Good luck Brian at your new job. I couldn’t be prouder!

Brian and I have never lived in one place for more than three years in a row, and all our moves, except one, have lasted for only two years. Therefore, now that we have been living in the Gobi for two years, it is only right that we are moving again. We have loved our two years in Hanhongor with its peace and quiet, friendly people, and, frankly, cheap living expenses, but we are ready for a new adventure. Starting at the end of the month Brian will be consulting full time for a company in Ulaanbaatar which means a move to the coldest capital in the world. (Don’t believe me? Check out this highly informative piece). This week we will be heading up to UB to look for an apartment, and at the end of the month we will be taking a quick trip to Korea to get new visas.  We are excited about Brian’s new job, running water, and well stocked grocery stores, but Hanhongor will always be our hometown in Mongolia.

Goodbye for now sweet ger.

Children’s day 2013 was celebrated with a concert at the kindergarten and an all school obstacle race. I didn’t attend the kindergarten show, but I got these cute pictures from a friend.

All dressed up on their big day.

A shy kid is a rare one here.

Mini Blues Brothers

Best Reader, Hardest Working, Most Polite, Most Helpful, Best Dancer, and Best Singer

The all school obstacle race consisted of four teams each with one kid from each grade for a total of 11 members per team. After an opening ceremony outside, each team raced through some pretty funny obstacles in the gym including bike riding, jumping rope, puzzles, bouncing pencils into jars, blowing up a ballon until it burst, and bouncing a ping pong ball onto a buttered piece of bread. The winning team did it in just a little over 5 minutes!

Teams sizing each other up.

Tungalagtamir was by far the fastest at the block puzzle.

Enkh-Amgalan had to blow a ball from one water filled jar into another.

Super Jumper

Lkhagva on his bike.

Waiting for the ballon to pop was terrible.

Suger-Erdene bouncing a ping pong ball onto buttered toast for the win!

Today was graduation for the 9th and 11th graders. Normally the fifth graders would have also graduated, but for some reason they got left out of the party this year. There was the usual mix of singing, dancing, poetry, and awards, but it lacked the usual surprise snowstorm. As a result, it was all-in-all a lovely morning. The students still have 3 weeks of classes and many exams to go before they are truly done, but for a little while they got to relax and have fun.

The graduation sign complete with the creepy dolls that reappear each year.

The audience.

Ringing the bell to start the ceremony.

What one does when the ceremony gets a little boring.

Suger-Erdene's amazing rope dance.

11th grade boys. Erdenebulgan, the one with the medals, is going to be famous someday.

One of the two dogs that "participated" in graduation.

All 41 of this year's graduates. We truly are the amazing shrinking school.

Surenjav and Otgonzaya-9th grade

Narankhuu and Batkhuyag-9th grade

Urangoo(11), Enkhmaa(11), Me, Erdenebulgan(11) and Dashtseveen(9)

Medal winners

Maralgua (9th grade) and I. I have known this lovely lady since she was in kindergarten.

This week Dalanzadgad is hosting a group of visiting doctors from South Korea. Sponsored by the aimag government, the doctors are working with local counterparts in the areas of heart, nerves, stomach, allergies, and joints, and through them hundreds of patients have been able to receive free treatment and medicine. I helped out in my little way by working as a translator on Tuesday where I mainly worked in the neurology examination room. It was an interesting day (at least twice I got to tell the doctor that a patient’s injuries stemmed from a camel related accident), but it was also really sad. Lots of babies and kids with severe cognitive problems, as well as older people who suffer from the affects of strokes and brain lesions. I was glad I could help by being the go-between the doctors and the patients, but I don’t think I could hack working as a medical translator as a career. Being the one to tell a parent that their child has severe cerebral palsy and will never get any better is just too hard. It was nice, though, to be able to help for even one day. Makes all that language studying worthwhile.

Life in the Gobi can be hard, and everyone is expected to do their fair share–including the cats.

Lulu guarding the door from neighborhood cats.

Lulu fact-checking, and George keeping Brian's lap warm.

Lulu protecting Brian and Santi from sudden attack by Gobi worms.

Lulu wearing her desert camouflage fur.

For the past few months interested students have been attending special classes (Mongolian language, IQ, dance, chess, and shagai shooting) twice a week taught by select members of the community. Two weeks ago the students put on performances for their classmates and participated in contests to demonstrate their newly acquired skills. I am always impressed by how hard working these kids are and how much they get into learning–at least when it involves games and prizes.

A group of cut throat chess players.

The IQ, or giant brain, club.

Mongolian language nuts are the best dressed.

The few, the proud, the ankle bone shooters.

Odmaa reciting part of the famous poem "Би Монгол Хүн"

"Making rope"

Zoljargal and Zolzaya-two of my favorites.

Brains at work.

Shooting Shagai. (Go Badgers!)

Group chess.

The puffy hair bow team writing a poem....

..and the formidable crew cut team.

Right before break, our school celebrated the end of a month long book contest with a book fair and prizes. Classes made big books and little books, wrote books and repaired books. While I was disappointed that most of the “books” created were just copies of published books, I did appreciate the effort to encourage reading and was impressed by the artwork.

A big book by the 8th grade

And little books by the 11th grade

Bolor-Erdene perusing a display.

A book "first aid" kit that included a stapler and a roll of tape.

The game de jour in my room these days is Life. While they can’t read what most of the squares say, and they always forget to buy a house, they have learned the important words “pay”, “collect”, and “lawsuit”. The kids just love “that game with the cars.”

Shrinky Dinks are one of those things that are pretty silly when you think about them but are super cool in real life. I recently got two Shrinky Dink kits in the mail, one with fairies and one with monsters, and before break, the 5th grade and I got to shrinking.

1. First we had to color:

I really like this kid's giant pencil "pencil holder"

2. Then, since at all times I must keep up the charade of being a teacher, I had them measure their “dinks” before and after baking.

Odmaa taking her measuring very seriously

3. Next it was time to bake. As I was working with a stove just one grade above a Easy Bake, I had the kids come up two at a time to watch the magic. I have to say even I was impressed.

4. Finally it was time to create our fairy tree. I have a feeling that it will be in a place of honor in that classroom for years to come…..

The bedazzled fairy tree.

Cutie Pies

Last week the students were off for vacation and the academic Olympics. While most of the teachers at my school participated in the Olympics, Brian and I took it as a chance to get away for a bit. Ulaanbaatar is a hard city to love with its horrible traffic, pollution, and overall ugly facade, but it has its bright spots with friends, restaurants, and super fast internet. We got to see several friends including our “little sisters” Zula and Tsendee

and former ACMS co-workers. We ate all sorts of glorious food including Indian, Hot Pot, pizza, Japanese and many cups of expensive but delicious coffee. We did a little bit of shopping (okay just me) and came home with 25 new books and 3 new games for school among other things. We also got much needed haircuts, visited the swanky new Peace Corps office, and visited the Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum. They have a relatively new display of 1300 year old wooden people and animals discovered in 2009 in Tov aimag which was absolutely fascinating. For those who speak Mongolian your can read about the discovery here.

A lot of our time, though, was just spent walking around, oogling at all the changes. The barrier around the Chinggis Statue at the parliament building was down so Brian was able to get his picture taken with him.

New buildings are popping up left and right and pleasantly enough, so are small parks and rest areas. Ulaanbaatar still has a long way to go to be a livable city, but it always pleasantly surprises me.

An ever changing view

Pollution makes for beautiful sunsets