Comfortable Living Part 2

Here's the big one. The one that will change my life completely here as a PCV in Mongolia. Mr. Blender is nice--but Mrs. I-will-wash-all-your-clothes-for-you-in-one-load-so-your-hands-don't-freeze-and-aren't-rubbed-raw-every-weekend-and-cut-your-laundry-hours-in-half is the ultimate winner here.

Please welcome: Mrs. Washing Machine!

 She's completed with pink flowers and pink rhinestones on the dial. She lives in Megan's apartment (because she has running water) and I make a weekly visit to see both Megan and Mrs. Washing Machine. She has a spin dry, but doesn't have a dryer. So our clothes will still be damp and we'll have to walk 10 mins in the cold with wet laundry, but it's a heck of a lot better than 3 or 4 hours of hand-washing every week!

We paid 160,000 Tugrik for her. But between the 6 of us, it was only about 27,000 each (roughly $22 each). We paid it gladly.

As for root beer float night: it didn't happen :( That day was freezing! We had a cold front come in and the high was only in the lower 40's. We decided to post-pone it until it was a bit warmer (which will need to happen before the end of this month, because October is when winter begins!).

I seriously feel like I'm living the life. What else do I need? I have absolutely nothing to complain about. My life here is easy. A microwave would be pretty cool, actually--but we honestly have no where to put it and I don't see us getting one. We have friends (Mongolian & PCVs), we have good food (because that IS important--you'll never know how important it is until you're surrounded by only steamed flour, boiled meat and fermented milk), and we're warm.

1st Day of School for the 2nd time

The opening ceremony. All 1,600 students come to the outside assembly.

The governor of Mandalgovi came to speak.

After the assembly all the students come inside to hear the President of Mongolia give a lesson on the 1st day of School (on the TV).

I feel like the 1st day of School was the beginning of the end. This is it. One. Last. School. Year. So, what are we going to do about it? Work. Play. Make memories. I have to say, going into it (days before the 1st day of school) I was at a low point. Coming back to a ger after the amazing life you can live in an apartment-- in addition to the condition our ger was in when we returned home to it, I was uneasy about doing this again. The uneasiness didn't last for long though-- something clicked and I had a change in gears. We make life as enjoyable or difficult as we want it to be. And I've made a decision that my life will be a good but challenging one!

It's so good to be back in my own kitchen. Or I guess I should say, it's so good to be able to use my own kitchen utensils and appliances again! I brought back an item from UB that will change my life here in Mandalgovi:

Meet Mr. I'm-going-to-make-your-life-so-awesome-this-year Blender.

Already I've found Cherry Compote and made it into a cherry pie filling. Made probably the best pie crust ever--using my blender (pie crust was my thing back in the states...I can't imagine it getting much better, but it did--oh so flaky with just the right amount of buttery and sweetness to it!).

I've been wanting a smoothie for a while, but ice is a very foreign concept to Mandalgovians. "Why would you want to drink something cold? And if you want it cold why don't you just put it outside?" So ice trays are not available, BUT bananas ARE readily available right now and awesome when frozen. So, next I found some Strawberry Compote and...BAM!



Strawberry & Banana Smoothie



Now if only bananas weren't $2 a pop I'd be doing this daily. Next on my list: Peanut Butter.

Right now it feels like we're living the dream life. We have so many American sitemates here to talk to and hang out with, we've received great packages this summer with amazing food, and it's still warm out so we're not constantly slaving over the stove/bagging coal/cleaning up coal dust, dung dust or dealing with frozen things. Life feels relatively easy. I mean, there are still ger chores that must happen (taking out the dirty water, getting clean water, sweeping up the sand that finds its way through the sides of the ger, etc.) but NOTHING compared to winter ger chores.

The warm weather has been messing with my mind though. It doesn't feel right to be here and not be cold. The other night (about 9:30) I was reading in bed when I had an urge to go to the bathroom. I could hear the wind blowing and my mind went to winter mode and started thinking 'you can hold it in for a while longer--maybe even through the rest of the night'--prolonging the long cold walk to the outhouse. Finally I couldn't hold it anymore and got up and prepped myself to go outdoors. I opened the ger door with my eyes squinting, ready...and....warmth. It was warm. It made me happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I am warm. Sad that it won't last for much longer. (And yes, I hold it in as looooong as possible in the winter-- there is no going to the outhouse if you 'think' you need to go...you only go when you HAVE to go.)

