Hello from Mongolia!: July 2010

Hello from Mongolia!

So since we have gotten back from the Gobi we have been pretty busy. On Sunday we went shopping for gifts (for you maybe?). That night we put up pictures, hope you saw them.

On Monday, Mathilda started work at the Central Mongolian Hospital in the Emergency department. She saw a lot of patients there, however, she was their first volunteer ever, so they were not used to it. They also didn't speak enough English to explain what was going on.

Tsene, our PA staff, could only bring one of us to our new hospitals at once, so Jess did not go to the pediatric hospital on Monday. Instead she went to the Memorial Museum of Victims of Political Persecution in the morning and then met up with Laurence and Will for lunch. We went to an orphanage in the afternoon, where Thom, another volunteer works. Before going, we went to get Laurence a change of clothes (he was dressed nice from being at work in the morning) and Will accidentally got himself locked out of his apartment. His host family was, and still is, out of town indefinitely. He has been finding different houses to sleep at all week. He was also wearing white shorts and a white shirt, they are both brownish-grey now from the being in the orphanage dust everyday this week. Anyway, the orphanage was amazing, they have the cutest kids. We are going on Friday afternoon to volunteer there again. After the orphanage we all (us and about 15 others) for an Indian meal. It was really good. We went to the Sky lounge after for drinks.

On Tuesday, Mathilda went back to her hospital, where she decided she didn't want to go back. Meanwhile, Jess was supposed to be picked up at 9:30 by a PA staff named Amra. He is known to be very irresponsible and flaky. At 10:30, she called Tsene to tell her Amra hadn't showed, later we found out that Amra had been sleeping because the director was out of town. Tsene brought Jess to the pediatric hospital, only to find that the supervisor she had been assigned was not there. So Mathilda left work and both of us decided to be productive and go see some of the sights we had been meaning to see. We went to the Mongolian National History Museum, it was very interesting. After we went to a monastery called the Choijin Lama Temple Museum, where we saw a traditional concert. That night, we went to Tengis movie theatre with Amy and Crystal. We saw a 3D cartoon (yes, they have 3D in Mongolia) called Despicable Me, it was really funny and cute. At the movie, they have assigned seats, weird. Also, they had the most hilarious video before the movie about the 3D glasses and what you should not do with them. It was all in Mongolian, which for us, obviously added to the humour. They had a guy doing all the things you shouldn't do with the glasses, like: chewing on them, spilling drinks on them, stealing them for your 3D TV at home and putting it in someone else's purse so that they set off the alarms when they leave the theatre.

Yesterday, we both went to the Pediatric Hospital. We are working in intensive care and we have a really funny doctor as our supervisor. We got to take temperatures and help with blood pressure and IVs. Also, there was a baby with a cleft palate that Jess fed water, it was sad because he kept choking. In the afternoon, we went to the Gobi Cashmere factory store. It was huge and they had such nice stuff. That night, we went for dinner with the group at the Silk Road Bar and Grill. After, we went to MB Bar for drinks and then went home.

Today we got to the hospital early so we could see surgeries. We saw a little girl having a cyst removed; it was in her throat beneath her tongue. We saw the end of a major surgery (there were about 15 people in the room, some with video cameras), it was a pelvic tumor. It was a big deal because the tumor was a teratoma. We also saw them removing supernumerous teeth and we saw a tonsillectomy. Another volunteer, Jessica, who had been working at the hospital for the past month showed us around the hospital. She showed us where all the operating rooms are and told us about all the patients in the ICU and what was wrong with them. We met her favorite patient, a baby girl with Meningitis, whose name means rabbit in Mongolian. This afternoon, we went to the National Modern Art Gallery. It was really good. Tonight, we are going to a fancy restaurant called Monet's for Amy and Laurence's goodbye dinner. We are going to the Sky lounge after for drinks and then going to Strings to dance and party! They are by far our favorite people here and we are depressed that they are leaving. :(

Seeing as we are only going to be here for one more week, we will probably only blog one more time. Stay tuned for the last blog!