From Mongolia to Michigan and Back

Heading out for a brand new adventure

2008-05-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

It is Saturday, May 3^rd, and we are preparing once again for a big trip. As some of you may know Tugsu graduated (with high honors) this past week with her Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) from the University of Michigan majoring in Sociology with a minor in the Environment. Well, she turned down some very generous offers from the top PhD programs in the country to return to Mongolia this year. Why would she do this you might ask? Well, I have a wonderful opportunity to build on the research I have been engaged in looking at alcoholism in Mongolia over the past year and actually try to apply it. I was offered a position as the Coordinator for the Mongolia mission of Medecins du Monde (MDM), a large international NGO based in France (http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/gb/). In this position I will organize and direct the organizations efforts in attempting to address the issue of alcoholism in Mongolia.

The position is quite an honor and in addition allows us to live together, comfortably enough, in Mongolia. So besides me working with MDM Tugsu will continue to build on the work she has been engaged in the past 2 summers working with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) (http://www.wcs.org/sw-home). This will be focused on working with one of the world’s last truly unique cultures, the reindeer herders of northern Mongolia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukha), in trying to bring them together in efforts to collectively manage their natural resources. This ongoing effort of hers will last the summer and from there who knows? She will have MANY opportunities.

Amina will, of course, be the most important member of our expedition. This summer we hope to expose her to more unique opportunities. We plan on providing her with a tutor to assist her in developing her Mongolia language skills, giving her ample opportunities to return to the amazing Mongolian countryside, and provide more varied educational opportunities like piano lessons. We will turn her over to relatives and good friends during the day and also introduce her to more children her age. After all, the best incentive to learn another language well is a friendship that has the potential to grow as you master it.

However, first we are off to Paris for a couple weeks. Here is the hotel we will be staying at (http://www.hotel-victoria-montmartre.com/accueil.htm). I will engage in training for my new position there, learning what it truly means to be a representative of MDM in the field. I will also be attending the annual MDM coordinator’s meeting. Both are wonderful opportunities for me and these of course will lead to wonderful opportunities for Amina and Tugsu as well as they get to explore and learn about the most wonderful city on earth. After being there for a couple weeks we will head back to Mongolia and being out work. We will keep you all up to date and hope you stay up to date with us. You already have our e-mail but if you would like to send us snail mail my address will be:

Desk Asia
Medecins du Monde
For the attention of Sean Armstrong, Mission: Mongolia
62, rue Marcadet
75018 Paris, FRANCE

In addition, we will be using videos alot more this year. You can view our vlogging (video blogging) and the first sample is provided here:

Hope to hear from you all soon!!!!!!!

Back to the countryside

2007-09-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have been carrying out initial literature review on alcoholism in Mongolia for the past couple weeks, meeting with all who will consent, while I develop my Mongolian skills further. However, though I have been doing much to assist the Health Sciences University develop their International Relations here they have done little to assist me with my research. Last I talked to them they said they will be unable to get me the Research Assistant they promised until October. Therefore, when the opportunity to travel out to the Gobi Desert in the state of Bayanhongor to do some research I jumped on it. So, off I will go tomorrow once again and will probably get behind on my blogging again. Oh well, the research will consist of interviews with the hospital staff regarding the capacity they have to deal with chronic and/or mental diseases. I will work with communities as well on health needs, alcoholism, and nutrition. It will be a wonderful opportunity and be expected to see several pictures when I return. However, I have been told it may snow on Monday and will continue to be cold till the end of the week, just my luck. I will return before October. Till then, all my best to you all! Don't forget to make comments.

Back in UB for the rest of the Summer

2007-09-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

What follows is a brief summary of the month following our return to UB from the countryside on July 15th:

We set out from Murun by a Russian van (the UAZ 452 or Furgon) which you can take a look at here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UAZ-Bus.jpg

(by the way have I mentioned how much I have grown to love Wikipedia since I arrived in Mongolia?) It is a touch and completely uncomfortable machine, I recommend staying away from it if you can.

As I mentioned, we were quite tired after we arrived and yet we had alot to do. We had had only 2 days in UB before we left and had to make up for lost time. We began by doing errands like buying a cell phone. However, what followed was no more interesting than that. After returning I had to set up multiple meetings with my host organization in Mongolia, the Health Sciences University (http://www.hsum.edu.mn/index.php) and of course Tugsu had a ton of work to do to begin making the actual preparations for her conference which would be back in Tsagaan Nuur on the 3rd of August. So we initially relied alot on Tugsu's family and Bilguun (her niece) to watch her. In addition to all this work he also had to locate an apartment. We were warned the search would be difficult but were not prepared for what followed. You can take a look at this website to get an idea what is available and what people are charging now: http://www.mongolia-properties.com/properties-mongolia/property/apartments-for-rent/
We were in no shape to pay these types of prices and so had to look in Mongolian newspapers for ideas.

We found that even the cheapest (acceptable) places were starting at around $250/month and going up from there, quite steeply. When we started to look we also found that a great many of them had been empty for often close to a year or so. (Apparently, Mongolia lacks property taxes, so once you buy a place the only motivation to rent is the building association fee, usually around $15/month. They, therefore, hold out for "rich" foreigners like myself whom they can charge a fortune to). They were, consequently, quite dusty and bare of everyday essentials like: shower curtains, silverware, lamps, chairs, cleaning supplies, etc... After looking at around 5 places a friend of mine, the director of the Natl. Social Health Insurance recommended I check out her brother-in-laws, which they hadn't even put up for rental yet. The owner is quite a handyman and it was lived in so needless to say it set itself apart. We negotiated a very reasonable price but it was still more than I was hoping for. We then contacted another friend who had a place available and said they would get it to us cheap. We decided to take this place and move in!

