Future plans- puppy cameo!

So my research project is all done and finished! Later I'll write a post about the conclusions I've come to. For now, I'm taking a break and letting the data digest. While I do that I've begun working on personal statements and resumes for grad school applications. I've finally found a program that calls to me; the master's in Development Practice program. It's very new and sounds like just my sort of thing :)

In a nutshell, this is from the program website:

"Integrating the core areas of the health, natural, social and management sciences, the Master's in Development Practice program provides students with the substantive knowledge and practical skills required to analyze and diagnose the multi-dimensional challenges of sustainable development such as extreme poverty, climate change and infectious disease."

I like the sound of it because it's interdisciplinary and focuses on practical skills. Also, the programs all include a summer international internship in development practice. So fingers crossed, if I work hard on my applications this fall I'll get into one of the programs and be enrolled next year!

That is my longterm plan for the future. For the nearer future, I will be flying home at the end of October, taking the GREs at the end of November, and then in December I'll be going to England to spend Christmas and New Year's with Matt's lovely family. After that we are going back to China to teach English for about 6 months while I wait to hear back from grad schools. We know how to avoid the many pitfalls that accompany teaching English in China, and we are also able to make a good salary and save most of it because the cost of living is quite low. Hopefully I'll be able to save up a little money for grad school and eat delicious food every day too!

Finally, to keep this blog interesting now that my research is finished I feel it's necessary to include some cute photos of puppies. Here is Mongo, the street puppy, hiding in our shoe rack.

Our friend Johannah took her in off the street and has been taking care of her for the past few weeks. We dog sat while Johannah's apartment was being inspected and got to play with her all day. She's a very nice dog, cuddly and well behaved for a street dog. She has tons of personality too. Even Matt was totally smitten by the end of the day!

Well that's all for now!

Finished!

Here we are about 8 months after my first blog posts. I am excited to say that I have finished my project! Wooo! It's been one heck of a rollercoaster but I'm happy with what I accomplished in my research. Here's a brief recap of my final 3 trips to the countryside :)

My first last trip was to my Darkhan/Selenge site. My brother Bryan was visiting me in Mongolia before going to Japan for a year of study and he decided to come along. We had an... interesting trip... We got lots of good information about the gardens, and saw some excellent onions, turnips and carrots growing in the bottles. However, when I got back to Ulaanbaatar I realized my driver had robbed me while I went into a ger to do an interview. I foolishly left my pouch of money in my bag in the car and the guy had helped himself to $50-70 by my estimate. I expect people to pickpocket me on the street and watch out for it but I wasn't prepared for someone I'd hired to steal from me when I was paying him a good wage for easy work. Alas.

My second last trip was to Ondorkhaan. I hired a different translator because Chingerel found a permanent job. My new translator Yumjirka was quite good, but there turned out to be very little work for her in Ondorkhaan. Many of the families were away from home preparing hay for the winter or hadn't taken care of the gardens. Additionally, the driver I hired to go to both clusters of families demanded more money on our way to the second site. He was my driver for the first trip and one of the families I had given a garden. What had started off as a friendly trip soon turned ugly as he demanded more money than we agreed on. In the end he dropped us off in the city and I paid him half for the half job he had done and I forfeited the data of his family's garden. I ended up doing phone interviews, via Yumjirka, with the 2 families at the second site. One great success from this trip was hearing about a daughter of one of the families who had taken her garden to school in Choibalsan, over 200 miles away! There's a truly nomadic garden that will hopefully inspire teachers and students alike to plant their own gardens :)

For my truly final research trip to Arvaikheer, Chingerel generously offered to give up her weekend to be my translator. Having the same translator for the whole project definitely made a difference, and I had an excellent and productive trip to Arvaikheer. In addition, the driver we hired was friendly and delightful, a pleasant, sort of grandfatherly soul who told me he loved going to the countryside on my research trips to visit the families because he got to taste every family's fermented horse milk! We visited all the families and completed 9 interviews in one afternoon, a record, stayed in a clean and comfortable motel, and were able to take the bus back the very next day. A delightful and successful trip in every way, and a great way to end my project.

Bryan in Selenge aimag

Turnip! wow!

