In this interview, we hear from Christopher Thomason. Christopher is working as a Peace Corps Education volunteer in Mongolia. What Christopher shares gives us a better understanding of the work volunteers do. We learn about the challenges, rewards, and personal growth that happens from volunteering in a new place. Christopher talks about living in a different country, working with local people, and dealing with surprise situations. Join us as we learn about Christopher’s journey and see how volunteering with Peace Corps can change lives.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Social Identity
- Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. Can you tell us more about serving as an Education volunteer in Mongolia?
Daily Life at the School
I’m in my third-year extension now, so I’m not doing the same education work I used to. But back when I was at the school, my days followed a loose pattern. I would wake up, do the usual morning routine, and go to school. After that, the day depended on the work plan.
Most days fell into two categories: planning and teaching. My counterpart and I would work through the state textbook. Those textbooks are terrible. They have good ideas buried inside, but they’re rough. We would take the parts we liked and adapt them.
One thing the textbooks do well is help Mongolian kids talk about Mongolia in English. I like that. So we built lessons around that idea. When students talk about themselves and their own culture, it makes language learning easier and more fun. It also lets us customize lessons for each class instead of doing the same boring textbook exercise over and over.
Co-Teaching in Mongolia
Peace Corps Mongolia puts a big focus on co-teaching. Each volunteer’s situation looks a little different.
In my case, my counterpart and I had a system. If we were teaching grammar—say passive voice—she would introduce the topic in Mongolian. Passive voice is tough for Mongolian speakers because the structure doesn’t exist in Mongolian, so it’s easier for the students to grasp if it’s explained to them in Mongolian.
She would explain the grammar, run a short activity, and then I would take over for the main review. That part gave students more time to apply the lesson with a native speaker in an English-focused context.
Running the Life Skills Club
The main club I ran came from a Peace Corps Mongolia life skills handbook. At first, the school wanted my counterparts to follow it closely. But they got busy with other work, and I ended up carrying most of the load.
It was one of those rare times when that worked in my favor. The students had strong English skills, and since the teachers weren’t always in the room, the students opened up more. The club slowly shifted into something like a mentoring space.
We talked about studying in the US, visas, choosing majors, whether you should take a gap year, and so on. Programmatically, it looked like an English club. In practice, I was more of a mentor to these students. It turned into one of the most fulfilling things I did.
Work at the Volunteer Center of Mongolia
Right now, I work at an NGO called the Volunteer Center of Mongolia (VCM). I split my time between helping volunteers plan activities and doing the random jobs that pop up. Overall, I serve a more behind-the-scenes, supporting role than I did at the school.
Sometimes that’s giving advice to VCM’s own volunteers, like how to manage large groups of kids during an outdoor activity, or what kind of things they should do during a holiday event. I’ve also run Project Design and Management trainings for VCM’s volunteers, since they’re the ones who actually run most of VCM’s projects.
Other days, I’m carrying boxes of documents to the district office. In Mongolia, a lot of teachers and NGO workers are middle-aged women, so being a guy in his twenties means I end up doing a lot of the literal heavy lifting.
I also show up at meetings and conferences mostly just to shake hands and take pictures, and even though it sometimes feels like I don’t need to be at these events, my NGO still likes to show off its PCV.
2. What motivated you to join the Peace Corps and choose Mongolia?
Part of it was boredom. I was working at a supermarket during the tail end of COVID. The Peace Corps had always been at the back of my mind because one of my favorite professors talked about it constantly.
His Peace Corps projects became the foundation of his PhD. That stuck with me. Later, I found out he passed away during the pandemic from Legionella. In a way, that’s what prompted me to apply.
I applied in March 2021. By mid-2022, I still hadn’t heard anything. So, I drafted an email to withdraw my application, but a little voice in the back of my head told me ‘you can’t un-say no,’ so I decided to sit on it for about a week.
Within a couple of days, I got an email from the Peace Corps asking if they could send my application to Mongolia because the government wanted volunteers as soon as possible, and Armenia, my original choice, wasn’t ready to open.
