Purchasing Differences

Even the common practice of shopping is different in Mongolia. For one, this is an entirely cash based society. Most people have an ATM card, but that is only used to get cash from the bank. There are 2 ATMs for our bank (Khan Bank) in our town, but often one or both of the ATMs are not working or out of cash. Most stores, especially in the countryside, do not take credit cards. However, many of the local stores do give store credit. For example, if I need to purchase food but don’t have cash, the store owner will log the purchases in a notebook and I can pay for them later. I don’t know if there is any interest or what the repayment terms are. Often, the ATM gives out 20,000T bills (about $17). Many of the stores won’t accept 20,000 bills unless your purchases are large. So, it means that we have to “queue up” many small items so that we can break a 20,000T bill. For example, we may wait to buy eggs, milk, bread, peppers, onions, and hyam (sausage for Bear) at once so that we can use a 20,000T.

More interesting are the local purchasing habits. In America, we are used to bulk purchases, the 50 roll toilet paper pack from Costco or 5lbs of cheese from Walmart. Well, here, the exact opposite is done. People typically only buy what they need for that day and will stop by the store everyday. For example, people often buy individual cigarettes or individual feminine products (1 days’ worth). The buyer will tell the clerk what they want and the clerk will remove the number of desired items from open packages from behind the counter. The most extreme case of individual purchasing that I have witnessed is individual pieces of gum. I don't think there is anything that can't be broken down for purchase. Also, if a store or restaurant doesn't have exact change, they will supplement the difference with pieces of gum. It is not uncommon to get a few pieces of gum with your change at a restaurant.

Similarly, purchases are not planned ahead more than 1 day, so there are mad-rushes for items the day before a holiday or major event. For example, yesterday was Women's day and most stores were closed, so there was a rush on alcohol/vodka/cake/flowers the night before. I don't know the rationale for daily purchasing, but it would be an interesting topic for an anthropologist.

Hot Springs Trip

This a picture of the tops of the hot springs huts with the temple in the foreground. The mountains in the distance are in Siberia.

This is the entrance sign for the Khan Khentii Protected Area (similar to a national park).

I was excited to be invited along on a trip to Northern Khentii a few weeks ago. We left in utter darkness at 5:40 AM to drive along tire tracks for 5 hours to reach the soum/town of interest. We were greeted warmly at the soum hospital with soup, berries and vodka. The berries were frozen from the summer crop of wild mountain berries. There were three varieties, all of which I’ve never seen before. Thus, I could not provide their English names. After lunch the real adventure began, as we entered complete wilderness, the closest I’ve come to tundra, or maybe that’s what it was. We drive off road, over frozen streams, on steep grades and over bumpy grasslands for six hours. I was truly thankful for the Land Cruiser I was in. We had to disembark once when we slid off an icy overpass and later were briefly stranded on large chunks of ice and water in a stream.

Just before dusk we arrived at a small cabin on a ridge overlooking the flatlands we drove through. This was surrounded by the largest mountains I’ve seen thus far in Mongolia, and Russia, as we were just South of its border. As we arrived there were comments about the 6-7 vehicles already parked. Turns out you don’t make reservations where no cell phones work. It would be a cozy night. We arrived to offerings of milk tea and hard cookies and had a tour of the area. Walking down the ridge brought us to six small wooden huts that sat along the natural hot springs. Each hut had a ‘bathing’ pool to fit 2 people and there was a well to drink the water from. After returning to the cabin a large bottle of vodka emerged. I slipped away to the other side, as this was the fourth offering of the day. Instead I spoke a mix of English and Mongolian and shared dinner and card games with the members of the other room. They happened to be the family of a coworker that was vacationing there. I slept next to ‘Grandma’ that night, toasty warm in my PC issued sleeping bag on the wooden plinth.

The next morning some of the group went to bathe, but I deferred, as it was nude bathing. I did have my swimsuit (on the top of the Land Cruiser), but in a cabin of 25 and the brisk wilderness without an outhouse, I deferred changing. So, I wandered around, enjoyed my first time back in a true forest with tall pine trees and a thick blanket of snow beneath. We left early due to limited sleeping space, driving along the frozen river for the first few hours. We stopped for photos and to collect natural mineral water, formed between two layers of the river’s ice. At three o’clock we stopped at an eight by ten foot cabin set up for cooking along the drive. After a filling lunch of bread, meat, veggies and milk tea, they announced the nine of us were staying there through the night. There was time for another jaunt and there were no wolves to be seen, though my coworkers were sure I’d be eaten. Time for relaxing, singing and more vodka led to an early bedtime followed by a long, extra cozy and uncomfortable night.