This is a beautiful site to me:



The fact that our ping (the little shed/entryway they put up in front of our ger to protect from wind getting in through the front door and also serve as storage for our fuel) is not up-- they only put it up during the winter season and remove it once it's warm. The fact that you can see the sun shining through the door. The fact that the the door is slightly open (and it's okay, because it's warm!). It's a beautiful site, for sure.

Goodbye Summer. I will miss you.



Flowers Justin picked for me on our 1st day in our apartment this summer.

 Summer has come and gone. Where did it go? I don’t even remember being warm anymore. There is a part of me that is excited for fall to return: apple pies, the taste of cinnamon, waking up for that hot cup of spiced anything, scarves (for style, not as a survival accessory, like during winter), and making fires for fun. But I just don't want to let go of the warmth just yet.

Justin and I made it back safely to Mandalgovi two days ago. We had an 8 hour off road bus ride that only stopped mysteriously a couple of times. One time it was to help another bus out because it had broken down. The drivers couldn’t fix that bus, so about 40 more people joined us on our bus the rest of the way. I felt bad for those who had to stand in the aisle for the next hour.



School starts on Thursday. Once it begins our downhill tread will also begin. We’ve made a lot of plans for this year-- we have a lot of projects up our sleeves-- and a lot of new site-mates to help us out! This will be a great year for Mandalgovi and its PCVs:  



Mandalgovi PCVs 2011

Over the summer (for the last 4 months) I have been living out of one small suitcase with about 5 different changes of clothes. It was really doable. There were times I wore my dirty clothes more than I should have before washing-- or people that had seen me in the same outfit every time we had a chance to meet-- but really it was nice to live free and on the go. We moved around a lot this summer, with our Asian Vacation/backpacking trip, training in Darkhan, staying UB, then finally our Mid Service Training (because, yes! We are half-way through our service!). When we got back to our ger though (a little more about that instant in a minute) I realized just how much I can live with out. Wait a sec, I remember saying this EXACT same thing one year ago when I was first moving into my ger. We came to Mongolia with 5 HUGE over-stuffed suitcases and I was feeling the satisfaction of living simply then….now fast forward to today and I’ve downsized to 1 medium sized suitcase and I feel content.

  

Now that I’ve reunited with all the rest of my stuff in my ger-- I feel overwhelmed. We have SO MUCH STUFF. Will I ever be able to live in housing bigger than 300 sq ft and not be overwhelmed by owning too much stuff??

So coming back to Mandalgovi was a little difficult-- as I knew it would be. After living in an apartment with plumbing and a hot shower for 4 months reverting back to a glorified tent and an outhouse isn’t easy. We got home to our ger in the evening and spent the entire night cleaning. A thick layer of sand (because the ger isn’t closed off, the sides are completely open to the world to let in wind, but also let in bugs, mice and layers of sand after layers of sand. So not only was I overwhelmed by how much STUFF we have, I was completely broken down by the mess that we returned to. I bit back the tears and got to work. A mouse had ruined the whole bottom shelf of food we had and left droppings and smelly pee everywhere. That was task #1 (get rid of mouse smell and mess), then I got some soapy water and tackled the dust/sand on every piece of furniture we own and worked my way down--finally shaking out/sweeping the rugs and hand scrubbing the floor with bleach. Clean ger: accomplished.



Open sides of the ger



Surprise! In our fridge-- yes, that's an animal ear you see.

 

You can't have a complete Mongolian Summer without a flat tire.



So I feel hip and savvy these days because my sister gave me a kindle for my birthday. What a life changing gadget that is! I’ve read over 15 books in the last month or so that I’ve had it. And it will definitely help me out with my goal for this winter (to not run out of reading material!). A couple of books I’d recommend on living a life simply are:

• Living the Savvy Life: The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Smart Spending and Rich Living by Melissa Tosetti
•  Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider

Now that I'm home in my ger I will be blogging more regularly. This summer I was always on the go, and Mongolia isn't a place covered in Wi-Fi (not yet anyway), so it was rather difficult to plump down at internet cafes or find some random place with an internet connection that they'd let me use.

