July 8. UB, Chinggis Khaan airport

There was a man who hung around the center of town selling postcards. He had a piece of paper supposedly explaining his sad story that his ger had burned down and his wife and 4 children were killed. Of course everyone knew it was all a lie, but I bought a postcard anyway. He said it was his birthday (ha!). I saw him several days in a row and it was always his birthday. So, I'm sitting here in the airport and guess what birthday boy shows up?

Friday July 8

And I'm off....or will be in a few hours. The spa yesterday was incredible, as I knew it would be. I was scrubbed for half an hour. It was amazing, yet disgusting to see the dirt that was scrubbed off me. Then off to the massage for an hour. My original plans for a Thai massage were nixed by the masseuse who apparently found too much tension or stiffness in my right shoulder. I had been trying my best to keep my embarrassing groans, moans and grunts to myself, but apparently my best wasn't good enough. So she changed the massage to another kind and she kept pummeling me. Marta and I had dinner after the spa and said goodbye. Bedtime and then the rush to get organized this morning and get out the door. My taxi should be here in about 15 minutes, so I'm on schedule. After a very long day I'll be home tomorrow. Can't wait!

Thursday, July 7. Happy Birthday, Peter!

After yesterday's adventure at the accountant's office I have little to add except to wish a very happy birthday to Peter. Can't quite believe he's 28 today. How is that possible? Today Marta and I have plans to go to the Gobi Hotel spa and get scrubbed and massaged into oblivion. Can't wait. Haly is also going to stop by to say goodbye, which will be hard. Then one last dinner with Marta and it's off to the airport for an 11:50 am flight to Beijing tomorrow. I don't know when I'll be back on the blog, but I'll do my best.

Wednesday, July 6 UB

Now that my saga has ended, I will try to fill in the story of trying to get paid by the university. I cannot give a blow-by-blow account of what happened, but I will hit all the high (and low) spots and fill in the colorful details as I proceed. The story begins approximately 1 month after I arrived. I received word from SDC (Swiss Development Cooperative), the source of my funding, that they had transferred money to the school's bank account and that I could receive part of the money due me. I went to the accountant's office with Haly and was told to sign a document. I refused, saying that I didn't understand the figures or the total that appeared there, and I wasn't going to sign anything until I understood it. This prompted a visit the next day from someone at SDC (Ganchimeg), who worked through the calculations with me. In the course of that explanation, I discovered that 1) they were trying to charge me a service fee for the bank transfer; 2) I was being charged a "project fee"; 3) I was being charged a currency exchange fee and 4) the amount that was being withheld from the first payment I was to receive was subtracted from the amount of the first payment. (In other words, the total had been split into 2 payments and the amount of the 2nd payment was subtracted from the first again, not from the total). I said that I felt as though I was being charged for the privilege of being paid. At this point, SDC agreed to pay all related charges, so I agreed to the totals we arrived at. We went back to the accountant the next day I was told I needed to have a bank card. Of course I have an American bank card, but that's not what she meant. I needed a Mongolian bank card. Haly offered to let me use her card and withdraw my money from it, but no one could tell me 1) how much I could withdraw at one time, or 2) what the ATM charge would be for each withdrawal. So I rejected that idea. I asked about receiving cash from the school, and was told there was a 300,000 T daily limit for cash. Could they increase the amount? No, there was a rule. Could I receive 300,000 T a day until I had received all my money? No, there was a rule. (Inside I'm murmuring to myself that rules were made to be broken.)