The next day we made our way back to the soum, stayed a bit, and eventually drove back to Khentii. We drove in the dark again. This time, there was more indecision regarding which tire treads to follow. At one lonely ger our director departed for 45 minutes when asking for directions. There is the custom of staying for tea and often dinner. This is another opportunity to be present in the moment, not worried by frustrations or delays. Sometimes I think, “what will be, will be,” is an apt phrase for this culture, for better and for worse. We arrived home safe, sleepy and dirty. I look forward to more unexpected adventures.

-written by Ashley

Just in case we aren't already strange enough....

Bear: So, since Bear is a female dog and we don't want puppies, we made the decision to have her spayed. There is a vet in our town, but she does not do anything for dogs, so Bear had to make the trip to UB. There is a very good vet in UB and it is very similar to vets in America, including the price and care. I explained to my co-workers why we were taking Bear to UB and the comments were strange to say the least. The most common response was along the lines of "she should be able to have puppies if she wants". I then asked questions regarding who would care for the puppies and what is their opinion of the over-abundance of puppies/dogs in the community already. (About 3 weeks ago, we took a walk down 1 alley and saw ~15 frozen puppies/dogs.) At this point, we agreed to disagree. We scheduled the appointment and had to address the challenge of traveling to UB with a dog. Dogs are not allowed on the main bus, so we had to charter a taxi. Taxi traveling is precarious on many levels, including un-reliable times, poor drivers, bad conditions, etc. We were fortunate enough to find a neighbor willing to take us, along with 2 other people. We had 3 people (including a very wide woman) and Bear in the backseat of a tiny Hyundai. It was a mildly uncomfortable ride. We put Bear's blanket on top of Ashley and I so that Bear would sit on our lap. When the woman first got in the car, we received many stares and comments. She was not happy to be sharing the back seat with a dog. However, Bear was amazing on the ride with no accidents and only 2 stops in ~5 hours. Towards the end of the ride, the woman told me that Bear was good and that her dog was bad. We received similar comments throughout the trip. The driver stopped at Narantuul (huge market) and would not drive into the city, so we had to walk with Bear and our bags to the vet, then the hostel. It is probably 3 miles each way, and is a pleasant walk except for the CRAZY traffic in UB. Pedestrians have no rights and drivers don't stop or yield, even if walkers have the green walk-symbol. Every intersection is a life-threatening experience and even scarier with a dog. (We made a leash for Bear out of rope and she walked very well on it.) The combination of 2 Americans carrying bags and walking a puppy on a rope leash across some of the busiest intersections in the country caused many drivers/people to stare or comment....

We dropped Bear off and picked her up 2 days later, only to backtrack the exact same path to Narantuul, then the taxi ride home. Once again, she was an angel in the car and slept most of the way. She has to stay inside for a few days with only supervised walks so that she doesn't rip open the stitches or get it infected by rolling in garbage or wrestling other dogs. Also, we met the American veterinarian and she gave us her private number so that if anything happens in the "countryside", we can call her and she can help us, which is a huge benefit.

UB: While in UB, we met with friends, shopped, ran errands, and Ashley visited her host family in Zuunmod from last summer. I stayed in UB and met with people at the PC office. It was a productive and fun trip. We stocked-up on food that can not be found in our town, including salsa, tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, lemon juice, cheap oatmeal, etc. It was nice to eat hamburgers and pizza, though very expensive. We also picked up a few Mongolian language books from the office and Ashley bought a Mongolian-English medical dictionary, which will be helpful for both of us.

Job Update: I am officially working at World Vision, which is cool. Unfortunately, all but 1 of the business/economics projects were cancelled, so I now have 5 health projects. The projects are primarily education/training such as personal hygiene, diarrhea prevention/care (I know a lot about that topic), etc. Actually, Ashley has some free-time, so I am collaborating with her on a few of the projects (ex. dental hygiene). Since the presentations will be in Mongolian, my objective is to gather the relevant data, create a presentation with materials/activities/etc, then help translate it. One of the World Vision staff members will actually present the data since my language skills are not that advanced. Most of the target audience are located in the outer villages, where health is a big priority. On a larger scale, I'm hoping to get a recycling project and water sanitation project planned, funded, and moving in the next few months. It is taking an incredible amount of time just for the assessment and planning stages, so I'm probably way over-ambitious with them.