However, after living there for a few days we realized this was going to be alot of work. First, there were few working electrical outlets, we needed quite a few supplies for the kitchen, their was only one very small bed, The cable TV didn't work, we were told the building was not equipped to set up DSL (high speed internet), etc... We decided to try once more to renegotiate and attempt to get the nicer apartment. One other important consideration was the building we were currently in was difficult to describe on how to go there. There are no street names and few landmarks everyone knows in Ulaanbaatar, so this caused quite a few problems. The nicer apartment was located directly next to one of the most recognized landmarks in UB, the Wrestling Palace, so this was not a problem with the new place. We were able to lower the price by 15% and so took the other place.

This is the wrestling palace, you can see my building located behind it

Once we had moved in we felt a great burden lifted off us and for the first time in 2 months were able to begin unpacking our bags. This would be my home for the next year and the process of settling in began. I now had to worry about my work again and began a whirlwind of meetings, with the Health Sciences University, the Ministry of Health, the BioRegions Team, the Embassy, family and friends, my bank, the Red Cross, the Natl. center for Health Development, Peace Corps., the American Center for Mongolian Studies, to name a few. In a week I was spent and also realized that while I was out meeting one group after another Amina was being stuck at home with nothing to do.

We decided to take our first field trip out to a farm organized by the Catholic Church. It was a gorgeous place about an hour and twenty minutes out of town in an area still called by the name that was given to it after the Russians developed chicken farms there, the bird fabrication are. This was all closed and never reopened (like many of the production centers in Mongolia) and the place is now dreadfully poor. This farm has been established to deal with that, and the bulk of the farm is managed and farmed by local community members who are granted plots of land for free if they agree to work it. They also have a bakery on site to make cookies and buiscits for resale, another industry that is managed by the local community. It was wonderful to have fresh vegetables for the first time in over a month and a half! They let us pick what we wanted but we insisted on letting us pay for it.

However, those weeks were not all work, we did have quite a bit of fun as well. We went out with the crew from BioRegions for a night on the town and also met up with some of our friends from U of M (both Mongolians) who were in the country for the summer. We bought movies and went to the cinema a couple times (usually that was just Bilguun and Amina). We even went to an indoor playground and the natural history museum with Khurelee and his daughter. However, we were quite challenged by the lack of any programs for children in the city. We tried sending Amina to a Mongolia kindergarten but the kids there were too rough for Amina, she is not used to other girls hitting her. We tried finding private lessons for Amina, but aside from a little bead jewelry maker nearby our house who was rarely open we didn't have any luck. Even the Children's Park was closed for renovations, though I didn't ever see any construction going on there, just looked deserted. We did hear rumors the government was trying to sell it. It was quite frustrating and because of that I took the next couple weeks mostly off from work to stay at home and try and provide my daughter with some fun and educational activities.

Then, as August was just beginning Tugsu headed back out to Tsagaan Nuur for her conference. She will have to tell you what that was like but I can tell you for 8 days we missed her alot. The weather was very hot and there we were in UB with very little to do for fun. Everyone in the summer with any means heads out of the capitol city and those with means who cannot are working extra hard at their job so they can leave soon. We were therefore left with very few people we could go to. Yet, the three of us managed and it was nice to be able to spend the time with Amina. However, I have now met many expats with children in Mongolia and am confident next summer Amina will have much more fun and be far more productive!

The time that followed after Tugsu returned was far too busy and we had very little chance to talk. The build-up to their departure was one of the hardest things I have had to deal with in my priviliged life and the departure on August 19th was pure torture. However, there, that is all! I am going to skip filling in all the gory details of what has happened since and the next post will (finally!) be a current one. I wish you all the best and keep reading!

Hatgal Naadam

2007-09-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who don't know what Naadam is, click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naadam_Holiday

However, the countryside Naadam's are something special. First, we went out to see our hosts son, he must have been about 14 and was preparing his first horse for the race. He had been living with a small stable of young men all doing the same thing for the past couple weeks, though he had been working with his horse to prepare it since February. It is a complex regimen of exercise and diet meant to slim it down to all muscle. Young men have been doing this for over a thousand years in Mongolia, and it serves as a type of introduction to manhood. On the first day of Naadam we headed out to see the horse race, which marks the beginning. His horse was running in this first race, though there are several different age classes for each gender, his age class was the youngest so it goes first. We were arriving in a jeep with his parents when we saw the race heading towards us, we timed it perfectly, riding next to his horse in the jeep and cheering it on. In Mongolia, horse races last almost 5 miles, so the speed they had going into the finish was even more remarkable. Unfortunately, his horse didn't win but since he was competing against people who had been training horses for years. After that, we headed into the main festival area to pick up some food and see the official opening ceremonies.

Horses are ridden by children between the ages of 8 and 14.

Heres our guy! Coming to check his horse out after the race.

After a nice lunch of fried meat pancakes, huushuur, we headed to the central stadium and watched some of the opening ceremonies. I must tell you that it was a tad bit boring, but we didn't want to walk all the way back to where our car was and talk because we thought the wrestling might start and the walk to the car is quite hazardous. Everyone riding their horses around at full speed, regardless of pedestrian traffic. Quite a challenge to negotiate the less crowded areas, but around the stadium there were so many people they had to walk their horses. When the wrestling finally began it was great fun, in the opening rounds it is a small Naadam and they didn't have the full compliment of wrestlers required by tradition (512) so they take volunteers from the audience, in particular foreigners. It was hilarious watching the herders toss them around like rag dolls. I was too smart (and chicken) to get in there.

These are big guys! And they are strong and skilled as well, not for the faint of heart.

