Goodbye Mongolia

I honestly can’t say how I feel about leaving Mongolia. The past month has been awesome because I’ve been super busy and I loved getting interact with all of the international volunteers and staff that were here for the BSB. But I also haven’t forgotten the rather depressing times in March, April, and May when it still seemed to be winter and I wasn’t busy. So my feelings are mixed.

I’m sad because I will miss the great people that I’ve met here and gotten to know. My co-workers and my friends from church are really amazing people and I am very sad to leave them.

I’m happy because I’m leaving pretty much when all of the international people I’ve gotten to know the past couple of weeks are leaving too, so I don’t feel like I’m being left behind. I’m also happy because I’m on my way to start a 3-week trip through China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I am SUPER excited to be going back to China to see people, most of all my friend Ana and her family who I’m staying with in Foshan. Honestly if I wasn’t on my way to see Ana and get to hang out with her for a few days I might not get on that airplane. I’m also happy because I’m meeting up with my best friend Lacey in Thailand and that’s going to be awesome.

I’m nervous because after that 3-week trip I still have no life plans other than to sleep on my mom’s couch and work at Del Taco until I find a real job. I’m getting a little panicky, but I’m trying to ignore my growing sense of dread.

I’m grateful for my experience in Mongolia, the good and the bad. It has been a real learning experience and I’m thankful for the professional and personal growth I’ve made here.

I’m in disbelief because my 6 months here is finally over. Weird.

My Last Mongolian Adventure

And now we come to the end. I spent my last 24 hours in Mongolia being lazy and packing. Thursday night my landlord was coming over to check out the apartment and give me back my deposit. I did a little cleaning up before and thank heavens I finished early because he, his wife, his son, their English-speaking friend, and (I assume) her son showed up 20 minutes earlier than I expected.  We figured out the money that I owed and they owed me. I told them I was leaving the apartment on Friday at 3:00pm (my flight left at 6:20pm, leaving at 3pm was giving myself a ton of extra time). They said they’d come back tomorrow at 2:30 to collect the key and to give me my money.

I spent Friday morning packing and lounging around my apartment. I didn’t really care about leaving the place spotless because we didn’t get the apartment in immaculate condition and we’d already agreed on what I would get back of my deposit. After putting off the final touches of packing by watching 2 movies and wasting time on the internet I was pretty much ready to go by 1:30 and was sitting on the couch watching stuff on my computer. Well thank heavens I was ready because they showed up early again, this time at 1:45pm.

After they handed me my wad of cash I figured I might as well go to the airport since they were there and I was ready to go. So I make ready to leave at the same time as the family and the landlord carries my suitcase down the stairs, very charitable I thought. When we get out of the building I kind of explain in gestures and the universal words of ‘taxi’ and ‘airport’ that I was going to a nearby hotel so they could call me a taxi to the airport (I was unable to call one myself because a. I don’t speak Mongolian, 2. I didn’t have the phone number of the English taxi service, and d. it’s impossible to explain how to drive to my apartment because we don’t have an address.) The landlord then puts my suitcase in his trunk and says ‘taxi’ and points. I figure I haven’t got much to lose: there’s not much danger as it’s him, his wife, and young son and they’ve never given me reason to be alarmed before. So off I go in their car with them.

The wife calls her English-speaking friend again and hands me the phone. She explains that the family is going somewhere near the airport and I can get a taxi from there and it will be cheaper for me; sounded good to me. We’re going in a direction that isn’t directly to the airport but kind of in the right direction. Then we turn off a main road and start going through a neighborhood of apartment complexes, eventually going into a parking garage where we park and get out of the car. Weirdly I still wasn’t nervous or alarmed, just slightly amused and confused. We then get into another car driven by another guy. We drive for another 10 minutes, pull over to a random side of the road and they take out my bag which is a signal for me to get out as well. The landlord flags down a car for me (the unmarked taxis are usually cheaper and I like them better anyway) and negotiates a price and puts my bag in the back. And then I’m off in my third car in an hour finally making my way to the airport.

I arrived 3.5 hours early for my flight, which was fine with me (although it would be nicer if there were any shops or food at this tiny airport, but I can’t have everything). 