Cheers to a new school year, new ideas, new projects, new recipes and new experiences! 

Surviving Mongolia

We have successfully completed one year of service. We have one year to go, and I am determined to make this the best year ever in Mongolia! We’ve been through it all in a course of 12 (now 13) months and we know what works and what doesn’t, what was worth it and what wasn’t, what was smart and what was stupid.

 

Some things that were worth it (or smart):

• Internet in the ger -- We debated about this for a while before getting it, but it has proven to be well worth the money spent!
• Eating well (also see ‘Eating well’ in the stupid column)-- Every night we cooked for hours to make our dinners delicious (everything has to be made from scratch), though we were exhausted and freezing (and sometimes not eating dinner until 10 o’clock at night) it was worth it. We made do with what foods we had available to us. And it made us happy.
• Weekly dinner nights with my sitemates-- This didn’t start until well into the school year, but it was awesome to be able to have a night where us PCVs could get together and just talk and hang. Good for your spirit.
• Weekly showers (in the warmer months)--During the winter it is too dang cold to leave your ger for anything other than work & getting food, so showering was not even considered. Also during the cold months you don’t get as dirty so you can go a few months without showering. But, during the warmer months when going to the shower house was an option it felt amazing to exfoliate and feel fresh.
• Candles--How could I survive without you!? Very worth stocking up on candles in UB (when the rare scented candle shows its face), and VERY thankful for those who have sent candles in their packages! This is the ultimate way to relax for me--since I don’t have my bathtub anymore.
• Time for TV (on the computer)-- We have some shows and movies on our hard drive. It was always a great way to feel connected back to the states and feel like you’re home for a couple of hours.

 

Stupid things (or things that didn’t work):

• Not having a full library of books-- I read through our 15 or so books we ‘stocked’ up for the winter. This is NOT enough.
• Not Eating Well-- Though we did what we could with what he had available to us, we didn’t use our resources in UB wisely. This year we will REALLY REALLY stock up on dried beans, oatmeal, canned tomatoes, spices, ketchup, mustard, drink mixes, brown sugar, syrup, other canned/dried goods and bring them back to Mandalgovi. We also appreciated all the packages we received over the last year to help us stock up on these yummy items we take very much for granted. I am not going through another winter feeling hungry.
• Allowing our fire fuel to run out-- there were a handful of days where we waited on our fuel suppler to supply us with fuel for our fire (them saying they will come ‘tomorrow‘, then ‘tomorrow‘ again and ‘tomorrow‘ again). Even though we gave them days, even weeks sometimes, notice we were still left cold and fuelless. This is NOT going to happen next year. It’s unacceptable to be without a fire in a tent in -40 degrees. So a minimum of 2 weeks notice, and a stern daily follow-up after until we receive our fuel is needed for next winter.
• Not hanging out with sitemates enough-- What were we thinking? We had 3 other PCVs in a 1 mile radius from us and we didn’t use each other to help keep each other more sane. It’s always good to have someone who knows what you’re going through, or to celebrate American Holidays, celebrate your successes with and collaborate community development ideas with. This year my sitemates will see A LOT of me, and maybe even be annoyed by me J
• Not using our space heater enough-- We thought we were being tough and hardcore the first couple month of real winter (November & December) and refused to use our space heater and lived off our fires. We thought we were being wusses by having to give in and use it. So it stayed under our bed during some of the coldest days in winter. Stupid. The heater isn’t there for emergencies, it’s there for survival!
• Not having a water supply-- There are times when our water bucket was low and the only water available to us was frozen, so we’d have to wait an hour to thaw what we did have before having any water to drink, cook with, clean with, etc. We really need to have a constant supply stashed away for days when water is not available. That was not smart.

We’ve survived a year in Mongolia in a ger. Now we know what it takes to make this next year even better.

 

Wrapping Up the School Year

All the schools in Mongolia start September 1st and end on June 1st. There are 2 and a half weeks of school left. But Justin and I are a little lucky and get to venture into UB tomorrow. It seems like this trip crept up on us-- yet couldn't get here fast enough!