It was alot of fun, and we decided to return the next day, though we were due back in UB, we wanted to go one more day. Amina had a great time too, there was a constant stream of horse races arriving on a bi-hourly basis, to divert our attention from the wrestling. Fun foods to be tried and little side events going on, at one point the tourist children were wrestling the local children, it was great fun to see. However, mid-way through the second day it was time to head back, back to Murun. A two hour trip on one of the nicest roads in the whole country. Our trip to Renchinlhumbe was down a different road but only around 100 kilometers farther away from Murun than Hatgal, yet it took around 8 hours longer. However, the trip to Renchinlhumbe still couldn't prepare us for what waited for us in Murun. We decided to save $200 and drive back to Ulaanbaatar, a 19 hour trip over nothing more than a dirt path in a completely overcrowded truck. No fun at all! However, it felt nice to be back in civilization, with indoor toilets, hot water, reliable electricity (or just any at all!), and a selection of non-mutton dishes. It was now July 14th. We will pick up with our time in UB next time.

It is still hard to look at Amina's beautiful photos without missing her tons!

Here we are with the stadium in the background, it was beautiful weather!

Vacation at Huvsgul National Park

2007-08-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

With the work completed in Renchinlhumbe we headed back to Murun. The stay there was pleasant enough, as we had the company of one of the BioRegions volunteers, Loren. However, Murun is not exactly a place where you would want to spend alot of time. The guest we stayed at had only one English language television station, the Korean propaganda channel Arirang. Amina became quite proficient of making fun of their obvious attempts to sell Korean cultural hegemony. We also stayed in quite a bit as their are no real cultural sites in the city, just drunks aplenty. Loren and Tugsu, however, did go out for a couple days of beauty treatment. When I did go out it was primarily for work, meeting with the Health Department directors and the Hospital managers. After 3 days we had had enough and we got a truck for the ride up to Hatgal.
In front of a statue of one famous soldier from WW2 whose home was Murun.

Once in Hatgal we located our new home there, the Guest House of the former National Park Director and current regional representative of a big UN project, the UNDP's Altai Soyon Project. You can find out more about it here: http://www.undp.mn/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35
He had a wonderful little place right up against some small hills, that Amina loved to climb. She became a little mountain goat quite early, and of course gave me small little heart attacks on a routine basis. However, we didn't want to discourage her exploration.

Our lovely little Guest House and Amina's favortie teeter totter.

Enjoying breakfast over one of a million games of cards we played.

At the tops of another hill. A beautiful view onto the river that drains Lake Huvsgul.

Though Tugsu was there to work and did quite a bit, explaining the purpose of her workshop and learning what the UNDP people were engaged in, so she could find some opportunities for synergy, we also had some fun. First, we went up to one of the most famous tourist areas in Mongolia, Jankhai. It is a rocky peninsula out onto the lake with amazing views. We had a wonderful time just hanging out in the sun with the smell of the freshest lake in the world! It was very cold, even in July, but it still felt marvelous. Unfortunately, we couldn;t get Tugsu to stay in the lake long enough for a picture.

It was astonishingly clean and clear!

We all skipped rocks!

No trip is complete without getting a picture in front of the horses.

We also had a chance to go out and see the UNDP directors Eco-resort. He has brought in all types of native animals that have long been wiped out from touristy areas, so people can see them in their native habitat. He also has the most marvelous sauna built right next to Lake Huvsgul. So we stripped off our clothes one early morning when the other tourists staying there were off on excursions or lounging around their gers and headed into the sauna. Then, once you are all hot and sweaty you run into the lak and wash off with Lake water. It was amazing! You have never felt so alive. We also took the time to go around and see the beautiful premises, hike up some more hills, and eve one night so several roe deer running around the woods nearby. Incredible! And only a 3 hour ride from Hatgal, to he middle of nowhere.

The one lone boat on the whole lake passing in front of us.

The proporieter in front of his beautiful lodge. How he built it way out in the middle of nowhere I have no idea.

After we returned to hatgal it was Naadam time! Our first soum Naadam. What a cool celebration. I will tell you about that next time. All for now, please write some comments when the mood strikes you, I like this to be more of a conversation. See you all later,

Back to Renchinlhumbe

2007-08-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

On the 27th of June we finally arrived in Renchinlhumbe and were greeted by a large new group of volunteers, save the familiar Mongolian faces and Loren. It was wonderful to be back and participate again in such a lovely community. However, time was now desperately short and we had alot to do. Tugsu and I began immediately working to organize the required administrative meetings to discuss a farmer's market for Renchinlhumbe. The responses we received were uniformly positive and gave us great hope that even with reduced time we would be able to pull this off. The market was to be held in the town square, would begin as free to all members, be held on Sunday to appeal to soum capitol inhabitants who had to work doing the week so they could visit and on Monday as well to appeal to herders who had to come into town on Monday to take care of business, it would have a polic officer and food inspector on site, we would need a director but no other staff, we could advertise is several different ways with heavy subsidizing, and Bioregions would primarily provide the infrastructure and salary for the director. The rest of the components would be provided by the government house.

Meanwhile, Amina was enjoying her time with both her Mongolian friends in Renchinlhumbe and her new friends, the volunteers from BioRegions, were enjoying her company immenslely. She even found her own work to do, regularly going with the American English teacher to her summer English course with students from Renchinlhumbe. She was not only a source of inspiration and fun for the students but a wonderfully patient asistanct instructor as well. She also continued her art. Taking the time to make numerous artistic gifts for the endless stream of new volunteers coming in and out of the camp.

When the market finally entered the impementation stage the advertising began in earnest and with the help of a local radio statio manager and the cultural center director peaked community interest. Meanwhile we found a director and took the time to educate her regading the plan and organization of the market. We also continued surveying community members regarding what they hoped for from the market and went around town with brochures. Finally, on the day of the first market we had the man with the stereo blaring andthe tables brought downtown and set up. It started slow but after a few vendors showed up all of a sudden the excitement built and around 75 people were there. However, in the end I was dissapointed with the market's performace as we could get no herders to show up. We had been hoping to make the biggest impact by getting them to sell food products there and have a positive influence on nutrition. What we were not ready for was the lack of acceptance the community maintainted for capitalist practices. Despite an overwhelming interest in soum capitol community members in purchasing dairy, meat and fruits from the countryside we couldn't get them to sell it. However, the market is, supposedly, still up and running and plans in place to develop it further, if the community chooses to do so, next year. This way they can get used to the idea and we are not forcing too much too fast.