We returned the next day to find that the accountant was out because her child was ill and would be out the rest of the week. So, I wait until Monday. I can't remember what happened Monday, but when we went back Tuesday, her child was sick again. At this point, the frustration and lack of sensible rules and procedures got to me and I started to cry. Suddenly everything that I had been told was not possible became possible. Someone came over to the school from some unknown office and went with me and Haly to the bank and withdrew some money and I was paid in cash on the spot.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago: I asked the departmental director about the end of the term, what to do about my dorm room, etc., and how I would be paid the last installment of my money. She said I needed to write a report for SDC and that I would be paid June 29 or 30th. I wrote my report and emailed it to her and on the 29th, I went to her office. I was told she was out of town. When would she be back? Oh, maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Could someone call her and find out? Her phone was turned off. So, I came back the next day - same story. July 1st, still no director. Tsegii and I went to see the accountant and she said that I had received all my money. I said that I hadn't and showed her the place on my receipt that clearly said "first installment". If there's a first, then there MUST be at least a second, right? I called Ganchimeg and reported the situation and she said she would talk to the school on Monday. Tsegii and I had retreated from the office of the accountant and were sitting in the hallway making these phonecalls when the accountant came out of her office, locked the door and left. It was 4 o'clock and the school offices were still open, but the accountant left and didn't say a word to Tsegii or me. Just left. She knew we were still trying to get this business settled and get an answer for her that was other than "you've received all your money" and she just walked out. Marta and I depart for Darkhan. When I returned to UB I emailed Ganchimeg to find out what she had accomplished and where I might find my money. At this point I'm just hoping that SHE has it and I can get it from the Swiss, but no. I have to talk to the director's secretary. So, this morning Haly and I went to the accountant's office and presented my email from Ganchimeg that assures me that SDC has made the transfer and that tells me the amount of the payment. We show it to the accountant but she has a different total in mind. I call Ganchimeg and ask for an explanation of the difference between what she said and what the accountant says. Turns out her email was wrong and the accountant was, too, and the real amount is between the two. I agree, but we are told we need to have a document signed by the director, but she is on vacation! I am flabbergasted at this news. What to do? The director will come to school at 2pm. I have 2 days until I leave and I don't want to sit around the school waiting for her to sign something that she should have taken care of weeks ago. So, they decide to send someone to the director's home with the document and get her signature. We sit and wait. Two hours later the person with the document returns and then Haly and I and the person from the first installment go to the bank where I get my money in cash. So, in spite of her having told me when she would pay me, the director went on vacation (and probably knew all along she would be on vacation) and made no provisions for me. Amazing!

The End.

Back in UB

Arrived back in UB this afternoon. Only 2 more days before I fly home! Our trip to the monastery yesterday was wonderful. The monastery was built from 1727-1737 and was only partially damaged by the Soviets and it is beautiful. We hired a driver to take us there (3 hours by car, the last 35 km on a dirt road). Saw dozens of marmots - very cute, a cross between prairie dogs, meerkats and chipmunks. They build their holes near the road, so we'd see one scamper across the dirt and disappear down a hole less than 12" from the side of the track. Of course, the roads keep getting wider as one track gets rockier as the dirt is worn down to the boulders underneath, or the gullies make driving too difficult, so maybe the marmots were there first and the road has come to meet them. I was fascinated to see that the poles carrying electricity to these remote villages and settlements still have glass insulators on them. The poles themselves, although made from trees, stop about a meter above the ground and are lashed to a concrete post coming out of the ground. This is because of the severe freezing half of the year. At the monastery, Marta and I happened by a temple room where the monks were chanting. One of them was even throatsinging. While we we eating our lunches at a small restaurant near the monastery, it rained briefly, but we didn't think too much about it. It was a different story as we made our way back on the dirt road. There were parts of the road flooded and the driver often had to get out and walk ahead to find the best way to proceed. He had a Toyota, and not a Toyota SUV, either. It was still raining on this section of the road as we were driving. I think if we had left an hour later, we might have had trouble getting away. In some places we saw hail.

That night we went back to our favorite Texas Pub and I ordered a quesadilla. The description on the menu said "chiken cheese and vegetables", so I was surprised when it arrived and, although it was good, it didn't have any cheese on it. I usually let things like that go, but this time I decided to ask, especially because it was difficult to eat without the cheese binding all the veggies together. Pointing to the menu, I asked the waitress about the cheese and she went to the back to inquire. When she returned, she pointed with vague gestures to her torso and said that that was the chicken cheese. I looked at Marta and said "So chicken cheese is chicken breast?" Marta shrugged and I said OK. I kept thinking about it, wondering how "breast" became "cheese" and decided that someone had looked in a dictionary for "chest" and had mistakenly written down "cheese" instead. We had a good laugh over that.

