Maybe this is old news to y’all, but this was featured in the Sunday Paper insert the Parade Magazine. Enjoy!

A Bigger, Better Peace Corps

Aaron Williams is the new director of the Peace Corps, a U.S. government agency that places volunteers around the world. President Obama has said the Peace Corps should double in size.

Who can join the Peace Corps?
There’s no age limit to serve—14% of volunteers are older than 30, and 6% are married. We have an increasing number of retirees. There’s an 85-year-old serving in Morocco. Like college, the application process is competitive: About one-third of those who apply are accepted. Applications have been increasing over the last five years, and they’ve spiked dramatically in the last year. I think that Americans are more engaged in the world today, and we’re able to capitalize on that.

Still, with 7500 volunteers now serving, the Peace Corps is roughly half the size it was in 1966. Why?
Funding has gone up and down. But wehave bipartisan support in Congress, plus the administration’s commitment to expand. We plan to add a couple thousand volunteers over the next two years.

What do volunteers do? How would you like to see their roles change?
Volunteers serve 27 months, including three months of training. They might teach English or help a micro-enterprise secure credit to grow. They could work on environmental projects or health programs to combat HIV/AIDS or malaria. Since many volunteers are tech-savvy, I want to use their expertise. For example, in Nicaragua a man with a background in mechanical engineering is developing a stove that people can use to cook with compost instead of wood. I want to put his blueprints and techniques online so that volunteers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America can see what he’s doing.

— Brooke Lea Foster

Amber wrote up a very enlightening blog post about the cultural ways of Mongolians, and how that is enhancing the H1N1 spreading (that is my interpretation of it). Go read and see.
http://http://peacecorpsmongolia.wordpress.com/

Gaileee

MSNBC did a series of videos on Mongolia. At about the time that I was there this past summer.

• Jim Carl on Mongolia
• Bone-Jarring Journey to Reindeer People
• Growing Gobi Desert
• How do you shoot an ankle bone?
• Boy Jockeys race in Mongolian Olympics

Enjoy! Gaileee

Here are the blogs listed on Amber’s side bar of her sitemates, the M19’s, M18’s & the new M20’s. Read and enjoy!
Gaileee

• The
  Five Year Plan

• Robin in Mongolia
• Brandon AlphaAmigo site
• Patrick in Mongolia
• There and back again

• Amber’s Mongolia Peace Corps Experience
• Leslie & Nathan in Mongolia
• Be Excellent To Each Other
• Pat’s Peace Corps Journal
• Trinh Thach’s And So It Begins…
• Travis Hellstrom’s Advanced Humanity
• Skye Talk
• Mr. Silly, Inc.’s Mongolian Adventure
• Squirrel
  in Mongolia
• Mikes
  Peace Corps: Mongolia Adventure
• Yak Hunter
• The Big Blue; Sky vs. Ocean : A Floridians Tale

• A Thousand Voices Talking Perfectly Loud
• Find Joy
• Moultons in Mongolia
• Alli and Mike in Mongolia
• Cady and Peter
• Emily in Mongolia
• A Trojan in Mongolia

• Love All, Serve All
• Good the third
• Sojourning Couple
• Mark and Kara’s Travels
• The earth is hard, the heavens far
• News from the ger
• Aaron in Mongolia
• Rachel and Tyler in Mongolia
• Not all who wander are lost
• The slow life: Peace Corpsing in Mongolia
• Bob’s Mongologue

• My Mom’s Adventure to Mongolia

by Louisa Lim of NPR Series on Mongolia.

• Mon:  Mongolians Seek Fortune In Gold, But At A Cost Gold Rush
• Tue:  Global Financial Crisis Hits Mongolia’s Grasslands ‘Subprime’ Herders
• Wed:  Widespread Alcohol Abuse Clouds Mongolia’s Future
  Epidemic Of Alcoholism
• Thu:  A New Beat Gives Young Mongolia A Voice, Identity Hip-Hop Steppes
• Fri: Ancient Mongolian Competition Ties Past To Present
  Ancient Festival

Because they are nomadic and move three to four times a year, Mongolian herders have developed a remarkable wood and wool house that can be taken apart in just a few hours and can be easily transported on a pack animal.