My last shot of Mongolia taken from my taxi.

Last Mongolian Meal

On my second to last day in Mongolia I finally had what we in the US think of as Mongolian bbq, or at least something similar. This happened to be way better and was a BBQ place packed with tourists. Christine from the Habitat Asia Pacific office had stayed at my apartment the night before and so she was taking me out to lunch before her flight later that day. The food was delicious and it was an all-you-can-eat restaurant so I filled up. I kind of wish I would have discovered this earlier, but maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t. I don't think it was traditional Mongolian food at all, but it was still great.

My third plate of the day.

Naadam

Naadam is one of Mongolia’s 2 big holidays. It is 3 days of traditional sports like wrestling, horse-racing, archery, and this bone flicking game. For more accurate information, here’s the Wikipedia link: Naadam. I was told that an extra 1 million people were in the city for it and I personally saw a ton of extra tourists walking around. For a city that already has too many people it made things a little crazy.

I got to go to the Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday, which was quite fun and a great cultural experience. I got there super early because I was told to be in my seat an hour before the 11am start time (which means I got there at 9:20am, oops). The ceremony was mercifully only an hour and involved bands playing, horses marching around, the president speaking, and lots of people in Mongolian traditional clothing. I was sitting with some of the Habitat volunteers from Australia (our tickets were bought by my co-worker Billy), so it was nice to chat with them while we watched.

This is the Mongolian Olympic team that's going to London later this month.

Afterward the wrestling competition started. It was frankly kind of boring because there were a lot of them going on at once and I couldn’t really see what was going on. Then we checked out archery which was really cool. I ran into some of the senior missionary couples I know from church, which is always fun.

Wrestlers getting ready in their oddly skimpy outfits.

Male archer getting ready to shoot.

Female archers preparing.

Guys competing in the bone flicking sport that I never got the name of.

I’m really glad I got to experience Naadam and I’m really glad that I was able to leave when I wanted (I was still tired from the week before).

Farewell from Friends and Co-workers

It was a little harder to say goodbye than I thought it would be. I shouldn’t have been surprised, my favorite part about Mongolia has always been the people so it makes sense that the hardest part to leave would be the same thing.

On my last Sunday at church I gave a talk, half of which I blubbered through. I was asked to speak about my experience at church in Mongolia, and any recommendations for church members there, etc. I chose to focus my talk around Zion because I have never found a group of Saints who are building Zion more genuinely and enthusiastically than in Mongolia. Despite my exhaustion and having to get up early to write my talk, I was very grateful I got to speak because it gave me the opportunity to say thank you and goodbye to my ward. After church the YW president asked me to come down to the YW room because the YW wanted to say goodbye to me. When I walked in they had decorated the white board and started to sing ‘God Be With You Til We Meet Again,’ which made me start crying again. They had signed a card and when they said the closing prayer Gerelezaya translated it for me (don’t usually bother translating prayers) and I was pretty much bawling because the Young Woman said some really nice things etc. All of this crying I did on Sunday was partly because I was so tired and a little sleep deprived but let’s face it, anyone who knows me at church knows that I cry pretty easily anyway. So yeah, last Sunday at church was great, too much crying, but still good.

The Young Women, their leaders and I.

On Monday I went out to lunch with my office and that was really nice. Thankfully I didn’t do any crying but it was a pleasant little send off for me. They gave me a beautiful cashmere scarf and a ticket to the Nadaam Opening Ceremonies for that Wednesday. I really liked working with all of them and I hope I can stay in touch.

Colleagues and I at my farewell lunch.

Tuesday night I went out to dinner with probably my favorite people in Mongolia, Flower and Gerelezaya, sisters that I know from church. We had a lovely time chatting and enjoying Indian food. Brother Ganbold also came by (because he’s Flower’s boss so he had to give her stuff, but he stayed and ate too). They also gave me presents: a wallet (which I’m currently using) and calendar thing. And Brother Ganbold gave me a ticket to a cultural show for Wednesday night (which I went to with Gerelezaya and some people she knew from her mission and it was amazing!).

Me, Flower, Gerelezaya, and Brother Ganbold.