Exercise: The winter really limits outside exercise other than brief walks between buildings. We were "walking" to episodes of Glee, but that gets very boring. I tried joining the local fitness center, but the random hours (sporadic) and cost made me decide to cancel my membership after 1 month. I had expressed an interest in learning martial arts since judo and taekwondo are popular here and our town supposedly had an academy that closed a few years ago. Well, our exercise fortune has changed! A few weeks ago I was invited to an aerobics class with World Vision employees (only women go). I went to the class and it was awesome. The teacher is great, the facility is adequate, and the price is reasonable. It was the hardest exercise that I had since arriving in June. The aerobics class meets twice a week. Well, I found out that the aerobics teacher is also a 5th degree blackbelt in taekwondo. I talked with him (more like stuttered incoherent sentences and a few words) and he agreed to teach me, privately. We negotiated a price (once again, very reasonable) and we meet 3 days per week for 1 hour. Well, it turns out that he also exercises every morning at the sports complex, so he invited me along to run/stretch/exercise at 6am for 6 days per week. So, I started taekwondo and morning workouts 3 weeks ago with him. I am NOT a morning person, so for me to get up at 5:45am and get to the gym is a miracle. Now, Ashley has started joining us for the 6am workouts and 4 other PCVs (including Ashley) are now part of the aerobics class. They are all a great workout and I am very glad to be part of it.

There are a few interesting aspects about learning taekwondo here:

1) My teacher is Mongolian, does not know any English, and taekwondo is a Korean sport. Therefore, I am learning the Korean and Mongolian commands for everything.

2) Since my Mongolian is elementary, he has to demonstrate almost everything. (He is INCREDIBLY patient and a great teacher.)

3) Mongolians are known for being on their own schedules. Meetings are scheduled for 1pm and people will start arriving ~1:45pm. This is part of the cultural and hard for Americans to become comfortable with. However, this does not apply to my teacher. The first 6am run, I walked into the gym at 6:01 and he pointed at his watch, shook his head, and had already begun. Since that day, I am always early.

4) Taekwondo places a very high importance to flexibility, and when I started, I was unable to touch my toes. I need to be able to do a split in ~6 weeks, so this is very difficult for me.

5) I wear the taekwondo uniform (white with v-neck) and no t-shirt underneath. Well, the top of my chest hair shows and I sweat a lot. The little kids who watch class are enthralled by my sweating (it just pours off of me) and my chest hair since most men here do not have body or facial hair. I think the kids watch just so that they see me sweat.

-Overall, I look forward to each class and I truly enjoy my teacher. I think this will be a very positive experience in Mongolia.

Hot Springs: Ashley will provide a summary in our next post.

Weather: Mother Nature teased us 2 weeks ago with warm weather (30F) and sunny skies. She can be cruel and has decided that winter is not over here yet. Today the high is 5F and the low -20F. It snowed about 1 inch yesterday, but there is a stiff wind, which negates the warmth of the sun. The forecast looks good starting Thursday, so hopefully it will turn soon.

Travel: Ashley and I are going to Spain in 2 weeks! Our families (parents and siblings) are coming over from America and we will spend about 2 weeks with them in that area. We are so excited to see them, but also to eat Spanish food, drink good wine, and visit a beach! Additionally, it will be my 30th birthday during the trip, so we will celebrate that. There are many things that I want from home (new shoes, jeans, etc), and my family is generous to be a pack mule for me. I plan on taking 1 suitcase and returning with 2.

Tsagaan Sar Wrap-Up

Tsagaan Sar Summary

Ashley with one of her co-workers and his family, all in full traditional deels.

Justin, wearing a wolf fur hat (not his), with one of his co-workers.

