Wac-Evac

Alli has been gone for a week now. It’s a good thing that she is coming back tomorrow because I’m losing my mind sitting in the ger by myself. I honestly don’t know how the single volunteers that are out in the hoodoo do it without going crazy. Well some do go crazy and since nothing crazy has been going on ill share some hoodoo legends about PCVs losing it. This first story is legend and I’m not positive if it actually happened but PCVs across the world have heard of it, the legend of the bagel lady. She lived in a ger out in the hoodoo and was an English teacher at her local school. Well one day she didn’t show up for work and then the next day and the day after that. Her work became worried and went to her ger but it was locked and no one answered so they decided to call Peace Corps office. PC came out to look for her and as it turns out she was in her ger and for the past three days she had been making hundreds of bagels and had them hanging up all over her ger. Needless to say she was wac-evac, and sent back to the states. The next story also has to do with an English teacher in the hoodoo, and this story I know is for real. Once a year our medical team visits all the volunteers to make sure that they are reasonably healthy and that they are not living in filth. Well one volunteer had integrated so well into his community that when our medical officer came out to visit him he refused to speak English to him at all and would only speak in Mongolian. He asked for a translator to speak to the medical officer, at which point he was sent home.
After living by myself here for only a week I am surprised that there are not more stories like these, but then again we all must have been crazy before we got here, we did volunteer for this after all.
The picture of the animal is actually a cross between a cow and a yak, kind of strange but very tasty.