I will miss the people I met in Mongolia but I’m fairly confident that I will be back someday.

The Blue Sky Build (or why I came to Mongolia)

After five and a half months of planning (more actually, this is just what I was involved in) the Blue Sky Build had finally arrived.  The two weeks leading up to the BSB were super busy, but I really enjoyed it. The weekend before I spend all day Saturday going with one of the social workers to visit 6 families for the build, which is something I always enjoy, though we spent a lot of time in the car. Then on Sunday went into my office before church, only went to Sacrament meeting and then went back to my office to work with Melissa, our regional consultant who had come in that day.

The week before pretty much everyone was in the office early and stayed late. We had some more regional staff come in that week which ended up being a big help because they took care of some of the menial tasks that I would have been up all night doing without them (like printing and cutting 300 name tags, etc). The atmosphere was quite fun because we were all a little on edge and it was great to meet and work with some new people. All of the Mongolian Habitat staff also came into town so it was nice to meet and work with a few of them. There were a couple of issues of course. One snag we had was getting more translators for the build, thankfully it wasn’t my responsibility but I tried to help Chimgee (who was in charge of translators) as much as I could including calling my stake president and going to the RM institute class to make an announcement/desperate plea for any English speakers who could help out. My other major issue for the week was printing (there were actual problems of course but I learned to adopt the 'if it’s not my responsibility then I don’t have the time/energy to care' because otherwise I’d have given myself an ulcer). We have the crappiest printer/fax/scanner/copier at our office; it is like one you would have at your house, not in an office. It was slow and kept running out of ink. Well we needed to make thousands of copies and eventually I ended up going to a copy place after too many days and even the copy place was quite expensive. But other than that, things were fine for the build up.

Oh, except that on June 28, the Thursday before the build it was Mongolian elections so the entire country was off work. The rest visiting foreign staff and I all went into the office anyway, but none of the Mongolian staff worked (as far as I know). This REALLY stressed out some of our regional people because taking a day off 4 days before a major project is apparently not something that people normally do.

On Sunday, 1 July the real chaos started. Most of the volunteers were arriving that day and then we had the Opening Dinner that night. I was up really early that morning and in the office (and really excited). I got most of my day responsibilities done (like setting up some signs at hotels, etc) very easily and even had a little down time to grab lunch. It was SO much fun to see all of the international volunteers coming in. A couple of the staff seemed a little stressed, but otherwise I think all of the pick ups and registrations went pretty well.

I had to co-emcee the Opening Dinner (not sure why they keep making me emcee for these things, I don’t really mind I just don’t understand it). It went really well. The traditional (and some non-traditional) Mongolian entertainment was a huge hit with the foreigners so everyone was in a great mood. The most popular bit seemed to be the fashion show, which is really funny when I think about it, but it was very dramatic and cool (my favorite parts were the throat singing and the Shaman dance). People were standing up and getting pictures for the entire show. Overall, everything went great.

Throat Singing

Shaman Dance

Monday morning bright and early I caught the bus that was picking up at 2 hotels a 5-minute walk from my house. The buses left Ulaanbaatar every morning at 7am, which meant volunteers had breakfast at around 6am everyday. On my bus were 37 Koreans and 3 volunteers from Hong Kong along with a couple of random volunteers, translators, and Mongolian staff. I was initially disappointed that my bus was going to contain the only non-native English speaking volunteers we had, but it turned out to be blessing because the Koreans were super organized and quiet, so that was great.

My role during the week was to help with the media, update facebook and assist the Asia Pacific communications people with anything that they needed. That translated into a lot of walking around the build site holding my computer out trying to get a decent internet signal and then some boring down times. I felt a little bad that I wasn’t actually building, but I was still exhausted at the end of every day. I hung out mainly with Christine, one of our regional staff who works in Singapore and Ally, a 14 year old volunteer from the US who wasn’t allowed to actually build so she helped with catering and drinks.

Christine and I on the last day of the build.

Ally and I on the last day.

