8/1/2013
I've
finally figured out how to get my computer to type in Cyrillic. I now
have an English and Mongolian keyboard. I bought a key board cover
that fits over my keyboard that has the Cyrillic letters on them, so
it is not much easier and faster to type in Cyrillic. Great
investment, I think it will come in handy when I have to write out
projects, grants and trainings in Mongolian for my counterparts. So
now I am going to include some Mongolian words in my posts. =)
This
morning I woke up at 4am to the most intense wind. I went out several
times to check for funnel clouds (paranoid I know). The sky was so
dark and things were blowing everywhere. I was convinced there was
going to be a tornado and began coming up with my escape/safety plan,
I quickly realized I was doomed if a tornado did touch down. The only
thought that crossed my mind was that I could try to hide in the hole
that is in my backyard that leads to a water pipe (our well), that
was my only hope, hiding in a pipe tunnel. Mongolia is landlocked and
is mostly made up of the Gobi Desert and hundreds of miles of flat
grasslands/steppe. I don't really know what makes a tornado, but
based of geography, a tornado would have a field day in Mongolia. It
could pick up so much speed, there is nothing here that would stop
one.
Today,
my mom made a big batch of my favorite drink
сүүтэй цай
(pronounced suu-tai tsai), which translates
to milk tea in English. It's a mixture of milk, tea brick, salt,
flour, butter and a little mutton fat. When listing the ingredients,
it actually sounds repulsive, but it is actually delicious! For lunch
she made ногоотой шөл
(pronounced nogootoi shul), which is
vegetable soup. It contained the most vegetables I have ever seen in
Mongolia in the past 2 months: cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots,
beets and broccoli (which I didn't even know they had here); it was
heaven on Earth! I'm hoping we have the left overs for dinner.
We
celebrated my Mongolian teacher's birthday today in class. We had
kimbop, Mongolian cake, Russian cake and chocolates, with of course
tea and coffee. She is also a Russian teacher and loves all things
Russian, hence the Russian cake and chocolates. For some reason she
thinks that I speak Russian and at least 3 times a week tries to have
conversations with me in it. It has also gotten to the point where
she tries to explain Mongolian concepts to me in Russian so I can
explain it in English to the rest of the class. Haha, even though
every time I remind her that I do not know Russian. I can now pick up
on when she is speaking Russian and when she is speaking Mongolian at
me. In the beginning both languages sounded like jibberish, so I had
no idea she was even speaking Russian at me, I probably just kept
shaking my head and yes-ing her so much she thought I was
understanding the Russian. Haha. I do know a few words in Russian now
though because of it. Most people in this part of Mongolia also speak
Russian because we are at the border of Russia and Mongolia. I have
been mistaken for a Russian numerous times. The party was fun and for
the last hour of class we just went over different situations that
may be thrown at us during the LPI and practiced acting them out. Our
LPI is next Thursday, we are supposed to test at at least Novice
High/Intermediate Low. Which I would say we are all at, but with the
pressure of the test and it being given by someone whose accent may
be different than our teachers, it will be tough. I plan on studying
2-3 hours every night until the test. I really want to test well on
it, if we don't test at that level we must get a Mongolian tutor at
our permanent site.
Today,
was my last time at Practicum. I went to the hospital this time and
interned with a woman эмч
(emch),
which means
doctor. I watched a bunch of people
receive injections and IV fluids. Mongolians practice medicine so
differently than we do in America. I was shocked. Doctors in Mongolia
in a sense are also pharmacists. Most medicines are given as
injections, you don't see a lot of pills being given or sold. The
doctors mix the liquid medicines themselves and give the injections.
What is surprising is that the patient's buy all the supplies, they
go to an эмийн сан
(emiin san),
which essentially is a pharmacy, where they buy the medications,
syringes, band-aids, and any other supplies their treatment calls
for. They then bring their supplies to the doctor who then mixes the
different amounts of liquid medicines with this white powder (the
only thing she supplies) into the syringes and injects it into the
patient. Another surprising practice is that when a patient comes in
complaining of stomach pain, headache, virtually anything, the first
thing they do is give them IV fluids. Even more shocking is that you
can buy IV fluids over the counter and administer it yourselves. My
home, as well as a lot of the other volunteers, have IV bag hangers
in the living room, and its not uncommon to see family members hooked
to an IV bag. They administer the fluids when they have been out
drinking, feel sick, feel tired and other numerous things they feel
IV fluids can help with. Also, I've observed many doctors do not wash
their hands between patients and even eat lunch after seeing a
patient without washing their hands before eating. No wonder why
there is such a strong push for hand washing campaigns, not even the
doctors wash their hands.
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