The school year is almost upon me.

I just returned from a two-week speaking camp in the Gobi. My friend Laura and I worked with one Mongolian teacher on improving 16 Mongolian English teachers' speaking skills.

It required a lot of effort (something I'm not so used to lately), but was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Yeroo to visit my old host family. Haven't seen them in a year so I'm excited. Then I'll come back here Sunday and look for rides to Bayanmunkh. School starts in a week.

The Gobi trip was fun, in that I got to see a lot of cool sites. We went to this area that has a lot of rock formations, and we got to see a little hideaway where some Buddhist lamas used to live. It was really beautiful.

The Gobi is much different than I had expected...dry, but grassy. No sand until you get further south. There were lakes in the northern part.

I'm bummed I missed the swearing-in ceremony for the M-16 group. 51 trainees became volunteers on Sunday afternoon. Enkhbayar, the president of Mongolia, showed up to support them.

I'm told everyone was really happy and the group showed off a lot of talent. Lots of people played musical instruments and sang Mongolian songs.

There are two new volunteers in my province...both will live in Ondorhaan. That means there are now three people in my province center! I'm excited and hoping I will be able to visit them from time to time.

Anyway that's it for now. More later!

Carrie