I said yes, went to work, came home, and found the invitation to serve in my inbox. That’s why I like to say that Mongolia chose me. Three years later, I’m still here.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. Tell us more about your home situation
A Unique Pre-Service Training
My cohort had a very unusual PST experience. Instead of host families, we lived as roommates in shared apartments. The Peace Corps rushed our arrival, so they didn’t have time to vet families.
We were also still doing weekly COVID tests. Living independently was liberating, but it also meant missing the classic host family experience.
Now that I’m sworn in, I live alone in my own apartment.
Getting Around Ulaanbaatar
I avoid the buses in Ulaanbaatar. I’ve only taken the city bus a handful of times.
Taxis are simple. You stick your hand out, and someone in a silver Prius will pick you up. They’ll ask where you’re going and charge a small fee per kilometer. There’s also an app similar to Uber called UBCAB.
Walking is my main way to get around. Even at minus ten degrees Fahrenheit, I walk everywhere. It’s not exactly a walkable city, but walking is still faster than sitting in traffic.
Shopping in the City
I’m lucky to live near a market called the Bayanzurkh Zakh (market). It’s like a mix of a flea market and a grocery store. Fresh produce is cheap. I can get potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic for under three dollars.
I avoid refrigerated food and most meat from there. If you want good meat, it’s better to ask a counterpart who knows a herder.
Clothes shopping is tough because I’m six-foot-six. Most things don’t fit me anywhere in Asia. But I find the occasional piece at local markets or malls.
The Ice and Winter Conditions
Winter in UB is rough. The car tires melt the surface ice during the day, and then it freezes into strips of black ice. I’ve slipped in the middle of crosswalks before. It’s scary for a second, but eventually you learn to spot it, and walking on ice becomes second-nature after your first winter.
Safety in the City
Peace Corps’ safety and security tells us the most common issue is pickpockets, especially in the summer and on public transit, but I’ve never been pickpocketed. Some PCVs usually keep their phone in an easy-to-grab jacket pocket. I keep my phone in a secure front pocket and keep a hand on it in crowded spaces. That helps a lot.
It might also help that I’m a big guy. I’ve heard that in some cities abroad, thieves avoid Americans because they tend to fight back. No idea how true that is, but it’s funny to think about.
4. Any memorable experiences or interactions you’ve had?
A Small Emoji Miscommunication
One unexpected thing here is how people use emojis. Someone sent me the 😏 emoji. In the US, that’s usually flirtatious or refers to some kind of playful double entendre. I tried to play along a little bit, since I thought my interlocutor was trying to be playful, until we both ended up very confused.
Turns out that emoji means “I’m annoyed” in Mongolia. It conveys frustration, not flirtation.
LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators) don’t teach that kind of thing during PST (Pre-Service Training) because they often don’t know themselves, or it’s so small it slips their minds. Emoji culture changes fast.
Looking back, it’s funny. At the time, it was baffling.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about challenges in Mongolia?
Adjusting to the Cold
The cold here is no joke. It gets down to minus 20 or minus 30. At that point, Celsius and Fahrenheit both feel the same: freezing. I wear three layers on my legs, and four up top, and the cold still cuts through. But the strange part is how quickly you adapt.
I grew up in Portland, where the coldest day of the year would be 28 degrees Fahrenheit. One year, on New Year’s Eve, it was around three degrees Fahrenheit, and I was walking from the other side of the city to meet my friends downtown to celebrate, and I ended up unzipping my coat because I was sweating.
The cold is painful, but your sense of “cold” shifts. When I took some leave during the holidays last year (2024), coming back to 50-degree weather in Oregon felt hot.ts. When I fly home for the holidays, the 50-degree Portland winter feels like a warm breeze.
6. What challenges did you face while working on Education projects?
Everything is “fluid”
Honestly, the hardest part about working in Mongolia is how fluid everything is. Things change at the last minute all the time. You might get a classroom set aside for your club, walk in, and suddenly, there’s something else happening in there. Or you plan a lesson with a teacher, feel good about it, show up to the classroom, and it turns out they had a family emergency—or not even an emergency, just something they decided was more important that day.
