Yesterday was my last day of classes so there are now just three exams between me and graduation and then Peace Corps! They've been hitting us with about an email a week now to tell us what to expect. And even though my future is still more or less a vague concept, I figured I'd share what little I do know.
Apparently after we arrive in Ulaanbataar 36 hours after leaving San Francisco, we meet the staff and current PCVs, then they bus us to a "ger camp" which is a "tourist camp made up of traditional Mongolian 'gers'" for the night. Think yurts, only that's the Russian word. Then we'll head up to Darkhan for a few days for orientation. So a crash course in language, safety, health, PC in general, and the joys of shots. "But where is Darkhan?" you may ask.
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| Darkhan is the red box north of UB |
After orientation, we get assigned host families and we all go to host communities with 8-12 other trainees (different families, same community) to begin our 11 weeks of Training. This consists of language, technical, cultural, safety and health training and will prepare us to become full Volunteers. From the moment I check in at Staging in San Francisco to the swearing in ceremony, I will only be a Trainee, not a Volunteer. It's not until the ceremony that I will be a Peace Corps Volunteer. That will be on August 19, which also happens to be my dad's birthday.
They gave us a couple cool facts in these emails, so I also wanted to share some gems.
- "Livestock outnumber people." - Luckily I'm used to this a bit after Denmark where there are 5 times as many pigs as there are people. I seem to pick livestock-heavy countries.
- "The temperature differential between the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter is about 130-Fahrenheit degrees, so you need to be prepared for extremes here." - I'm going to die.
- Then in the email introduction to the Word doc I got all this from was this: "It gets pretty darned cold in the winter (let’s assume you know that by now), so anticipate some tough winter weather." - again, I'm going to die. But I'm happy to see that there are real people writing the emails with real senses of humor :)
Another note that I'll be reminding all of you of repeatedly is the communication suck that is about to happen. While in Darkhan for orientation, I should have access to internet to say hi and maybe post a quick blog to let you know how my initial Mongolia experience is going. But when I'm in my community and not in Darkhan, opportunities are slim. So if you don't hear from me for weeks at a time, everything is probably fine.
Congrats! You are in for such an awesome experience. It sounds from your description like you're going to have a pretty similar PST as me (in Thailand). It's a phenomenal, educational, memorable experience. You'll love it. Have an amazing trip. I'll keep up with your blog and maybe on one of my vacations I'll come up that way :)
ReplyDeleteActually up until last year horses alone outnumber people in Mongolia. The Zuud (extreme winter) of 2009-2010 with its -50 F temperature for weeks on end and snow on the ground until the last week of May brought the horse numbers down a great deal, but fear not. Somehow all of us make it through it. You are going to be training where none of the M20's and M21's have trained, so gluck up north. Your gonna rock. Eat lots of hummus and drink lots of wine before you leave, you wont be having that for a while afterwards!
ReplyDeleteJosh
PCV M20