Rain and Cars in the Red Hero City

the roads in UB are terrible

in unbelievably bad shape

they might as well be unpaved

it's hard to see, but this car is driving around a huge pothole as big as the car itself

mongolia is known as the "Land of the Blue Sky"

it boast over 260 days of sunny days a year

but june and july are the rainiest months of the year

 and luckily for me, i get to experience both the intense sun as well as the rain
and see the aftereffects of the rain in UB

after the rain, the potholes and streets get flooded
cars avoid driving on the "paved" street by driving on the unpaved sidewalk
but other brave souls drive on through

poor cars

at least the cars don't get thrown away when they stop running
spare parts get used in unlikeliest but most creative places

tidbit:
people drive on the right side of the road in mongolia
HOWEVER
half of the cars are from japan and other countries, where people drive on the left
the other half of the cars are from korea and others, where people drive on the right
in mongolia, half the cars have driver's side on the right and the other half on the left
confusing

maybe that's what makes traffic so chaotic in UB
maybe...

Injection! Injection!

"injection! injection!"

poor pujee, always volunteering to be poked

everyone loves giving injections

i still fear hurting people by poking them with needles

and am still trying to overcome that...

pujee teaches me how to give an intramuscular injection

the patient was probably more terrified than me
and rightly so...

tseegii may be laughing in this picture, but you should have seen her face before

brave souls who volunteered to be poked

showing off their battle wounds

Home-"Ger"-Visits

home visits are my favorite

not only do i get to see patients

but i also get to see how they live

extreme privilege to see people's homes...

walking to a home since our car didn't have enough power to make it up the hill

driver goofs around while waiting for us

knocking to make sure we have the right place
there are no street addresses in mongolia
you find a place by the description that people give you

sometimes we knock at a random house to ask for directions

we're met by the unlikeliest people:

usually little kids

but most of the time, we're met by the scariest dogs you'll ever encounter

you have no idea how i wish i had gotten my rabies vaccine before coming to mongolia

the most useful phrase to know when making home visits:

"nokhoi khorio"

hold the dog!!!

learned that one on my first day

taking blood pressure of a patient

without adequate equipment, ganjargal has to be creative

tseegii checks on a newborn while i check the mom

babies frequently have jaundice

claudia checks the vitals of a man 

so happy about my first home visits in mongolia

note:
it seems to be common practice to not tell patients of their diagnosis
when the diagnosis is cancer

the family members are aware but not the patient

seems unethical

they justify this practice by saying that such a diagnosis will mentally harm the patient
not telling them is

"better for the patient"

Шэжид Дүг: Shejid Düg Clinic

Shejid Düg Clinic

1/4 MD's from the states

1/4 MD + 1/4 MD + 1/4 MD + 1/4 MD = 1 MD

(me + elaine + claudia + christine)
false logic?

perhaps just wishful thinking

tseegii, the head doctor of the clinic

she's the best

ganjargal and tseegii

the staff at the clinic

lunch at the clinic:

there are no plates and never enough utensils

everyone uses their cups or mugs

claudia creatively uses a tongue depressor as her spoon

teaching jinri to take blood pressure

an excellent student

she practices taking bp on herself

end of the day:

walking to the microbus stop

There Are Buses; Then There Are MICRObuses

bus 27:

all buses in UB are old korean buses

still with original korean bus numbers like this one above: 9-137

you would think they would at least paint over it....

 

 

bus ticketing ladies are not to be messed with:

they are kick-ass mean!
i've witnessed many ladies literally kicking drunkards off the bus at 9 in the morning
alcoholism is a huge problem in mongolia

buses are rarely this empty

my first bus ride in mongolia with claudia

 i always see interesting random things or people on the bus

wish i could capture them all on camera...

 the regular bus rides are pretty interesting in themselves

BUT

the microbuses... 

WOW

i could have sworn this microbus was full of bullet holes

unfortunately or fortunately, they were just stickers, as claudia pointed out
i decided it was still worth a photo

 there are no lines

people basically fight to get on the bus since space is limited

 how many people can a microbus fit?

 

 too many

and claudia can attest to that:

a stranger falls asleep and keeps head-butting claudia

there are no rules on the microbus

full of passengers, microbuses will stop for gas

 

ДЭНЖИЙН 1000:

our stop for the clinic