This was not the end of our adventure in Renchinlhumbe. We were also working with the health team, made up of mostly Doctors and medical students, in their project to carry out a biochemical health assessment of the soum. It was a worthwhile project and we were able to assist them in adjusting to some of the unique cultural challenges one finds when you work in Renchinlhumbe. They did marvelously and with that we considered our work there for the time being complete and prepared to head back out, this time to the Huvsgul state capitol, Murun. We had to bid adieu to a wonderful group and knew that Murun was a different, very unkind, environment. So the goodbyes were heartfelt and we made plans to meet up in Ulaanbaatar, the national capitol, before they left. We hopped into the Russian van preparing for another 10+ hour ride over very rocky and hilly terrain, averaging about 45 km/hour. It was July 4th.

Our camp in Renchinlhumbe

The whole team
Amina and one of her friends

With the Reindeer People

2007-08-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

Our hosts in Tsagaan Nuur were an NGO dedicated to the preservation of Reindeer People culture called the Itgel Foundation. However, Amina and I were far more comfortable staying at the one Inn in town, Gannbaatar's Guest House. So the next day as Tugsu prepared to go to the camp about 35 kilometers away, where the Reindeer People were waiting to meet them, Amina and I moved into the guest house. It was very comfortable and the hospitality of the hosts was unparalelled. The proprieter is an amazing artist and Amina was treated to some private art lessons. Though it was in Mongolian she understood the bulk of what he had to teach. His wife meanwhile was an amazing cook and Amina had some of the freshest fish in the world 3 times a day. Compliment it with a nice fry bread and juice made out of pine berries and we ate quite well. Their daughter was wonderful with Amina and was kind enough to lend Amina all her old toys. Finally, their little white shaggy dog was alot of fun.

Meanwhile, Tugsu was off meeting the reindeer herders participating in a workshop meant to educate them about the new Tsataan Center, get their feedback and try to establish a grass roots community organization among them. Important work for a ethnically and culturally distinct people that only have about 200 members left. For more information on the reindeer hereders you can visit the website of the group Tugsu was working with, the Itgel Foundation:

http://itgel.org/

However, after three days we were set to join Tugsu out at the camp where the reindeer herders were staying and participate in a Reindeer herders festival. We were pretty excited and headed off in the morning to join her. It was a typical Huvsgul countryside road so though the distance was only 35 kilometers it took us an hour to get there. However, the site that greeted us was worth it, well over a hundred reindeer and teepees everywhere. Of course seeing Tugsu was a nice bonus as well. Off we went to see the festival and what was really amazing was how kind and considerate everyone was. I should explain that the reindeer herders were a long way from home, they live up in the mountains where their reindeer can find the food they pretty much subsist on, a special moss. It is about a 3-5 days ride (on reindeer) home for them. In addition, they had been there so long their meagre stores of food were mostly used up and they were quite hungry.

That did not stop them from enjoying the festivities, their was reindeer races, reindeer polo and plenty of wrestling for all. Tugsu was constantly being invited into peoples teepees, in only a few days she had made some very good friends there. We got to try lots of Reindeer milk products, and found them quite tasty. Amina was also invited to sit on quite a few reindeer, however, she politely declined each time. In the end we were there, in the beautiful surroundings for two days. The last night we were there they had a real Shaman come and perform a ritual meant to put him in touch with the dead, around a raging campfire. The shaman of this region are the most feared as they are considered to be in touch with ancient forces and have remained unchanged for centuries.

With the festival over we headed back to Tsagaan Nuur and all shacked up in the guest house there. It was nice being back with Tugsu and we were also happy to have more excellent fresh fish fried up for us. It took a couple days to finally negotiate a ride but even though they are neighbors, the road to Renchinlhumbe is so frequently flooded or the bridges so often washed out, hardly anyone goes there. Fortunately, they recently established a ferry in place of a bridge so the road was passable. We left to continue work, this time mine, in Renchinlhumbe. This gets us to the 27th! More to follow

First Blog of 2007!

2007-07-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I am sorry about the delay but I am finally able to begin this years blog. Things have been so hectic but have settled down now that Amina and Tugsu have returned to the states. However, that is getting ahead of myself and there is a lot to say so I will begin from the beginning. We arrived safely after a long flight but the brief hotel stay in the Seoul Airport really revived us. The difference between the Seoul and Beijing airports is like night and day! We had a wonderful stay there and were quite comfortable without all the hassle. Our arrival in UB was much less an event this year as we had told everyone to stay away from the airport, we had arranged a driver to meet us there and that was plenty. Well, not even the driver showed up! We were stuck getting a taxi but it went smoothly and before we knew it we were whisked away to Tugsu’s family home in UB's remote first district.

What took place over the next two days was chaotic and horrible! So much to arrange in so little time. Visa issues, police registration, supplies to buy, travel arrangements to make, a conference for Tugsu to prepare for, and finally of course family to meet. We managed to accomplish most of it but it was awful! Finally we got out to Huvsgul on June 20th (after arriving on the 18th). The plan was for Tugsu to head up to Tsagaan Nuur and do some work with the Reindeer Herders (Tsaatan) to help her prepare for her August 3rd workshop with them and they would drop Amina and I off in Renchinlhumbe to begin my work establishing a market there with BioRegions. However, apparently the road to Renchinlhumbe was washed out so it was on to Tsagaan Nuur for everyone. What a wonderful thing to have happen, it made for a lot of fun for us all! What occurred will have to follow, but it involved Reindeer Polo!