At first, that drove me up the wall. Peace Corps warned us about it during PST and again during IST, but that first chunk of service after swearing in was still rough. Some things, like finding space for activities, you just can’t control. You reschedule and move on.
A big more control over lessons
But for things like lessons, where you have a bit more control, it helps to always have something in your back pocket. Lessons here are only 40 minutes, so having a quick, reliable activity ready to go is a lifesaver. My favorite improv lesson is teaching students the International Phonetic Alphabet. The letters look close to Latin letters; it genuinely helps with pronunciation, and it turns into a fun class because middle schoolers and high schoolers love making all the weird vowel sounds. The energy is great.
Be flexible and roll with the punches
So yeah—the biggest challenge has been things getting changed, canceled, or thrown at you at the last minute. Peace Corps’ line is “be flexible and roll with the punches,” and that’s true. But another part of it is knowing when something crosses a line. If your school or HCA expects something from you that feels unreasonable, don’t be afraid to enforce boundaries. It’s frustrating when they ask you to show up at a sports event and give an encouraging speech when you already have something planned—and especially when you know you’re not inspiring in Mongolian and only a couple of kids speak English anyway. Flexibility is important, but so is knowing when to say no.
A Bigger Example: The Summer Camp Surprise
Toward the end of my first school year, things got especially messy. I was at a complex school—three schools under one administration—and one other volunteer served there with me. I worked in the high school, and he worked in the middle school.
One day in late June, during exam season, we got called into a meeting. We thought maybe they wanted us to help grade exams, which the Peace Corps strictly forbids. Instead, they announced that starting next week, the school had organized twelve weeks of summer camps, one grade per week. And they wanted us to teach English at each camp. My sitemate and I would trade off weeks, two at a time.
One week’s notice
This was all dumped on us with one week’s notice. They had never mentioned it once before. My sitemate had to cancel travel plans. I had plans to go up to Erdenet, but thankfully, mine fell on one of the off weeks.
We called our program managers, and they helped us reach a compromise: we would do the camp, but the school was never allowed to pull something like that on us again. If they planned anything in the future, they had to involve us from the start.
When the camp actually began, it turned out we were only needed for one hour of English lessons each day, Monday through Friday. So I was only obligated for a single hour. The camp location was beautiful, so I could walk around, relax, and talk with students who were interested in things like American music or history.
More challenges
The frustrating part was that the school kept canceling entire weeks of the camp without telling us. We often didn’t know whether a week was happening until the night before we were supposed to leave. For a big chunk of that summer, I was basically living out of my suitcase in my own apartment because I didn’t know whether to unpack.
That whole experience was another example of how unpredictable things can be here—things popping up at the last minute, or getting canceled at the last minute, without warning.
7. Could you share some of the secondary projects you have been involved?
American Corner Book Club
I think the one I’m most proud of is the book club I’ve been hosting at the American Corner. I started it right before swearing-in, and next month will mark the three-year anniversary. It has honestly been a highlight of my week. What surprises me most is that the same core group has stuck with it the whole time, which is kind of amazing for Mongolia.
People come and go a bit, but the core group has stayed steady. There’s one kid who just graduated from high school and is taking a gap year. There’s an older guy who works in IT for the police department. Another kid is in his senior year of high school. And then we have a few people who pop in for a month, disappear for a bit, and then come back. That’s been my longest-running secondary project.
National Emergency Management Agency
Another project started as part of the Peace Corps’ virtual service pilot. The National Emergency Management Agency wanted a couple of volunteers to help them with English because they were preparing for a large joint disaster relief exercise in Dornod that summer. They asked for volunteers for about six weeks—three hours one day, three hours another day each week.
That project is probably the one I get most excited to talk about. Most Peace Corps volunteers teach kids, but teaching adults is a completely different experience. And honestly, I prefer teaching adults. My high school students were wonderful, but the public school system in Mongolia is set up in a way where half the kids don’t care, and the other half don’t even need an English lesson.
