Baby, It's Cold Outside.

I really can't stay
(but baby it's cold outside)
I've got to go away
(but baby it's cold outside)
This evening has been
(been hoping that you'd drop in)
So very nice
(I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice)
My mother will start worry
(beautiful, what’s your hurry)
My father will be pacing the floor
(listen to the fireplace roar)
So really I'd better scurry...

Baby, it's cold outside!


The Christmas Season cannot officially begin in the Newberry home until after Thanksgiving (even right after Thanksgiving dinner is considered cheating to Justin)-- Justin won't allow it. I see his point, but I yearn for those Christmas tunes. They take me back to a magical time when I was 5 and naive. My mind was open to so many things, and I was in a safe haven--nothing to worry about and everything to explore. I think my life is still as adventurous, but I do take caution a little more than I'd like to.

Anyway, I brought Christmas into our ger a little early this year. I was sitting at our desk/vanity creating Thanksgiving cards to give to my teachers. I had my iTunes playing in the background (Norah Jones, I love her), chicken roasting in the oven, and a glorious apple scented candle that my sisters sent to me in a package (THANK YOU!). Justin was still at school, so I had the ger to myself-- all 375 sq feet. Then all of a sudden the beautiful sound of Josh Groban's voice in 'Silent Night' started melting my heart. Usually if this happened (a Christmas song ventured its way into my iTunes playlist) I would immediately stop it and switch songs...You don't want to ruin the magic of the Christmas Season before its time! But, this instance, I let it slide. It's close enough, isn't it? My ger was warm and cozy, I was creating holiday cards in the spirit of giving. Silent Night chose the best moment to pop up on my iTunes. It was magical.


Then, I heard Justin's footsteps in the sand outside our ger and I quickly changed it back to Norah. Only 2 more days and I'm safe to listen to it all I want!

Well, the low temperature tonight is -11. It was a pretty rough walk home from school this evening. I noticed at about 5:30pm (when most of the teachers start to leave) that they were bundling up quite sufficiently (even more so than usual). They did so almost as if it were an art. I was mesmerized at how skillful they were with a scarf: wrap around the neck once, then the head, then leave enough just under your chin so you can pull it up over your nose once you're outside in the blistering wind. (And yes, the wind is blistering. While Justin and I were at the showers today he saw a child with 'rosy red' cheeks and commented on how red they were. The poor kid's cheeks weren't rosy from the heat of the shower, but were blistered and wind chapped. It's brutal out there.) I'm sure I will learn plenty from the masters for winter has yet to officially begin.

Justin and I will leave to the big city (Ulaanbaatar) in 2 days (Friday morning). Peace Corps has a nice Thanksgiving potluck dinner for any and all PCVs who decide to travel that way. Of course we're going! There will be turkey!! Also all of our friends will be there--whom we consider family. We went through a lot this summer during our Training, and a handful of them Justin and I are very close with. It will be exciting to see these amazing people again!

After our Thanksgiving weekend, Peace Corps also has a 1 week training for all Teachers. So Justin and I will be away from home for a little over a week. We've already been advised to get rid of all liquids in our ger. Anything we want to save needs to be put in the fridge (lotions, contact solution, nail polish, shaving cream, shampoos, etc) or else we will be coming home to frozen supplies. Justin and I have already seen ice creep its way into our ger in our water buckets...How frightening.

Well, here's an early Happy Thanksgiving from us to you! Cahan amraray!

Potty Humor

by Justin



Last night Ashlie went out to a birthday party with some of her co-workers. In Mongolia it is generally not usual for (at least among our schools) spouses to attend work related social functions, so I got to stay home. Friday night at the Newberry ger is pizza night and I wasn't going to let Ashlie's absence change that. The difference in Mongolia is that you have to make the pizza from scratch. It's not bad if you don't mind substituting mozzarella with processed singles. So I started making my pizza. It should also be noted that making pizza dough is a very messy process and it is even more difficult to clean without running water or someone to help you.

