Mongolian E-Mails

2008-10-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

The following are exerts from emails I sent in Mongolia...

Hey All! 4/1/07

"I made it here alive! I didn't know if that would happen once I got to Beijing. I got into Beijing at

530am Sunday morning and was supposed to fly out at 850am. Well lets just say that I ended up downtown Beijing sharing some hotel room with an American who worked for the United Nations for the day. Our flight got delayed from bad weather and then they shipped us to a hotel to

'rest' for the day. We were supposed to fly out at 6pm well that turned into 7pm which turned into 930pm and we finally left around then. The hotel gave us 2 free meals and there was so much food. Some of it was really good and I didn't know what any of it was that I was eating....

I made it to Mongolia around 1230am Monday morning. I was very tired, actually exhausted. I was picked up from the airport and rode in a car without seatbelts. I got to my host families apartment (which I thought was pretty much the ghetto until today when I r

ealized ALL of Ulaanbaatar is the ghetto)...Their oldest son was leaving at 4am to head back to Provo, Utah, yes, Provo, Utah! He goes to BYU. There is another American girl staying at the house for 3 more weeks so at least I'm not alone trying to figure this

all out!"

Still Alive 4/3/07

"Well the good news is that I found out there is an Internet Cafe about 150 yards from my apartment. Bad news is that it looks like I'm walking into a place where you would only go to get yourself killed. But then I realized 95% of the places I've seen in Ulaanbaatar are like this. Once inside it's not too bad. 2 dial up modem computers and lots and lots of fish tanks and a very weird smell...the keyboard is in cyrillic letters adn so the American letters are all worn off...Today was my first day at the hospital. All that comes to my mind is WOW! There is no way, ever any place like this would exist in America. It would never pass any inspections. The walls are mostly plaster and cracks everywhere and falling apart. Just walking in the front doors is chaos. There are people everywhere and I had to work my way through the maze. (I wanted to be very careful because it is a Mongolian

superstition that if you step on someones foot you have to immediately shake their hand and say 'I'm sorry' or 'uuchlaarai' which I still don't know how to say so I didn't want it to happen). They gave me scrubs to wear and special hospital shoes which are made of croc like material that can only be worn in the hospital. So yes,I get to wear socks and sandals everyday. And to make things even better the scrub bottoms are about a size Small which just doesn't go well with my figure. So I barely got them on and they are TIGHT! I thought they would rip for sure. And then to make it even better, they are total high waters on me! I'm sure I look awesome in the outfit...."

The Things I've Learned 4/5/07

"So I am amazed of what I learn everyday here. So I have decided to share a few things that I have observed and learned while being here.

1. Not everyone in Asia that wears a surgical mask has SARS or TB-My first day in the city I see people everywhere wearing surgical masks. I think 'oh great, I come to a country that people have these awful diseases!' Come to find out they wear them to protect their faces from the sun

and wind and dust.

2. American's must be AWFUL drivers-I say this because this is by far the worst driving I have ever seen, but yet I have only seen one wreck and no pedestrians g

etting hit by cars. I have seen driving in Mexico and Europe and that driving is so good compared to here. How do American's get in wrecks all the time? I mean we have lines on the road to tell us where we need to drive. Here it's 'make your own lane and if you can cut off anyone in the process then you are doing an even better

job.' American's also have stoplights that warn you when it's about to turn red. We have this nice thing called a yellow light. They have green to red instantly. And don't think that cars stuck in the intersection are going to stop anybody from trying to go!

3. I have learned the true meaning of the game 'chicken' everytime I cross the road. Going to and from work everyday is what I would like to call a life or death situation. If you make a car slow down you will for sure get a horn if not a little mirror bump as they drive close to you. Rush hour in the morning is scary and I'm the only one sprinting across the street out of fear for my life! Everyone looks at me weird because they take their time crossing and will stand in the middle of the 2,3,or 4 lane road with cars just inches from them! I like to take it all in one shot and look like an idiot in the meantime! I get more exercise walking/sprinting to work than I thought I would!

4. I found out a little about Marmots...when they do a true Mongolian BBQ they use goat or marmot. They cut their necks and take out their insides and then stuff them full of hot coals. They have to be careful because of the Marmot Plague which the safe season is between Mid-August to Mid-October...wait a second, I'm here April and May! Yep, right in the middle of Marmot Plague season..."