Working with NEMA was different. Because they’re attached to the Ministry of Defense, everyone there is military. They were ready to listen, ready to participate, and took it seriously. I didn’t get to travel to Dornod for the actual exercise, though—Peace Corps said that would be a step too far since we’re not supposed to be visible with the military. Working with NEMA at all was already pushing the envelope.
Summer camps are a big deal in Mongolia
Beyond that, there were a couple of summer camps. Summer camps are a big deal in Mongolia because even though we do English education and community development, the summer months—especially July—can be very quiet. At my NGO, I was the only one in the office for weeks at a time. I remember thinking, “Why am I even showing up here?” So summer camps help fill that empty space, and tons of NGOs run their own, like the Mongolia Ecology Center.
So most of my secondary work has been summer camps and different kinds of extra English teaching. But the book club and the NEMA project are the ones that stand out the most.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to someone considering serving as an Education volunteer in Mongolia?
Socks. Really good socks. That’s honestly the first thing that comes to mind.
And as I touched on earlier, be flexible. Be open to new experiences, but don’t be a pushover at your school. If they try to get you to do something you’re uncomfortable with—whether it’s work-related or something like, “We’re going out to the countryside, and there’s going to be alcohol”—learn how to be flexible, but also be assertive when it matters.
Those two things are on opposite ends of a spectrum. Being adaptable and going with the flow is totally different from drawing a line. So when you’re deciding whether to be flexible or whether to say no, trust your gut. Your instincts are sharper than you think.
So yeah. Pack socks. Be adaptable. Be strong about it.
The best purchase I made before service was socks from an extreme cold weather brand called Seal-Skinz. I bought a couple of pairs before coming to Mongolia, and they’ve lasted my whole service. You don’t need waterproof ones because it’s so dry here, but they’ve served me well. I can wear sneakers in the dead of winter and still be warm after a brisk walk.
9. How has the Peace Corps training helped you during your service?
The technical training covers a lot. They go over classroom management, they go over the basics, they go over everything they can. In terms of knowledge, it’s solid. But in terms of actual practice? Not really, because every site is completely different.
My school tried to keep me busy during the entire summer, at least during that first summer. But I know people in other cohorts—and even in my own—whose sites basically disappeared on them. There are so many little things that you only learn once you’re actually there.
It goes back to that old saying: no plan survives contact with the enemy. Training is good to fall back on when you run out of ideas, but a lot of it falls apart the moment you arrive at site and see how things actually work.
Training helps you understand the big picture. For the day-to-day, other than language, not so much. You just need to be adaptable.
But that doesn’t mean the training staff in Peace Corps Mongolia isn’t good. They’ve always been strong.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
10. Anything that you packed or didn’t pack that you’d like to tell future Mongolia volunteers?
What to pack
My answer is easy: those warm socks. Honestly, outside of those specific socks, the next thing I recommend is extra shoelaces and an extra pair of shoes. I’m a tall guy—six foot six—so finding shoes here can be hard. If you can, buy an extra pair of whatever shoes you like and either pack them or have someone at home ship them to you.
For winter gear, Mongolia is one of the coldest countries on the planet, but you can find winter clothes in any size. I’ve bought coats, shirts, sweaters, and pants here without any problem.
If you’re unsure about clothing, pack more warm-weather stuff than you think you need. I did not expect the summer to be as hot as it was, even in UB.
What to leave behind
As for what to leave behind, do not pack books. Everyone has a smartphone now. Download the Kindle app. I packed six books when I came in—just novels I wanted to read—and now they sit on my shelf taking up space. I finished them and plan to donate them to the American Corner library.
Unless it’s something you want to give to someone—like a classic you plan to hand to a counterpart—leave books at home. They take up space and add weight. There was so much more I could have packed if I hadn’t filled my bag with books.
11. How has learning the language been?
One of the highlights of PST
During PST, we had three hours of language a day, five days a week. It melts your brain, but in a funny way. It was actually one of the highlights of PST. Our cohort was split into small groups, and learning Mongolian in that setup made it feel social and energizing.