This is Tugsu in front of the Reindeer Herder Center in Tsagaan Nuur. You can see our tents out in the back.
Another beautiful vista from the Tsagaan Nuur downtown. The next post will take us all the way to Renchinlhumbe (June 27th), oh well, we will eventually get to the present. Till then,

The last entry

2006-08-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well the time has come to say goodbye, for all our family. We prepare to head back to the US next Wednesday and though we will spend a couple days in Beijing living it up I do not expect we will have time to write to you all to tell you about it. That will have to wait until we can see you in the states. However, over the past couple days as I have met with the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, World Health Organization, American Center for Mongolian Studies, Peace Corps volunteers and the asst. director of the Mongolian Center for Health Development, where I am working, I am left with a feeling of immense responsibility. Nowhere is the mix of local understanding, intnerational funding and human capacity merged in Mongolia. In fact, the WHO directors were asking for my help in writing of the national application for the US Millenium Challenge Grant. They said they are afraid the American's coming here to write "Mongolia's" health sector application for funds will focus on urban needs and improving the technical capacity of treating the most advanced needs (to the richest patients) to keep them from going to Beijing for treatment. This is not what the coutry needs and though everyone knows that they appear helpless to stop it. So the real work will being now. I debate over whether to write this paper out of the goodness of my heart, knowing the time I would put in would go unappreciated and that I have ignored my family already all summer. Well, cest la vie, we will see. Take care y'all and for those who now have an overwhelming desire to know what is going on in Mongolia here is a great link to new site which will keep you up to date. See you back in the states, Bayartai Mongolia!:
http://www.moninfo.org/

Tugsu's trip to the Bogd Mountain

2006-08-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well, once again Tugsu went off somewhere without me. This time last Saturday as I had meetings and recovered from my stomach ailment (Giardia) she went to the sacred mountian of Mongolia, Bogd Uul. It is close to Ulaanbaatar and a cool place, here is some info on it:
BOGD KHAN MOUNTAIN: This mountain is the world's oldest official protected area. In 1778, the Emperor of Manchur passed resolutions to formalize the sacred values of the Bogd Khan Mountain and provide for official protection of the site. On the south side of the protected area, monks have begun the process of rebuilding the Monastery Manzushiry. Established in 1750, the monastery housed more than 350 monks and 20 temples, including schools of medicine, astrology, and philosophy, before it was destroyed in the 1930's. Numerous archaeological sites have been discovered in the preserve, including cave paintings that archaeologists date to three thousand years ago.
However, it is quite a climb, at 2,268 meters above sea level and from where they left the altitude gain to the summit is 1727 feet. However, she was able to complete this climb with Amina and the help of some of her workmates at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Yes, they made it to the top and enjoyed a wondeful view I'm sure, though from this picture I am not sure what Amina is looking at. Bilguun, Amina's ever present nanny came along too and had a great time I am told. Along the way there were beautiful wildflowers and a nice picnic lunch.

The history of the place is amazing as well as the view. Not a bad trip altogether I am sure. However, when they got back Tugsu was tired and grumpy, a stark contrast to those younger roommates, Amina and Bilguun. My work continues to progress here and my meetings with the BioRegions director and people from the conference were very promising. We wish everyone the best in that heat back in the US and hope your air conditioing holds out. Bye

Tugsu's workshop in Eastern Mongolia

2006-07-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

I went to a conference in Dornod on July 19th, with a crew of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) staff. ( On the picture left : Me, Ochiroo, Ann, Boloroo) The seminar was mainly organized by this new NGO with the help of WCS. The name of the NGO is The Eastern Mongolian Community Conservation Association that consists of herder communities that make contract and lease the land and protect the wildlife and the other natural resources in the area. It is very interesting but conflicting idea since the land ownership especially rangeland is illegal and some people think it conflicts with the nomadic culture. Anyways, the seminar took place for three days over the course of the weekend of July 20-22nd at the “Shaazan nuur” eco-camp. The camp is located on the reservoir lake“Kazakh nuur” in Bayantumen soum of Dornod aimag.

There were horses and lots of birds like swans and herons and they were so beautiful. The conference was very enjoyable and I made many friends with "herder community" leaders.

During the breaks we played ping-pong, pool and frisbee.

Afterwards we went back to Choibalsan the center of the Dornod aimag, and spent the night. Then the next day at 5 am we left the Dornod and was planning on getting to UB around 6 pm that day. Unfortunately, despite all the percautions we had multiple flat tires and spent the whole day fixing our tires and got out of Dornod around 12 o'clock midnight and got home.

The Presentation

2006-07-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, at risk of sounding conceited, I think my presentation at the conference went very well. Many people came up to me and congratulated me on the success of my talk, including one of the most famous academicians in the country, the "grandfather of Mongolian Traditional Medicine", Academician Khaidva. He is the one responsible for keeping the knowledge intact through Socialism. Here is a picture of him thanking me for my presentation and providing his support to my project proposal. He is seated just to the left of the person standing and is now 85 years old. There were other interesting presentations as well but what I enjoyed more than anything was being able to meet the people from the conference. I have now put together, with their assistance, a plan on how to actually implement my proposal. I have also been offered their whole-hearted support for its implementation as everyone involved thought it a very important and worthwhile endeavour. What a stroke of luck.

The gist of my presentation was again supporting the development of increased traditional medical participation in the Darhad with the goal of providing a new source of industry for local people. Here I am giving the presentation.

The evening also went well as we went out to a beautiful restaurant. There was a very interesting group from Greece there who were very interested in my project and who, I hope, to collaboarte with in the implementation of such a project. They recently developed a highly specialised kinase inhibitor (from indigo found in snails) that severely retards the growth of a broad range of tumors and are partnering with Merck to complete the in vivo trials. Here I am listening intently.