This called a ger (or “Yurt”), and it is remarkably cool in the summer, warm in winter, windproof and usually beautifully decorated, even though it is made from just a few basic elements.

Those who come from a world of high rise skyscrapers are often amazed that such tradition continues.  Yet the Mongolian nomad – and many city dwellers too – would have it no other way.  Many herders refuse to take up a permanent location, feeling that it would be scarilegious  to be tied to one plot of land.

The ger evolved centuries ago for the nomads who were constantly moving in search of new pastures.

Here are some photos of the gers that Amber and I encountered during my Mongolian Adventure!

First night during our Gobi Trip. Stayed at a nomad's second Ger house.

Amber to the left of the hearth inside the ger. In the back of the photo is the case covering of a hand crank sewing machine. No electricity. We slept on the floor in our sleeping bags the first night.

So that was my first night in a ger. Had to find my own restroom. There was a holding pen for the baby animals, quite a ways from the gers, so I’d trot on down past the holding pen for my WC needs. Being on America time, I awoke at 2 a.m. and went out and gazed at the clear sky and all the stars. It was amazing. I’d wake up each morning as the morning light would start to come in (seemed like 4 am every day!).

Adding modern technology to a Ger

Livestock near nomad's home.

So the nomads live in these round Ger’s.  Essentially living off of the land and their livestock.  But Mongolians do have access to technology.

One would see solar panels attached to the Ger’s or freestanding on poles.  The Solar Panels would send the energy into a car battery.  Then the car battery would be used to

1. Charge up their cell phones.  Cell phones are used in a manner where you buy units.  It cost less to send a text than to call someone for a minute of cell phone time.
2. Connect the battery to a modern florescence light bulb for at night use.
3. Or maybe watch a little TV, which is hooked up to a satelite dish.

I bet you the carbon footprint for Mongolian’s is very minimal.  Al Gore would be proud!

Here it is!  Amber’s post about our trip to the south….

http://peacecorpsmongolia.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/traveling-through-the-gobi-desert/

Enjoy!

Wow a month ago in Mongolia, I awoke at 5 am in the morning, at the Ger Camp, just outside where the dinosaurs were found, back in the early 1900’s.   

It was very windy, the night before and windy early in the morning.  The WC that we had access to, was a low shelter on 3 sides, with two boards on either side of the hole in the ground.  If you didn’t watch it, you’d be blown over to the side, it was that windy.  So this was a low, low squat, in order to stay put!

We went on top of this mountainous area, the “Flaming Cliffs”.  Reminded me of Ship Rock in New Mexico, because of the color, and because of the rock structure that was left, after erosin (see that Geology class in college came in handy).  Reminded me of Oklahoma also because of the red soil color.

Amber and I bought some geodes rocks with some lovely crystals inside.  I bought Amber a rose rock, and then a larger geode looking rock.  Kinda cool looking.

Prior to getting to the Yolin Am Glacier area, we stopped along a high area.  Everyone was able to get cell phone reception.  I went outside to find a WC spot (had to make my own….getting very used to this), and I made my own oovm rock site.  Pictured here is the Russian Jeep with everyone in it talking, and me enjoying the fierce winds.  You could lean into them and still be upright.

My little rock pile.  Mogi said, she’d add to it with every tourist trip that the brought by, as this was a popular cell phone stop!

We ate at a nomad’s home.  She was 60 years old.  Knitted gloves, hatwear, sewed dells…basically during the winter in town made all the things that went into her Tourist Ger right outside the Yolyn Am Glacier Park (in the Gobi Desert, no less).  We ate homemade noodles – watched her make them, with mutton, carrots, potatoes, and onions.  Very yummy.  Drank Milk Tea, yoghurt and a sip of homemade vodka.  Interesting enough, I didn’t get sick on any of the traditional Mongolia dishes.

We went onto the Yolyn Am Glacier, traveled out through the narrow mountains, through the Golden Eagle pass, stayed in a small soum (city) that night

gaileee