Trade Fair Photos

If you'd like to see photos (loaded on to Facebook) of the 2010 Arkhangai Partnership Trade Fair, click here.  The final tally for the 3 day event was 212 businesses, totaling 228 million tugriks in sales (roughly $175,000).  It was quite a successful event!

Distributing Wheelchairs

by Mark

Though I wasn't there for this particular event, I felt it was an important task that my co-workers were involved with and I was quite proud to hear of the results.  An organization from California that focuses on distributing wheelchairs to disabled persons around the world, partnered with their counterpart organization here in Mongolia.  Together, last month, they visited Arkhangai and Zavkhan aimags, giving out 89 wheelchairs to individuals aged 3-88.  My Mercy Corps office staff (those involved in the FIELD project that works with disabled person's organizations in the community) was tasked with organizing the events where these were given out.  Enjoy the pics...

We moved!

by Kara

The woman who owned the apartment we were living in, who also happens to be Mark's coworker/translator, decided she wanted to sell the apartment -- a long time ago. After months of knowing we might have to move she found a buyer -- Mark's other coworker! However, first, our coworkers had to find us a new apartment. This process turned out to be, well, quite a process. First, the people who bought the apartment wanted to move in on Saturday, September 25 (which was only a few days after they officially bought the apartment) because it is a good day in Mongolia. It being a "good day" means it's lucky for things like hair-cutting ceremonies (see last post), weddings, and moving. It's not that if you move on a bad day people think they're likely to have the truck break down on that very day, but maybe if something bad happens in general, following the event, the fact that you moved on a bad day could be blamed. Anyway, they wanted to move that day but alas, we had nowhere to live. Sorry new homeowners.

Actually, it appeared they found us an apt pretty quickly. I got my hopes up about this new place because it had a fridge. (And a full-size oven AND a hot shower! -- hello Posh Corps!) But then when the owner found out we couldn't sign a 12-month lease she pulled out and the search continued. We thought we had another - alas, it fell through. Another two were visited. They wouldn't work. Finally, we found one! And to sweeten the deal the owner said she'd leave the fridge there. I let my hopes get up again for this promised fridge.

When moving day came along the whole deal almost fell through again but somehow, Mark's coworkers managed to keep it all together. Unfortunately, the owner decided at the last minute to take her fridge with her. I'm over it now, but I was pretty sad for about 10 minutes.

Moving itself went surprisingly smooth! We had seven of my coworkers and one of our sitemates there to help. But Mark and I were amazed at how much stuff we've collected over the past year. A major part of it is due to the fact that we're currently holding all of the things passed down from volunteer to volunteer, so we have tons of books and DVDs. Plus, if there's ever a natural disaster, we have to be the keepers of extra blankets, a kerosene stove, flashlights, candles, etc. Plus, we hoard food like you wouldn't believe. (If you see something you want here in town you buy all of it immediately, as it may never appear again.) Seriously though, I can't believe how much stuff we have.

Despite all of this, we loaded up my coworker's truck with all our belongings and furniture in 45 minutes and - get ready to be impressed - we unloaded it into our new 3rd floor apartment in 23 minutes flat.

We unpacked it all into our new, small apartment over the weekend and we're pretty much settled in now. Our new apartment is kind of similar to our old one but with a few differences. This one is only a one-room apt, with a separate kitchen and bathroom. Actually, there's a little toilet room and a separate shower room. The shower is way nicer than our older one (we're sooooo happy to have a hot shower again) except that we realized it leaks if you're not careful. Our second day in our new apartment included being yelled at (I'm not exaggerating) by the neighbor who lives below us because it leaked into her apartment. Fun. Anyway, our new apartment also has a bigger kitchen and appears to be warmer than our previous apt, which is going to be awesome in the winter. Overall, it's going to work just fine for the next 10 months or so. (Though I'm still terrified to take a shower and face the wrath of the scary neighbor again.)

The mess of stuff ready to be moved out in our old apartment.

All of our worldly possessions in this country precariously perched  on my coworker's truck.

Haircutting

by Mark

Getting your hair cut isn't as simple as you might think.  Not when it's supposed to be your first time, and when the symbolism of the event requires all friends/family to be there to witness and partake in said haircutting.

This past weekend Kara and I were fortunate enough to be invited to one of the "events" in traditional Mongolian life that we have had yet to witness.  In fact, we were invited to two of these events on the same day.  September 25th, 2010 was an auspicious day in the Mongolian calendar - one that would bring good luck to any activity you should choose to partake of.  Thus, there were weddings and haircuttings and people moving and putting up gers and all manner of partying - since of course this day could only bring good!