Our weather during the week was up and down. We had a couple of really hot days and then a couple of rainy days. On the first rainy day we just waited it out and the weather cleared enough to keep working. On Friday though most of the volunteers and staff left early in the afternoon because the rain was just too heavy (of course as soon as we’re all on the buses it stopped, but too late to change our minds). Getting home before 7pm was really nice though.

Korean team dealing with the rain. Photo credit Mikel Flam.

Every night I would get home and strip off my clothes and shower. I was too tired to go out most of the time so I would spend about an hour waging war with the flies that had infested my apartment and then crashed in bed. I don’t know why I was so tired because I wasn’t actually doing any building, but I was seriously exhausted.

There were of course some issues/problems/opportunities for improvement throughout the week, but nothing major and things got handled fairly well.

On Saturday, the last day volunteers were supposed to finish building by lunchtime because then we were having all of the house dedications and then closing ceremony and dinner. Because people left early on Friday afternoon though some houses were a little behind so everything got pushed back a little, but I think the houses all pretty much got finished. I missed all the house dedications because I was busy getting ready for the closing ceremony (I had to emcee again) but I heard some of them were very emotional and others involved shots of vodka.

The closing ceremony had its highs and lows. The highs included the families saying thank you and doing a couple of performances and each of the international teams did a little dance/song, which were sometimes funny and always entertaining. The lows included the fact that everyone was sitting in the sun in the late afternoon and the fact that it lasted WAY too long (my boss insisted on giving a speech which in and of itself was too long, and then giving out awards to way too many people that took an extra 45 minutes). After that we ate and then everyone left on the buses and the Blue Sky Build was over. (Randomly my bus left last because the Koreans were so attached to one of the families they built a house for that they were all crying and didn’t want to leave them, it was touching and hilarious all at the same time.)

Volunteers enjoying the Closing Ceremony.

I was SO tired at the end of the week. Sadly I still got up really early on Sunday morning because I needed to clean a little (someone was staying at my house that night) and because I had to give a talk in church that day which I needed to write/prepare and then find somewhere to print it before church (the crappy printer in our office had been temporarily re-located to one of the hotels that volunteers were at and I kind of have to have printed copies when someone is translating for me, I’m not mean enough to make someone read my hand-writing while simultaneously translating my too-big English words into Mongolian).

Some of the staff relaxing a little after everything was done on Saturday 

and the volunteers were getting on the buses.

My overall thoughts/feelings about the BSB are pretty positive. I had a really good time and loved all the people I got to meet and work with. It was also a great learning opportunity for me and I know a lot of things to avoid if I ever had to organize my own big build, or any major event.

Random Facts:

• I consumed more soda during the build week than I did the entire previous 6 months because there were thousands of bottles sitting in the test house with me all day and I had access to cold ones. I had at least 2 a day. I am now on a carbonated drink fast because I felt so crappy because of it.
• I wore the same t-shirt for 6 days in a row (I did wash it twice).
• I got weirdly sunburned during the week. I have a very visible watch tan now and on the last day I rolled up my pants to expose 3 inches of my ankles and lower leg: they turned bright pink as well. 
• I wore my Rodger Federer hat one day and was please to find 2 different international volunteers to talk to about Wimbleton because they recognized it.

Photo credit Mikel Flam

Photo credit Mikel Flam. You can kind of see me in the back right hand corner walking to the group photo because I was trying to get the Koreans to come to the photo.

(For more photos of the build check out Habitat for Humanity Mongolia's facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/hfhmongolia )

Sorry for the Absence

Wow, I haven’t posted on my blog in a really long time. My last post was back in June. My reasons for the long silence are varied. At first I was kind of upset and a little bitter about missing my Grandmother’s funeral and seeing all of my family. But I got all the details from my mom and 2 of my siblings, then my cousin posted a bunch of pictures of it and I got over that. Then I just got really busy with work. The end of June until now have been super hectic but super good too. It has meant that my normal internet wanderings have been suspended (I logged on to Pinterest yesterday for the first time in a like a month!), and therefore the blog has taken a backseat.

