Farewell tour

Last week was my last time in the Mongolian countryside on this research.  In Bayanhongor, my primary purposes were to: (1) facilitate a workshop on improving bagiin emch work at the Aimag Health Department, and (2) to talk with bagiin emch and eh barigch (midwives) who were using PDAs provided through HSDP-2 (ЭМСХ-2), the Second Health Sector Development Project.

While in Bumbugur sum, one of the midwives took me around town on his motorcycle.  We stopped at his older brother's home and just as we walked in, Tuvshinbayar was being awarded his Olympic gold medal for 100kg judo.  That was my most auspicious entrance into a countryside household in 2 years in Mongolia.  The brother linked my arrival with the medal and thanked me profusely before we left.

The lowlight of my time in Bayanhongor was that I finally got me a proper stomach illness in the countryside, likely from eating horhog.  One day of intense pain, but for once this summer not a bit of work that day.

A friend of a friend agreed to take me to the airport in his car for my flight back to Ulaanbaatar.  They showed up with a 3rd friend at my house 30 minutes before scheduled departure.  We made 2 stops on the way to the airport, and when we got there the people who write boarding passes and check luggage had left.  These guys made some calls to people they knew and with some wrangling were able to get me on the flight.  While they checked my bags in security, there was still time for the 3 of them to give me a proper Mongolian sendoff.  The security guard warned us that I wouldn't be allowed to get on the plane drunk.  I realized on the plane that I hadn't eaten for 2 days because of the aforementioned stomach illness, so I was drunk.  And I realized that I forgot to return the apartment key to Erka.  (I gave it to a relative of his in Ulaanbaatar a few days after returning.

Not much time to write more, so I'm posting a few photos.  Captions follow.

A  B  C 

D  E  F 

(A) and (B) Views from the apartment building where I stayed on the south side of the aimag capital.

(C) Groups sharing potential approaches to improving bagiin emch work at the workshop at the Aimag Health Department.

(D) Computer training at the Aimag Health Department for public health workers from sum hospitals and from FGPs (family group practices, өрхийн эмнэлэг) at the aimag.  The focus of this day was Publisher.

(E) On the way to Bumbugur, the Aimag Health Department driver ran into a relative whose benzin truck broke down.  With his furgon, he towed the benzin truck uphill on soft ground.

(F) At Buun Tsagaan Nuur with the Baatsagaan sum hospital and the family of the doctor from Zag sum, Sharvaa emch, who was recently honored by the Mongolian government as a "gaviat emch".  He took the photo.

Comments

[AB]

stomach illness can be great for weight loss

[Jaspal]

I should bottle and distribute it.