Peace Corps Mongolia, Portraits

Cashel

Why are you here?
Ooooffff. Why am I here? During my senior year of college, 2017-2018, I was looking for jobs to apply to but I could not find a position or company that I truly liked or felt passionately about. I did not come across a job that was similar to that of a Peace Corps Volunteer. I wanted a hands on position that was abroad and dedicated to helping other people in a health related way. I decided that for me, the Peace Corps was the best option for me at the time. I believed that it would allow me to help people directly while and have the opportunity to learn a great deal about a different culture. I felt that it was the best time to apply to the Peace Corps. I would have just graduated and then gone off. I didn’t have anything in the U.S. that was tying me down. So, I applied for the Cambodia program. It may be a bit obvious but I was not accepted to Cambodia program BUT I was invited to become a Health Volunteer in Mongolia. The Peace Corps had given me three days to decide.  I said yes of course. While Mongolia is a drastically different country from Cambodia it was still an opportunity to work abroad as a health volunteer and to learn more about a culture. So, that’s why I’m here (:  

What scares you about service?
A LOT. For one thing, the winters. I turn purple and my toes go numb in 40°F so -40° F is a little daunting. The isolation is a tad scary as well. Even though we as volunteers are surrounded by people every day there are many factors which make it hard to connect with people that are unfamiliar with your culture and situation. Luckily I have three other volunteers in my Aimag so I have more of a connection to American culture and people than other PCVs in Mongolia.  I am scared that I will not accomplish anything of great substance during my service or that I will let my school down in some way. I am scared that I will not integrate very well and that I will look back on my service and be unsatisfied with what I did or did not accomplished. It’s all becoming less scary as time goes on!

What are you excited about?
There are many aspects of my service that I am excited about! I am excited to meet new people and learn more about them, PCVs, Mongolians, and other foreigners in Mongolia. I am excited to learn more about the Mongolian culture and to hopefully be accepted into people’s communities. I am excited to make life long connections and relationships with people. I am excited to learn more about myself over the next two years and to see if I change at all. I am excited to share what I learn about Mongolia with my friends and family. I am excited to see what the experience teaches me.

Catherine

Chantel

Emily

Why are you here?
To make a positive impact on this world.

What scares you about service?
Falling into a jarlon (outhouse).

What are you excited about?
All the relationships I’ll be making with my community.

Hannah

Why are you here?
The year before I applied for Peace Corps, a family member who I admired but barely knew told me that I should reconsider joining Peace Corps. He told me the work would be difficult. I was a woman. I didn’t have the physical or mental strength. It was tough and it wasn’t worthwhile for me. A man who had never had a conversation with me decided he could tell me what I was and wasn’t capable of. His words hit a nerve and my dream of serving in the Peace Corps was strengthened. I joined the Peace Corps because women around the world need to pursue their dreams no matter the criticism they face. I joined Peace Corps Mongolia because I hope to share motivation and drive with my students. To teach them that hard work for what you love is a life well lived.

What scares you about service?
My greatest fear before my arrival at permanent site was sexual assault and harassment as such horrors are not uncommon in the world but become more probable when one enters a new culture with limited ability to communicate and handle social situations. However, a new and more terrifying fear has developed after three months of service. This new fear is the mental health of the youth in my community. I struggled with depression as a teen and I continue to live with depression as a backdrop. At site, I have already witnessed the pain and hopelessness of a student who so easily wears a mask that says “I am joyful.” I fear depression and suicide in all of my students lives because masks of happiness are easy to come by. My students are full of infinite worth and beauty that they fail to see.

What are you excited about?
I look forward to let go of what I have read and been taught. Instead, I hope to learn, grow, and challenge myself and others through action.

Jacob

Jacqueline

James

Why are you here?
I am here because in college i would read these great philosophers stating what morally we should do for one another. so after college I did not want to go to grad school so I decided to take those convictions and put them into action.  also teaching seemed fun

What scares you about service?
Not being able to fulfill the needs of my host community.

What are you excited about?
I am excited to learn more about Mongolian customs and traditions. I am also excited to learn more about the people that I am going to be working with.

Jessica

Why are you here?
The biggest reason being that I was not ready to go to graduate school, which is something I know that I want to do. I just don’t know what for yet. I studied international business and information systems in undergrad, but I never really loved my classes. I definitely didn’t want to work in an office right away. I cared more about my classes in political science and philosophy but realized this too late to switch majors and also didn’t have enough room to try different classes to identify a specific passion. I also have always cared about helping others: I’ve volunteered with refugees and blood centers and worked in a program for women of color at the student diversity office of my university. With it’s financial and employment benefits, Peace Corps made sense to me as a way for me to explore development, service, education and myself while also setting myself up with options for life post Peace Corps.

What scares you about service?
When it comes to service, Peace Corps is one of the ultimate sacrifices one could make. Just totally leaving your life behind and to a different country where you have to live amongst and help strangers. My site is pretty tiny. It’s hard to socialize mostly because of the language barrier and because everyone is either a child or a married parent. Although its only been one month since moving to my site, I really, really dread feeling alone and like an outsider for the whole two years.

What are you excited about?
I’m excited to eventually learn enough Mongolian to have conversations with Mongolians and to befriend them on a deeper level. I can’t wait until I can travel with friends and explore the beauty of Mongolia! I want to see myself grow as a more adaptive, creative and proactive person. Most of all, I want to see my students and CPs be successful in English and opening up to new ideas about how to do things. I hope to implement projects that can solve problems or spread knowledge and improve the lives of my community members for years to come.