To make up for the lack of posts the past couple of months I’m going to attempt to write a bunch of posts in the next several hours.  I’m currently sitting at the Ulaanbaatar airport waiting for my flight to leave Mongolia. I’m a little sad about this, but mainly just numb. I’m flying to Beijing where I will have an 11+ hour layover where I intend to write more catch up posts. Of course I’m not sure these will actually get put up on the blog since the last time I checked BlogSpot was blocked in China, so we’ll see how many I can get written while sitting in UB.

Life as of Late

This is a bit of a catch-up post because there hasn't been a whole lot happening that would warrant its own post. So here are a few snippets:

Friday June 1 is Children's Day in Mongolia. Unlike the same holiday in China where I was forced to perform for my students in a teacher/parent talent show, this holiday is a lot less stressful for adults. Everyone gets the day off and kids spend it going to the Children's Park (a sort-of amusement park) and doing other fun things. Here in Mongolia the holiday has also kind of morphed into a Mother's Day celebration as well. I spent the day very excitingly in my office, enjoying the time alone and getting caught up on stuff.

On Saturday I experienced the first real rain since coming to Mongolia. The precipitation that I have previously experienced here has all been snow, though it has rained a little, but always at night when I'm sleeping. It was a welcome sight to have some rain.

On Sunday I discovered that my Bishop had moved to the US. He had told me goodbye the previous Sunday but I thought he was just going to visit. His three kids live in the US and his wife has been there for a month and  a half already. I'm super sorry to see them both leave, but seeing as I won't be here that much longer I'm not that upset. He was seriously one of the best bishops I've ever had. I haven't felt so well taken care of by a bishopric since my the ward I grew up in. I really hope that I get to see him in the US sometime in the future.

Today I went to my third (and probably final) International Women's Association of Mongolia (IWAM) meeting. This is an organization of mostly ex-pat women who are living in Ulaanbaatar. They have on-going service projects and give to other charities and organizations. I am a member but I also happened to be the guest speaker for today's meeting, talking about Habitat and what we do here (and trying to drum up support/money as usual). My presentation went well and I got a list of people interested in helping (though I'm not sure with what yet). I really enjoy going to IWAM meetings. At these meetings and for a few hours after them is really the only time that I wish I could stay in Mongolia. I want to be friends with these women and volunteer at the various charitable institutions that they help with, but alas, I have a job and I'm leaving next month.

Which brings me to my next update: I will be back in the good ol' US of A in less than 2 months. I leave Mongolia in approximately (don't have my ticket yet) 38 days and then will travel around and fly to California on August 4. I'm kind of stoked about this despite my lack of life plans after that.

Lastly, I am very sad to report that my Grandma Ruth passed away on Friday. I found out Sunday morning from an email that my brother sent me and then immediately called my mom. This was not unexpected as she was 90 years old and her health and mental state have been declining the past few months, and then very rapidly the past two weeks after doctors discovered cancer. Three of her children (including my mom) were there when she died and she was on enough pain killers that it was hopefully painless for her.

I'm so grateful that I was able to see her right before I left for Mongolia and that she was still doing quite well. I was kind of upset when I went to church on Sunday after having just talked to my mom about it, even though this was expected. I'm super grateful for the sweet Young Women in my ward who gave me hugs after I mentioned why I was sad in my testimony at the end of the Young Women's lesson that I was teaching. Grandma Ruth's funeral will be this Saturday and I'm pretty disappointed that I'm just too far away to attend.

Ruth Hutchins Killian was the classiest woman I have ever known and I am so proud that she was my grandma. I'm not sure who is going to very nicely bug me about getting married now. She will be very much missed.

This is the only picture I have for Grandma on my computer and it's not super flattering of her (or me for that matter). This was taken in December 2008 at her house. In the picture is my sister Allie, Grandma, my brother Trent, and me.

Fire! Fire!

The normal trash fire that happens every couple of weeks outside my apartment building apparently got a little out of hand yesterday because the fire department was called in.

In a completely unrelated note: I'm currently sitting in my office listening to thunder for the first time since coming to Mongolia and it's awesome. It hasn't started to rain yet though and I will feel a little bad if it does because today is Children's Day and apparently thousands of kids are spending the day outside playing games and going to the sort of amusement park and their day might be ruined if it rains.