During this whole pizza making excursion I began to feel the urge to urinate. However, as I mentioned before it is very messy and difficult to clean without running water, so I just plowed ahead, kneading and mixing whilst crossing my legs. The urge continued to grow, but I was so close to finishing that I didn't want to wash myself off, go to the outhouse, then come back in, get my hands messy again, and have to wash off all over again. So I held it. Finally, I finished the dough, made the pizza, hastily threw it in the oven, then began washing the dough off of my hands all while doing a faster, more elaborate version of the pee pee dance. I ran out of the ger, my hands still dripping with water.

I failed to mention my footwear. I was wearing my leather, Mongolian houseshoes. I'm sure everyone at some point has slid across a kitchen or dorm hallway in their worn out house shoes, with the slick soles just gliding across the hard floor. I had the misfortune of dicovering that these soles have the same effect on soiled, wooden planks. I dashed into the outhouse.

As my right foot slipped over the wooden board, saturated with years of poorly aimed urine, I felt my body falling through the hole, into the poo pit. I had enough time during the fall to process that I was indeed falling into the hole. My good friend and fellow Peace Corps volunteer Rob, once described falling into the outhouse hole as a dealbreaker. That at that point, his volunteer service would cease, and he would quietly go home. I began to vaguely recall these words and ponder them when my body, genitalia first, crashed to the floor. You see, outhouse floor holes are merely a board removed from the floor, thereby allowing enough room for one's feces to fall through, but not one's entire body. I did find out it was wide enough though for about half of my body. And so I lay there, leg dangling through the floor, hovering a foot or two above a frozen pile of crap, face smooshed onto the aforementioned urine soaked floor. Perhaps worst of all, my Mongolian house shoe was now the domain of the poo pit, as it had fallen off of my foot.

A quick side note, I retrieved the shoe this morning using some wire and a long cardboard tube. I had no intention of wearing it, I just did not want to be reminded of this shameful event everytime I had to relieve myself. It was much the same as a defeated army trying to retake its captured standard.

Meanwhile, the urge to pee had left me and was replaced by an intense pain that was originating in my crotch and radiating throughout most of my body. I managed to pick my self up and do what I had set out to do in the first place. Afterwards,with as much dignity as I could muster under the circumstances, I waddled back to the ger one-shoed, with a cut forehead, cut thumb, cut scrotum, bruised buttocks, bruised testicle, and most of all a bruised ego.

We just have a little time on our hands...

Quick Thoughts and Stories

by Justin

Stories

Dune

We ran out of water this week. Normally, when we run out of water it's no thang, we just go next door, fill up our 20 gallon osny sow (Mongolian for water container in transliterated Mongolian)and we're back in business. However, due to a string of events beyond our control, we were without water for roughly 36 hours. It all began on Tuesday when our haasha mother told Ashlie she was going to UB for the weekend. Irrelevant you are saying to yourself, but wait, I remember from jr. high English this is called foreshadowing. Then, on Tuesday night Ashlie said she was tired and didn't really feel like doing dishes. Hurray I thought, no dishes means I don't have to get water tonight. I would just get it in the morning. But by the time I got up, our haasha mother was gone to UB and her husband was at work. So morning turned to afternoon and afternoon turned to evening, but still no EB (I am trying to keep him anonymous because our blog has a really big following here in Mandalgovi). Here's where the UB trip becomes important. Normally, both of them would be home by that time on a Wednesday night. But because she was gone to UB, EB did as many husbands do when the wife is away, he went out with the boys. He returned late that night, clearly under the influence, and loudly shouted "Yagat!?" (why?!) Not really sure what this was in reference to, but it is slightly humorous. So I thought, well I'll catch him in the morning. But he was up and at 'em pretty early considering the previous evening's outing and was again gone in the morning. So we sat there, trying to conserve every drop of moisture. We ate the only things that we could make without water. PB and J and grilled cheese sandwiches. FOOLS! The salty peanut butter gave me an insatiable thirst, but alas there was nothing to drink. I layed on the bed tossing back and forth. I kept imagining I was a character from the book Dune (it's a sci-fi book about this planet with very little water where the people have to wear suits that prevent their bodies from losing water for any of you non-nerds reading this). I thought I was going to die. My mind raced. What if he is gone to the countryside? What if he isn't coming back? What will we do? We're doomed I tell ya, DOOMED! Then Ashlie suggested we just go buy some bottled water. Oooohhh yeah, that's why I'm married. So we did, we made dinner, then we rehydrated. Then EB came home and we refilled. The end.

