi Desert. We have gone crazy making our own meals. My biggest struggle this past summer was not being able to cook for myself, or choose what I was to eat, when I was to eat it and how much of it I was to eat. Food really makes an impact on your life! I have reunited with tomatoes and cheese! And I have forever departed with Mutton…(I hope…).

So, we have been in our little town for just over a week now. We have been going to the little food shops everyday to pick up ingredients needed for our meals. We have to pop in several food shops in order to complete our 5 item shopping list. So, at every food shop we go to I ask if they have chicken (because I WILL NOT eat any red meat here). And sadly, chicken is just really hard to come by here in Mongolia. There is no chicken in my town….Well yesterday we were making our rounds at grocery shopping. This time we were on the hunt for garlic. We decided we would pop in one last shop. When we stepped in my eyes went directly to their freezer and what did I see??? Chicken! I was so excited about it (I’m in urgent need of protein) that I blurted out “be bayartay bahn, be bayartay bahn!” which is Mongolian for “I’m happy, I’m happy!” I didn’t even give myself time to think in English first. Then I immediately asked for the chicken and bought as much as I could. Good thing Justin and I own a freezer! I hope I made an impression on the shop keeper (my excitement probably freaked her out). Maybe she’ll keep chicken stocked??? Probably not. This is, after all, Mongolia!