Dogs, Heat, Car Alarms and Boots! 4/21/07

"Everyday I notice something new in Mongolia. Lets start with the dogs. Now I've been to places with many stray dogs but nothing like this. They are the dirtiest things I've ever seen! I try not to even get close for fear of having all their fleas jump on me and not to mention rabies or any other thing they might have. Well, everynight they like to bark A LOT! But usually around 1130pm they have stopped and I can get to sleep. I have to sleep with the window in my bedroom open because of the heat (that story comes later). There is a Billiard's hall in the basement of the building and guess where the door is?? Yes, right below my window. Sometimes there are fights but usually just drunk people speaking very loud. I hear the dogs run by barking and barking. The dogs didn't stop barking until 3am the other night! Some neighbors were yelling out their windows but you can't go yell at the owner because there aren't any owners! One of the nurses at the hospital told me there is a company in UB that kills these stray dogs and sends the meat to Korea. Now eating dog is nasty to begin with. I can't imagine eating nasty dogs like these!

As for the heat. Many of you have been in operating rooms before in the American and know they are quite cold. Usually around 60-65 degrees. Well, not in Mongolia. It was about 80-85 degrees. I thought I would die. UB has a central heating system. That means one day the city officials will decide it is not cold enough anymore for heat and off it goes for the whole city! So the heat runs constantly EVERYWHERE...That is why we have our windows in the apartment open 24/7...

Car Alarms. I don't know why everyone here thinks they need one. I don't think auto theft is a problem at all. It doesn't matter if you drive a 1992 Hyundai Accent without a front and back bumper and dents on all sides or a 20o6 Mercedes, your car must have a car alarm. This means they are always, ALWAYS going off! 4am, 4pm, 6am, 2am, etc! And they are the most annoying ones with about 20 different sounds. Now once these start to go off the dogs will start barking...

I have to give credit to the Mongolian women. About 80% of them wear boots. And almost all of these boots have heels on them. Short ones, tall ones, fat ones, spiked ones, you name it they have them here! I have nice FLAT and sturdy shoes and I must be clumsy because I'm always stumbling over their rocks and uneven sidewalks. These women can walk anywhere in these boots, it's amazing! Some of the nurses have 'hospital boots' that they wear for work and they have heels on them...

The OR's in Mongolia all have windows and I never knew why until today. Right in the middle of surgery the power went out. They just opened up the blinds and continued with surgery. Thank goodness they were already doing all the anesthesia ventilation by hand..."

The LAST email with some pictures. 5/7/07

"Here is a pic of me at the hospital...

The patient is a 4 year old girl who in January had meningitis and since then has had inflammation of her nervous system and cannot breath on her own for long periods of time because she starts freaking out. She was transferred to Ulaanbaatar from the country side to be put on a ventilator. The bad thing is all the unit has is an infant ventilator and the doctors were trying their hardest to wean her off the ventilator as soon as possible. The infant ventilator was not enough to raise her chest up completely and they feared she would get pneumonia and she would die if they couldn't wean her soon. It was not a pleasant thing to see them try to wean her. She would panic and cry and just shake her head 'no.' She died 2 days after we took this picture. Unfortunately, I was there to see her death. when people ask me 'is the medical care bad there?' I respond 'no, the doctors are great, its the fact that they don't have a lot of equipment, supplies and medicine that make it bad.' I was offered a job when I'm done with residency to come back and work in the hospital but I told them the language was too hard for me...

I leave tomorrow...It's truly a bittersweet feeling. I'm very excited to leave and get back to America, but also sad to leave the people of this country. I would love to say 'everyone should go to Mongolia, it's great.' But I have to admit it's not a place for everyone. I cannot wait to come bak someday soon and travel the countryside.

The things I can't wait to do when I get home, Brush my teeth under running water! Be able to open my mouth in the shower! Feel safe as a passenger in a car! NOT eat dinner between 9-10pm everynight! The only ting that sounds good right now to me is a nice big bowl of cereal and COLD milk...

I came to Mongolia to change the world. And in small ways I feel like I did. I just never realized how much the world would change me. So I'm signing off from Mongolia, I have you have enjoyed my stories as much as I have enjoyed telling them to you..."

Mongolia 2007

2008-10-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

So many of you know that I headed to Mongolia in April/May 2007 for a medical rotation in a Pediatric Hospital in Ulaanbaatar. Many of you have seen the pictures and heard a lot of the stories I've had to tell. I sent emails to a lot of you while I was there, and by the end of my time in Mongolia I had about double the amount of people on my email list.

I'm heading to Ghana in January 2009 for 4 weeks and decided this time to start a blog for people to check rather than emailing my stories and pictures. So to prepare for my trip and to learn how to use this blog thing I'll post some exerts of my Mongolian emails and pictures.

Enjoy...

KELLI

The Adventures of my Life

Mongolian E-Mails

Mongolia 2007