Pigs

There is a family of pigs in our town. The only pigs I've ever seen in Mongolia. The piglets have recently come of age and have begun roaming the town like their parents. The other day I was walking home from school and I saw the little piglets foraging near the playground by our house. I don't know why, but an urge came over me. Maybe it is the lack of pork products in my diet, maybe it is my inner child, maybe an inner sadist, but for whatever reason I had an urge. I stopped and looked around for possible witnesses. Seeing no one in the vicinity, I began walking towards the little swine. Slowly at first, stealthily even. I crept nearer and nearer. My stride lengthened, my pace quickened. Before I knew it I was chasing them across the alley, listening to them squeal as they ran away with evil delight. They ran across the playground and I stopped. Smirking and smiling with satisfaction, I began to stroll back towards my ger. As I walked by an apartment building, I heard a quick tapping at a window. I looked up and saw nothing. I looked back down and resumed walking. I heard the tapping again. I looked up and saw a child of maybe 5 or 6 or 7 looking down at me from his apartment window. My instant reaction was that he, like many of the children, just wanted to say hello to the American, so I waved. But he did not smile, or wave back. He just stared at me, with blank, expressionless eyes. Oh no, I thought, he saw what I did. He saw me chase the pigs. I began to walk faster in my shame, still looking back over my shoulder. Then as I was about to turn the corner, I saw him hold up his index and middle fingers in front of his eyes. He had seen me and was letting me know it. I'm not sure what exactly it was he saying to me, but the combination of his expression and gestures made me think he was saying, "We don't take kindly to foreign, pig-chasing scum 'round 'ere. Watch your ass." I will no longer chase pigs, or livestock of any sort in Mongolia.

The Shower House

Today was, in weather terminology, shitty. The increased frequency of "shitty" days this time of year is in direct correlation with the general negativity with which the climate of Mongolia is viewed. This also happens to be, as you faithful followers of the blog already know, my favorite day of the week. Shower day! So, Ashlie and I went through our morning rituals, bundled up, and headed for the shower house. We walked, heads down into a stiff Arctic wind blowing about 30 mph. It must have been into negative double digits with the wind chill. We walked silently, but resolutely into the beast, knowing that steamy, liquidy, cleansing salvation lay but a mere 10 minutes away. We made it. Strode triumphantly to the front door, pulled and... son of a bitch. Locked. About that time a Mongolian woman walked up to the door and pulled on the handle (because apparently we humble, simple Americans were standing in the cold because we are unfamiliar with the concept of, you know, pulling on the handle). She then looked at a paper taped to the window and said, "Arone nigen dzock" (11:00). I looked at my phone. 10:30. Damn. So we stood there, backs against the wall, waiting for the propietor of the establishment when up walked another young woman. I was familiar with this particular woman. She proceeded to talk to us rapidly in Mongolian and pick hairs off of our jackets, button our buttons, and dusts off our backs. In the midst of the grooming process, she noticed an orange tag stuck to Ashlie's shoe laces. This was no ordinary orange tag though. This was a tag that was put on Ashlie's shoe in March when we ran our marathon. A tag that says 'I am no mere mortal, but a demi-god who has ran 26.2 miles.' However, and understandably, Mongolians are unfamiliar with this concept. She pointed at it and said, "Mohai." (ugly). Ashlie said under her breath, "Please don't tear it off." At which point the woman bent down and tore it off. Ashlie then said, "Please don't throw it away." At which point, as if mockingly on cue, the woman threw it away. The woman then continued on with her conversation, but Ashlie never took her eye off of it. Soon after another woman drove up and distracted the talkative young lady, Ashlie took off running across the dirt parking lot and victoriously picked the little tag out of a tumbleweed. Disaster averted, athletic immortality resurrected.