A nice healthy beet plant

This spring onion was harvested and used by the family in soup and dumplings

A really nice picture of me, Jonathan, and my grandmother with Nyamsuren's family

Exciting news!

Me and Matt are engaged!

The day me and my family got back to UB from the countryside, he told me he wanted to take me out for a nice dinner after work. We went out for a fantastic meal at the Ivy, pretty much the fanciest restaurant in Mongolia. Matt had pre-ordered our entire meal and we enjoyed a thoroughly mutton-free, gourmet dinner. I thought he might propose at dinner (I had guesses about the intent of the night hehe) but we headed back to our apartment after the meal. He opened the door, and I think my jaw literally dropped because our shabby old apartment had been transformed into a pavilion of roses and candles. Our good friends Nina and Hannah had snuck into our apartment while we were at dinner and decorated the place! Matt proposed, we drank champagne to celebrate, and told everyone the next morning. We really couldn't be happier! But before you ask, no we haven't set a date. It will probably be awhile in the future yet, and we need to decide where!

When we met in Peru, 2008

Now, engaged in Mongolia!

Family trip to Mongolia

It has been a long time since I last posted, sorry! Lots of stories to tell though, so enjoy!

Last time I posted we had just had Matt's birthday party at the end of July. I enjoyed about a week's break afterwards during which I was able to prepare for the arrival of my family in Ulaanbaatar on August 7th. I scraped together a pile of maps and tourist info, a local cellphone, and some Mongolian money to meet them with at the airport.

The day arrived and I took the bus to the airport to meet them. It was awesome and weird to see my family actually in Mongolia! My mom and dad, Grandma Isenberg, and Jonathan all managed to make it over. Bryan had to stay back and do visa stuff for his upcoming trip, but he will be arriving in a few days for a two week stopover before beginning his year studying in Japan.

Overall I think they had a great trip! We stayed in Ulaanbaatar for about a week while they got over the jetlag. They got to check out lots of museums, cafes, and restaurants, as well as monuments like the Zaisan memorial which overlooks the city and the Chinggis Khaan statue in front of the government house. For our first meal we went to Khaan Buuz, a Mongolian fast-food joint. My intention was to introduce them to a variety of Mongolian foods including salty milk tea, fried mutton noodles, steamed dumplings, fried meat pancakes, Mongolian goulash, etc. I unintentionally introduced them to the realities of Mongolian restaurants, which is that half the time they only have half the menu they claim to have, and Mongolian food isn't that great. Khaan Buuz was particularly bad, so I unintentionally set the bar for future Mongolian meals very low that morning. The good thing about this is that every Mongolian meal we had afterwards was "not bad".

After hanging out in UB for about a week we headed out for an epic 8 day road trip. We managed to cram all of us, our stuff, Chingerel (who we hired to translate), and our driver Miga (you may remember from my first trip to the countryside back in March) into the van.

The highlights of our trip:

Day 1: Khustai national park, I finally got to see the famous, reintroduced Przwalski's horses! It was super cool and the national park was beautiful. In the morning I saw owls!

Day 2: We rode camels (I hopped on a horse) in the picturesque sand dunes on the way to Arvaikheer.

Day 3:We visited my garden families and they showed my family everything from the gardens they'd been keeping to how they milk their horses, and we exchanged gifts of candy and aaraal and chatted over lunch. It was a really special experience. We tried to make it to the waterfall but the weather caused us to fall short and we ended up staying at a very "local" ger camp. The beds were hard and my family got a kick out of the outhouse, but the people who ran the place were so friendly and kind that we didn't mind!

Day 4: We drove up to Kharkhorin, also known as Karakorum. We looked around the town and my family went for a guided trip of Erdene Zuu monastery. We stayed at a ger camp on the banks Lake Ugii.

Day 5: We had an exciting day trying our hand at fishing and riding horses. We drove to Bulgan city and stayed the night in an old Soviet hotel with grumpy staff that still gives us a laugh.

Day 6:We drove to Amarbayasgalant Monastery and stayed in a lovely ger camp. The weather was starting to get cold.

Day 7: We drove up to the Russian border town of Sukhbaatar. We had fun shopping in a Russian grocery store and stocking up on Russian treats. Before dinner we drove right up to the Russian border at the town of Altanbulag to have a look.

