From October 11th-15th, my counter part (CP) and I, went around to all the kind garden schools to present and demonstrate the importance of hand washing. For Mongolia and many other parts of eastern Asia, non-communicable diseases play a huge risk factor towards every day life. Majority of NCDs are preventable. As I work in the health department, it is my duty and responsibility within my service to teach not only my work colleagues but others as well about behavior change. Teaching my counter part to have volunteers come up and demonstrate the hand washing technique with the demonstrator will hopefully intern teach others how to properly wash ones hands.
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Hello, Sain bain uu!
Good morning your end of the world. My name is Ophelia Hadden, and we have been matched up from the World Wise Schools! Let me tell you a little about myself. I’m 25 years old and currently serving in Mongolia as a M26, meaning that this upcoming year will be the 26th year that PC began serving in Mongolia. I came right out of undergrad with my B.S. in Anthropological Science in Forensics. I have a little background in Nutrition and Dietetics, which enabled me to become a health volunteer. I have been living in Mongolia for a year now, of the first three months of coming here, we all have to receive training within their own sector. So my sector is Health, another is Community Youth Development which is working with young to older children in helping them build a healthier lifestyle. Another sector is TEFL, basically teachers who teach English (can also teach other languages within clubs or secondary projects) within schools, universities, institutes, and community centers. In other countries there may be more of less sectors, depending on the country's needs. Within my Health sector training we are all assigned practicums. Mine was at a family clinic close to my home. This was for us to get to know about the Mongolian health care system and learn about community needs. We went to our practicums every Tuesday, but we always had technical sessions which talked more in depth about Mongolian health care. Oh, almost forgot, all PCVs around the world live with a host family during their training. Training took about 11 weeks for us, so we lived with our host family within those weeks. It was very rewarding and I loved my family! My host mother actually had her first child when I lived with them. They called her ‘good happy’ in English terms. Most Mongolians names are called something particular, such as women maybe called after a flower or shiny stone. Men will be called strong or brave. They called me Opella which didn’t mean anything, but they had a hard time pronouncing Ophelia. So I lived in a wooden house with a room to myself. The whole house was ground floor and very small. We had electricity but no running water. We had to go fetch water from the well and boil it if we wanted to drink out of it. We ate in a very small kitchen where they would prepare most of their foods on the floor in big pots or on the stove. We would cook so many Mongolian dishes, please remind me to tell you later about them. As for bathing, we washed in what they called a 'tupin'. Basically a large, wide, shallow basin. We used our tupins also to hand wash our clothes. Most of Mongolians hand wash their clothes as it is very little cost to them. Mongolians are really big into keeping their homes. This really surprised me. I would have to go outside and scrub carpets and curtains with laundry detergent! We would clean the floors down on our knees and hand wash everything. With hot water and soap. Funny catch thou-dishes were only cleaned with warm water and no soap by our hands. I loved staying with my host family as they taught me how to make Mongolian dishes, hand wash clothes, play games involving knuckle bones of a sheep, and their language. Before living with my host family, PC gives all of us a paper with the host family’s description. For example, mine had age of my mother and father, occupations, fluency in English, living area, phone numbers, etc. So as my host family had little English speaking skills, I mostly had to talk in Mongolian which we are also given intense training on. Our Mongolian language classes were run by Mongolian teachers who didn’t speak very much English. It was a little difficult but really prepared us for living on our own at the end of 11 weeks. By the way, you can ask me in more detail about anything i’ve said or not said, I’m just trying to run through it as much as I can. So by the end of 11 weeks all M26 volunteers get sworn in as actual real PCVs who don’t need training anymore and are off to live by themselves in their final placement. Our final placement depends on the site needs, with specificity on volunteer experience. So I’ve been placed to work at a Health Department in Khentii aimag which is East Mongolia, and have been living in an apartment with electricity and running water. My Health Department is my HCA (Home Country Agency) where they pay for my water, electricity, heating, etc. Others may not have all of this paid for by their HCA, so PC will pay for it. I have 10 PCVs within Khentii aimag, but 3 of them live within the city with me. So I live alone, but have others to go to for help, gatherings, or maybe project building. I have been living in Khentii aimag, Chinggis Xot city (known for Chinggis Xaan birthplace) for 10 weeks and everyday I walk to work that takes about 30 minutes. The city is close to the steppe lands, and surrounded by mountains. This weekend we just had our first snow which in many other places it started way early in September with several aimag’s having a foot of snow. It is quite different compared to Virginia, where I grew up and went to school. I have traveled before, but not to a third world country. Mongolia is becoming less underdeveloped but still needs a lot of attention and improvements. However, Mongolia brings so many incredible traditions, customs, beliefs, values that separate itself from another other place i’ve ever heard or read about. I am so fortunate to have been invited here and these first couple of months have been an incredible adventure! |
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