Life Without Windows

I have been thinking alot lately on the psychological impact that having a house without windows has been having on us, and I have come to the conclusion that it has no positive impact. Waking up in the morning and having to rely on artificial light (a flouresent tube) doesnt really get you set to tackle the day. Besides for that it makes us feel real isolated from the rest of the world. Even though we only have some felt between us and the world once you walk into the ger its like walking into a totally seperate world. Maybe ill expand on this another day, today Im just here to tell you that there are new pictures up. Stay warm.

Now We Have A TV Show

Yep, we are now on TV. How could this have possibly happened you may be asking yourself? Well as it turns out it is a question thet we have asked ourselves. Last week a local TV station called Allis school and said that they wanted to put together a series on teaching english, her school then in turn asked Alli to do this and by default I was drug into it as well. Here is how the conversation went- Allis school-"How about doing english lessons on TV?"
Alli- "Sure that sounds like a good idea."
A's School- "Good, you will film tonight."
A- "What"
A's School- "Yes, each show has to be 30 minutes"
A- "What? Wait we cant tape tonight we dont have anything prepared."
A's School "Oh OK,you will tape tomorrow then."
And we did, we taped the first one on friday and tomorrow we will tape three more. They will run everyday for the next month on local TV.
On a completely different subject we are going to Erdenet on friday for a week to take part in a seminar that Alli and I will both be presenting at, and the best part is that we will be staying with our friend Salomon who has an apartment there. An apartment with a shower and toilet. It will be heaven. While we are there Salomons father will be visiting and we are looking forward to meeting him. Not much else going on besides for how cold its getting and the lack of daylight. The sun rises at about 8am and sets around 630pm now, and it only gets colder and darker from here. Stay warm out there-Mike and Alli

The Evolution of Gruel

It starts off innocent enough. “Hey lets have soup tonight” someone says. “That sounds good” comes the reply. The soup is composed of the usual suspects, potatoes, carrots, onions, and meat-cow, horse, sheep, goat, yak, camel, or a mixture of. “That was good” she says, and this is where it begins. “We can even have it for lunch tomorrow”. “Good idea” he says like a fool. Fate, destiny, providence, whatever you call it has now taken over. Fast-forward to the next day, “I’m going to add some more water to the soup so that we can have it for dinner tonight too” she says. “Good idea” he says, lulled by the temptation of not having to cook. The soup however refuses to die at dinner and like all successful creatures upon this planet is forced to evolve. “We should add some rice to the soup for dinner because it is mostly broth now” she observes. “Good idea” he says with a vague feeling of dread wrapping its fingers around his stomach. He dismisses this as yet another round of splatter foot and continues unaware. The soup is now changing, while it is still soup it is now becoming something else, something terrible. The next day the soup is avoided for lunch by a tactful “Lets go out for lunch today”. At dinner the soup has now evolved, it is no longer soup, the rice has completely melded with the soup and is now mush. The prospect of eating this is grim and neither one of us has the cojones to dig right in, until. “Maybe if we heat it back up and add some cheese and hot sauce it wont be so bad”. It is now gruel, and then the inevitable, “Not bad for gruel eh?” “No, not bad for gruel.”

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.

Sorry it has been so long since we have written. I guess we have been busy. Sorry no more funny stories at this time. We finally winterized our ger. I will do my best to explain the process. We added an extra layer of felt around the ger which probably took the least amount of time. However it did require undoing the ropes that go around the ger only to put them right back on. Then we put plastic going from the bottom rope to the ground. Then after Mike finally shoveled all the dirt with a handmade shovel, I put the dirt around the bottom of the ger- this helps with the air flow. Our hasha dad finished it off with wood to keep the dirt from going away. Total it only took 4 of us about 2-3 hours to do. Mike and I were exhausted! Luckily we did it just in time because later that day it snowed. Yes it snowed on October 5th. Looks like we in for an early winter. So far it seems like it helps the ger maintain heat a little better. I added pictures if my words are hard to follow. We still have not bought our winter clothes yet but that suddenly got put on the top of our priority list. However shopping here for clothes is not that much fun. I think it has something to do with the fact that we are almost twice the size of most Mongolians.
Mike, Elizabeth and their students are still working hard on their map project. It is gigantic and seems to be taking some time. Otherwise, Mike has been working a lot teaching students and teachers life skills and seems to really enjoy it.
I am currently in the capital where I have been for the last week. I am enjoying the food and shopping but also really looking forward to going back home to what seems like a small town.
Before I left Elizabeth and I taught 13 English teachers how to make American pizza. It was a wonderful English class. The pizza they made was fantastic and loaded with meat. Mike was so excited- he got to eat pizza all day without any of the work.
Will write more soon- we love and miss you- Allie and Mike

I added a few new pictures. Click on flickr under picture post to view them. Allie

Outhouse

Well fall is definitely here. The weather here is getting a lot colder and the wind is getting stronger. Good thing we are from Chicago and are used to the wind a little bit. Although in Chicago we didn't walk everywhere which makes a big difference. The last couple of days we have needed a fire going in the morning and at night to keep the Ger warm. The leaves on most of the trees have changed from green to yellow although none have fallen yet. Next weekend we will winterize our Ger which should help keep it warmer for the time being. When Mike left for U.B he did leave me a ready made fire- all I had to do was throw the match in. Unfortunately that didn't help when it was cold the next morning. My hasha family has been great though, I think they think I will starve and freeze while Mike is gone. They having been bringing me food, chopping wood for me and getting me water. Not to mention the teachers at school and our Mongolian friends have been checking in on me daily.
Not too much is new here so I will share a funny story. As many of you know we do not have indoor plumbing we have an outhouse (jorlon). Most of the outhouses here are built for Mongolians who on average are a lot shorter and smaller than us. Getting into the jorlons can sometimes be tricky. Most of the time you have to duck and step over the thresh hold at the same time. Doesn’t sound too tricky until you really need to use the bathroom. Last week I tripped while walking in and almost fell in luckily my body is bigger than the whole so I only fell in up to my thighs, but man was I scared.Oh course Mike laughed and laughed about it. Well this week it was Mike’s turn. While stepping into the jorlon he tripped. When he came running to tell me about it, I thought something really serious had happen from the look on his face. Come to find out he only lost his flip flop. Next thing I know, Mike is attaching rope to a hanger to try and get his flip flop back. I suggested many times that we could get him new flip flops for next summer, but that solution was unacceptable. So into the jorlon Mike goes with his homemade fishing equipment. Believe it or not he actually got it out. Of course then he didn’t know what to do with it because it needed to be cleaned. He put it outside hoping the rain would clean most of it. The next day however his flip flop was gone, the dogs obviously thought it was a toy. All that hard work down the drain.
This week our schools had sports day. At my school all the different classes wore different matching outfits for the occasion. It is a big day for the classes to show off their talent. First they all marched and did routines in unison. Then they continued to march for about 2 km out into this big field. In the field the different classes competed in 3 different activities; push ups, long and short distance running. It was amazing to watch. I mainly watched the 4th graders since they are most of my students. I watched a little girl do 50 pushups and a boy do 117, their upper body strength is incredible.
P.s- on the way to the post office I found Mike's flip flop clean with only a few bite marks. I had to find a stick to pick it up and carry it home. If that isn't love I don't know what is.
That’s about it! We love and miss you all—Allie and Mike