Pretty genius project. Can’t wait to happen upon one of these in real life! (Umm… send some to Mongolia and I’ll put them up!)

seanbonner:

cmhhtd:

New songs out on the streets now. Go find them.

These boxes (and a few others) will be all over Chinatown in DTLA tonight. If you want to hear the new tracks, you gotta go find them. Bring your headphones.

Best anecdote of 2013. Congratulations to Anne for pulling this whole sticky, soon to receive much acclaim endeavor.

iamilliterate:

I’ve had the pleasure of touring gay erotica master Gengoroh Tagame through Toronto and New York City with the help of many friends this past week. I won’t name everyone (I’m slightly lazy, totally inconsiderate), but on our way to New York, Chip Kidd did a MAJOR last-minute favor for us in…

I was asked to write this for the Maternal Health Training Project - Mongolia. I may have written more than they bargained for, and maybe had a very different experience from other expat women who’ve given birth in Mongolia, but I only know how to share my experiences one way.

When I first read about the project in an interview with it’s founder after she had first arrived in Mongolia, I thought it seemed a little off. I wasn’t pregnant yet, but I knew that when I was, I wouldn’t need a midwife when I had Emee, a woman who had given vaginal birth to nine children. All the other women I knew here were mothers, and I knew that they would be able to help me through the process of becoming one. In reality though, I knew even less about the maternal healthcare system than the founder of this project did at the time she was interviewed.

It seems we have both learned quite a lot. Her program has evolved into what seems to be a much needed support system for the existing maternal health services in Ulaanbaatar. The maternity hospitals are overcrowded, underfunded, and quite a different scene than what I had access to in Darkhan. Her team of volunteers has been doing really great things for the women who are in the maternity hospitals, and they have been busy providing information and training sessions to local hospital staff on how to look at alternatives to the classic system of care in place here.

I think it’s a good thing, and I applaud the people making it happen, who seemed to have learned a lot as their project has evolved.

So, here’s the story I present to the masses, “simplified” for easier translation, and useful to… well, not really sure who. Maybe it’ll help the next expat who finds herself pregnant in Mongolia. Maybe it’ll just be me going back to read this when I’ve got Baby #2 en route and can’t remember what to pack for the hospital..

…………

I gave birth to my happy, healthy daughter on December 21^st in Darkhan-Uul 1 Hospital. I’m a 36 year old American and my daughter is my first child. When I connected with other expat women, most of them said that they refused to give birth in Mongolia and opted for services in Thailand, Korea or China, options I couldn’t afford, beyond not wanting to be cut off from my family support network here.

As an American, I had very different ideas about what my first pregnancy and delivery would be like. My friends advanced through their pregnancies with weekly visits to expensive doctors, genetic screening tests, natural childbirth classes and consultations with midwives, doulas and lactation specialists.

In contrast, I went to the local hospital once a month, a nearly 50 year old building with decades-old, second-hand equipment, and assistance from the World Health Organization and Peace Corps volunteers, to see my obstetrician – the only one in Darkhan who spoke English well enough to help me through my pregnancy. I had two OBGYNs, Undarmaa (the English speaking one), and another who spoke no English, Saran,  who was one of the most respected OBGYN’s in the city, and had delivered most of the children in my husband’s family.

Read More

After a year in our spacious one bedroom apartment (it’s actually got a second bedroom that the owners kept locked up for storage) tomorrow we’ll be moving in to a rather tiny one bedroom. The living room is about 2/3rds the size of the one we have now, and the bedroom about half the size of our current bedroom. Even tinier kitchen. Bathroom is one room instead of the split toilet room and bath room. No balcony, but there are windows in every room. It’s on the 4th floor instead of the 5th. It’s in Old Darkhan instead of New Darkhan. So very many compromises I’ve had to make in this process.

They’re things that aren’t horrible, and there are some reality checks at play. This apartment will be rent-free. It’s the home of Agii’s cousin’s widow and her 15 year old daughter. The widow left for France a few months ago. She went alone. Her daughter has been living with us since she left, and will continue to live with us until her mother’s return. No one knows when that will be.

Without getting into the strange dynamics of being a new mother simultaneously blessed with a 4 month old and a 15 year old, it’s another monumental start to a new year.

This time last year, Agii and I were scrambling all over Darkhan preparing for our wedding, and moving out of our first apartment together. I was three months pregnant. My parents and two friends were flying in to Ulaanbaatar for the wedding, and we had to move. I have vague recollections of being incredibly frustrated at the time, but I’ve been here long enough to roll with the Mongolian punches. Leave everything to the last minute, don’t get stressed out, just get things done and everything will work out the way its supposed to.

So here I am again. We’re moving tomorrow and we started packing in earnest at about 2 o’clock this afternoon. There are piles of things that will go with us to the new apartment, and things that will go to the countryside for use there.