It seems that we're leaving when we're just getting started. I feel like I have so many things that I am going to leave undone and waiting for me when we return. We'll come back to Mandalgovi on June 20th for a short couple weeks. Then the next time we come back won't be until the new school year starts (and we'll have some lucky new Volunteers at our site!). Wrapping up everything is difficult. Yesterday my 7th grade students (whom I LOVE) wanted so badly to talk to me (in English!) the whole class period because they knew they wouldn't see me for a while. I told them about all the traveling I was going to be doing (our lesson was about traveling) and tried to fit in as much of a lesson as I could-- but at the end they gathered around me and wanted a picture to be taken. I almost started tearing up after the picture when they, one by one, came up to me to say 'goodbye, see you next year!' Man, what will it be like a year from now when we are saying goodbye forever?

I have a meeting with Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education (the head honchos of Education in Mongolia) on Friday morning in UB. Then on Monday Justin and I will be buying our ticket to Beijing and going to the Chinese Embassy for our visa application. It takes a total of 4 days to get our Chinese Visa. Then we have a few days before our Training of Trainers (since Justin and I will both be trainers for the new Peace Corps Volunteers this summer), we will visit our friend, Nadra, in Selenge. Selenge is straight north of us, and very close to the Russian border. I hear it's a drastic change of scenery from the Gobi. They have trees, I hear. :)

Finishing with TOT (Training of Trainers) Justin and I will be waiting at Chinggis Airport on June 4th for those new M22's coming in fresh from America! It's really weird to think I was in their shoes one year ago.

Straight from the Airport Justin and I will head to the train station and be on our great Asian Adventure!

So, here's to one more night using a jorlon (outhouse), washing my hair in a bucket, cleaning sand out of my ears (literally) and sleeping in a sleeping bag! We'll be in a real bed, with toilets, showers(...I don't even know which I am more excited about anymore. It used to be the good food in UB, but now I think the toilet is trumping over it all.).

And just one more snapshot of our weather for today... It's just geting worse and worse, man. It feels like 8 outside on May 11th! We've been getting hit by sandstorm after sandstorm. It's not fun. They don't have sandstorms up north! Goodbye Gobi Desert weather! Khongor Guesthouse here we come!

***Edited: Khongor Guesthouse once again has let us down. They're full and don't have beds available...so we're off to our second Guesthouse choice! UB Guesthouse!***

Ready in 5 Hours- A Mexican Food Recipe

A peak inside Dinner with the Newberrys:

We had Mexican night on Thursday night. It was scrumptious! If you follow our "Ready in 5 hours" recipe your tummy will be a happy tummy, too! We're not boasting it will be ready in 45 mins, and I laugh (actually, I cry) when I remember those nights in the States making those "20 Min Meals" successfully. Nope, this was 5 hours...Wanna know our secret??? We have one burner. Dinner preparation began at 4pm and we sat down to eat at about 9:30. It was all worth it though. We had black beans (they were dried beans we had to soak and boil), rice (not minute rice...20 min rice), chicken fajitas (frozen chicken drumsticks we had to boil/thaw then cut the meat off), pico de gallo, and tortillas....all of this homemade.

The funny thing is that Justin and I labored over this meal not really thinking a thing about how lengthy the process was. But when we sat down at 9:30pm I thought about if we were in the states how the whole dinner making process would go: beans in a crock pot before you leave for work, 4 large burners for boiling rice, chicken, sautéing, and making tortillas...All of that could be going on at the same time! We would have had that same laborious dinner in about 45 mins. Which somewhat depressed me, but..

Eh, what else are we going to do with our evenings?

Ger, Sweet Ger

We're home! It was a great 5 days of not making fires and smelling of smoke. Also a great 4 nights of sleeping in t-shirts and no socks (because the rooms stay heated all night long!) It was great not having to layer up before going to bed.

Speaking of great...It was great to see all my friends. We didn't do much more than eat at amazing restaurants, go to American food stores and lounge around, taking showers-- not bagging coal, preparing lessons, adding dung to the fire, etc.

This was my frist bowl of cold cereal in 9 months! It was really amazingly awesome. I also ate the cup of noodles (pictured) with my breakfast. Gotta eat good while you're on vacay!

