Always on the Sunny Side of Life

As some of you may already know, with the recent election in Mongolia there was a bit of civil unrest in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. This event was limited to one day in one area of the capital where no PCVs were located. There is no need to worry about us.

We felt this would be a perfect opportunity to present you with some photos and videos of the lighter side of our Peace Corps experiences and some good news about the LPIs (language exam). As Nathan mentioned in the previous blog, we participated in a mid training language exam on July 1^st. After our language exams we met with our sector staff to discuss how our experience has been going so far.

Let me begin by giving your background on the exam and the progress necessary for Peace Corps standards. At the end of per-service training (August 17^th), we are expected to receive a rating of Novice High on the language proficiency exam. Yesterday we learned that 13 volunteers received a Novice Low, 36 received a Novice Mid, and 15 received a Novice High rating.

I am excited to report that Nathan & Leslie both received a Novice High rating! We were thrilled by this news and are excited to learn more before we are placed in August.

On the sector front (Peace corps jargon for program fields), we each were given stellar reports by our sector leaders and can’t wait to find out what the Peace Corps has in mind of us.

Recently, in Leslie’s bagh (village), the trainees prepared a large dinner together at a fellow trainees host home. It was a really beautiful day and the group decided on taking some remarkable tough photos using Leslie’s sunglasses. Sadly, our group leader (jijur) Trip was out checking out the horses during the photos so he was unavailable for the photos. Here is the final project made from the photos (Trip is at the bottom):

Here's a compilation of some of our favorite photos:

Nathan’s little sister (duu), Anudauria, showing her yogurt mustache.

(warning: She’s super cute, but with has a wicked temper and is tremendously destructive. We call her the Mongolian answer to Harrison Glouner Shaffer)

Leslie’s younger sister (duu), Boogii eating the gamber (sweet fried bread) Leslie made with her Mongolian Mom (Eej). (Yup, that’s me making a Mongolian sentence. “My little sister is eating gamber.” And then my sister giving you several ways to say it tastes good. See, I can be domestic!)

Nathan and his tumpun.

In a previous post we mentioned that Leslie is spoiled with her laundry and showering. Here’s proof. Nathan does his laundry and bathes in that pink tub. Leslie’s family has a mechanical agitator for clothes and she showers in the solar shower outside. Once again, Nathan has this pink tub.

This is the Bomboole Delgoor. Leslie’s sister calls this “Leslie’s store.”

Leslie’s bashin (house), modeled by Boogii

Nathan’s baishin

*note: for the 4th of July we had a trainee/trainer dodge ball tourney. We lost. BUT, Leslie was the last standing during one of the last games. Life is good.