Children in Mongolia traditionally wait a few years before receiving their first haircut.  For girls, it is best to wait until they are 2 or 4 years old to have this ceremonial haircutting.  For boys, they should be 3 or 5.  What this means is that it is nearly impossible to tell the gender of small children under four.  Little boys run around in pink coats with hair to their shoulders.  Thus it's typically acceptable to ask someone what gender their child is...or if you're fortunate enough to see them running around without pants, a common occurrence in the summer, you might be able to avoid the confusion altogether.

Kara and I went to our first haircutting ceremony (which happened to be for my directors' daughter) with this background knowledge, and yet as so often happens in Mongolia, we found ourselves confused as to what was happening around us.  This child was not 2 or 4, she wasn't even 6 or 8...this girl was 12!!  How could this possibly be her first haircutting?  This doesn't seem real?  We're not getting the authentic experience!  We later learned that this young woman never had her ceremony due to various reasons, and so today was her lucky day.

How it works is actually fairly simple.  The young woman goes around the room from person to person.  If it's your turn to cut her hair, you grab the scissors with attached blue hadak (ribbon) and bag for catching the hair.  You take a small piece of hair, maybe a few inches long, snip snip, put the hair in the little bag, and as you hand back the scissors you also give the child 5000 tugriks (about $4).  That's it!  Your turn to be involved takes about 20 seconds!  Of course this is preceded by about an hour of eating and drinking and greeting all the friends and family of the child.

Immediately following this party, we went to another home of my co-worker, who did have a little girl that fit the typical age range.  We simply repeated the above procedure.  All in all, it was a great experience and another thing we can scratch off the Mongolian To-Do List.

Kara doing the honors

My co-worker, Naraa, handing over 5000 tugriks.

Work Update: The Arkhangai Healthy Lifestyles Project

by Kara

It’s September. The leaves have started changing, it’s getting colder, I’m consuming way more hot beverages everyday, no longer wearing just short-sleeves to work, and trying to get my work up and going again. Like many other PCVs my time this summer was an alternating mix of intensive work – summer camp – and  intensive rest. Now that the school year has started it’s time to restart my 9ish to 5ish schedule and put away my flip-flops, tank tops, and cotton skirt. I’ll admit, my work at my organization has gotten off to a bit of a slow start. However, I do have one project which is helping to keep me pretty busy: the Arkhangai Healthy Lifestyles Project.

Last spring my sitemates (Zaneta and Sarah) and I came up with a fairly elaborate grant proposal (for Peace Corps standards) with the small hope that we’d get funded. To our surprise, the Millennium Challenge Account decided to award us money! I think we shared in unison the response of, “Wow! Yeah! ...Oh crap” – realizing we had to make all the stuff we wrote about a reality. Fortunately, we have a great project team. Zaneta finished up her two years of service and left but we got an equally awesome replacement – Tim. He’s taken her spot at the Health Department. And Sarah is still a teacher. Together, with our counterparts, we make up a nice cross-sector project, combining health, education, and child development (that’s me).

So what does the project actually entail? Well first, we’re training student and teacher trainer teams to teach “healthy lifestyles” lessons to all public school 10^th grade students from November to May. Second, we’re doing a couple of trainings with school cooks about nutrition and new cooking ideas. (All elementary students get a free meal/snack daily.) Third, this will all culminate with the first annual Arkhangai Healthy Lifestyles Fair next May. The fair will have cooking contests, a community walk and run, a poster contest (ala “what’s your anti-drug?”), a jeopardy-style knowledge competition, and perhaps diabetes testing and heart disease testing. The goal of this whole thing is to reduce the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and heart disease (the top killers of Mongolians, the latter being the number one killer of people worldwide) by encouraging healthy lifestyles amongst youth. We’re focusing on eating healthy, the importance of exercise, and the risks and consequences of drinking and smoking.

Why focus on these things? Primarily because that's what the funders wanted. A little background though... The Mongolian diet traditionally consists of meat and dairy products that are high in fat content. This is because Mongolians were traditionally (and about 30% of the population still is) nomadic herders. Being nomadic doesn’t allow you with the time to plant crops and harvest them. However, your animals are always present, which produce said meat and dairy products. Plus, even though you’re eating a lot of fat, you live a very active lifestyle and you burn it off. Now, more and more Mongolians have moved to the aimag centers (provincial capitals) and the city and live sedentary lives – engaging in less physical activity but continuing to eat foods high in fat. Also, while people in the aimag centers have the advantage of having year-round access to fruits and vegetables, they also have access to processed foods, high in trans fats and generally less healthy. In addition, smoking and especially drinking are huge problems (22% of men are alcohol dependent, 39% of men drink at a hazardous level) and both are big risk factors for heart disease.

Anyway, we’re really just getting started but it’s a pretty cool project and our fingers are crossed we can pull it off!

Here's an example of the traditional dairy products I referred two. These are two varieties of aarul -- dried milk curds. They were made in June and have been drying out and hardening all summer. These were given to me yesterday as a thank you from a local English teacher for helping her with her English.