We didn't end up staying at Khongor Guesthouse because it is apparently being renovated. So we stayed at UB Guesthouse. It was nice, but I am partial to Khongor. Khongor's beds are magical! But, UB Guesthouses bathrooms are cleaner and nicer...

One of my friends went to America a couple of weeks ago and brought back a bottle of Dr. Pepper for me and Justin. Can you believe it?! Every where they sell Coke we look for Dr. Pepper. No luck. This was our frist sip of the Dr.'s orders in 9 months. It was delicious.

Another one of our friends, Erin, invited us to dinner with her Mongolian friend. It was a great meal and the Mongolian couple actually had a lot in common with me and Justin...same age, same graduation year, started dating the same year, have been married for the same amount of years. It was interesting to compare lifestyles that are so similar yet different to ours.

All in all it was a success! I only got thrown up on once on the bus to Ulaanbataar. Our bus seats 28, yet on the trips to and from UB there were over 40 people on the bus, so we were packed. On the way back we even had a live rabbit sitting on a man's lap waiting to be taken to his ger for supper. This is my last visit to the big city for a long while. Now I'm back at school, smelling like smoke and just not as squeaky clean. But it's okay because summer is on its way, right? :)

Mutton tacos...you oughta try it!

This is the last full week in February! Where has the time gone? Next month is supposedly a very busy one for Mongolian English Teachers and their PCVs. At the end of March is the nationwide English test for students and teachers called "English Olympics". The students and teachers study for this test all year long and have a chance to win money and credentials. It's a big deal. And PVCs play a BIG role in not only preparing them, but sometimes creating the test, grading the test, giving the test, proctoring the test... I have been teaching an English Olympic prep course on Friday nights for those interested in coming. For this week's English Olympic prep course, however, I will not be here. I'll be resting it up in UB!

But before I get into that, this is a little peak of what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks (post Tsagaan Sar):

Made Mutton tacos! It doesn't sound very good, and I'm not a mutton eater-- but these were darn good. Closest thing to Mexican in Mandalgovi. Our hashaa family's daughter came over and helped us mince the meet, made pico de gallo, and tortillas. We even found some cheese to shred and put on top. They seemed to really like it! Especially because it was mutton.

I went to a children's modeling show. It was really interesting and fun for the girls! I even got a picture with the models :)

I taught Justin how to sew. It was a big thing in our ger because he has the HOLIEST clothes...but he got them sewed up pretty good!

Justin and I both applied for training jobs this summer for the new PCVs that will get here in early June. This is a big thing to me. I'd love to help these new volunteers transition into Mongolian life and help them succeed once they are released to their own sites. I loved my training last summer and my trainers were awesome. I hope I can do the same for some of them! It's a big deal because if we get this 'job' (still volunteering) we'd be moving into a big city (in an APARTMENT) for half of the summer. Big stuff...having a toilet is a BIG deal! So, cross your fingers for us!

Now about UB this weekend. I am so excited because this is my first break from school (taking personal days off) and I am just so excited to escape the ger life for 5 days.

No more hard plywood bed made for 1 1/2 people with blankets as a mattress! And no more sleeping in a sleeping bag-- heavenly Khongor Guesthouse bed here I come!

No more handling camel poo to make fires and sweeping up its messes!

No more fighting coal and having coal stained hands!

No more fake sinks or water bucket!

No more handwashing or tumpin bathing!

For 5 days anyway :)

Hands say it all

Living in a ger is dirty work. Not only do you constantly smell like smoke (which I hate), your home is never clean (because of ash, soot, coal dust, etc), and your hands are ALWAY dirty. Running water is a novelty. I have to say that I don't wash my hands as much as I did in the states because we don't have running water-- but I do wash them, it's just that I wash them just to get them dirty again. I need to try to clean my dirt-stained hands. Yesterday a teacher took my hands and examined them closely-- under the nail and everything. Then she said "her nails are short because if they were long they would be dirty". I wiped my brow and let out a sigh having known that I passed a clean check. But today I kept my hands hidden because they are so dirty. And it's not that I don't wash my hands, it's just that the dirt gets under the skin and when your hands look dry and ashy already, dirt stains just stand out more. You can wash your hands all you want, but it won't wipe this dirt away...salts... that's what I need a homemade handscrub.

