The First Few Weeks At Site

The first few weeks at site were crazy. However, I was happy to finally be done with the 12 weeks of training and get to the heart of why I'm in Mongolia. Aside from the heticness of settling-in and getting adjusted, the orphanage got some visitors from Japan my first couple of weeks at site.

In my first week, 7 Japanese volunteers and 7 Mongolian volunteers arriving from a non-profit from UB for three days to help paint the orphanage buildings and repair the hashaa fence.

In my second week, we received a visit of Japanese investors (this orphanage was started and funded by foreign investors). The visit was a success and they signed a contact with my agency regarding funding for the orphanage (with funding specifically going to employee salaries and food and clothing for the children).

The third week was hectic trying to write a project/grant proposal for the US Marines Humanitarian Civil Action Program for a sports field to be built in the backyard of the orphanage. We busted our asses to get the proposal done in time. The US Embassy provided the funding to buy the materials and the 330th Mongolian Army will perform the labor. Seeing the project from start to completion was a bit frustrating at times; it is sometimes difficult trying to get things done on the project level here. However, apparently, it’s a fairly common phenomenon in Peace Corps worldwide. PC is fairly structure in procedures and progress reports but since PC is only half of the operation - the other half being the Host Country Agency - the productiveness lies in the hands of the HCA and not the PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) most of the time. Luckily for me, I have a hard working Director that is on top of her game and everyone else's for that matter. I really lucked out on the pick for HCA.