After PST, it became more of a trade-off situation with one of the Mongolian teachers at my school. I taught her English, and she taught me Mongolian. She even helped me learn a bit of traditional script. It meant I didn’t have to deal with any tutor reimbursement process, and she got something out of it, too.
Everyone wants to speak English in UB
Living in UB adds another layer. I talked about this with one of the program managers during a site visit: people here are often more excited to practice their English than to let you use your Mongolian. I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to speak Mongolian, only for someone to say, “Your Mongolian is great! Let’s speak in English now.” It’s a little discouraging.
And because English levels in UB are pretty strong, finding Mongolians who will let you practice for real—like full conversations where you actually get feedback—is hard. I’ll try to say something in Mongolian, and the reaction is more like, “Aww, that’s adorable,” which is nice but not helpful when I’m trying to talk about work.
But honestly, language learning is like the rest of service. It’s what you make of it.
Social Identity
12. How has your service influenced your social identity?
Big surprises
Like I said earlier, my first time on a plane was the flight from Portland to Seattle for staging. It was a 30-minute hop. The seatbelt light was off for maybe ten minutes. I was not well-traveled at all.
I took Russian in university and went to the Russian club, but none of that comes close to actually living in another culture. One of the biggest surprises was how much living abroad made me aware of what it means to be an American. I was born and raised in Portland, and I had never lived anywhere else. It’s so easy to take for granted that everyone around you is American, too. Most of us don’t even think about it.
Living abroad changed that. It brought a lot of things to the surface that were second nature back home. Being here made me think more deeply about how I see myself as an American and what that identity means.
Myself as an American
Peace Corps volunteers are in a good spot to gain that kind of insight. I live in UB, near the embassy, so I’ve met the Marine guards. They’re all young—late teens to early twenties. They don’t get out at all, and you can tell. They may as well still be in America.
Things that seem exotic from the US—living in a ger, eating horse meat—feel exciting at first. Two years later, they’re just normal. I realized that during special leave, when I had time to reflect. America is very different from many places. There’s a reason you can spot an American in a crowd of Europeans, and it’s not because we’re loud or lean on things.
National identity
Another big thing I learned is how unusual the US is when it comes to ethnic and national identity. In Mongolia, being Mongolian is tied to being ethnically Mongolian. In the US, anyone can become American. There’s plenty of debate about immigration, but at the end of the day, that idea still stands. I didn’t have the words for that before this experience.
Service helped me put all of this into words. In PST, we talk a lot about cultural humility, but that’s not something you learn in a classroom. You learn it by living it. Things that feel exotic at first become everyday life. And in the process, you learn a lot about yourself.
I’ve learned more about how I see the world—and how I see myself—during these past few years than at any other point in my life. It’s had a huge impact on me.
Final Thoughts
13. Any last comments you’d like to pass on to future Mongolia volunteers?
My advice is simple. Say yes. Take the leap. I came close to pulling my application, and I am so glad I didn’t. You can’t undo a “no,” so give yourself the chance to see what happens. Send in the application. Push through the clearance steps. Take each phase one small step at a time. That is how service begins.
The Peace Corps will change you. It changed me. It was worth every hard day, and every good day too.
Stay open to the moments that show up. When your teachers say, “We’re heading to a monastery,” or you hear about a ruined site on the south side of town, go. Say yes again. In the U.S., life runs on tight schedules. Out here, you get to loosen your grip a little and let the experience take you in. That chance is a gift.
So here’s my top advice. Go for it. Join. Serve. Give yourself the chance to grow in ways you can’t yet imagine. Even when it gets tough, it is still worth it.
What are you waiting for? Opportunities like this don’t come often. If you have a passion for service and an adventurous spirit like Christopher’s, apply to the Peace Corps today. Expand your horizons, push your limits, and create positive impact as a volunteer. You never know how serving as a Peace Corps volunteer could change your life.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Mongolia Government.
