Ger living

Where to begin? First of all we are now actual Peace Corps Volunteers, the ambassador swore us in and now we have to protect the constitution. We decided to split the responsibilities so Alli is going to take care of the foreign enemies and I will handle the domestic ones.
Oh yea, now we live in a ger. Our first home together as a married couple. Minus all the creature comforts we are used to, it is actually pretty awesome. Our hasha family is around our age and very nice, Dodoj is a Mongolian language teacher at Alli’s school and Byamba is a driver/petrol worker. They also have a 3 year old daughter named Iveelmaa. Our ger is about 20 feet in diameter and is really cozy. We just finished getting it set up and it is starting to feel like home. Mainly we are just happy to have a home now after living out of our suitcases for the past three months. It is really interesting to decorate in a circle when our whole lives we have been accustomed to 4 walls. We are pleasantly surprised that all of our stuff fits into our ger. On the inside; we have a pretty big bed, a nice couch, a desk, bookshelf, 2 dressers, a table, a sink, a wood burning stove, and a pantry. Our ger floor is wood on top of the ground with carpets. We do have electricity and have heard that it will work most of the time. We do not have running water or indoor plumbing. The outhouse is 50 feet away. We are not quite sure how the ger is put together but we will find out soon when we take it all apart to winterize it. Everything we do now is a process. I am sure that the amount of time it takes us to do anything right now will shorten the more we do it. Our hasha has a very good location. We are close to the internet, post office, bank, mini grocery stores and water. (When we say close we mean within a 15 minute walk)
It is hard to believe that the summer is over and training is done, we are reasonably confident in our language and survival skills which is good. The real test will come once it starts getting cold out, right now it has been getting down into the 40s at night and is in the mid 60s during the day, but we can tell that the cold is coming. Supposedly Khovsgul is one of the coldest provinces in Mongolia; it gets down to about -50c here, that’s pretty cold. I asked someone why they don’t ice fish here because the fishing here is great. They said that it was because the ice on the lake freezes to 7feet thick. It would be tough to auger through that.
As far as work goes it doesn’t really start until September 3rd for us, Alli is teaching English and I am a social worker. We are really looking forward to starting work but we are enjoying our free time; settling in and exploring our new surroundings.
Love- Allie and Mike
For more directions on how to call contact one of our parents.
This is our new address:
Allie and/or Mike Prelaske
P.O box 162
Huvsgul, Murun
Delger Murun School Allie and/or Mike Prelaske
P.O box 162
XOBCГАЛ MӨPӨH
ДЭЛГУР МӨРӨН СУРГУУЛБ