Jessica's Peace Corps Mongolia Page

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By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, July 07, 2001 - 2:30 pm: Edit Post

Jessica's Peace Corps Mongolia Page



Jessica's Peace Corps Page

Mongolian Adventure

Welcome friends of Jessica Dold. I thought it would be most useful to have a website at a time I'll be so distant from all technology. This way you can get info on my Peace Corps' adventure and see pictures of my life. I will be living in Mongolia , starting June 10th, for about 2 years(27months). I will be teaching English as a second language(TESL). I'm not sure where or to what age level yet. While there I will be participating in World Wise Schools.

This website is basically meant to keep in touch with friends and share my own personal experience of Mongolia. I have provided only basic information of the country itself here, but provided many links if you want to find out more about Mongolia.

New Photos-- July 9th, 2002 -- "General Letters" Updated May 27, 2002

There are several ways to contact me. I will be desperate for words from home I'm sure. It would also be wonderful if any of you are ever in the neighborhood to drop by and visit me. I will be writing general letters occasionally so you can keep up to date on my activities.

If I inspire you to join the Peace Corps, or leave questions, I've provided a link to the Peace Corps homepage. If you have questions or suggestions regarding this site you can contact my father, Clarence Dold(dold@email.rahul.net).



About Mongolia

Current Weather(see Calendar for general info)

The San Francisco Chronicle reported for the week ending March 17th: "At least 1.5 million head of livestock have been killed and Mongolia's human population faces famine because of the country's most sever winter in 30 years. Raging snowstorms and a deep freeze on the heels of a drought have left thousands of people facing extreme shortages of food. Nomadic groups also are running short of the dried animal dung that serves as fuel to heat their circular tent-like homes. Temperatures across the country have plunged to as low as -56 degrees, and snow has buried the grasses herds live on." I called the Peace Corps and was told that this would not stop us from going. This just presents more of a need for assistance.

Calendar - Mongolian calendar of seasons, holidays, and my life events

Where am I? - the geography of Mongolia, and my physical location

General Information - on Culture, Religion, People, and History-it's very general and very brief, see links below for more info

Photo Album - photos I've sent home and scanned from other texts. I've also posted pictures from the going away party here.

- Gobi Business News is a bi-monthly magazine featuring news from the area of my assignment.

Mongolian Newspaper - online news from Mongolia

The Language - simple phrases in Mongolian from Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit and with the help of some local Mongolian friends I have made.

The Housing - a look at different ways Mongolians live and how I live

The Food - what Mongolians, and therefore I, eat

Links to Other Pages

Friends of Mongolia is run by returned Peace Corps volunteers. I have met one of the women involved in this charity organization who was very nice and I believe the funds get to where they need to go(Mongolia sometimes has a little problem with the filtering down of money). This group is dedicated to helping Mongolia help itself, and not being a Santa Claus type charity that doesn't provide sustainable help.

UB Guest House This is where most PCV's stay while in UB, the owner (Mr. Kim) speaks English. There are large bunk beds in common rooms for $5 per night, telephone and internet access, and a washing machine.

various travelers impressions: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/nea/mon_pc.htm

A returned Peace Corps volunteer who was involved with a program that had a joint agreement with a university for credits put together this wonderful, intelligent site that also talks about Tibet http://home.att.net/~patricksommer/index.htm

Here is a link to another returned PCV who seemed to create a page for the same reasons I did.

various info on Mongolia http://dir.yahoo.com/regional/countries/mongolia/ or http://www.discover.mn/

various info from the UN in Mongolia

much of this site is "under construction", but it offers wonderful pictures, a relief map of Mongolia, and information on geographical areas, such as Ulaanbaatar and the takhi(wild horse) reserve

A woman from Japan has put together a site with many links dealing with all sorts of issues in Mongolia. She has 18 categories that each lead to a page with links.

If you want to look at pictures only this site has many on nature, people, religion, and history. They also offer more links.

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Contact Information

My email lyser@aol.com can be used, but I would prefer snail mail since I don't know how much access I'll have to computers. I probably won't have any once I'm at my final site.

Current rate for an envelope is $0.80 up to one ounce.

I also may incur some customs charges for "luxury" items sent. The Peace Corps suggests that "for example, if your friends are sending you a package containing some printed matter or documents and a few "luxury" items, such as music cassettes, etc. they should definitely record the printed matter on the custom label ." I don't think this means omit things, but let it be known that it's not all luxury items making the box weigh what it does.

Omnogovi Aimag

Dalanzadgad Soum

Central Post Office Box 140

Jessica Dold, PCV

Mongolia(via China)

Do not omit the "via China". Peace Corps says that without this some mail gets sent off to Africa first.

Below, the address is printed in Cyrillic, in a grabable graphic file. This may help with accurate sending and help to speed delivery. Here is an Envelope.doc prepared in MSWord.

(on PCs use the right click button on your mouse, on Macs use the open apple key and click the mouse)



In country: where to find me:

The first three months I will be in Ulaanbaatar. The capitol of Mongolia. After that I will post my new location. I read a story in the local paper once about a European hitcher who found his friend serving in the Peace Corps by going to the general area he knew her to be in and asking for the American Girl.

To contact my family:

Father's(keeper of my link to the world) email: dold@email.rahul.net

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Visitation

Check the calendar(for holidays, seasons, school dates, and others visiting) to coordinate schedules.

Megan Thompson (irishmeg@napanet.net), a travel consultant for Thompson Creekside Travel Service , is a friend of ours. She found a price of about $670 round trip to Bejing. From there one could take the train or another flight to Ulaanbaatar. Please contact her with questions on travel since she will be familiar with the how-to's.

Unique Tours in Mongolia. Gobi Tours is run by a lady I've met since I've been in the Gobi.

Passport and Visa information and other travel information provided by the government. U.S. citizens need a valid passport as well as an entry and exit visa, obtained in advance.

For Health precautions contact the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's International Traveler's Hotline at (888) 232-3228, or www.cdc.gov.

Sites of interest suggested by the Brigham Young University Culturgram include: the "dinosaur graveyard" in the Gobi, the ancient city of Karakorum, the medieval Erdene-Dzuu monastery, and the summer palaces of the Eighth Living Buddha. I'm sure once I'm there for awhile I'll be able to give you the best tour ever.

Embassy of Mongolia to the US - Visa and Tourism information

How to prepare yourself with clothes

a camping store online www.campmor.com

another option is REI www.rei.com

Check my Mongolia information section also for language among other things.

This is a travel site that I know nothing personally about, but could be interesting to look into. If nothing else, it has cool pictures http://www.boojum.com/

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Last Revised: Tue Jul 9 16:22:48 PDT 2002


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