soupy says

How long will you be gone?
27 months: June 6, 2006 - August 25, 2008. The first three months is cultural and language training. After that, I’ll then be sworn in as a volunteer.

What will be doing?
I am a Health Extension Volunteer working under the program Community Based Health. I received a very broad job description with my invitation. The jist of it is “designing sessions and training programs in public health awareness and education.” Current volunteers have told me that every volunteer ends up teaching some English. I will probably work for a NGO or a local health department.

Where are you going to be in Mongolia?
I don’t know. I’ll be living with a host family in one city during training, and then I’ll move to my site when I become a volunteer. I won’t find out where I’ll live as a volunteer until the end of training. However, due to my job, I will post likely live in an aimag (provincial) center with populations ranging from 40,000 - 80,000 people.

What’s the housing situation like?
I will most likely be in a ger or an apartment.

Which do you want to live in?
I’ll get back to you.

Are you going to be updating your blog?
I hope so! Since I will be in a city, I should have decent Internet access. It seems that at least some health volunteers have ‘net access through work. However, I have been told that ‘net access the first three months isn’t wonderful. So, letters would be nice. *ahem*

What’s the best way to get in touch with you?
E-mail. However, I’ll put you on list of amazing people if you send me a letter or a package, and I’ll send you a letter complete with a Mongolian stamp! For those that use Myspace to post important life event via bulletins, please e-mail me this information. I’ll probably won’t see it otherwise. However, if you post a comment to this blog, I get an e-mail with the text. Thus, it is a good way to say hello. A few people have asked if I can use skype, and I don’t know. I’ll get back to you.

I want to send you something! Any requests?
I will add you to the list of amazing people right away! The Peace Corps office has a makeshift library, but I would love reading material. I quite enjoy magazines, and that will be harder to come by. As many of you know, my tastes range from The Economist to Bitch. So, anything. You don’t have to buy anything. Whatever you have lying around. Or what your friends have lying around. You get the idea. You can send media at a discounted rate via M-bags. I have my laptop, and music and movies would be great too. I’m sure I’ll have more ideas once I’m there.

When can you come home?
If I have enough vacation days, and I pay for the ticket, whenever I want.

Speaking of that, how does vacation work?
Not including training, I earn 2 days of “leave” for every month I’m there. However, if I leave my site on a Saturday, that Saturday counts as a day. I get a small amount of vacation pay.

What about money?
I get roughly $100 for a monthly stipend. For every month I’m there, not including training, I earn $225 re-adjustment allowance. This adds to $6,000 re-adjustment allowance that I’ll receive at the end of my service. However, this is before taxes.

Are you coming home?
I don’t know yet. I’m leaving the possibility open, but I don’t plan on it.

What are you doing afterward?
Hey, I haven’t even left yet, and I’m supposed to figure out future plans?

It’s wrong to want to live in a ger because I’d get to live in the “Roundhouse.”

ger, a round, traditional Mongolian house:



“Roundhouse,” an early 90s Nickelodeon television show:

This morning, while frying an egg to put on my toast, I caught a bit of “Good Morning America.”

Anchor: Sad news out of Indonesia. Thousands dead due to a massive earthquake. [beat] Good news for Brad Pitt and Angelena Jolie. Their daughter Shiloh was born today…
Me: Two people had sex and produced a child? Why isn’t this the top story?

And then my head exploded.

The Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime (Live)”

Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway,
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto,
I’ve lived all over this town

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now

Transmit the message, to the receiver,
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
you don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.,
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter,
to last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
headphones, ain’t got no records to play

Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard,
I can’t write nothing at all
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
I’d like to kiss you, I’d love you hold you
I ain’t got no time for that now

Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
we blended with the crowd
We got computer, we’re tapping pohne lines,
I know that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don’t know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
we make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving,
you ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
notebooks? They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
you better watch what you say

Also, on this Memorial Day, ditch the magnetic ribbon, and support the troops.

Ok, it’s not a novel. It’s a New York Times column. I hate the title, but the ending made me feel like, well, what I would imagine a romance novel makes some women feel.
J. Courtney Sullivan, Changing my Feminist Mind, One Man at a Time

He gets it, yet he’s bold enough to stand up to me when he thinks I’ve gone too far. Confronted by my beliefs, Colin offers neither the typical blow-off of other men nor the mea culpa that I thought I was looking for. Instead, he listens and discusses sexism with me at length, agreeing most of the time, but not always. And when he disagrees, he says so, challenging me to think about my long-held beliefs in new ways, and occasionally even changing my mind.
—
And now I have fallen for a man who understands and respects my feminist beliefs, and who also takes me to dinner, holds the door, calls me Babydoll in a slow Southern drawl.

Embracing those contradictions has led me to discover a world between the harsh reality of sexism and the airy wishes of my love-drenched fantasies.

It’s true what my Smith professor said about progress depending upon one individual changing another for the better. What she didn’t say was that, inevitably, the change goes both ways.

And yes, I have something like 11 days left in this country. Damn, 11 days. And I am in a full stage of denial. Here’s a little clue on how I’ve been avoiding thinking about this fact.

The horrific celebrity stalker rag US Magazine has a feature called “Just like US!” The magazine points out, with photographic evidence, that celebrities are indeed human beings: “They hail a cab - Just like US!”

I am shamelessly stealing their phrase to provide evidence that Mongolia, a developing Asian nation, is really no different than the good ole US of A.

The Mongolian government montiors the press’s phone calls.

Last Thursday, if you called the MM News Agency at /97611/ 300771, your conversation would have been heard by somebody in a room of the financial collection department of the Public Radio and Television. This blatantly illegal act of wiretapping was done under the order of N.Altanzul, chief of the department.
The department was listening in to the number to gather information that might help it impose some control over the agency, according to Altanzul

Just like US!

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

“It’s time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,” the source told us in an in-person conversation.

The difference between Mongolia and the US? The Mongolian government discontinued their monitoring after three days.

“‘Mongolian Minister of Health L. Gundalai on HIV/AIDS in Mongolia,’ an Interview by Luke Distelhorst, http://mongolia.neweurasia.net”

You know Mongolians are so sexually liberal. They sleep with each other like animals. There are no rules or customs in Mongolia. Mongolia is one of the most liberal countries in the world. We are an Asian country, but we are not like other Asian countries in terms of sexual liberties. Therefore this one indication that AIDS can spread quickly in Mongolia. Second is the poverty; 60-70% of Mongolians are poor. They cannot afford condoms; they have a lack of money. When they have some money they will use it for food, or vodka or cigarettes. Now they hear they have to use this money for condoms instead of vodka or some other nonsense. Therefore, my duty as Minister of Health was to inform the people about HIV/AIDS. I started a campaign, “Mongolians must learn to use condoms like they ride horses!” Also during the socialist times there was a slogan from Lenin, “Learning, learning and learning.” Now I have changed it to, “Condom, condom and condom.”
—
Also I am planning to pass a law in Parliament that every bottle of vodka and every pack of cigarettes must have a condom with it. This will help us reach everywhere. Just like TV, there are cigarettes and vodka every where in Mongolia. We want to put condoms in all of these places as well.

However, he doesn’t mention who will pay for all those condoms that will come with vodka and cigarettes. Will those items become more expensive? Interestingly, he quickly discounts any type of education that isn’t done by TV.

My problem is not for those who have contracted HIV/AIDS. They have been infected and we can’t do anything. So my goal is to first inform the people about these dangers and make them use condoms.

Yikes.

There have been 20 “official” cases of HIV/AIDs in Mongolia. Five of these cases have appeared since April 2006. Of course, these are “official” cases. Some estimates put the real number of cases around 1,000.