Day 8: We drove back to UB looking forward to a hot shower and a meal without mutton in it.

Favorite quote: Dad: "Is this dirt road the shortcut?" Me: "this is the road"

Jonathan with a hunting eagle

Grandma with a hunting eagle

At Khustai National Park

Wild horses!

 

Riding horses and camels at the sand dunes

Sunset after a storm at Lake Ugii

A random deerstone.

Party time!

Hello again!

Since I last posted I've been out to the countryside for my last mid-term assessment trip, and we've also celebrated Matt's 24th birthday. Coincidentally this was his 2nd birthday in Mongolia; last year we were traveling through Mongolia from China around the same time.

First the birthday coverage: Hannah, Nina, and Taylor, good friends of ours, offered their apartment up for the festivities, which was very much appreciated as our apartment is tiny and shabby. We decorated the place with balloons and a happy birthday banner while Hannah decorated the cake. I managed to bake the beastly chocolate cake in our small rickety oven, and Hannah, the artist, decorated it in a multitude of colors and Mongolian patterns!

Decorating the cake

The birthday boy with the finished work of art

A few days before the birthday celebrations, I completed my 3rd midterm assessment countryside trip. It was back out to Selenge/Darkhan aimags in the north. Now my research project is officially 75% of the way done, yikes! Since the last trip to Selenge was so hairy, I was hoping this one would go smoother. In the end it did go a lot smoother (just because that last trip was so horrible), though I wouldn't call it an easy trip. It started off well, (as these trips usually do). We found a driver in Darkhan city who agreed to take us to the families on our way up north, stay over in a city near Russia, and then come back the next morning. Sorted! So off we went, but as we made our way to the first family we drove beside a lake with lots of baby toads leaping across the sandy dirt roads towards the water. Our driver stopped the car, clearly terrified, and told us he didn't want to keep going because frogs in the road were a bad omen. With a little persuasion we convinced him to drive on the grass next to the dirt road so he wouldn't squish any toads.

When we arrived at the first family's ger, I was disappointed to see that hardly any of their plants had grown. Even the onions hadn't grown! I asked them how often they watered their plants, as I asked at every ger, and like at every ger I received the same answer: "every day!". Since even their onions hadn't grown at all, I was very skeptical. But that is the nature of this research project, determining whether not it will work and why.

As we said goodbye til next time, our driver, who was looking very worried, told us that he was taking us back to Darkhan city because he was getting a bad vibe from us, and the frogs were a bad omen and he couldn't deal with it....

So back to Darkhan we went, and found another driver to take us north to Sukhbaatar city. When we arrived, we hired yet another driver to take us to the families up there. Luckily, a woman from one of the families was in the city at the time. She offered to show us the way to two of the families who had moved. I didn't realize quite how far she meant, but after over an hour and a half of driving through a pretty forest we emerged in a lush valley dotted with gers. To get to one of the gers we had to park the car, carefully walk over log bridges to cross a marsh, and hike a little further uphill. It was worth it, as we were greeted extremely warmly, fed milk tea and fresh fried biscuits and sweet aaraal, and served a delectable nomads' meal. A pile of meat was chopped into bite size pieces and boiled with some onion and salt. A few meaty ribs, the breastbone, and some vertebrae were thrown in and then served in a pan with a few sharp knives with which to serve yourself. Luckily the Mongolians perceived my lack of skill at cutting piping hot meat off the bone, and obliged to slice me up some meat and fat. After that the main course of mutton soup with noodles was served. The fresh meat was so tasty and tender, truly a delightful meal in the countryside.

2 skies

Crossing the marsh

The next day we finished up the interviews. I was surprised to find that this site, which I thought would do the best because of the climate (wetter and milder) was more or less on par with Ondorkhaan for successfulness. I'm beginning to think that successfulness has more to do with how motivated the individual participants are. This also relates to how I selected my participants to begin with. For the Arvaikheer group I drove around to gers, introduced the garden project, then asked for an interview. Those who weren't interested didn't bother giving an interview. For Ondorkhaan and Selenge it was the opposite, I asked if they would be willing to do an interview and then introduced the garden project at the end of the interview. A lot of those people sort of shrugged and said "sure". This is one of the many lessons I've taken away from my research project so far!