Adventures with Melissa

Last Saturday I went with my work colleague/friend to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park. This was one of the stops I had made with my friends the previous Saturday, but this time we got to spend more time and do different things. The whole day was great and I had such a fun time hanging out with Melissa and Max (our driver/sort of tour guide).

First let me introduce Melissa. (I had meant to write a blog post dedicated just to Melissa when she first came to Mongolia during the first week of April but I never got any good photos of her and I got super lazy in April as evidenced by the number of posts I actually put up.) Melissa is a Regional Program Advisor for the Asia Pacific Habitat for Humanity office. She’s currently based in Manila and our Blue Sky Build project in July is one of her assignments. She acts like an advisor and helps us out with anything we might need. She is especially helpful to me because her background with Habitat is in communications. Melissa completed the same MSW program at Boston College as I did a few years ago. For her internship she was placed with Habitat in Cambodia. After her internship she stayed on with them for a couple of years before moving up to the regional office. I love it when Melissa comes to visit because firstly she motivates everyone at work to get more stuff done and be excited about what we’re doing; secondly because I like her as a person and really enjoy her company. She’s incredibly nice and we have quite a bit to talk about. She has had a really interesting life and lots of fun stories.

I suppose that’s enough fawning over Melissa. So she arrived a week ago Sunday and had planned her trip to coincide with our Corner Stone Laying ceremony and the building of the test build house for the BSB (they build one house before the project to work out any kinks and to time it to see where each house needs to be at the end of each day). Unfortunately the test build schedule didn’t go according to plan and Melissa decided to leave a few days early which meant that her Saturday was free to do something touristy. I was more than happy to have a touristy adventure and get out of the city. We looked up a bunch of places to go for a day trip but most of them got shot down by our Mongolian colleagues as being sub-par so we settled on going to the national park.

Gorkhi-Terelj National Park - you can see one of the ger camps in the distance.

 

Our driver for the day was Max, a friend of Billy one of our colleagues. We were especially lucky that Max agreed to drive us because he speaks great English which made the whole day go a lot smoother. Our first stop in the park was Turtle Rock which I loved seeing the week before. This time we actually climbed it (well, some of it).

Turtle Rock, obviously.

Melissa and Max.

Me and Max climbing(ish).

After the rock we went over to the monastery that was on the side of a hill. We climbed all the steps (which really weren’t that many) to the top and enjoyed the spectacular view. We chilled up there for a bit, enjoying the sunshine.

Really not that many stairs.

These were all around the monastery.

Beautiful view

Then we headed to a hotel where we were hoping to have an archery lesson and eat lunch. Sadly the archery was a bust and we didn’t do it. We did however go check out the much fancier hotel next door which was really nice (Melissa and I ended up using their bathroom 3 times throughout the day because it was so lovely and the nicest bathroom I’ve seen in Mongolia).

So then in an attempt to kill some time for a reason that I can’t remember we rented 3 horses for an hour to go riding. Mongolian horses are much smaller than horses that I’m used to. The horse riding experience was…interesting. First my horse wouldn’t go (apparently because it could tell that I was a foreigner), so Max switched horses with me. Well then he couldn’t get it to go and Melissa’s horse liked to run her into walls. Eventually the horse keepers forced our horses to head towards the river. When we got to the river I assumed we’d find a bridge to cross. When I could see no bridge I assumed we’d just walk along the river. Nope, Max told us to just press full steam ahead through the water. Granted it wasn’t that deep, but deep enough for our shoes to get soaked and the current was strong enough for the horses to walk diagonally from one side to the other (I kept picturing John Wayne movies as we forced our way across the river, I thought it was kind of cool but Melissa did not agree). And of course, Max’s horse still didn’t want to go and it was quite the battle for him to get that horse in the water. On the other side of the river things went more smoothly and we just wandered around the semi wilderness. I kept trying to get my horse to go faster but could only manage to get him up to a very bouncy trot. After not too long we crossed back over the river, passing a stalled SUV in the middle of it and went back to hand the horses over.

The horses are finally moving.

About to cross back through the river.