I wonder what the Mongolian equivelant of a hot bubble bath with aroma therapy salts, lighted scented candles and lavender and chamomile tea at hand is. I think I'll ask my teachers tomorrow what that is here. Anyway, that's what I'll have tonight.

You know it's a good day when...

...Your first fire of the morning starts on the first try. Especially when you have to get up early and leave in a hurry...oh yeah, AND it's literally below freezing in your ger.

...You walk into a class that you are dreading (because you are substituting-- solo teaching-- and they are pubescent 9th graders)and the students start to give high fives to each other and race to see who will sit in the front row. They are happy the 'amerik bagsh' (american teacher) will be teaching them today.

...Your students (who are primary teachers and did not know any English prior to my teaching them) find you in the hallway to tell you that English class will have to be canceled because of a mandatory primary teacher's meeting-- all in English. (It was very confusing, but they got the point across).

...You find a Hershey's Kiss in your purse!!!! (You can't buy Hershey's kisses here...One of the teachers brought them back from her trip to S. Korea and I forgot I had it).

...You realize it's Friday.

...Because it's Friday, you realize that it's Pizza night!!!

...You've been stuck inside the school all day and get a text message from a PCV friend asking about the current heat-wave. So when you step outside you can immediately feel that the temperature is above freezing! There is hope that I can survive this winter!

...Stepping outside you realize it's warm enough that you do not need to wear a hat! I almost felt like I was showing too much skin not having a hat and hood on.

And finally:

You know it is a good day when 11pm comes and goes without a neighbor coming in for an awkward conversation that late in the night (for the past 2 nights at 11pm on the dot our neighbor has come over to sit in silence and we exchange a couple sentences before they leave abruptly...probably mid sentence and we are left in utter confusion).

Today was a good day (yamar sahan odor way!). I felt needed and I felt useful. And now I feel tired. Only 8 more sleeps 'til Christmas! sahan amraray.

I just can't win.

So read my post before this first (if you haven't already). For the past couple of hours I have been in one of the toughest fights of my life. Ashlie vs. the wind. First of all, it is cold outside. COLD. Without a fire in our ger it would be in the 40's inside. But, because the wind blew away one of our windows we had to close our flap to keep the warm air in and the sand out. (A flap is a THICK blanket that covers all of the windows (to keep out sand during sandstorms, rain, water, etc.) And when the flap is closed you cannot have a fire, because the blanket touches the stove pipe (and if you had a fire, the blanket could catch fire from touching the hot stove pipe).

In this photo you can see our missing window, the duct tape, the flap and the stove pipe:



Well I had an ingenious idea to cover the window with cardboard and duct tape it. That way I can open the flap a little (enough so it's not touching the stove) and start a fire since it's FREEZING in here. So I did. After about 45 mins of bliss, the fire was dying down, so I put a small piece of cardboard on top of the coals and blew on it so the fire would start up again. At the same time as me blowing, a wind came down the pipe and got the fire aflaming! The flames came out of the grate and onto my face! The flame fringed my hair on the left side of my face. MY HAIR HAS BEEN BURNED OFF!

What do you do with fringed hair? I've already tried to comb out the frizzies, then splattered some hair conditioner on????



That's not the end of it. Then suddenly the cardboard that was covering the window got sucked out the window and also blew away. Now I have a hot fire that is still going, but just wasting coal because I'm not feeling any warmth with a window open. One more thing. The ash tray at the bottom of the stove wasn't cleaned out before I made this fire. So now every time a gust of wind comes down the chimney (about every 30 seconds) ashes scatter out of the grate. So my cold ger is sandy, windy, and ashy and there isn't anything I can do about it until the wind stops and we can replace that window. Oh, and the side of my head looks ridiculous. I'd like to go home now and lick my wounds please. Mongolia was fun for a little while, but today it is too hard to handle... Or just let me curl up somewhere so I can go to bed at 3pm and not wake up for a while until I'm back in a warm clean ger without wind. I hate you, wind.

Typed October 10th...Washing Day!!