sunday, july 3 Darkhan

Having a great time here in Darkhan. It's a city, but much smaller than UB. We had a 7 hour train ride from UB that only cost us 16,000 T, less than $15. After we arrived and rested at our hotel for a bit, we went to a restaurant, Texas Pub, that had really good food, free WiFi, Texan decor and a continuous loop of a Backstreet Boys video, but no soundtrack. Strange. This morning we got up and walked an hour to the local market, did a little shopping and walked back to the Texas Pub for lunch. We saw a small group of camels crossing the road while we were walking back. Took a bunch of pics. We ran into a large group of Peace Corps volunteers here at the pub. There's maybe 25-30 of them. They're all in training and stationed in small towns and villages around Darkhan. They're in town for the weekend for a workshop and for rabies shots. What a combo. The pub really has a good thing going: good western food and free internet. What a magnet to draw people like us and the Peace Corps. Darkhan seems to be in better shape than UB. The roads are nicer, the sidewalks are cleaner and there's a nice breeze blowing the heat away. Our hotel is really nice, too, and they have real foam pillows! Not buckwheat grain pillows! Hot clear (not orange) water! What luxuries.
This afternoon we will try to make arrangements for our trip to the monastery.

Thursday, June 30, 12:05 pm

Marta moved into my room this morning. She needed to move out of her guesthouse room and since we are taking off together on Saturday and I have an extra bed, it made great sense. We are busy making plans for the weekend. Not much else to report. I read a lot last night and was lazy getting up this morning since I had to be in my room to meet Marta at 11 am. I usually leave for school between 9 and 10.

Wednesday, June 29, 11:15 am

I met with Marta yesterday afternoon after class and then we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. I had paneer, a solid cottage cheese curd, that had been breaded and fried. Really good, although I am completely unfamiliar with Indian food. My only other encounter with the cuisine did not rate as highly. As I recall the food was heavily flavored with rose water and I didn't care for it at all. We've made plans to travel to a monastery this weekend on the train together. Should be fun. She just got back from a 16 day trip to central Mongolia and the Gobi and is eager to go exploring again. She's also moving into my dorm room for a couple of days, until we take off on Saturday. It will be nice to have company, although I hope I can keep the insomnia that has plagued me for the past 2 weeks under control. I've had trouble falling asleep, in spite of the 1-2 hour walks I take most days.
There isn't a lot to report. I get 4-5 students per class, just enough to keep it worthwhile to keep coming to school. These loyal students have invited me to a Korean restaurant on the day of the last class, so I think that I've made at least a small impact on their lives.

Monday, June 27; 11:10 am

Saw the strangest thing this morning: a little girl about 1-2, wearing cuffs that buckled around her ankles, with a 12" strap between the cuffs. Looked like something you would hobble a horse with. I assume it was to keep her from running, but I found it as reprehensible as I do leashes on kids. Very strange.

Lessons learned about Mongolian motorists:
The person quickest on the horn gets the right of way.
There is always room for another car, whether between lanes of traffic or while turning the corner.
Just because there is only one turn lane painted on the road, that doesn't mean that 2 or 3 cars in parallel can't make the turn. It's more fun to do things with friends!
If I want to park here, I can.

Sunday, June 26; 2:45 pm

Not much to report today. I'm at my favorite weekend place, Cafe Amsterdam, finishing my tomato and cheese panini, enjoying the free WiFi and watching the people from the lovely covered patio here. I expect to talk to Marta sometime this week. She called on Friday, saying she would be back in UB on Sunday, so I hope to see her soon. Only 2 weeks left and I have to say I'm ready to come home. This has been a very interesting time, full of ups and downs, but all-in-all, I've enjoyed it. High on my list is my friendship with Haly, who has been such a help to me and has become a very good friend. She says she feels as though we were destined to meet and become close. I've been so lucky to know her.

Friday, June 24: Happy Birthday, Bill!

Yesterday was actually fun. As a result of my asking about leaving early, the director of the department sent around word that anyone in the building was to attend class, so I actually had people show up! I did a lesson on the subjunctive and had a blast. Then, Haly asked for my help with a paper she has to turn in today, Friday, at noon. So, we were here until 7pm working on rewriting her research into real English, which you all know I LOVE to do. We were back here at school at 8am finishing up. It's now 11am and we are basically done. She's just finishing up tables and figures and then should be able to send it off. It concerns a project done in western Mongolia regarding veterinary inoculations and subsequent increases in animal weights, chest circumferences and a decrease in neonatal mortality. At least I could understand her thesis, conclusions and recommendations!

