It was scary when Travis Hellstrom first arrived in Mongolia, halfway around the world, away from home, and surrounded by a very different culture than his own. A year later, it’s difficult for the Peace Corps volunteer to imagine leaving the country he’s come to love and respect. When he arrived in Mongolia on June 2, 2008, the then 23-year-old wasn’t sure what to expect. He spent the first three months adjusting to the culture while living with a host family in the Selenge Province, while he went through training as a Peace Corps volunteer.

During training, he lived in a small home with a family of four — the mother, Otgon, the father, Chuluunbaatar, their 19-year-old son, Uuganbayar, and 12-year-old daughter, Uugantsetseg. Like most Mongolian homes, there was no hot water, no air conditioning and baths involved a cold bucket of water dipped from a well. Every weekday morning, Hellstrom walked a mile from the family’s home to the neighborhood 5 school or “Bagh 5,” where he studied the Mongolian language with other Peace Corps volunteers. After four to five hours of intense language study, taught almost entirely in Mongolian, it was time for another three or four hours of job training. It was a lot of information to absorb, he said. “I think we were all very tired,” Hellstrom said. “Our brains were very tired.”

At the end of the day, Hellstrom liked to unwind playing with the host family’s children, who were the same ages as his own siblings. They loved to play volleyball and soccer, and Hellstrom said he introduced them to Frisbee and football.

Culturally, he said the biggest change was “the simplicity of (life) and how important relationships are” to the Mongolian people. He said in their society, relationships are prioritized above every else. “We tend to get caught up in our busy lives and forget about relationships,” Hellstrom said of Americans.

Once his training was complete, Hellstrom was sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer on Aug. 15, 2008. Afterward, he left his host family to work at the Sukhbaatar Province Hospital in the province’s capital city of Baruun-urt. The Sukhbaatar Province is located on the far eastern side of the country with a population of about 35,000, Hellstrom said. Geographically, the country is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the east, west and south. Hellstrom is serving as a health extension volunteer, whose role is to help create health education programs and train local health volunteers to work in schools and communities. He spends about 30 hours a week working in hospital administration. Hellstrom said he teaches English classes to the doctors and nurses and helps them develop stronger computer and presentation skills. “What we’re trying to do is help them improve in the ways they want to improve,” Hellstrom said. The hospital staff identified goals, including improving public health delivery and preventative care, developing more effective seminars and learning English. These are all things he is trying to work with them to achieve.

The hospital has continually requested the help of the Peace Corps by requesting a volunteer each of the past 10 years. Hellstrom is the hospital’s first volunteer and they are eager to learn from him. But it’s a strictly advisory role, with the idea that if Peace Corps volunteers pass on their knowledge and experience to the country, it’s information they can use for years to come. “Then when we leave, everything is better because we were there,” he said.

Although he’s a health volunteer, Hellstrom said he gets to do a variety of work. Hellstrom works at the children’s center in the province, as well. Hellstrom said he works to engage the students in activities. He also teaches first-aid classes and hosts HIV training seminars for high school-aged students with another Peace Corps volunteer, Alex Yang. Hellstrom is also actively involved in the local scouting program. An Eagle Scout himself, he was eager to participate in the Mongolian Scouting Association, which is much like the Boy Scout and Girl Scout programs offered in the United States. Hellstrom and Yang have paired up with Mongolians their own age, whom they are training to serve as leaders of the Scouting group.

“The Peace Corps allows you to do what you think is good,” Hellstrom said. He said the experience has been life-altering. He’s not the same person he was when he arrived. “I’m tapping into a deeper part of me,” Hellstrom said. “The heart of me. Before, I thought happiness comes from being successful. Now, I think success comes from being happy.” He said Americans are often taught to be more than who they are, while Mongolians are taught to be happy with who they are and nothing more. “If you are always striving for something, you’ll never be happy,” Hellstrom said. He’s found comfort in the Mongolian way of life, too, and takes pleasure in the simple things.

“In America, I got bored easily. In Mongolia, I’m never bored, even if I’m just listening to my own heartbeat,” Hellstrom said. Mongolia has become as comfortable as home. Hellstrom lives in a modest apartment by himself and plays basketball regularly with his Mongolian friends.  He’s also dating a Mongolian woman. While he used to think he’d spend his two years in the Peace Corps and then come home to the United States and pursue medical school and a career as a doctor, now he’s not so sure. Hellstrom said he’s looking into possibilities working with the United Nations or perhaps staying an extra year to work with the next group of Peace Corps volunteers.

Meanwhile, the hospital staff tells him he’ll become a doctor and return to Mongolia to practice. Hellstrom said he hasn’t ruled that out. “I think Mongolia has given me more than I’ve put in at this point,” Hellstrom said. He recently returned to Hickory for the first time since he left. On May 1, he came home for his sister’s wedding and he’ll leave Monday to go back to Mongolia. While at home, he savored the time spent with family, but he’s also eager to get back to his Peace Corps work.

Right now, he’s due to return to home to Hickory in August 2010, but whether that will happen remains unknown.

You can also read the article online or as a pdf