Traveler's really experienced story in Mongolia

By Raymond

We get to the office, he examines me, and suggested I get an IV. (FYI - no one I've come in contact with on this day spoke any English... Haliuna was my guardian angel of an interpreter) I said 'Surrrrre, why not.' I give him 5000t and he ran off down the street to buy an IV bag from the pharmacy. As I'm waited in his office, another lady comes in. She and the nurse exchange a few words and I'm lead into another room. A few minutes go by and Haliuna and her father return with the IV supplies.

Haliuna tells me the lady I'm now sitting with is the GI specialist... THE specialist of Mongolia. You know, the one that caters to the high ranking govt officials and the social elite. This whole time I've been a bit in the dark despite having an interpreter; although Haliuna speaks English better than anyone else I've met, don't mistake to Look Familiar Star Wars Fans? Look Familiar Star Wars Fans? Traditional royalty garb. -- Theater of Song and Dance think she is fluent by any stretch of the imagination. So every turn and twist just seems to come as one surprise after another.

The GI doc examines me, finds my hernia, cancels the Rx the first round of doctors prescribed, writes a couple of new ones and informs me I should be able to continue on with my journeys just so long as I take it easy and wear some support (i.e. - an elastic band holding a metal coin over the hole in my gut) to keep a lid on Perry. I get my IV, which falls out as I was trying to take a few photos of my arm... which then had to be restarted... using the SAME needle. Yes! I learned my lesson. On my way out of the office Haliuna's father gives me one more piece of advice, "And no more Mongolian food. Mongolian food is for Mongolians!"

My total costs for seeing four specialists, having my own nurse, receiving IV fluids and filling a few Rx cost me less then 25$. Sweet.
Since carrying a backpack and spending my days on the unpaved bumpy roads across the desolate landscape without any Airag - fermented mare's milk... NOT recommended.
Airag - fermented mare's milk... NOT recommended.
I found out later one usually drinks only a shot or two at most. My friend here, who served his costumers with a lit cigarette dangling from one hand, was trying to toughen me up... I think. Either th... [more] medical facilities wasn't a viable option for me with my new friend Perry, I decided to explore my volunteer options sooner than I had expected. Most orphanages (there's about 8 of them here in the city), surprisingly, are closed during the summer months. So I asked Haliuna about doing something at one of the hospitals and after yet another phone call to her father, I had an appointment to meet with the nursing supervisor at Hospital #2 (there's an original name for you) the following day.

I have my meeting with my new sidekick/personal assistant Haliuna; we talked about what I was interested in doing. I was asked if I could start right away... 'Why not.' I'm then lead up stairs to an English class being taught by the supervisor's sister for the medical staff, I was introduced, and then asked to teach for the next 30 minutes. Damn, they work fast around here! After class I was then thrown a pair of scrubs and lead to the ICU and worked 4 hours on the floor before the afternoon English session started.

Unfortunately, I was useless on the floor. No one spoke English, and I only spoke three words of Mongolian. So there was just a lot of smiles and pointing exchanged. If there was any dialogue shared I just tilted my head like a confused Labrador and said, 'I have no idea what your saying to me.' Invariably, they'd respond in the same head slanting fashion of confusion. I finally met a young doctor who spoke a little English. During our brief conversation, she asked me if I'd be interested in teaching her staff CPR. One would think that would be a prerequisite for working in a hospital. From what I could gather, it's the newer staff that needs the training. But I'm not too sure how I'm going to pull this one off with the dramatic language barrier, lack of supplies, no practice dummies... I mean, will I need to purchase stuffed animals for them to practice on?! A life saving class trained on Disney character dolls... somehow I don't think this is going to be American Heart Association certified. To be continued...