Who's On My Valentine?

On Thursday, just before Valentine's Day, we got a package from my mother filled with Hershey's Kisses, various small candy bars, heart-shaped candy and little Disney themed Valentines.

Thursday night, we wrote the names of our counterparts on the one side, our names on the other, and sealed them with a cute little heart sticker.

When I got to work on Friday, I took out the bag of Hershey's Kisses and began handing them out with the cards to my 6 counterparts, who wore general looks of interested confusion. My supervisors, who speak English, were in town from UB, so I said in English, "Do you guys celebrate Valentine's Day?"

Then the mood changed as the ones who speak English became giddy and quickly filled in the rest. Everyone who was busy clacking on computers and yacking on cell phones stopped what they were doing to get a better look at what was going on.

I explained to them that the cards I gave them generally used to end up in the homemade decorated shoe boxes, cylindrical cardboard oatmeal containers and modified bags of every elementary school child when I was growing up. Most of the fun of Valentine's Day was making the boxes and trying make sure I wrote down the names of every classmate, especially the cutest girls, so that everyone had a Valentine.

Though Mongolians know Mickey Mouse, my favorite part of giving the cards to my counterparts was explaining the Disney character, Minnie Mouse. It was no sweat in English, but in Mongolian, it was hysterical. The word for "my" in Mongolian is "minii", pronounced just like Mickey's tart, high-heeled love interest, but with the emphasis on the second syllable.

So, in our perfect Abbott and Costello, Who's On First banter, I asked one counterpart if she knew who the character.

"Your mouse? I thought you were giving it to me," my counterpart said.

"No, her name is Minnie Mouse."

"So, I can keep it. It's my card?"

"Yes, it's yours, but her name is Minnie," I insisted and so on until we agreed that it was not my mouse, her name is Enkhee, and the name of the character was Minnie.

Some other things I hadn't thought about were the sentiments on the cards and on the special edition Valentine's Kisses of "be mine", "I'm yours" and "I'm there for you", etc. They were really hard to translate because they're so corny and some of the meaning is lost, so I wasn't sure they really got the whole meaning, but they were appreciative nonetheless.

I learned that some Mongolians do celebrate Valentine's Day and almost everyone I talked to knew about it, but it's limited to a lover's evening sort of deal that some people celebrate with flowers and candy. It's not the forced, empty affection ritual we enjoyed as kids with little cards and chalky candies. Leslie and I personally didn't do anything special other than scarfing the chocolates with our friends and denting a huge bag of mixed nuts that also made its way into the care package.

Thanks to my mom for a fun little culture exchange.

Week 2 - Boy Named "Sukh"; Oggie, Boggie, Leggie

HE SAID
Boy Named “Sukh”:
My host family gave me a Mongolian name in a late evening ceremony this week. My host dad wrote 4-5 names on little torn-off pieces of paper then rolled them into tiny scrolls. They put all of them into a little bowl, covered them with these couscous looking pellets, and then my host dad shook the dish back and forth quickly. When the first name popped up out of the pellets, he unrolled it to reveal “Cyx” (Sukh = ax).

Men’s names in Mongolian typically represent strong qualities or tough things like ax or stone and interestingly enough, I’m named after a great Mongolian hero, Sukhbataar (Ax hero) for whom our host city is named. Women’s names typically represent flowers or ideas like peace, love, or sunshine.

So far, I couldn’t be happier with my host family. The food has been good, and the company has been awkward but warm as we navigate our language barrier. I have my own room, as all trainees do, with a lock, a bed and a desk. The desk is a little short for me, so it must look a little funny, but I spend a lot of time there studying. We have an assortment of cows and calves, a garden and the outhouse is clean. What more can you ask for, really?

Leslie and I are sharing the weekend at her host family’s house, which isn’t too far away. Week one down. We’re off to a great start!

SHE SAID
Oggie, Boggie, Leggy
The Peace Corps did everything possible to place all the CYD (Community Youth Development) volunteers with families with children. Imagine my surprise when I found out all of my дуу (doo = younger siblings) lived in a city hours away. On Thursday миний дуу (my younger sibling/sister) came home and brought her best friend with her. To make it easy for me, the 22 year olds introduced themselves with their nicknames; my sister Boggie and her friend Oggie (like Lisa Auge). Soon after, my host mother dubbed us Oggie, Boggie, and Leggy.

I’ve had a great time with them learning traditional Mongolian games and staying up late learning Mongolian using silly voices. Oggie thinks English vowels sound like people talking while holding their noses. I told her Mongolian has too many vowels anyway, so we called it even!

My family is amazing! I live in the family’s summer home and have quite a bit of room. My mother is a math teacher and always ready to teach me the next thing, since she doesn’t know any English. She even gave me a notebook to bring to every meal so she can teach me something new three times a day. She is also silly, fun, and charming and I’m so grateful being placed with her! She definitely my speed!

My classes are great and I am thankful for my hysterical and supportive classmates. I couldn’t imagine that I would become so close to so many people so quickly! Life is эх сайхан (very good)!

Editors Note: Pictures are still not loading well, even at low resolution. Hopefully we'll be able to find a way for you to see more of this beautiful country and our host families, but so far, no dice. Please keep reading an commenting. We appreciate knowing that someone other than our country director, Jim, might be reading.