worst training ever

in order to renew my teaching license i have to undergo and complete 'mandatory reporter training'. which basically means that i have been spending up to 3 or 4 hours a day for the past week reading about child abuse.

it's awful. child abuse is disgusting. and yet, i would reccommend everyone to be educated about it. i strongly believe awareness is the first step in creating change.


*according to the IDHS, 15,600 children in IA suffered abuse in 2005 (in 2000, there were 10,822 confirmed victims)
*most cases of child abuse involve neglect
*in 2005, 48.2% of victims were five years or younger and 52.8% were between 16 and 17 years old.
*estimated 1,490 children died due to abuse or neglect (2004). more than 80% of killed children were younger than 4 years.
*78.5% of abusers are parents, 57.8% are female, 42.2% are male (2004)

raikhamshigtai

that's mongolian for "amazing"...

on a walk this morning with a good friend we came upon an older gentleman walking his dog. i will try to describe this animal in all its raikhamshigtai-ness:

about the size of a piglet and absurdly chubby, hippety-hopping along on chop-stick-like legs. it was wearing a blue, semi-puffy jacket with hood and sleeves - faintly reminiscent of something you'd have your baby wear.

we found out it was a french bull dog and the jacket was actually specially made for it.

my friend smartly observed, "even if everything were to go completely wrong today, seeing a french bull dog wearing a blue coat will make it all worthwhile"

jet plane

i bought my plane ticket today. what a massive chunk of change i had to fork over for that! makes me want to live in europe so i can just go by train or something. instead i live in indianola, ia, a very expensive place to get to apparently.

but the travel agent offered me a piece of gum while i waited for her to get it all squared away. on the gum's package it said "if you only had hot dog flavored gum it would be like like a picnic in your pocket." hot dog flavored gum? even the thought makes me want to barf.

the gum she gave me was mint/watermelon, thank goodness. even though minty watermelon is sort of strange tasting.

anyway. that's all.

happy v/tss day!

it was a tricky day this year. tsagaan sar* and valentine's both mooshed together on the 14th. two holidays in one 24 hour time period. could have been overwhelming except for the fact that v-day is a fairly new holiday for mongolians and tsagaan sar has been celebrated for, well, hundreds of years. so the buuz were not heart shaped and husbands and wives still didn't greet each other in the morning.

i, however, not being of mongol decent but also not v-day's largest fan, decided to wait until today to post something in tribute. you can look at it as either a belated or very, very early 'happy v-day' wish. i believe in choices.

so, happy....day to you all, regardless of the holiday you're celebrating!

(if i would have had some fore-thought, i quite possibly might have sent these out yesterday to you and yours. but actually, i think it's much better this way:)

*translation: tsagaan - white , sar - month or moon. it's the lunar new year celebration. yahoo!

spatula in one hand, hammer in the other

for some reason, or many, or maybe not any reason in particular, living in mongolia has made me want to learn how to make all kinds of stuff: candles, chocolate, curtains, tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, pillows, potato chips, bread. it has also made me want to learn how to fix things (after a fashion) so someday i can be my own plumber, mechanic, electrician.

why not?

learning is a good adventure.

60th

happy 60th post day!

go eat some ice cream in celebration of this occasion. you needed an excuse to dive in to that lonely tub sitting in your freezer and i have given you one. so get to it.

it's the little things

1. today i celebrated the birthdays of 4 of my friends with a big lunch and slice of cake*. then i was told 1/12 of the population celebrates their birthday today. i don't know which population that is specifically, but it sounded like a cool statistic.

2. i'm pretty sure there is no particular word for 'bra' in mongolian

3. we are freezing inside our apartment

4. tsagaan sar (Mongolia's lunar new year celebration) is this weekend, in fact it is on valentine's day. heart-shaped buuz* anyone? mm-mm.

5. need something interesting to do March 5th - 7th? go to www.jcsintl.org and click on '40 hours Prayer'.





*cake - mongolian cake tastes something like a moist sponge with cool-whip on top. they sure look lovely on the outside though.

*buuz - mongolian dumplings that tend to stay with you all day and into the next.