The other news is that this morning the water came out of my shower visibly ORANGE. I showered and washed my hair anyway since I didn't have enough bottled water in the room to revert to my former method of showering, but when I emerged I had orange streaks down my calves and thighs like a badly-applied layer of self-tanning lotion. My hair feels kind of stiff, too. At least I know I'm getting my RDA of iron today.

Wednesday, June 22

The bathroom at the school is kept locked, although I can't figure out why, for the life of me. You have to supply your own toilet paper, so there's nothing to steal, not even any soap. The keyhole on the outer door goes completely through the door and when you insert the key, you have to fool around with it to figure out how far in to stick it. You could, conceivably, push the key all the way into the room. It's an old-fashioned skeleton key, so you have to find the exact spot where the "works" of the lock are inside the door.

No students again yesterday. This is becoming boring.

Tuesday, June 21

I picked up a new kind of juice yesterday at the grocery store. It is Korean and has a drawing of an ear of corn on it, so I was intrigued and had to try it. Well, I opened the bottle and got a whiff of the scent of corn (yeah, what did I expect?) and the taste, but not strong, of roasted corn. Strange, not awful, but that's hardly a good advertising slogan.
My days are long and boring. Yesterday no teachers were in the building for class. Today is another quiet day, and it remains to be seen if anyone shows up.

Burberry plaid

I have never seen so much Burberry plaid as I do here. I had noticed it last year but never commented on it then. Burberry is everywhere: in men's shirts, umbrellas, purses, raincoats, etc. I saw a plaid shirt yesterday at the Black Market but since it had the words "BRURBER PLAID" plastered across it, I suspect that it is not authentic. Whattya think?

Monday, June 20

On Friday one class had a lesson about food and restaurants, etc. The book had photos of various American foods, including a sandwich with alfalfa sprouts on it. (The book is intended for ESOL students living in the US). We spent time discussing the food and examining the photos, talking about the ingredients of each item. One of my students pointed to the sprouts and exclaimed "plants?!". As I've discussed earlier, there is very little green in the Mongolian diet.

Sunday, June 19: Father's Day

Hot day again, today. Finished my gift shopping today with the purchase of 3 cheap watches for Bill's dad; cheap because they get stolen so often in the nursing home.

My dormitory is right on the border of where the buildings stop and the ger district begins. There's a gravel road on my side of the building that leads to the gers and to a construction site in the next valley where several apartment buildings are being built. The strange thing about this situation is that trucks and heavy machinery goes down this road at all times of the day and night, especially in the dark hours between 9 and midnight. I can't imagine what they are doing in the dark and there are no bright lights on at the site like you sometimes see at road construction sites at home.

I caught a taxi to take me to the Black Market this morning and the woman driver was very happy to practice her English with me. At one point she asked me if I liked Jesus. I assured her that I did and she said she did, too.

Saturday, June 18

I walked into the city center today and stopped at Cafe Amsterdam. They have an outdoor patio on the top floor and I sat there under an awning and ate my sandwich. Got caught on reading my emails and just enjoyed sitting and relaxing. Things are winding down around here and a lot of the teachers are taking off on vacation, so attendance at my classes is dwindling. I'd like to just cancel things because it's just too hard to teach 1 or 2 students at a time, but don't feel I have the authority. Just a few weeks left, but I'm ready to come home now.

Marta

Anita contacted me several weeks ago about a Swiss woman who was coming to UB in June and would be in and out of the capital for several weeks before returning home. Marta contacted me last week and we met on Saturday and immediately hit it off together. She is a big-hearted person with a tremendous laugh and we had such a wonderful time together. We started together with a coke at Cafe Amsterdam and then went to the State Department Store for her to do a little shopping in preparation for the tour she was to begin on Sunday. After that we were having such a good time talking that we decided to go to dinner. She introduced me to a restaurant across Peace Avenue from the department store called the Geneva Club where we both had wonderful salads with lettuce, chicken and raisins. The salad was so delicious and so welcome after weeks without much green in my diet. Marta is 66 and takes off every year for 4-6 weeks on an adventure such as this one. We made plans to get together after she is back from the Gobi. Can't wait! Everyone Anita has introduced me to has been an exceptional person with whom I would like to stay in contact for the rest of my life. She is from Canton Turgau in Switzerland and says she knows several Hiestands there.