Today was dedicated to cleaning. The temperature has been dropping (only reaching 40 degrees today) and I wanted to get a good wash in before the cold unmotivates me. I did several loads of laundry--which reminded me how badly I need gloves! There are some available here, but I just forget to buy them, or usually when I see them I look at the price and I think "I don't REALLY need them" But dang. I do really need them. They are only about $1!! I have a cut from a knife on the palm of my hand from using my pocket knife while peeling potatoes. It stung quite a bit in the water. Also the temperature dropped below freezing last night and so our water in our barrel was literally freezing. My hands were numb. Then, I used a little bit of bleach in each load (what I mean by load is just a group of clothing that I wash in one tumpin of water--before I dump that water out and fill it up with clean water for the next load) and now my hands have bleach burns on them. Oh, and then wringing the clothes! OMG! As if my hands didn't hurt enough from being numb, the cut and the bleach--they were rubbed raw from handwashing, then burned more from wringing. We use two tumpins while doing laundry. One tumpin I use for washing. Then I wring the clothes well and set them in the clean water (rinse) tumpin. Then I give them a good rinse and yet again another wring. After that they go outside to the clothes line. Anyway, this is my 'chore'. I do it every Saturday, but because we were so busy yesterday I did it today (Sunday). Justin and I have divided the chores up pretty equally in our ger (which is necessary because of all the work it takes to keep it comfortable).

Because of the washing, our floor was soaking, so it deserved a mop (using a rag, a tumpin of water and me on my hands and knees). As a result, our home is once again comfortable and sparkling clean.

My favorite part of today was this morning....before all the washing. Well, it was pretty nice afterwards, too!



Update(Oct. 20th): I now have gloves and have done the laundry with my new gloves made in China---works miracles--No numbing, burning, or drying out!

First but not last...

1. Made a fire with coal! (not the soft kind that comes in a bag at the supermarket---walmart, I miss you-- the kind that comes straight out of the ground in form of hard rock)

2. Woke up to a ger that was 45 degrees this morning.

3. Made chicken and dumplings last Friday and it was a success! Cooking in a ger IS possible...if you have the right ingredients--that's the hard part.

4. Got followed by a guy in a car yesterday. Yes, he was in a CAR and following me while I was walking. His head hanging out the window while he kept honking for me to look at him. It was EXTREMELY awkward, but I kept looking ahead and ignored him. He finally drove away.

5. Had a 'get together' with the other PCVs in my town. We had banana bread, apple crisp, pico de gallo & tortilla chips (all homemade). It was fun. We hardly all hang out because of our schedules and our mode of transportation (walking).

6. I went to a special shop yesterday and saw something amazing! I took plenty of pictures. I will post more about that trip this weekend...Can't give it away just yet.

7. Gave Justin his first haircut in Mandalgov. But, I know it won't be his last :( I'm not bad at cutting hair--I just really don't like to do it, then clean up after it...and clean up more after it (you can never get rid of the hair!).

8. Yesterday I found some fig newton type cookies and bought a kilo of them. While the store clerk was putting handfuls and handfuls in the bag and weighing it, I realized a kilo was probably too much. Next time: half a kilo.

9. Watched Justin participate in an all teachers track meet last Saturday. It was freezing (literally) in the morning and Justin had to run a 1500 meter race. So he was wheezing all day afterwards. Running in the cold is not fun. Oh, he got 7th out of about 30.

10. Yesterday I was talking with one of my teachers and she said, "Did you ever get that letter for you?" and I said, "No!". I was so surprised, I hadn't heard of ANY mail coming for me yet. And she said "Yes, the Librarian told me you had mail". I asked her when the Librarian told her this and she shrugged and said "Oh, back in September". It was hard for me to contain myself. September?!!! Today, I will finally pick this mail up. Sadly, I know circumstances like these will never cease while here in Mongolia.

11. Saving the best for last! I was told about an AMAZING store last week! I can't believe I've been shopping at other places! It is a store that's kind of hidden away. But it has EVERYTHING! Well, not everything. But it has a lot of things (including chicken...since all the other stores have magically run out for the past few weeks). It has Chicken, Pepsi, tuna, canned peas, ...and that's about it...but usually that would take a visit to AT LEAST 3 different shops. The only bad side is that it's the farthest shop away from my house. So going in the winter will not be fun. But, the good side to that is that it's pretty close the Justin's school...so maybe he can pick things up on his way home some days???

"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.