Joel

Justin

Lee

Lucy

Why are you here?
I guess literally I’m here to be a health volunteer. Health, and how it affects our communities and lives has always been something that has interested me. In a less literal sense, I’m trying to pass forward the health and life lessons I’ve been given. So many people in my life have helped show me a new way of thinking, or taught me to be a better person, and I’d love to share those lessons and do some condom demonstrations.

What scares you about service?
Ho boy. I think just like most people, my fears constantly change. During PST I was worried my diarrhea would never stop and was worried about isolation at permanent site. I’m at permanent site, and so far, thanks to my amazing counterparts, sitemates, and fellow volunteers, I do not feel isolated. Currently, I’m most scared of not being useful. That whatever lessons I want to teach or ‘wisdom’ I want to impart are things that my community either feels or knows they do not need. But we’ll see! I’ll probably be worried about something different tomorrow. Maybe my diarrhea will resurface.

What are you excited about?
I’m excited about so many things. I’m excited for what my fellow volunteers will accomplish while we’re here, I’m excited to finally properly make khuushuur, I’m excited to know the kids in my school and teach them. I am excited to feel like I belong here, hopefully in both my school and my community. I’m excited to give that condom demonstration (hopefully many times, to many students and/or other interested individuals) and gain enough trust from my students that they want to tell me about issues, thoughts, hopes they have! I’m excited about what I’m going to eat for dinner tonight, because as I write this I am hungry.

Matt

Why are you here?
Although Mongolia was not the first country I applied to, I am here because I believe Mongolia is a wonderful and beautiful country with great people willing to accept our service.  I chose Peace Corps because I wanted to use my experience volunteering abroad to continue doing what I love most; working in health and assisting people in need of it.

What scares you about service?
I am most scared that I am a bad fit for an educational role.  I have no teaching experience; I have never lesson planned, taught in front of a class, and have done very little tutoring.  I am worried that my limitations will show itself as I keep teaching more lessons and receive less help from others.

What are you excited about?
I am excited to have the opportunity to make a potential change in people’s lives, whether in the classroom through education or through other community activities.  Seeing people’s excitement to learning something new and finding fun activities to do will help me get through the tough days.

Nick

Why are you here?
I’m here to provide what I am able to my host community, broaden my skillset, and improve who I am as a person (as well as to get as far away from having to take the LSAT as is reasonably possible).

What scares you about service?
I fear not being able to do my job, and achieving nothing. The worst thing for me would be leaving after two years with nothing to show for it.

What are you excited about?
If I had been smart enough to answer before late November, I would have answered the ability to m

Peter

Why are you here?
I made the decision to sign up for Peace Corps for the challenge. I realized that things had grown a bit too easy in both my work as a teacher and in my life in general. I was worried that I stopped learning and growing, so late one night I decided to apply to Peace Corps.

What scares you about service?
Honestly, I am doing this survey a bit later than Gabe wanted me to, so I am already several months into service. I’m mostly afraid of the water here. It makes you lose your hair and can rot your teeth.

What are you excited about?
I’m excited that I have the opportunity to teach something different. I love the more advanced and complicated topics and grammar I can teach here. Before my Peace Corps Service, I only taught up to 6th grade, so all of the English was quite simple and repetitive. Now I mostly teach adults and upper level students.

Sabina

Why are you here?
There isn’t really one reason why I’m here, but I was always involved with a lot of volunteer work growing up and I find it to be fulfilling work. I think it’s important in life to do work that is fulfilling and makes you happy.

What scares you about service?
Winter scares me - lol, jk, but not really- and also the general fear of the unknown.

What are you excited about?
I’m excited to make long-lasting friendships with other Volunteers and to hopefully in some small way impact my Mongolian and Kazakh communities for the better.  

Shalyn

Sheril

Why are you here?
I am here serving in Mongolia because I want to see and learn as much of humanity and of the world as I can. Peace Corps is an opportunity of a lifetime that provides the ability to experience locations in a more intimate way while being able to build relationships and infrastructure with community members. I got placed in a country I had never considered living in before, am getting support in learning the language, and being trained on how I can be a helping hand in whichever community I will have the pleasure of being placed in. In the program I am seeing so much while still being able to give back. Although I will be the one serving, my gratitude is infinite to the growth and exposure I will gain in my time here in Mongolia.

What scares you about service?
I think what intimidates me the most about service is that I know there will be those times where I will have to completely trust my intuition outside of the comfort of a culture I understand well. Having the possibility of being the only foreigner in a community presents a lot of pressure.

What are you excited about?
I am excited to see my students grow in their skills and to create strong bonds with them. I am excited to create a network for myself here in Mongolia where it will feel like leaving home by the end of my 2 years. I am excited to explore and see the vast landscapes and cultures of this country.

Sierra

Why are you here?
I joined Peace Corps after studying International Relations during college and grad school I wanted to get out there and what it was really like to live in another country and fully experience a new culture. I had traveled outside of the U.S. on vacations but I knew I would never truly understand a different culture unless I spent a significant amount of time fully immersed in it.

What scares you about service?
What scares me about service is leaving after two years of living and working here and not feeling like I made even the littlest bit of difference in my school or community. Some long-lasting changes may occur long after my service ends, but I want my time here to have meant something to the people at my site, no matter how big or small that impact might be.

What are you excited about?
I am excited about working with the students here at my site! I’m looking forward to getting to know them as individuals and being there to help them with their English language learning. I can’t wait to see how they improve throughout the next two years!!

Spencer

Why are you here?
I’m mostly here for the opportunities for professional development.

What scares you about service?
I’m most scared of freezing to death in the Mongolian winter.

What are you excited about?
I’m excited to be able look back and see the personal progress I have made through service.

TJ

Tyler

Tylor

Willem