 Our last activity in the park was to have a slightly extravagant lunch at the fancy hotel. It was so nice to get to splurge a little despite the fact that we were all a little dirty. Then we headed back to Ulaanbaatar. Melissa had a couple of hours to kill before her flight so we relaxed at my house and got pizza from a place only 10 min walk from my house (I will definitely be going there again – thank you Jared for the recommendation).  And that was it.

My lunch: I love the fries in the pan.

I was exhausted and a little sunburned (though not as much as I had hoped) and was a little sad for Melissa to leave, but super happy with the day. Melissa will be back in town at the end of June and stay pretty much until I leave Mongolia. 

Yeah for Melissa and getting to hang out with her.

Roving Cold Water

Finally the roving cold water has come to my house like the plagues of Egypt, except I don't have any lamb's blood to put above my door to protect my household (though it probably wouldn't be too hard to get lamb's blood here, I just don't think it would do any good).

For a couple of weeks I've been hearing from my co-workers and friends about how their hot water has been turned off for a few weeks. I even had a friend come to my house just to use the shower because she had no hot water. I've been very content listening to everyone else's comments confident in the fact that my house had plenty of hot water (too much actually but it's better than the reverse). Until last night that is.

When I got home there was NO water in my apartment, so that was fun. After my roommate made some phone calls she found out the the water would be turned back on around 3am (thank goodness I had a large bottle of drinking water to use for brushing my teeth, etc) and that our HOT water would be back on June 11. I've lived without hot water before and heaven knows I shouldn't be complaining when some of my global classmates lived for months without it, but that was generally in hot and/or humid climates, not when it's still below freezing every morning when I leave my apartment.

Apparently this happens every summer in Mongolia (I'm using the loosest definition possible with 'summer' here). Pipes have to be fixed, so throughout Ulaanbaatar the hot water gets turned off for a few weeks throughout all the different neighborhoods.

So basically Mongolians spend all summer preparing for winter.

I still do not understand why people have chosen to live in this climate. I'm talking about the people who were here hundreds and thousands of years ago, why on earth would anyone in their right minds choose to live in the frozen tundra? Granted it is very beautiful and supposedly a pleasant climate for a few months during the actual summer (I'm still waiting to see if this is real), but is that really worth it?

Sorry to all of my Mongolian friends, I'm just not built for this kind of weather. The literally frozen winter was bad enough, but the wind whipping through the city these days is getting unbearable.

I Am a Master

On Monday, May 21 while I was freezing half to death in the middle of Mongolia, I officially became a Master of Social Work (not sure if that’s the correct way to say it but I like the idea of calling myself a master).

I have wanted to be a social worker since I was 17. The summer before my senior year of high school, my friend got me a job working in the Child Care of a temporary home in Norwalk, CA. The temporary home was kind of like a homeless shelter for families. Families would live there on a temporary basis while they tried to get back on their feet. The residents were required to have life/job/finance counseling and were able to use the Child Care if the parents were at work or school. I think my mom saw how much I liked working there and she’s the one that suggested that maybe I should do this for a living, except that I should be running the temporary home and not just working in the Child Care.

I thought about majoring in Social Work at BYU and even took an Intro to Social Work class but decided against it. I didn’t want to have to take all the sociology classes and I loved my Intro to International Relations class more, so I opted for majoring in Political Science. But in my head I still wanted to be a social worker, just now in a more international setting.

After finishing my undergraduate studies I re-focused on social work. I decided that I needed to get a Master’s degree. The problem was that in order to get into an MSW program I needed more experience in the field, but in order to get a job as a social worker, most organizations required an MSW. So instead I stalled my life plans, moved to China and hoped that working as an ESL teacher would give me some relevant experience.

I found out that I got into Boston College’s Graduate School of Social Work while I was in China. I had instructed my mother to EMAIL me when the grad schools I had applied for started sending me letters because good or bad I wanted to be able to process the news before reacting to it. Well she ignored my instructions (which I’m grateful she did) and called me on my Chinese cell phone at 7am. I had to go outside of my apartment to talk because reception was bad inside. When she told me that I had gotten into Boston College, my top choice, I started to cry on the phone while standing outside in my pajamas with no shoes on. I was ecstatic and so relieved that I now had a plan and I was going to get to do exactly what I wanted. Boston College was my top choice because of their Global Practice program, which is one of the leading International Social Work programs in the US (if not the best, there aren’t any official rankings). I also really wanted to live in Boston. I was so excited and nervous that I kind of didn’t eat for a week after I got in (when I’m really nervous [as in miles past tests or papers nervous] I forget to eat).