The second days was also very interesting and apparently I was on TV. I didn't see it but many people have commented on the fact to me. I was also interviewed for on of the national newspapers. If I am in the paper I will try and buy a few copies to take home with me. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the banquet or field trip today. First, I had a very important meeting with a famous professor and I also came down with a nasty case of Giardia. That stuff is awful. However, I held some food in for the first time in two days this morning. Things still going great besides that and the director of BioRegions is back from the Darhad. So we will meet and discuss things soon. That is all for now, but keep an eye on the blog for Tugsu's posting about her trip to the countryside. See you later,

The prodigal wife has returned

2006-07-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

Tugsu made it back safely yesterday afternoon. However, she was absolutely exhausted after her 27 hour long jeep ride back. To make things worse they had food poisoning the night before they left. What a fun trip that must have been. Still, she went in to work today despite my protestations. What a freak. I on the other hand have been living it up in Tugsu's absence as I am sure you can imagine. Actually, Amina and I had a really fun weekend just hanging out and exploring things. All that has come to an end though. Now I am back hard at work and preparing for a presentation I am going to have to give alone at a major international conference. Here is the program:
PROGRAMME

(Ulaanbaatar, July 26-28)
(Conference Hall, Health Science University)

Tuesday July 25
Arrival of delegates

Wednesday July 26

Morning
8.30-9.30 Registration

Plenary Session

9.30-10.00 Opening Remarks
· Dr. Ch. Chimedragchaa - Director of the TMSTPC
· Academican B. Enkhtuvshin - Vice president of Mongolian Academy of Sciences

10.00-10.30 Photo Taking

10.30-11.00 Poster sessions (combined with Coffee break)

Chairman Prof. B.Gereltu

11.00-11.20 B.Dagvatseren (Mongolia)
Theory and methodology of Integrative medicine and Traditional
drug study
11.20-11.40 S.М. Nikolaev (Russia)
Regulating influence of complex medical remedies of traditional
Mongolian medicine
11.40-12.00 Prof. K. Glowniak (Poland)
Investigations of herbal medicinal products in Poland and Europe
12.00-12.20 Toshiyuki Uryu (Japan)
Chemo-Enzymatic Production of Fuel Ethanol from Cellulose
Materials Utilizing Various Yeasts Including
Recombinant Yeast

12.30-14.00 Lunch
Afternoon

Chairman Dr. B.Dagvatseren

14.00-14.20 Gereltu Borjigan (China)
Anti-Hyperlipidemic Activity of Natural Compounds
Separated From the Extract of Mongolian Medicine PL L
14.20-14.40 Leandros Skaltsounis (Greece)
Chemistry and biological activity of indirubins
14.40-15.00 Sean Armstrong (USA)
Darhad Valley Community Health and Traditional Medicine:
Creating a holistic balance in the face of globalization
15.00-15.20 Z.Ariunaa (Mongolia)
Effect of Artemisia Sphaerocephala Krasch on blood coagulation

15.20-15.40 Coffee break

15.40-16.00 B.Boldsaikhan (Mongolia)
The Indian medicine and the Mongolian tradition
16.00-16.20 Z.Oyun (Mongolia)
Structures of compounds isolated from plants
16.20-17.00 S. Ts. Ajushieva (Russia)
Comparative analysis of immunity state in patients with
hepatobiliary pathology, who received treatment at the spa
“ARSHAN”
17.00-17.20 Discussion

Evening

18.00-20.0 Welcoming reception by TMSTPC (“Mongol Shiltgeen”)

July 27

Morning

Chairman Dr. Nikolaev S.М.

9.20-9.40 T.A.Aseeva (Russia)
Comparative analysis of the Tibetan medical texts 11th-19th
Centuries
9.40-10.00 Makoto Nishizawa (Japan)
Comparison in Constituents between Rosa rugosa and Mei
Gui Hua
10.00-10.20 Ts. Volodya (Mongolia)
Gastroprotective effect of plant and animal derived medicines
10.20-10.40 L.B. Buraeva (Russia)
The influence of multicomponent herbal preparation
“Ventrofit” when hematological breach caused by antitumour
injections
10.40-11.00 L.N.Shantanova (Russia)
Plant antioxidant remedies in kidney injuries

11.00-11.40 Poster session (combined with Coffee break)

11.40-12.00 Takashi Yamagishi (Japan)
Studies on Aconitum species used for arrow poison by Ainu
12.00-12.20 P. Batkhuyag (Mongolia)
Pharmacological action of preparation from Astragalus adsurgens
Pall.
12.20-12.40 Juramt (China)
The strength and action derived from processing of Jongshi
(Spar)

12.40-14.00 Lunch

Afternoon

Chairman Dr.K.Glowniak

14.00-14.20 T.P. Aushieva (Russia)
Ultrasound investigation in patients with hepatobiliary
pathology after the spa “ARSHAN” in the courses of various
duration
14.20-14.40 J.Aldarmaa (Mongolia)
Effect of some medicinal herbs on hydroxyl radical

14.40-15.00 Coffee break

15.00-15.20 Discussion

15.40-16.00 Closing remarks
· Academican Ts.Khaidav - Adviser of the TMSTPC
· Dr. Ch. Chimedragchaa - Director of the TMSTPC
·
16.00-17.30 Social programme

18.00- 19.30 Dinner (Ulaanbaatar Restaurant)

July 28

10.00 Field trip to the Gachuurt, -outside of the Ulaanbaatar
- Botanical excursion
- Visit musk deer Center
- Social activities

My presentation will be on the situation in the Darhad from the point of view developed by BioRegions that they use in guiding their work there. Present the health situatoin as assessed in my survey this summer and present my idea for how to effectively develop the use of traditional medicine use in the valley including development of a small traditional medicine procesing facility there. We will see what kind of response it gets.

