Burengiin Nuruu Mountain Range

Burengiin Nuruu Mountain Range

History of the Peace Corps Program in Mongolia

Peace Corps began its program in Mongolia in 1991, the same year the US Embassy opened in Ulaanbaatar, the nation’s capital city. Since then, over 600 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Mongolia as English language teachers trainers, English teachers, community economic developers, environmental educators, and health educators. I will be a member of the 18th group of Volunteers to serve in Mongolia and the 3rd group of Community Youth Development Volunteers (the 1st CYD Trainees came to Mongolia in June of 2005).

Country Assignment

  • Country: Mongolia (Outter)
  • Program: Youth Development
  • Job Title: Life Skills Trainer (also: English teacher, Child Caretaker, Fund Raiser, Events Organizer, and IT Trainer)
  • Orientation (Staging in Atlanta, GA): May 31-June 2, 2007
  • Pre-Service Training (in Darkhan and Sukhbaatar, Mongolia): June 3-August 18, 2007
  • Dates of Service (in Darkhan at Sun Children formerly "Asian Child Foundation" - a non-profit, non-government Japanese funded orphanage of 37 Mongolian children opened since 8/25/2005): August 19, 2007- August 18, 2009

Location and Nature of the Job

CYD Volunteers are placed in provincial centers with population between 15,000 and 70,000. A few CYD Volunteers are placed in Ulaanbaatar, where the population is reaching 1 million. I will work with youth-focused NGOs, children’s centers, schools, and civil society organizations to address major challenges confronting Mongolian youth today, such as education, life skills, employability, and leadership. In addition, the work will involve workshops and presentations at schools and community agencies and will entail traveling to other outlying communities that have less access to information and training. Given the vast distances in Mongolia, these visits will often require overnight stays.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Farewell Toilets: Heading Out to the Host Communities

The day we left the Darkhan Hotel for our host communities, it was raining and cold. Dragging our massive suitcases, sleeping bags, water distillers, first-aid kits, and water bottles in the rain to the seven awaiting minibuses only added to our anxiety of being spilt-up among our host communities. The day before, when they had announced our host community locations (Bayangol, Dulaankhaan, and Sukhbaatar) and host families, we had compared notes ooohh-ing and awww-ing at those who had houses with an indoor toilet, vegetable garden, and/or two-story house. The actual reality was an amusing revelation. For those who had the indoor toilets (quite the luxury here in Mongolia), they did not have a shower of any kind and were forced to wash their hair in colorful tubs provided by the Peace Corps (PC). For those who had the pit toilets (aka: outhouses), there was an accompanying outdoor shower. Such quick, drastic changes makes one appreciate the little things in life such as a toilet seat and the feeling of double-ply quitted toilet paper.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

squating is good for you. it puts pressure on your intestines which makes the crap come out faster...

says my father the gastrointestinal surgeon.

i'd fit right in there. they squat all over the mid east and south asia.

July 3, 2007 at 9:21 PM
Anonymous said...

My grandfather's farm in Wisconsin had a "two-holer". Really not too bad since it was well ventilated. Of course, they had regular flush toilets indoors and I never tried using the two-holer in winter....one other thing - the rhubarb plants were really huge that were growing behind the out-house. But I don't recall that the rhubarb pie tasted any different!

Scott

July 6, 2007 at 3:59 AM

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Recommended Books on Mongolia

  • “Dateline: An American Journalist in Nomad’s Land” by Michael Kohn, 2006.
  • "Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford, 2004.
  • “Riding Windhorses” by Sarangerel, 2000.
  • “Twentieth Century Mongolia” by Baabar, 1999.

Recommended Mongolian Movies

  • The Story of the Weeping Camel (2004), Die Geschichte vom Weinenden Kamel
  • Mongolian Ping Pong (2005), Lü cao di