Bryant In Mongolia

Hello all,

It’s been quite some time since I’ve updated my blog.  There hasn’t been too much happening since the last update, but I’ll give it a go.

Sometime in the Fall, Corey, a fellow PCV, made his way out to Khovd.  My counterpart helped him find a Khuumii (throat singing) teacher.  Here is a video of four different types of Khuumii.

In November, I went to Uvs Aimag (North of Khovd) for West Thanksgiving.  Wonderful food and great times were had by all.  I was also able to go to Ulaanbaatar this year (2012) for Thanksgiving thanks to required flu shots!

In December, we celebrated Christmas.  We got together with some other families in Khovd and had a nice time.

New Year’s was celebrated at my school for my students, at a club for my teachers, and around Khovd for volunteers.

Here are a few pictures from the past few months:

Friday night we put together a small Halloween party for the Access students.  We watched ‘The Ring,’ had a mummy-wrapping contest, and bobbed for apples.  Check out the pictures and videos.

A week or so ago, we headed to Bayan-Olgii for Eagle Festival.  Thursday and Friday were used as ‘seminar’ days.  Saturday, we we went about 30-45 minutes outside of the city.  It was quite unfortunate that I had to be back in Khovd for site visits on Monday because it meant that I would not be able to go to the festival on Sunday.  On Saturday, the two main events were a demonstration of the eagles and a timed horse race type competition (I’m not sure of the name.)

Since that time, not much has happened.  The site visit was good, but I wonder how effective it was because my director, mangers, and 3 teachers were not present for the meeting.  We mainly talked about how I can be more effective and productive in the 8 remaining months.

We had out first snow and it was absolutely gorgeous!  My counterpart called me early in the morning to tell me that it had snowed.  I had planned to stay in and watch newly downloaded movies and TV shows, but instead, I met up with three Russian volunteers and walked around the city and river.  It was the first time that I had seen Khovd completely covered in Snow.  Because of Khovd’s location, snow is normally dumped on the mountains surrounding the city.

First Snow of 2012

The temperature has risen once again and I’m able to walk outside in a t-shirt without a jacket.  I’m trying to enjoy as much of the warm weather as possible.  Last winter, it got down to -40, but overall it seemed like a mild winter.  Some of the local herders have said that this winter will be rough, but I’ve also heard that they say the same thing every winter.

On Saturday, Chuck came in from the countryside and we recorded some videos for a project that we are working on together.  Last year, Suzanne had an idea to work on a basketball seminar for the sport teachers in Khovd.  Because of the timing of other seminars and conferences, the plan fell through.  We are hoping to get the seminar going this winter/spring.  The videos that we recorded demonstrate different basketball mechanics and drills.  I’m going to put them all together and get Ganzorig or someone to help with including Mongolian subtitles.

The weather has put a hold on baseball camp plans.  I’ve talked to a few guys who really want to play and learn how to play.  I think I’m going to print off 30 or so copies of the translated pamphlet and put them around town.  If it remains warm, I am going to get people together to throw and hit some balls.  In the spring, I plan on doing a large camp in Khovd.

This weekend we are going to throw a Halloween part for the Access group.  Access is a group of students from the different schools who study English at the American Corner in Khovd.  This class is always a blast to teach!  It’s so much better than teaching at my school.  They are all quite motivated and know English quite well.  I am thinking about showing them one of the Paranormal Activity movies, mainly because they are easily scared and it’s funny.  I asked them if they wanted to go outside to a cemetery or something like that after the movie.  Half of the group is pumped about it, so we’ll see.  I showed them The Hunger Games last week and they loved it!  We have about 40 minutes left that I will show them tomorrow.

Check out the pictures!

It’s been a few months since I’ve updated my blog and I know that many of you have been refreshing your browser constantly so that you’d be able to ready my next update.

I got back to Mongolia from America on August 20th.  After mid-service training, I came back to Khovd.  School started up on September 1st and I’ve been rolling ever since.  This year I seem to be a lot busier.  I decided to only teach a few classes every time they had class instead of many different classes of classes once a week.  My teachers and I have started giving students homework and I’m collecting it, grading it, and returning it every day.  Other than that, things seem to be the same.  Oh, I did finally get permission from my director to do an English Lab overhaul.  My grandparents graciously donated some supplies such as posters, cutouts, and a white board for the English Lab.  We moved half of the computers to others parts of the school, which opened up space to actually have class.  As of now, it’s only been used by me for English Club and English Olympics preparation, which is unfortunate.

Tomorrow I will head to Bayan-Olgii for the Eagle Festival with two other volunteers from Khovd.  We are going to do a small teaching seminar on Thursday and Friday. It should be an interesting trip.

Other than that, things seem to be pretty much the same.  School has been slow and not much has changed as far as teacher motivation and productivity.  I’m planning to do a few more baseball camps in the summer and then I hope to start studying a masters beginning in September of 2013.

Hello everyone!

Summer is here and it’s time for be to head in to Ulaanbaatar to enjoy the summer.  If you didn’t know, I have been planning a 2-week baseball camp in Erdenet, Mongolia  That’s what I’ll be focusing all of my attention on between now and early July.  I will then spend a week in Shaamar, where I will visit my Mongolian family that hosted me for 3 months last June-August.  After that I will go into UB and wait for my flight to America!  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, that I can, this summer.  Please please please check out the Mongolia Baseball Camp’s blog and check out all of the updates and what we’ve been doing in preparation!

mongoliabaseballcamp.wordpress.com

-Bryant

Check out these photos because I’m too lazy to write up a nice report!  Much love to all my peeps.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150982805650071.477451.569265070&type=1&l=a12bfba514

Be home in July/August for 1 month, then back to good ole’ Mongolia.