Quick thoughts

*People in Mongolia walk noticably faster during the winter.

*Don't grab onto your metal out-house handle in the winter with wet hands.

*For unexplained reasons watching steam come off of my bodily functions while using the restroom has become a reasonable substitute for reading magazines.

That is all.

Mongolian Traditional Medicine

As I stated in my last post-- I woke up earlier this week with a shocking pain in my back. Justin had to help me get out of bed. It was in the mid section of my back. I don't know what could have caused it (except I must have slept wrong or something, because it was completely fine the day before). I had to go home from school early so I could lay down, because sitting up and walking hurt. The next day, my back felt better, but still hurt enough that I needed help bending over and such. Well on day 3 of my backache a teacher told me about a Mongolian Traditional Doctor. She took me to her and they treated my back with "cupping". I only had one cup placed on my back (the mid section where it hurt). All of the air was suctioned out of the cup, my skin was raised into the jar and was purple (almost black) and wrinkly from lack of oxygen. They left it on there for about 15 mins. It didn't hurt at all, in fact, it felt relaxing. After the cup was removed I had a raised, purple cirlce on my back (my war wound) to show Justin. Now it is day 5 of my backache and the circle is still there, pretty dark. I hear it will go away after a few days.

As for my backache. It still hurts. A lot. BUT-- it doesn't hurt in my mid section anymore, it has moved up to my shoulder area. So I wonder if the cupping really did work??

Pictures of my back after cupping:

Firsts but not lasts cont'd...

1) Inhaled about a pound of powdered bleach-- wouldn't recommend it. Our school 'disinfected' everything by setting powdered bleach bombs in all the classrooms. I'm not sure exactly how they did it, but when I went back to school on Monday EVERYTHING was covered in this chalky powder. No one could sit or use the tables. I spent most of my day today scrubbing walls, chairs, tables, etc-- trying to get all that powder off. Sweeping it up was the worst. It just created a cloud of bleach that you couldn't get away from. My throat hurts.

2) Mastered biscuit making. I can whip up a perfectly golden, crispy on the outside yet warm, soft and flaky on the inside scone. Or biscuit. I can't decide what to call it. I mentioned this before, but I am torn between being a southern bell, or a british bird. Either way, they are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Especially with honey...or gravy...

3) Haven't washed my hair in about 7 days. That might be too much information-- but it's true. We are out of water and our neighbors have been gone. We use their plumbing to retrieve water. Hopefully they will be back soon. I've already tried every page in the book on how to get rid of greasy lookin' hair. But, learn from me, the only way to accomplish a non-greasy look-- you. need. water.

4) Broke out my long warm pea-coat today for the first time. The high is in the 20's-- but it's another one of those miserably windy days, so I suspect the wind chill brings it much lower than that.

5) Went to see a Traditional Mongolian Medicine Doctor for my back. The other day (Monday) I woke up in the middle of the night because of an intense pain in my back. Then the next day I could hardly move it. I took some pain relievers and by the end of the day I was moving (but not much). Everyday since then it has been getting a little better. I'll leave my experience at the Traditional Mongolian Medicine Doctor's office for my next post. I need to gather some pictures you might enjoy. Pretty interesting...

6) Watched 5 movies in 2 days. I'm sure Justin can top me in this. I am not a movie watcher (even in Mongolia) but when I started watching one movie I didn't realize how well it magically took you away to that specific place and time. I had to watch 2 others immediately after because the magic was so intense. Then after the 3rd I had to go to the bathroom-- put my jacket on, trudge through the intense cold (and snow) to the dilapidated jorlon with my head lamp on (what? it's dark out there, I don't want to fall in the hole.), squat, then come back to my 50 degree warm ger (and yes 50 degrees IS warm-- when outside temperatures are significantly lower). Magic gone.

