I am at the half way point of PST or Pre Service Training. I have been living in Sukhbaatar (Сукбаатар: it's pronounced Sukh-bahter) in the Selenge (Сэлэнгэ) Aimag. I'm about 15 minutes south of the Russian border and it's subsequently the first stop on the Trans-Siberian Railroad as it enters into Mongolia (монгол). It's a beautiful city with 40,000 people. It's the second largest city (or a close third to Darkhan) while UB is the largest with 1.7 million. Unlike the rest of Mongolia fishing is big here with three rivers located nearby (and the fish are delicious though they need to work on their frying skills. I have successfully told them about double frying and they have since been double frying my food when it's fried. But I digress).
I live with a host family in a wooden house. My dad's (аав) name is Odbayar, my mom's (ээж) name is Munkhtsetseg, my sister's (эмэгтэй дүү) is Bayartsetseg, and my brother's (эрэгтэй дүү) name is Munkh-Od. A note about Mongolian families (гэр бул), the title you give your siblings is relative on your age. For instance, an older sibling will be either ах or эгч for brother or sister respectively. Younger siblings are known collectively as дүү though you can differentiate between genders by adding эрэгтэй or эмэгтэй in front of дүү for brother or sister (respectively). My mom is a kindergarten teacher and my dad is a security guard/maintenance worker for the same primary school. My sister is in 2nd grade and my brother is in 6th grade. The house is a nice two bedroom wooden house they built themselves and are working on a new house.
I have finally found out what I'll be doing but where is still a question. So like the heading suggests I am in training to become a social worker. I will be teaching life skills (leadership, self esteem, etc) to either children (хүүхэд) or training teachers (багш) to teach children. I will also help with the organization of events, contacting NGO and GO officials, organizing/leading clubs and extra curricular activities, and being a role model for the youth, specifically at-risk children all while trying to survive the Mongolian winter. We've been studying for our job at secondary school #4. We are unique in that we share the city with PC TEFL-ers (English teachers) who study at secondary school #2.
On my next post (early August I believe it's going to be), I will tell everyone where I'll be for the next two years when I find out during final-center days in UB. I'll also include information about what I have been eating (hopefully attaching recipes). Though I will say one of my favorite breakfast foods here has been fried egg on bread (талх өндөг lit. bread egg) which is raw egg spread on a slice of bread while pan fried on a thin layer of oil. It may or may not include green onions and salt but I bet regardless it will make for a great addition to most sandwiches. I've included some pictures (will add tomorrow) and more will follow.
Mahalo. Баяртай!
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