Did I mention that the new apartment is still full of a bunch of the widow’s things. She packed a couple of suitcases and left everything else behind. I can somewhat relate, but I didn’t leave a daughter in LA…

Anyhow, Agii and Emee worked out what would go where. Some things from the widow’s apartment will go to other cousins who could benefit from their use. As will our things that we don’t need two of in the new tiny place. It’s going to be difficult enough as it is to fit everything we own into this new place. We’ll be using the couch in the bedroom to sleep on - it opens up to a full sized bed, and I’ll be back to having stacks of suitcases visible at all times, but I’m going to try to figure out some creative stacking and draping that can make them functional.

Fuck. There’s still so much to do.

Being married into a nomadic family does have its perks though. Everyone grew up knowing how to move in a hurry. Everyone rallies, and the job gets done in a couple of hours. I have to remember that. I sometimes forget just how dependable our support system is here.

Back to packing…

I wrote about dating, relationships and marriage for They’re All So Beautiful the online forum/companion piece for the documentary Seeking Asian Female airing soon on PBS.

http://theyreallsobeautiful.com/i-am-a-mongol-now/

flatnoah:

Sain uu (Сайн уу) Noah,

I’m in Darkhan, Mongolia! Darkhan is close to the border of Russia. My friends Michelle and Agii are going to show me around. 

More than half of the people living in Mongolia still live as nomadic herders. They raise cows, horses, sheep, goats, yaks and camels. Darkhan is a city, but it’s still pretty small, and its surrounded by wide open countryside. Nomadic herders don’t keep their animals fenced in, so adventurous cows and horses sometimes hang out by the apartments and look for snacks.

Darkhan is Mongolia’s third largest city. It was established the late 1960s and much of the construction and public spaces were built with the help of the Soviet government. There are lots of monuments that represent Mongolian and Russian history and cooperation.

At the Darkhan Children’s Park there are all kinds of animal sculptures. This penguin family keeps watch over a pond that stays empty during the winter, but gets filled up again in the summer.

The Biilj is the large outdoor and indoor market in Darkhan. You can find everything you need for city and nomadic living at the Biilj. People from all around the countryside, and everyone in the city shops here for good deals. If you’ve purchased too much to fit in your car, or load on to a horse drawn cart, you can hire a truck and a driver to help take your things home.

Michelle and Agii’s cousin Altlaa runs a booth the Biilj selling housewares that she buys in Beijing. Once a month she takes the train from Darkhan, crosses the Mongolian-Chinese border, and shops for bargains in Beijing that she can sell in her shop.

– Flat Noah

flatnoah:

Hello Noah,

Today I got to go on a most exciting adventure in Mongolia.

My friend Michelle’s cousin, Otgoo (that’s her with me in the lower right photo), lives in the countryside and raises horses and cows. The fastest young horses become racehorses. She bought a stallion from a man in UB, and I got to go along for the ride.

Otgoo got the big truck ready to bring the horse from UB to Darkhan. There aren’t many proper horse trailers in Mongolia, so people load their horses, cows, sheep and goats on trucks like this. (Oh, UB stands for Ulan Bator, it is the capital and largest city in Mongolia).

Mongolian horses aren’t as tall as American horses. They are more like wild mustangs - small, compact, and tough. Don’t call them ponies!

In the countryside Mongolian horses can graze and eat wild grasses all day long. During the winter, when the grass is gone, and in the spring, when new grass is growing, the horses get some extra snacks of hay - dried grass that was harvested in the fall. Mongolian horses don’t live in barns. They get to roam the countryside with their herd. This guy will soon become the new boss of the herd.

Mongolian horses get haircuts in the summertime when it’s warm, but herdsmen let their manes and coats grow long to keep them warm in the fall and winter.

– Flat Noah

I got to help a friend with his nephew’s “Flat Noah” project. Agii did all the work really. He and Otgoo went to pick up a stallion, rumored to sire good racehorses, from a guy in UB. I think Otgoo dug taking the pictures.

futureshipwreck:

gaymanga:

New York! Come join us at The Shop @ The Standard, High Line on May 15th to celebrate the release of The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame!

Gengoroh Tagame will be there in person signing books alongside Chip Kidd. This is Tagame’s first public appearance in the United States, so don’t miss it! RSVP to rsvp@pictureboxinc.com.

I hope to see you there!

roadsandkingdoms:

Oy Tumblr friends: we’ve been named a finalist for Saveur’s Culinary Travel awards. Are you craven enough to cast a biased vote our way? If so, here’s the link. Registration is required, but the chance to sully an otherwise fair election is well worth the effort.

Style In Motion: [Women] 2013/03/28

We’re headed to UB on Monday. I have to try to remember not to dress like a country hick.

(via alphamn-deactivated20130501)