Mongolia Update #4

Tuesday, April 20
Today the boys, Aagii and Muugii, took us to lunch at this Mongolian restaurant not far from the clinic. They were so funny. They do not understand a couple of things. 1) Why we do not eat more. 2) Why we only want to drink water. We ordered what we thought was like 1 small thing each and the next thing we knew they were bringing plate after plate out and putting it on the table and the stuff that we had ordered, they doubled the amount we had asked for! We had a good visit and I got to know more about Aagii. He is 25 years old, is married and has an 8 month old baby boy. He told me that his father died when he was 12 or 13 and that he lost his mom when he was in his second year of vet school. Then this February he lost 2 brothers and a sister in some type of accident. He only has 1 surviving brother left. That is a lot of loss for one young man to go through. I am so thankful that he knows the Lord and that he is working in a place where the Lord can provide a “Spiritual family” for him.
A funny story for you . . . today we were trying to find out what Muugii’s the translation of his name is. He told us and what all of us American’s heard was “Eternal well-butt”. We were so confused so we responded with “well-butt”? to which he said no “well-butt”. Finally, after deciding we were getting NOWHERE, he went and got the English/Mongolian dictionary and we figured out he was trying to say “WELL BUILT”!!! His name actually translates as “Eternal Strength”.

Fun Fact of the Day: The favorite drink here is “milk tea” which is milk, tea and salt served hot.
Mongolian Word of the Day: Ogvi—means “No”

Wednesday, April 21
Between the dogs barking, the babies crying, doors slamming, and the people on the floor above me sounding like they are doing Sweatin’ to the Oldies, I have decided that apartment living is not for me! All of these noises are hard for me to tone out, but last night was something new! No lie, at 11 p.m., I heard popping sounds. For a second I was concerned about bombs or something like that, and then in the reflection from the apartment across from me I caught glimpses of red, green, blue, white and I realized something. It was not a war, it was FIREWORKS! Like a full out 4th of July show! I have no idea what they were celebrating, but it definitely makes the list of random experiences in Mongolia! 
Today Meg and I went out with Tsek and the other large animal veterinarians to the LA clinic. They just built this clinic and it has been open for only 2 years. It doesn’t have set hours yet, they just go out whenever someone has called into the office. Hopefully, the clientele with build up and they will be as busy as the small animal clinic. Well, today we went out and it was VERY cold—windy and it actually had snow flurries coming down. We arrived and got all of our things ready for the horse (we were supposed to be seeing ONE horse for a uterine culture—remember this, it is very important). Then we waited, and waited, and waited for the client to arrive. I am sure it wasn’t that long, but when you are freezing, time seems to go by much slower. The boys noticed that I was turning into an icle, so they asked the man that stays in a ger (the Mongolian house) on the clinic grounds if we could go hang out inside his place. The ger is probably about 15 feet in diameter and is very warm from the stove they burn coal in. In the countryside, up to 8-10 people can and will live in one of these. While we were sitting in there, Sunny Boy passed around a white bucket that had bread in it. I thought to myself, “I am going to take a small piece in case I don’t like it.” This proved to be a strategic plan! Meg, however, had not eaten breakfast (she was worried about getting carsick) and so she took one of the biggest pieces. The bread was very stale and kind of tasted like the smoke from the coal stove. I thought to myself “How can I get rid of this: 1-feed it to the dog, 2-throw it in the stove, 3-put it in my pocket and dispose of it later?”. Then I started feeling guilty and thinking that most people would be thankful for a piece of stale bread. Later when Meg and I were talking, we both had had the exact same thought process!
Finally the client arrived with not 1, but 3 horses for us to look at. These were bigger than the typical Mongolian horse (more like a small thoroughbred). The first one he wanted a pregnancy check on. She was CRAZY and nearly killed herself and us in the process of getting in the stocks. Finally, the boys gave up and we moved onto the next patient. This one was a mare and she had an abrasion or laceration injury over her hock. She had a young foal with her, and they attempted to separate them to facilitate the exam. This proved to be a bad idea as both mama and baby got very upset. Strike number 2. The last mare was the one we had come to see. She had not be able to get pregnant and had some discharge. I helped Tsek, and with the help of some chemical sedation, we were able to obtain a sterile culture of the cervix and uterus. In the process, a man in traditional Mongolian get-up comes riding on a horse chasing another horse with a rope around its neck. He finally catches it. Two men who looked to be fairly wealthy were there and the owned the 2 horses that just came riding up. They were worried that the horse could be colicing. After treating that horse, they asked us if we would come to their place too access lameness on one of their race horses. By this time it is 2 p.m.
We get to the place and they have probably close to 50-60 horses. They had never used V.E.T.Net and had used what we would call in the states “alternative medical therapies” to try and treat their horses, but had not had any success. The first horse had a pulled tendon which requires 6-8 months of rest + anti-inflammatory therapy. Then we started a parade of horses and by the end, I am pretty sure we looked at almost every horse that had ever been sick on the farm! Very good for V.E.T.Net. Current time was 4:30 p.m. and we had not had lunch—much like the previous Wednesday when I had been out with the LA vets. It made me laugh because I am learning to expect the unexpected and to let go of my plans.
While I was out in the countryside, Kellie was at the small animal clinic. When we finally got back together at 5 right before the student Bible study, she told me a most interesting story. There was a little Golden Retriever puppy that we have been treating for a bite wound for the past week and a half. It came back in today, and we learned that this wasn’t just any dog. No it was the PRIME MINISTER of Mongolia’s dog and that the wife was coming to the clinic. Come to find out, they want V.E.T.Net to come out to their house and do training with their family and staff on how to care and train the puppy. Karen and Gerelee (pronounced Gary-le) are going to go out once a week. Talk about a huge open door to influence one of the most influential people in all of Mongolia! God is so good!

Fun Fact of the Day: This winter was the coldest winter in 30 years for Mongolia.
Mongolian Word of the Day: Odriin mend—means “Good afternoon”