7) Had a great conversation with an Oriflame consultant at school (Oriflame is like Avon). The conversation was in Mongolian! It makes me happy when I can converse with someone longer than 5 mins and to be understood! Hopefully these conversation will last much longer and my vocab count can rise to more than 100 words.

8) And last but not least-- As of today, Justin and I have officially made it through our 1st semester of school in Mongolia (they have 4 semesters-- so we're a quarter of the way done with this school year!). Since the semester is over, we have a 10 day break from school. Housework is in order (ger work). I spent today (my 1st day off) cleaning classrooms. (The janitor looked at me funny when I walked into school with my *own* rubber gloves.:). Tomorrow I will again see the Traditional Mongolian Medicine Doctor and then rest a bit by cleaning my home.

Just a Dream

Last night I had the pleasure of dreaming a marvelous dream! I was walking down the glossy (so glossy you could see your reflection), tiled aisle of Wal-Mart. I remember saying 'Oh, it is so clean! Everything is in order! I know where everything is!' Then I actually looked at the shelves and they contained only the food available here in Mongolia. Same ol' root vegetables, rice, noodles, dairy products...Regardless of what that dream Wal-Mart had in stock, I was happy to be there still. Then some zombie started chasing me and the dream went on...


Anyway, Justin is totally right about dairy products here. If there isn't a picture on it, I don't buy it. It can say the word cow all it wants, but if there is no picture-- no deal. He mentioned buying some sausage (called 'heyam' in Mongolian) that had the words saying it was made from pig...and there were actually cartoon pictures of pigs on the label--but once opened we realized that it very well might have been pig, but it was not a part of a pig we were going to eat & expired at that! The meat was black. Probably blood and intestines. Dzolzig got a good meal that night. BTW, Justin didn't mention that the yogurt his school director gave us was expired--by two months. I use it in my baking--just mix a little bit with water and make a milk substitute from it.

Speaking of baking. I made some pretty yummy rolls last night from scratch. It was a perfect Saturday. No school sports competitions going on, no unexpected yard chores, no real work--just my Community English class that Justin helps me teach. We made our way to the class (it was 10:45am, snowy and dreary-- so perfect for Justin, he loves it) and none of my students showed up-- so we went home, put on a huge pot of vegetable soup, had a fire going and I made my rolls. Then we just ate soup and rolls open bar all day long. It was nice and toasty and cozy. Justin made the yummy soup. It was delicious.


So about a month ago Justin winterized our ger. In order for a ger to be ready for winter two layers of felt should be put on the ger, then a skirt needs to be placed around the bottom on the outside, then dirt needs to cover the skirt (to cover holes/cracks) and a ping is attached(a small detachable room that connects to the door of the ger, it is used to store fuels, a freezer, and to block as much wind as possible from coming inside the ger). We still do not have our ping up-- but I'm sure it will come soon, as the weather is dropping rather quickly.




So now that our ger is toasty, it keeps the warmth in pretty well. If you build an awesome fire your ger can get over 100 degrees inside!

Justin is outside of our ger trying to show the immense difference in temperature between outside our ger and the inside. Inside it is over 100 degrees, outside it is in the teens. His breath is showing, but my flash couldn't catch it.

Here's a picture of me doing laundry in our toasty ger. We've mastered making fires, now we need to master regulating a comfortable temperature-- because our ger is either 40 degrees or 100.


And finally, just some random pics of the Newberry Ger. I found another use for our indoor clothes line-- holiday decorations! (Oh! we learned last weekend that we can't really put our clothes on the outside line anymore-- they froze stiff. It was hilarious. You could hold our towels completely horizontal. Justin wanted to play sword fights...well that's nothing new.)