Meanwhile, I am busily completing other project ideas and also trying to get in any last questions or meetings that I need to have before we return. There still seems to be so much to do. I will let you know how the conference was and also get Tugsu's pictures of her trip sometime soon.

She should also be writing in the blog too, though she always says she is too busy! I don't know about that. Anoter interesting point, the reason I am presenting alone is the Director of the BioRegions program was attempting to return from Renchinlhumbe a couple days ago when they made it to one bridge that was completely underwater. The locals are saying the river should be passable, with no more significant rain, in around 7 days. So he has had to cancel his flights and will miss the conference. A pretty wild place huh? Well, it is cool and rainy here so he may never make it back. I have heard in the US you guys are having a heat wave, how is everyone holding up? Talk to you all soon, and if you cheapskates ever want to call us go ahead. No one has taken up my offer yet, what is the deal? I have called to the US three or four times already. Anyway the phone number is 976-99178107. See ya

Without Tugsu

2006-07-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, Tugsu left Wednesday morning at around 5 Am for the airport. She is heading out to the far eastern steppe in Dornod Aimag. Here is a link to a nice map so you can find it:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~corff/im/Landeskunde/Mongolia.jpg
She will be there until Sunday working on the project I discussed in an earlier blog. Until then Bilguun and I are managing things at the house. Yesterday I felt bad, since Amina didn't have her mommy around. So we headed out to together, late (for other reasons as well) to work and I had Bilguun and Amina go to the Theatre. They said they had a great time and for dinner we went to the restaurant known among expats to have the best hamburgers in town. Amina seems to be doing just fine, of course she barely sees Tugsu and I during the week as it is. As for me, work is going well. I have been working to put together a project that I think would relaly benefit where I am working, the National Center for Health Development (NCHD). Working together with the special consultant to the health sector from the Asian Development Bank we had the idea of a capacity assessment of the NCHD. I have found the right person to carry out this activity here and we had a meeting together on Monday to discuss this. That seems to be going well. Next, the Peace Corps people came to the office for an orientation and I had the luck to be included in the meeting which was successful. I meet their health proram director today for lunch. They are doing some nice work in the countryside but it is a real challenge to coordinate these volunteers efforts into something that will survive them and benefit the community. Other than that I am at work alot and not really having much fun. However, that suits me alright, hopefully I can continue my work and put together something worthwhile. That is all for now. Bye,

Happy Naadam!

2006-07-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

So we have finished this years most spectacular 800th anniversary Naadam! How utterly underwhelming. We on thre other had did manage to have a wonderful time. Last Sunday evening we headed out to Terelj for our vacation. My friends uncle manages a ger camp out there so we got great treatment. We spent three great days there, here is an interesting link to some info. about it for those of you who have never been:
http://www.globosapiens.net/travel-information/Terelj-2020.html
Here is a picture of Amina and my friends daughter outside one of our gers.

Notice the haircut, yes Amina had her locks chopped off. However, if it was tough to manage her hair in the US imagine all the trouble she had in the Mongolian countryside. Here is another pic., she actually requested to have it done and really has been pleased with her new -do.

We did lots of hiking, exploring and hanging out playing games. We didn't leave until Wednesday evening. And then we only left when we did because a new group of young people had arrived who used the camps karaoke hall at all hours of the night. Here is our camp and us in a ger.

Here we are out hiking:

Meanwhile, Tugsu must have been one of the only people in UB to have to go into work last Friday, which at least made the traffic much improved. Here she is out in front of her office.

This past weekend was one of rest, with all of Mongolia sitting back and chilling out after an exciting (I guess) Naadam. So we have been getting caught up on housework and relaxing in the city a little. However, this week is going to be a little different. Tugsu heads out to the countryside on Wednesday for a 5 day trip in which she will participate in mobilizing the community there for purchasing and managing rangeland in Dornod Aimag. I am going to have her take the camera and she should provide us all with quite a few interesting pictures when she gets back. I will be working with Bilguun, Amina's cousin, to make sure we are all well taken care of. Don't worry, I have it all under control. This monring I felt particularly useful as I assisted in presenting the activities of the National Center for Health Development to the Peace Corps as well as preparing my own short presentation on soum health to the volunteers. I will also be meeting the director of the Asian Development Bank health sector reform program today to discuss my work here. Should be interesting. That is all for now, hope everyone is doing well. See you all soon,

Last day of work before Naadam

2006-07-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, the great festival is upon Mongolia once again. This year it is gripped by an even greater anticipation for the return of Genghis Khan for the 800th anniversary of the Mongol Empire. Interestingly enough, the governmor recently went to China to invite the president of that country to attend, and he agreed! Here is a link to more info:http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/?p=294
Well as for me, I am trying to decide what to do over Naadam, and yes I am sad to say staying Ulaanbaatar is not one of my top options. I am trying to find a way to escape the city for the festival. A stay in a sanitorium is a traditional Mongolian way to relax, I may try that. There is also a very nice city (much less crowded than UB) called Darhan where we might go by train. The price for a train ticket is only $5 round trip! I will let you know.
Last night we had a nice time hanging out at home and playing UNO. Here are a couple pictures of the place.

As it is Friday and I think Bilguun and Amina must be tired of playing at home alone all day we have taken them with us to work. They will spend the morning with me and we will lunch together then they will go to Tugsu's work in the afternoon. Right now I have had them go to the gym as after half an hour they were already driving me crazy. Oh well, they will love the gym I am sure and nobody goes there in the morning. After that maybe they will wander around a bit, then we will take them all to a nice place for lunch. Then in the afternoon they can see Tugsu's work and maybe also go to a movie or something.

