Ger it's cold outside: Намрын дунд сар цас орсон.

Happy Halloween! Well my friends, it’s been a while. A whole two months passed since the last time I wrote. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. Let’s see if I can catch you up on the madness.

The first biggest event we had here in Umnugovi was the Gobi Marathon. Several PCVs came down for the marathon. It was also a quasi-family reunion between some PCVs, namely me, Jerome (my pseudo big brother), Kelbe (my pseudo cousin) and Jimmy (my other pseudo cousin). If I can remember right, 9 or 10 PCVs and a couple of the staff came down for the event. It was a good weekend for them to come down. During that Thursday and Friday, Dalanzadgad had a craft fair where herders and others came down to sell their goods. While there were some homemade cashmere products, the fair was mostly food based with people selling aral, airag, bislek, and other dairy based products.

The finish line of the Gobi Marathon

More after the break.

The trip out to the Gobi Marathon was nice. The marathon took place in Баянзаг /The Flaming Cliffs/. It is one of the famous tourist attractions in Umnugovi. It is one of the first places in the world where dinosaur fossils were discovered, but they’re found en masse. If I remember right, fossils are still being found there. There were 4 races happening that day: full marathon, half marathon, 10k and a 5k. There were a lot of people running in the races, though mostly foreigners. We had 11 people (I believe) run the full marathon. 4 of those were PCVs. There was also another American running the full marathon. The rest came from either Germany or Switzerland. One of the people running the full marathon (a Swiss person) was a 70-something year old man. He is the head brew master of Chinggis Brewery in Ulaanbaatar. I say this because some of his workers (they were Mongolian) came with him and gave draft beers to the workers. Luckily I was a worker. The funny thing was none of the runners got a beer at the end of the race. There were two people who ran the half marathon: fellow Dalanzadgad Australian volunteer, Nick, and a German. I’m not sure about who or how many ran the 10k or the 5k as I was working the full and half marathon. When everything was over, one of the PCVs came in 2^nd in the full marathon. My friend Nick won the half marathon. Afterwards, we hopped in the meekr and went towards Хонгорийн элс /the singing sand dunes/.

The Flaming Cliffs

We arrived at the dunes late at night, so we went to a ger camp (Gobi Discovery 2). There we had a quick meal and went to bed. (This is more for my information than anyone else since I’m planning this trip next year.) We woke up early the next morning and went towards the dunes. These dunes were massive! They were roughly 150 ft high. There is a spot where tourists normally climb the dunes, so like any good tourist, we climbed to the top. It was a long and difficult climb but we made it. We even got some pretty good pictures from the top.

The Singing Sand Dunes

Afterwards we descended the dunes and went towards a nearby ger to try and ride some camels. (Thankfully) all of us got to ride in one big group around in the desert. It is weird how they control the camels. Instead of using a bit like we use for horses in the states, they pierce the nose and run a rope through their nostril. It was somewhat frightening riding a camel in a “caravan” because they would always want to scratch their head/nose on your leg. If it wasn’t for the unusually sharp teeth and sharp nose piece, I wouldn’t have minded. They were fairly docile creatures and I look forward to riding them again next year.

Bactrian Camel near the Singing Sand Dunes

I’ll go ahead and skip the terrible experience that was lunch mainly because I forgot what that place was called and say it was a long trip back home. It was made easier because of the company and the vodka bottle that was being passed around.

Not soon after, I attended what I believe to be a Dalanzadgad Social Problems/Youth Development Convention. Not sure what was going on but the Prime Minister came down from UB to attend. He gave a short speech.

The Prime Minister at the Youth Development Convention

Not much later I received terrible news that my site mate (*cough* Taylor Driver *cough*) was going to head back to America for good. She doesn’t know this (she will now) but anything bad that happens we just blame her. Wish you were still here.

At some point in early October, I got to visit two coal mines about an hour outside of DZ in Tosgt-Stestee Soum. I visited Energy Resource, a Mongolian based Australian mine, and Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, the largest coal mine in Mongolia (I believe) which is also owned and operated by Mongolians. It was strangely warming seeing the mines here. It felt like I was back in KY on another field trip though this time I’m helping to train mine workers as opposed to looking at mine reclamation sites. We were there to treat our guests from Dundgovi MCYT as they were there for the supposed opening of my school.

Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi

Or not. But regardless we went to the “Middle Beauty” to celebrate like it was anyway. We went to Мухар Шивэрт Ам /supposedly means weird smelling valley/ which is famous for its rocks which look like animals. All along the valley you can see rocks which look like camels, eagles, etc. At the end of the valley there is a nice frozen waterfall. About halfway down the trail there is a spot which is believe to be some of the purest air on earth. It even has signs that says O2. After we traversed the valley, we got back to the parking lot and ate some delicious horhog and drank vodka. Our guests left early the next morning.

An Eagle in the rocks

Our school actually opened the week after. It was a big event with representatives from Oyu Tolgoi, a Mongolian based Australian mining company, the Mongolian military, media, singers and others coming to attend the ceremony. It was nice even though I still had no idea what was being said. Story of my life. The event lasted the whole morning and in the afternoon everyone went back to the Мухар Шивэрт Ам. So since I’ve had enough drinking for one week, I skipped this trip.

Umnugovi Polytechnic College Opening Ceremony

And now time for the bulk of my post. For the past month I have been working on an alcohol awareness project culminating in an alcohol awareness week (Oct 20-26). I worked alongside my other site mate (Rose), the Family and Child Development Center and the Youth Development Center here in Dalanzadgad. It was exhausting trying to organize this event, especially trying to write the plans in Mongolian, or what I changed anyway. Anyway, Alcohol Awareness Week came out of it. During this week, Rose and I traveled to the different schools and to the Family Service Agency to teach different alcohol themed lessons, ranging from culture, health, gender issues to peer pressure and what makes a good friend. I think we taught close to 400 9^th grade students. We also organized a poster contest with all the schools social workers and a social run throughout Dalanzadgad with the help of the police. One of my Mongolian counterparts also spoke to the media about the events happening. I wish I could tell you more but it was in Mongolian and that’s a language I’m still learning.

Here are some pictures from the week and a link to the poster contest submissions. I’m not sure who won though.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153514707998504.1073741827.710023503&type=1&l=8e8436db72