After our Orientation we were rushed off to our summer sites. I am stationed in SukhBaatar for the summer with a group of 10 TEFL volunteers. Our group has a great dynamic and I love them all! (Jesse, Will, Christie, Maggie, Hugh, William, Emily, Melissa, and Joanna) When we arrive to School 2 in SukhBaatar we are greeted with food yet again, an array of candy, fruit, and dried cheeses, which are the three main food groups Mongolians believe Americans love. We are basically thrown towards our families and off to our homes. It definitely was a bit scary at first to not have anyone from America around me anymore. My family has been amazing! I have a father (aaw in Mongolian), Byimba, who is a driver, a mother (eej), also Byimba which made my life easy, who works at the post office, and a 13 year old sister (duu, younger sibling) Khatnaa (K is silent). I have a brother who studies in UB but his wife, Jijge and their daughter, Tilthmoo, who is 1 year and 2 months, who stay with us during the week. After the mayhem of getting home I unpack and my sister immediately takes me to this huge statue on a hill that we passed. She knows quite a bit of English, which is a relief to me, because she is now basically my built in translator for my host parents. The first couple of days flew by so fast and blended together. We met our host families on Friday and had all weekend to get to know them.

            I became really close with Khatnaa and practically followed her around like a dog. I introduced her to Crazy 8’s and Go Fish, which we now regularly play at least for one hour a day. We also have a basketball court on our property and I have become familiar with. The great thing about Mongolia is the community atmosphere. Because everyone shares what they have our court is communal for anyone who wants to play, which is nice to meet new people, although all of their names are ridiculously long.

            But our schedule is that we have language classes in the morning and technical training in the afternoon. My house is over the statue hill and just on the outskirts of town so it is a bit farther than most but I love it. Because we are out in the boonies we are able to have two cows, two calves, and a horse, although I have yet to see it. I milk the cows almost everyday with my sister. At first I was horrible of course only getting a tidbit of milk, but now I can get as much as my sister. My host mom on the other hand is a champion and gets a full pail in the morning and at night.

            Peace Corps encourages us to show our interests and hobbies with our family so of course I brought out my camera and Khatnaa is a complete natural. She asks me for my camera at least once a day. I love that they are so interested and I never feel like the foreigner taking pictures with my camera. Last night I was downloading my pictures and the whole family gathered around to see them!

            We are also fairly close to the river and Khatnaa says they go swimming all the time. I am a bit skeptical due to the fact that the water is dark brown and animal poop just floats on by, but I guess I will try anything once.

            Many people have asked me about the food, and just to get everything straight, IT IS AMAZING! I love it all. Whoever said I would loose weight while in the Peace Corps never thought about Mongolia. Every meal I have some kind of egg, whether it is fried or boiled, along with cucumber and tomatoes, which I never imagined I would see in Mongolia! We also have milk tea at every meal, even in between meals, which has a little salt to it to add flavor. I help my family with almost every meal, making dumplings, home-made noodles, and chopping up meat (mah) and vegetables (nogo).

            The one thing I did struggle with was bathing and laundry. We have an outhouse, which a lot of other volunteers had some getting used to but I was in the clear. I have had regular bowel movements since I have been in Mongolia. Now you all may think why on earth would you include this information, but in Mongolia everyone is blunt, and honestly it is quite an accomplishment especially when other volunteers are going on a week plus not having gone number 2.

            Anyway, we get a tunpin or a bucket so to speak to bath in, wash our hair in, and even wash our clothes in. I was dreading this and lasted a week and a half without having to worry. But the next weekend came along and my hair was as greasy as pasta so I figured it was about time. I asked how to do it and my sister immediately took over. She washed my hair outside without any help from me! Unfortunately I did not portray I needed to wash the rest of my body so another 4 days went by until I told her I smelt. She chuckled like she always does towards me and started getting it all ready. I was able to wash myself and my hair too!

            Due to the fact that I had run out of clean socks, which are even more important than underwear here, I was now destined to do laundry. Now this was the worst. I had my underwear, about 8 pairs of socks, 2 pants, and 3 shirts which you wouldn’t think was much but man did it take forever. You have to soak the clothes in soapy water and ring them out. Then you have to soak them in clean water and ring them out again, but this time to the extreme. I of course being a newbie did not ring out my clothes good enough and they were hanging for days.

            All and all I love it here. I cannot wait to tell you more about my adventures. I am trying to keep up to one post a week, but don’t hold me to it. I am thankful to have internet for the summer but do not know if I will have it for the rest of my time here. Hope all is well for y’all back home!

 My summer site group.

 My mom and sister

 Tilthmoo!

 Me by the river. 

 My sister. 

 Statue of the third wife of Genghis, pronounced Chenghis. 

View of my town! Where I live is beautiful. No one can argue that. 

 My sister Khatnaa on the statue hill. 

 The view from the statue hill. 

 This is one of the shrines they have on almost every mountain in Mongolia. You are supposed to walk around it three times leaving something every trip, a rock, money, or scarf, whatever you choose really. 

 These are our two cows! I call them Cow 1 and Cow 2. Mongolians also do not name animals because they view them differently than in America. They see them as resources and not friends

 This is our Mongol face, because in Mongolia people do not smile... They just glare.