The bountiful harvests of Uvurkhangai

Just got back from my second trip out to assess the progress of the gardens after a nice long Naadam break. I was excited to go out to Arvaikheer, in Uvurkhangai aimag. The people there are extremely friendly and hospitable, and the countryside is like a painting. We had a nice trip that was neither boring nor stressful. At every ger we were offered freshly made milk products including aaraal (dried yoghurt), eetzgii (dried cheese), and airag (fermented mare's milk). The fresh countryside airag was much tastier than I remembered. It was fizzy and refreshing. The eetzgii and aaraal were also tastier than I remembered. At one ger we were offered shimiin arikh, a clear liquor made by distilling milk. Perhaps the milk of animals in midsummer is milder, because this too was quite pleasant.

People were excited to show us their gardens, which to their and my delight were flourishing. Compared to Ondorkhaan, the gardens here were doing even better! More plants per planter were alive, and those that were growing were more robust than those in Ondorkhaan. It'll take more time poring over the data to draw conclusions about why that is.

There were some nice surprises on this trip too. One family had been so taken with the gardening idea that they had started their own, growing some special grass for their livestock in plastic containers they kept in the bed of their truck. Another family had replaced the plants that hadn't grown with garlic cloves they had bought themselves. Another family whom I gave two sets of gardens consolidated the plants into one planter when some had been eaten by goats. It was great to see people's innovation!

During our trip we had one snag. In the search for one family we got stuck in a boggy mud patch. With the help of a nearby herder and a shovel he lent us, with me driving the car and the driver, Chingerel, and the man pushing the car, we managed to get out without too much trouble. It's not a trip to the countryside if you don't break down at least once or get stuck in mud!

Some photos of the gardens:

Proud gardeners!

Special grass for his livestock

The alyssum bloomed!

Uvurkhangai, a beautiful, empty place

The goats were nibbling the gardens so they put them up higher.

Lots of lettuce!

Look at all that garlic! It's flourishing!

These people rigged up a post to attach their gardens to!

Naadam

It's mid-July and the Naadam festival is upon us here in Mongolia! Naadam literally means 'games' and refers to the three "manly sports" of horse-racing, archery, and wrestling. Despite the name, only wrestling is exclusively a men's sport. Women compete in the archery competitions and boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 13 jockey their families' prized horses over 10-20 mile courses in the races. The traditional festival greeting, saikhan naadaarai!, translates to "happy games!"

Originally me and Matt were planning to leave UB for the Naadam festival. Unfortunately, we realized a little too late that most of the countryside Naadams happen before the UB Naadam. This way the competitors can compete in their hometowns and then go for more glory in UB. To make the most of the UB Naadam, we got up at the crack of dawn and went out to the race course, about 30km west of the city, to watch the stallion race. It was cool, foggy, and chilly. We got ourselves some hot salty milk tea right away to warm up, and some traditional khuushuur (fried meat pancakes). Having already experienced airag (fermented horse milk) we decided to give it a miss.

Soon after we lined up along the bleachers with a crowd of excited Mongolians. We were all crammed in against the ropes holding us back from the track, squinting into the fog for a sign of movement. After about 20 minutes the headlights of the lead car became visible and an excited murmur went through the crowd. Slowly the outline of the horses became visible through the fog. The horses came galloping in to a chorus of "coo! coo! coo!" from the crowd, the traditional encouragement to the horses and their riders to finish the race strongly. As the first five horses neared the finish line, a horse and rider galloped from the sidelines to meet each of them and cross the finish line with them.

Each race has hundreds of horses competing in it, so we stayed for a little while to watch the runners up finish the race. Afterwards we had some more milk tea and made our way back to the city.

The horsemen waiting to meet the first five horses.

The winner!

Runner-ups vying for a higher place.

Side note:

Hannah and her parents brought us back this beautiful tuski (Kazakh wall hanging) from Bayan-Olgii. It was handmade between 1962 and 1964, a true antique! We are totally delighted with it and we've hung it up in our apartment where it takes up an entire wall.

Up close.