So, it’s been a while since I’ve sent out an email.  This is because I’ve been busy (It’s a good thing in Mongolia).  School is finishing and I’ve been working a lot on the summer baseball camp that Nathan and I are organizing.  Last weekend, I went out to Mankhan Soum with other PCV’s for Andrew’s birthday.  Anyways, I feel like pictures are the best way to see what I’ve been up to…so check out this link for pictures!  You really should, because there are some awesome cave pictures from Mankhan! Seriously, check out the photos!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150786007400071.464748.569265070&type=3&l=33acb72dac

Also, please check out the blog for the Mongolia Summer Baseball Camp and follow that  blog as well!

mongoliabaseballcamp.wordpress.com

It’s been quite a while since my last update, so here it is.  The weather has gotten much warmer, but the wind has picked up.  This entire experience has flown by so far and I can only imagine how much faster it will go in the summer.  In February Mongolia celebrated Tsagaan Sar, which translates to White Month.  It is the Mongolian New Year; new because you’re crawling out back outside.  It was a time filled with gifts (phone units and chocolate), buuz, and milk tea.  As most of you know, I’m a picky eater, but I ended up catching on to the process.

The big news is that I’ll be visiting America from July 17th to August 20th.  My sister will be getting married in August, so I am looking forward to getting back and seeing family and friends but also to see Whitney get married.

Before I head out to America, I will do a few summer camps throughout Mongolia.  My plan, as of now, is to travel down to Bayanxongor (I probably spelled that wrong) to visit Jordan and do a camp, then travel up to my training site to visit my family and do a camp, and then travel to Erdinet to word on a project that Nathan and I have been working on.  In mid to late June, we will hold a Baseball Camp in Erdinet.  We are both looking forward to it.  We have begun the process of sending out letters for donations and grants.

If anyone is interested in helping out, we really just need used baseball equipment.  Seriously, anything from old used gloves that are collecting dust to bats that you haven’t picked up since those good ole’ T-Ball days.  Of course, we need a lot of used baseballs, too.  If you are interested in donating, let me know by sending me an email!  bryantharden@gmail.com.  According to the website, “all gifts or bequests to the Peace Corps are gifts to the United States for exclusively public purposes within the meaning of

section 170(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code and are deductible as charitable contributions under section 170(a) of the Code.”  Feel free to spread

the word!  We will be sending out letters to Universities and corporations, too, so if you have some of those wonderful connections, send

me an email!

Besides all of that, the rest of March will be spent preparing one of my 9th and 11th grade students to compete in the Olympics.  It’s basically just a huge test that these students will take in different subjects and hopefully do well on.  I’m looking forward to St. Patrick’s Day in Bayan-Olgii, which is the aimag to the west of Hovd.  And, of course, I’m looking forward to seeing friends and family in July/August.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve sent out an update, so here you go!

My computer had an epic fall from a table, then I installed Ubuntu, then my internet quit working…but I made my way to an internet cafe.

showing my counterpart some good ole New Year's love!

It’s unfortunate that I was away from home for the holidays, but we had a grand time out here in West Mongolia.  For Christmas, we had a nice brunch that turned into afternoon movies and then went to a club to find some holiday Spirits.  On New Years, we all went to my counterparts apartment to have a nice party and then we took the fireworks and champagne to the city square to put on a little show!  Word of the day: epic!

Last week, I was a bit sick, but I powered through and led our English department to a gold medal on the Basketball Court!  I’ve kept my skills hidden in America, but they’ve peaked in Mongolia.  There is an Aimag sport competition this coming Friday, so hopefully I can get on the medal boards again!  That’s really all that has been happening besides teaching English.  I’m working with my friend Nathan to see about putting on a Baseball/Am Football camp this summer, so that’s something to look forward to!

I’ve got a lot of pictures, so I’ll try to make my way back to this state-of-the-art internet cafe and upload all of them!

Now, I’m off to devour some potato soup with some garlic bread!

Much love.

Winter is approaching!  The temperature is steadily dropping and this morning there was a small about of snow on the ground; enough to have a beautiful walk to school!

Last Saturday, the Aimag’s students competed in the Olympics, which is basically different subject tests that students take.  My students averaged out at 6th place.  There were about 20-30 students in each grade for English, so I was pleased.

I got a couple of my Christmas boxes in the mail over the weekend, so I’m a pretty happy camper.  Chocolate covered pretzels, Skittles, homemade pound cake, and various treats from Dillon’s Candy Company in Boston, GA.  Besides the food, I got a little Christmas tree, some FSU stuff, a crockpot, and an amazing Mark of the Potter mug from my Grandparents!

I head out to In-Service Training on the 9th with my counterpart.  I’ll be there a few days early, so I’ll be devouring good food and doing a bit of shopping in Ulaanbaatar.

I got a traditional Mongolian Хaнтaaз made and just picked it up today!

If you know of any good books to read, let me know.  I’m currently reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, but that’ll be finished in a few hours…