I went to one of the markets and found these adorable thingies. They are the cutest Cutie Pies I have ever seen. I love holiday clementines! I was surprised to be seeing ANY type of citrus-- I bought a kilo and eat about 6 a day. :)


I know I'm rambling, but just one more thing. I've learned that when I am not busy I tend to be more selfish. I think about what I could have been doing in the states, what Justin and I could have had, how normal our lives could be....I day dream. I think most people are like that. Usually we are too busy to think about ourselves because we are helping/serving others (and I think that's the way it should be). There is a quote that I have to repeat to myself when my attitude falls short of a serving attitude. "Forget yourself and get to work." told to Gordon B. Hinckley by his father--Bryant S. Hinckley. That quote seemed to straighten Gordon right up. I chose to come to Mongolia to help teach. And I don't regret coming here. But you know, the grass is always greener. One day I'll wake up in my later years and think all of this time in Mongolia was just a dream. But before that times come-- I will live it up here!

Hello, it's me

Hello again. I am mostly writing out of my verbal obligation to Ashlie that I would blog this weekend. It snowed again. I love the snow. It's fantastic and really brightens my day. I tend to get overdressed for the occasion. It can be the same temperature outside that it is in my ger, but if there is snow on the ground then by-God I'm dressing up for it. A scarf, four layers up top, three below, it gets rather sweaty on a walkabout. Anyway, little news to tell. Our country director and associates came to visit this week. That was fun. I really appreciate them coming to the boonies to make sure we are doing ok. My school director came over that night also and brought yogurt with a cow on the picture. Ashlie always appreciates knowing what type of animal our dairy products come from even if it is in the form of a cartoon character on the label. It's reassuring in its own way. The sausage with the dancing 3 little pigs on it was less honest, but this actually tastes like a cow's yogurt. On Monday I'm being observed by my director. If I prove worthy, I will be prepping our representative teacher for the next two weeks in what equates to the teaching Olympics for our town. And even if I'm sub par my school gets my labor for free so I don't think they give a damn. That is all for today. But tomorrow is a new day, so check the blog daily (we're trying to increase our site views monthly).

Halloween in the Gobi

My English Club students have been working hard to prepare for their 1st Halloween party. Their party had been canceled many times, but we were finally able to party last night!

A few weeks ago the students read about the Halloween holiday and we made a list of Halloween games they would like to play. Students find this holiday very interesting (as they should, because it is kinda weird when you think about it). We decided to have a costume contest, Halloween bingo, bobbing for apples and a 'guess how many jelly beans in the candy jar' contest.

The students completely put this together themselves-- I was just there to help when needed. Here is a picture of the DJs and MC (students):


Bobbing for Apples: They changed it up a little bit. One tumpin was empty and the other had all of the apples. Students were to race to see who could transfer the most apples to the empty tumpin. They really loved this game! I'm sure that water was freezing!



Here is a picture of the winner of the Candy Jar guessing contest. Justin and I bought the jelly beans and counted out 570 to fit in this jar. This winner guessed 600 jelly beans. However, while the contest was going on, one of the English teachers pulled me aside and asked me how many jelly beans there were. I told her and she said 'well, acutally there are 6 less than that. I ate.' I thought it was hilarious! This teacher is known for her sweet tooth and cannot contain herself when alone (or completely surrounded by people). So in actuality there were 564 jelly beans in that jar. :)


We can't have a party without BINGO! It was a tradition for me growing up that at every holiday our family would get together to play a themed bingo. We loved the little prizes (and sometimes big prizes) that we could win. So I just HAD to introduce this game to them (none of them knew how to play bingo!!). These students played a Halloween Bingo and the winner won a certificate (students here CRAVE certificates...makes it easy for the teacher) and a huge handful of candy.


Finally we had a costume contest. I was so proud of these students dressing up. Before the party they were all so nervous, asking questions 'where can we get costumes', 'how can we dress up', 'what can I wear'. It was very hard for them because there are no costume shops here. Also, money is an issue, so they can't just go and buy materials (and where would they buy it???). So these are homemade costumes you see. They are so creative and I am so proud!




Finally, my costume. It isn't anywhere near as creative as theirs. I also had a meeting that I had to go to right before the party, then another one DURING the party-- so I couldn't dress up completely. But I'll give you one guess at what I wanted to be:

I miss you, Annie :(