Now that Tsagaan Sar (white month) is over for most people, it is time for a wrap-up of the activities. So, officially, it was scheduled for 2/3-2/5, however, Tsagaan Sar requires a significant amount of prep time for each family. The spring cleaning is done the week before, which requires that everything be washed, including curtains and linens. Also, buuz (steamed meat dumplings) are the traditional food and many families make 500+, which requires that they start the week before. The dumplings are formed and then frozen outside, only to be steamed when ready to eat. Each family cooks a sheep butt/back and makes a pastry tower (boov), which is covered with white foods (dairy, candies).

Here is the routine:

• · Enter the house and exchange official greetings with everyone, starting with elders (the sayings include “are you doing well?” and “have a good new year”)
• · Sit-down at the table and begin eating the white foods
• · Pieces of the sheep are cut-off and passed around for consumption
• · Salads are presented (mayonnaise and cucumber or cucumber and hyam)
• · Drinks (milk tea, fruit juice, vodka, wine, beer) at any onetime, you may have 3-5 drinks in front of you
• · Family photo albums are passed around (especially to show new people)
• · Buuzs are steamed and eaten
• · Refill drinks
• · Exchange gifts (host gives gifts to visitors, visitors give crisp money to host)
• · Leave
• · Host family repeats with the next group of guests

The amount of food and drink is amazing, and not surprisingly, overwhelming. The key to success is moderation at each host, so that you have the ability to eat towards the end of the day.

We visited 5 families (4 co-workers and the kids that we feed). Also, you have to be invited, unless it is a family member. The host family is typically dressed in full traditional attire (deel). The families typically travel to their parents or grandparents hometowns. This results in some families making many cross-country trips and some families are still celebrating (1 week later).

Basically, everything shuts down for a few days, including all stores and supermarkets. So, we had to “stockpile” starting about 1 week beforehand. We were warned that common foods will be sold-out before and after Tsagaan Sar for at least 1 week. This was very good advice because our local food stores are still sold-out of common items (bread, noodles, hyam [not ham, but a salami-like meat product], etc). Also, we had to withdraw a substantial amount of money from the bank because the ATM (there is only 1 in our town) often runs out of money, especially around the holidays.

Overall, we had a really nice time during Tsagaan Sar and we are appreciative of the families that invited us into their homes.

1 Stoplight Province: Big news of the transportation front! Our towns’ first stoplight was installed at the intersection near our apartment. It happened a few months ago, and since we are the only “town” in our province, we live in a 1 stoplight province. Unfortunately, the concept of a stoplight has not been taught to everyone. Daily, drivers ignore the red light and drive through (not even slowing down), which often results in either people jumping out of the way, collisions with other cars, or near misses. Frankly, the stoplight has made my life more dangerous because I never know if a car is going to stop or not…I have to be on my toes and ready to dive. At least with the previous stop signs, everyone seemed to stop.

Winter Pictures

Ashley and Tim at IST.

Ashley and I at the Chinggis Khan statue.

This is one of the girls that regularly comes to our house for food and tea.

This is a more recent picture of Bear.

The business PCVs along with their counter-parts (co-workers) at IST.

End of the 4th 9!

I’ve decided to include a few new sections into the blog. Let me know what you think or if there are other things that I should include.

Би өглөө дэлхээн зөнд англи хэлний хичээл заасан дараа гэртээ ирсэн. Бээр өнгөрсөн долоо хоног өвдсөн.

The sentences above say "I taught English class at World Vision this morning, then came back to my apartment. Bear was sick last week." I'm trying to learn how to type/write more complex sentences in Mongolian.

The Mongolian winter is 81 days long, which is 9 sets of 9 days. The 3^rd and 4^th 9s are the coldest. Today is the last day of the 4^th 9, which means that a warm-up should be on the horizon. The high for Saturday is -10C (15F), which is balmy. We were joking that swimsuits will be broken out this weekend. One of our friends has a thermometer which goes down to -40F (mercury style). I have seen the mercury below the -40F line.

Tsagaan Sar is quickly approaching, which means new experiences, challenges, and activities. After New Years, many of the shops in our town were out of common foods for up to a week. For example, we were unable to find eggs for over a week, despite visiting 9 different delguurs (food stores) in our town. We have been warned that many foods will be sold-out before Tsagaan Sar and will not be replenished for a few weeks. Therefore, we are stocking up on commonly used foods, such as eggs, milk, juice, vegetables, etc. Many Mongolians have new deels or jackets custom made for Tsagaan Sar. Unfortunately, I was too late, so I was unable to have anything new made. Ashley was given a custom winter deel jacket from our site-mate, so she will wear it. Buuz are made by all families, but since we are unable to make good buuz, we are planning to buy them.