The first time I set foot on campus was for Orientation. Meeting my classmates the first few days of meetings was awesome. Rarely had I ever been able to talk so easily with a group of people as a whole before. Everyone was so friendly and we were all there because we had a common goal. It was interesting to hear about everyone’s different backgrounds and what had led us to an MSW program. Through the 4 semesters that I was taking classes I formed some life-long friends. We suffered together through some weird and challenging professors, we laughed together about some of the seemingly ridiculous assignments we had to complete, and we enjoyed getting to know each other and becoming friends.

Some of the memories going through my head right now are: All of the free food during September because of all the orientations and meetings; feeling super uncomfortable about being white during Diversity class; feeling proud that I was the only one in my Macro class to have read the case study but feeling uncomfortable that I was answering all the questions (I’m not bragging here, I think I completed maybe 30% of my reading assignments while at BC and just happened to have liked that particular case.); Dr. Tran in Research Methods being annoyed at the guest speaker he had brought in and his hilarious phrases; reading Shackleton, then discussing eating dogs and penguins, then watching the movie and being disappointed that it didn’t include some of the best parts; being told by a professor not to fall asleep in class the second to last class of a semester when I KNOW that I had never actually fallen asleep in that class (or any class at BC); making group posters like we were in 4^th grade; being the only person in class that seemed to be watching and enjoying the movie about the mining union; being told not to settle for being second banana.

Thank you to all of my professors and advisers. Thank you to my friends and classmates. Thank you to Boston College for a great education (even though it was over priced).

Congratulations to the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work’s Class of 2012 and good luck!!!! 

(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I was not at graduation so don't have any personal photographic evidence that it did in fact take place. All those photos I've seen on facebook could have been staged for some elaborate hoax for all I know.)

Oh the Lovely Weather

On Monday we had the Corner Stone Laying Ceremony for our big upcoming project, the Blue Sky Build 2012. We had invited some guests, mainly people who are giving us money, as well as the governor of the district where the houses are to be built. The program was planned to be short and then everyone would get to help lay some bricks.  Well things did not go according to plan….thanks to the weather.

It was one of the most miserable weather situations I have ever had to experience (and I honestly can’t think of a worse situation right now). The wind was atrocious. It was fiercely blowing frigid air. Then it rained. Then it hailed. Then it rained again. Finally the precipitation stopped and it was just the wind but everything was freezing. I had my hood up the whole time and sunglasses on because there was dirt and sand blowing so hard. My hands were frozen and I couldn’t move my fingers very well. I was unwittingly chewing sand the whole time. When I finally got back to the safety of the car after standing outside for 2 hours my face and clothes were covered in dirt and I was damp. Add to that the almost 2 hours it took for us to get home because of traffic and the whole day was terrible, not “I want to kill myself” terrible, more “hysterically laughing because this is so ridiculous” terrible.

Overall the ceremony was alright. A lot of the scheduled guests didn’t come (can’t say I blame them). The bricks got laid, but it was not a pleasant experience. It wasn’t very organized even without the weather’s interference. But it’s over and as soon as I got home that night I got directly in to a really hot shower for 40 minutes.

The bright spots of the day included a. Melissa who is visiting from the regional Habitat office this week. She’s awesome and I love her. 2. Two of my recently made friends were at the ceremony because they were representing New Milestone which is supporting our project. And d. after I got home and showered my friend Flower called me on Skype, but my home computer doesn’t have a camera or a microphone so I could see and hear her but I could only type my responses to her. She had gone to an American import store that was having an awesome sale and she showed my all of her purchases, it was amazing and it made my night as she paraded her spoils in front of the web-cam.

Suffering through the speeches.

Laying the bricks.

Billy (our volunteer coordinator), me and Melissa.