Chinggis Monument, continued

After seeing the sights from the horse's neck, we got back into the car and drove to a restaurant nearby where we got out of the car and TOOK OUR PIZZAS INTO THE RESTAURANT!! Unbelievable! This, of course, was about 3 hours after we picked them up, but they were still good. I have no problem eating cold leftover pizza so there was no problem eating cold untouched pizza, either. The pizza here is strictly un-Italian (carrots, corn, cheddar cheese and I have no idea what the meat was and don't want to ask), but if you give up your expectations and just take it for itself it is pretty good.

Yesterday I went with Altansukh and a new Japanese friend of his to the Intellectual/Puzzle Museum. It was wonderful. They have 4000 3d wooden puzzles, the biggest of which has 673 pieces and requires 56,831 moves to disassemble. (No, I didn't try it). It is a privately owned museum and the founder joined us and did some magic tricks for those of us in the tour. The museum also includes his collection of chess sets from around the world, including some ancient ones that had boards that are 10x10 and 11x11 squares instead of the 8x8 boards in use now. I wonder what kinds of moves the extra pieces made and why they dropped out of use.

I had had some plans for the day yesterday which went completely changed as the day progressed. Altansukh had texted me about the museum on Tuesday and I replied that, yes, I wanted to go and could we go in the morning? He always texts because he doesn't trust being able to understand me over the phone, I think. Anyway, it turns out that he left his phone in his car and didn't get back to me until late Wednesday am suggesting a 3pm meeting.. OK, so I took off for the central city, deciding to walk and do an errand and then head over to Cafe Amsterdam, a favorite place for ex-pats that has WiFi, thinking I'd get up-to-date with my email and this blog. Last week two of the teachers took me to a jeweler because I had the idea to have a necklace made with my name in the ancient vertical Mongolian script, not the Cyrillic script in use since 1940. He had indicated the necklace would be ready on Monday, so I thought everything would be copacetic by Wednesday. Hah! I got there at 1:30 pm and he showed me the piece of brass with the name on it....but absolutely no progress had been made on it. Not having any way to communicate with him, I decided to sit and wait. He took out his jeweler's saw and proceeded to begin
sawing. He finished cutting out the figure at 2:30 when his shop was visited by two guys carrying some sort of tripod with a strange object attached on top. He turned his attention to them and started working on a bolt that apparently had had its head broken off. About that time Altansukh called and put off our meeting until 4. At 3 the jeweler finished with the 2 guys and began polishing my name. He was done by 3:30, so that's when I started walking to meet Altansukh. So, there went my plans for lunch, emailing and blogging. Luckily I really love the necklace and it was incredibly cheap, so I guess I paid for it with time and inconvenience as much as with anything else.

When the teachers took me to the jeweler and we were negotiating the style and price, etc., the fees were itemized for me. One of the items listed was "human salary".

I saw a man yesterday wearing a bright red t-shirt that read "I'm a Gleek.".

A billboard on the street for a new gym advertised "Diet Dance".

I'm baaack

These have been crazy, frustrating days since the Internet here has gone south. So much to tell that has happened in the last two weeks. I'll start off with my day off, June 1. Two of the teachers here who are best friends invited me to go with them to the Chinggis Khan monument that is about 50 km out of the city. The teachers, Tsegi and Zolaa and Zolaa's husband, Bataar, and their 2 year old son, Dimbe, picked me up in Bataar's car and we went to buy a couple of pizzas. We drove for two hours until we reached the monument, which is a 40 meter aluminum statue of Chinggis on horseback, really quite attractive. You can walk up inside the statue and come out onto the horse's neck as an observation deck. The crowds inside the statue on the stairs were crushing and everyone had a small baby or toddler with them. In some cases people even had scooters or crutches with them. I could scarcely breathe and of course there was no order or orderly line getting up the stairs. People just pushed and shoved and eventually someone just popped through the crowd out onto the observation platform.