Last week, we made a joint order, with 2 other site-mates of 60 mantyy (risen dough), mokgui (no meat), nogontae (vegetables) from the owner of our favorite restaurant which closed. 4 of those buuz is a good meal for 1 person and they only cost ~$.20 each, so they are a good option when we don’t feel like cooking. Also, we put a little Tabasco on top and they are delicious. Actually, the restaurant owner sold me a large bottle of Tabasco (the real stuff) for ~$8. Ashley tried making mantyy balls for the first time on Saturday and they turned out pretty well. Next week, we will try “stuffing” them with something, maybe ham/cheese or vegetables. Frankly, I want to use pepperoni, but that is unavailable in our town and expensive in UB. We (most PCVs) often reminisce/dream of foods that we miss and then we elaborate on the large extravagant meals that we will eventually eat. Unfortunately, such discussions make us all long for home and it ends when we realize that “no one wins this game”. Dreaming is good for some things, but bad for others.

Work:

We are both actively teaching English to our co-workers. With the upcoming Tsagaan Sar holiday and the proliferation of mandatory trainings, many co-workers are not in the office or projects are on hold. I am trying to do a food security/poverty assessment for children in our area (this is related to the kids that we regularly feed, more to come later). I’m also trying to assess recycling practices/needs around our apartment building. Behind our apartment building is the trash-dump for a few apartments and buildings. The “dump” is a moveable fence that people through their stuff into it. The fence gets knocked down or moved, so trash blows everywhere (it is spread across the field behind our place). Many dogs live in/around the dump and cows eat there often. Most days, I see people sorting through the trash to find certain items (plastic/metal/glass/etc). Well, I am going to try to interview these people and understand their needs/wants so that we can better accommodate them. In the long-run, we envision 5 large bins (plastic, metal, glass, compost, other) so that the collectors can safely and easily get their items. I also want to document what they do with the items, where they go, who buys them, etc, so that maybe we can start a sustainable livelihood for these people. We envision using our apartment as a pilot project and then expanding to other residential areas if it goes well here. After this needs assessment is completed and the project plan is drafted, I will write a grant for the necessary materials. One of our site-mates is submitting a grant to do a glass mural on the side of the children’s center, which is a really cool idea. It will teach the kids art, teamwork, environmental (glass re-use), civic pride, and will really beautify the area.

Bear is now able to jump onto the beds and couch. She is not allowed on the beds, and only on the couch when the couch cover (her blanket) is on it. Unfortunately, she has also learned that she can open the bedroom door by pushing into it hard enough. Her weight is big enough to open the door. The bedroom door does not a regular doorknob or lock and I am unable to install one because of the frame set-up, so we put a suitcase behind the door or tie the door to the bathroom door to keep it closed. She has really good house-training days, then really bad days. Very inconsistent at this point. She is also very adventurous now and likes to spend large amounts of time outside either exploring or chewing bones from the trash dump. We are discouraging trash/bone chewing, but with bones EVERYWHERE, that is virtually impossible unless we keep her inside.

Justin’s Current Favorites:

Music: Mumford and Sons (Thanks Zach)

Book: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (remake of the Jane Austen classic that includes zombies, very good way for someone who dislikes Jane Austen to read one of her novels)

TV Show: The Walking Dead (AMC tv show that I watched about zombies, following the trend of the book mentioned above)

Movie: Food Inc. – highly recommend for everyone in the US. It poses interesting questions about food choices, with regards to content and production/supply.

Ashley’s Current Favorites:

Music: unknown

Book: We Were the Mulvaneys

TV Show: Modern Family

Movie: Babies

Craziest Observation This Week:

The temperatures have been down-right frigid at night, often touching -45C (~-50F) with windchill. Many people cover their cars at night with blankets, primarily over the hood. Well, at these nighttime temperatures, batteries die and fuel congeals in the lines. So, the craziest observation this week was a van parked in front of our building, which had a fire burning UNDER it to warm the engine/fuel. Yes, the owner set a fire under their van to warm it up. My dad used to use a blow-dryer in Ohio, maybe he should have considered a fire…..

Mail Update:

We sent Christmas cards with pictures to ~35 families. Unfortunately, only one person has received their card. We apologize for the delay and we still have hope that they will eventually arrive.

GO STEELERS! We are planning a Super Bowl "party" here...which means we will gather in the library on Monday morning and watch it with the other americans.

New Year, New Experiences

Happy New Year! It’s been a while since the last post, so let me bring you up to speed.

New Years: We were invited to Ashley’s coworkers for dinner on New Years. We took pizza and apple cake. They made traditional Mongolian food including horse buuz (horse is much better than mutton) and mayonnaise salad. We had dinner, drank, sang songs, then it was time to go….at 10pm. (The family was going to relax and go to bed early.) So, we went home and watched a movie, then watched the city fireworks at midnight. It was a very fun evening.

Weather: According to Mongolians, the winter is broken into 9 groups of 9 days (total of 81). Winter starts on December 22. The 3rd and 4th Nines are the coldest, and we are in the middle of the 3rd. We have not noticed a substantial change in the weather, and actually, a few days last week felt balmy. Balmy means that it reached ~-5F, which constituted no scarf or double gloves. I actually took Bear on a short walk and didn’t even wear a coat (just a tshirt and fleece) with hat and gloves.

Tsagaan Sar: Tsagaan Sar is the major holiday that marks the beginning of spring and due to the lunar calendar, falls in the first week of February this year. It is one of the 2 biggest celebrations of the year and most everything is closed for at least three days. Families visit each other, exchange gifts, and EAT. Many families and stores have already started food preparation. Most families will make hundreds or thousands of buuz (steamed meat dumplings). Since Ashley and I are currently unable to make acceptable buuz, we will be learning/assisting her co-worker in their preparation. It is the man’s responsibility to cut the dough and the woman’s responsibility to form the dumpling and “seal” it correctly (pinching the edges in a certain way).

Jobs: Many of you are aware of the job challenges that I was struggling with. This week, World Vision has agreed to be my new host agency and to take over responsibilities for the relationship. Starting next week, I will be a World Vision Mongolia staff member (volunteer). I will be working on economic projects (consulting), teaching English, and hopefully child welfare/health projects. I will also be available “as needed” for my former agency. Thanks to everyone for your support through this difficult time. Ashley is still working hard for the health department. She has been teaching a lot of English, but also assisting in grants and preparing material for physical therapy classes for disabled students.

Dentist: Over the weekend, I had a dull toothache. After a few days, I called the medical office and they had me go to UB for a dental evaluation. The PC contracts with a dental group in UB. Local dentists typically don’t meet the requirements to treat volunteers. I went to the dentist and it was discovered that I had a cavity….my first cavity ever. It was drilled and filled and I’m waiting the mandatory 2 days before I leave UB as I write this. The office and dentist were great and very clean/organized. Overall, I was impressed with the care.

Bear: she is still growing and becoming more independent. While in UB, I picked up 4 vaccines for her, which Ashley or I will administer. We do not have a vet for dogs in our city, and there is a great vet in UB. We will bring her to UB in February for spaying.

Exercise: With the cold weather, it is hard to exercise outside. Therefore, I joined the local gym and Ashley does videos on the computer. Unfortunately, the gym hours are very sporadic and thus, I'm not using it as much as I would like. So, I try to "walk" with Ashley every night. "Walking" means that we put on an episode of Glee, then keep moving for the entire show (40 minutes). Some jogging, jumping jacks, tae-bo, etc....whatever keeps us moving. Sometimes it just turns into keep away with Bear or chasing Bear around the apartment. Frankly, I get bored doing this, but it keeps us moving. I'm looking forward to the warm weather and doing stuff outside.

Shelves: We had a local carpenter (moojan in Mongolian) build us shelves for our apartment. My agency was supposed to provide shelves or a dresser, but did not. After months of discussion, Ashley and I ordered them and paid for them. I was finally able to unpack my suitcase after 7 months of living out of it! Our apartment looks so great and is organized.

Packages/Cards: Thanks to everyone that sent us cards and packages! Your thoughfulness is amazing and we appreciated everything!

Christmas Cards: We mailed many Christmas cards in early/mid December and unfortunately, no one has received one yet. I suppose that the mail is taking longer than usual.