I had a very interesting meeting yesterday with the health program manager from World Vision. I was surprised by a couple points of the meeting. One, he and the organization seemed resigned to the fact that the Mongolian countryside is becoming uninhabitable due to lack of resources and social services. They are investing the bulk of their resources in managing the huge urban migration that is following. Two, they are focused on only a few areas of health in UB, despite being the reputed largest NGO in the coutry. They are focusing on TB/HIV and nutrition. That is all! Anyway, more to say but not the time to do it. All for now, talk to you all later,

Todays activity

2006-07-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

Alright, this will probably be more interesting as I will present a more detailed description of what we are doing everyday:
Yesterday I had to run by the Chinese embassy and apply for the tranist visas for Amina and I. I had one of Tugsu's relatives meet me there. He is an Inner Mongolian so speaks fluent Chinese and was very helpful in making sure the application went smoothly. We didn't even lose a passport (sorry pat). Tugsu and I had very busy days planned so we didn't have much time to talk. I was finishing up an "action plan" for my stay here and working on persoanl statements for staff as well as putting together educational materials for bird-flu. The UN has made a large donation for organizing a bird-flu campaign at my work. I had a qick errand to run in the morning also. I am having a tailor-made suit. The tailor had gone out with me to the black market to buy the material a week ago and needs me to ome in for some further measurements. All this work for roughly $17! The material cost me maybe $8. What a deal! A great reason to come to Mongolia. Then I had lunch with a social worker from the UNDP (UN development program) about community organizing and was encouraged by their focus on the issue for carrying out projects. After work I had dinner with the organizer of an international herbal medicine conference. I will be presenting a paper I am writing about the feasability of developing an herbal medicine processing center in the Darhad Valley. They were very excited about my work and interested in working together with me to develop a proposal for this project.
Tugsu was busy also after work, she had a dinner party with some of her office staff hosted by the Nature Conservancy. They are a very large endowment for conservation projects. They focus on working with the market to preserve these lands. A project she is working on in the Dornod, community ownership of newly privatised Mongolian lands, is being sponsored by them. She had a great time networking and was excited by the level of interest in her personally by the majority of these international big-wigs. They even said they had never met anyone with the foresight to receive a Sociology degree with an environmental minor. And at U of M no less! She came back from that meeting so proud of herself.
We came home (about a 30 minute drive at night, 10 minute in the morning) and found Amina and Bilguun really enjoying each others company. I often feel guilty that Amina is not more involved in other activities but she and Bilguun seem to have a great time and Tugsu thinks this is more fitting to Amina's personality. She is nto the most outgoing of people and loves to use her imagination. During the day it is hot so kids do not play outside and in the evening we are home and want to visit with Amina. Also, it seems alot of kids in our building sleep to 1 in the afternoon and stay up until midnight playing outside. We bought Amina some clay so her and Bilguun have another big day of art ahead of them.
I have a meeting with WorldVision's health programs director today. This should be interesting and helpful despite the fact that the Mongolians have tended to agree with my assessment of their working style here (sorry dad). I will see what he has to say and if there is any chance of us working together on projects in the future. I will have more pictures tomorrow. Until then take care and hold down the fort.

Since our return to UB

2006-07-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

OK, here I go, I will attempt to fill you all in on what has transpired since our return to UB. We arrived safely and stayed briefly with my friend Anuu but it was better to move on. This we have now done several times. Like a modern day Bruce Banner we are constantly on the move it seemed. This finally drove me to distraction, and we fortunately have no found our own place. It is actually quite nice and provided to us by way of a good friend at the Catholic Mission, Father Pierre of the Congo.
In addition our new place is right across the street from Tugsu's parents. This makes it easy for Bandruush to stay with Amina during the day. I feel bad that we can do nothing more exciting than that but it is what it is. Last night we went to an indoor children's pay place and Amina had such a good time she was making friends with the children. Unfortunately, it is more difficult around our place but Amina says she is still having fun.
The reason we are not around is our jobs. Tugsu and I are both working 5 days a week (I am actually right now working 5.5) on our internships. Tugsu is working at the Wildlife Conservation Society, preparing data sets, summarizing results, translating legal documents and preparing to go on a trip to the countryside on July 20th for about 5 days. This will take her to Dornod, a far eastern province that is rolling grassland. She will work with a community attempting to manage their land depsite privitization efforts by forming a cooperative to purchase it and manage it themselves. She is enjoying her work and likes the people she works with.
I am working at the National Center for Health Development in the Health Promotions office, doing whatever crosses their mind. I am translating statistical reports for the statistics department, attempting to assist in the development of a proposal in the management department and doing some interesting work with health promotion but also doing things like develop personal statements, locates conferences for attendance, etc... On the whole I like the people that work here but considering they are the primary research wing of the Ministry of health they have precious few opportunities for funds. They must constantly react to offers from the international community for aid and pretend this fits in perfectly with their own agenda.
Sorry for the lack of pictures but we really have been busy. I will get more intersting and detailed posts in the future. Keep a look out for them. We are all caught up with the basics, FINALLY! If anyone would like to call us our phone number is 976-99178107. I would love to hear from you all. Hope you had a pleasant July 4th. Talk to you later

Results of my work in Renchinlhumbe

2006-07-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

So now you know all about my project. Here are the results of all my hard work. First, the survey work was a success. I was able to carry out 31 extensive community interviews. I completed my sampling requirements successfully and was able to reach people in every bag as well as a good sampling of people (both doing well and poorly) in the soum capitol. I was even able to draw some early omclusions and develop my databases successfully so as to draw more inferences later. Some of the conclusions I was able to reach were that the community and the health system are in agreement that education is the top priority for the local health infrastructure. Another is that there are very real differnces between the rural and urban community. For example, social support, family structure, income and education levels all seem to be significantly different. Also, the perceived ability for individuals to manage their own health appears to be decreasing in recent years. All very interesting stuff. I had a great time meeting the community people and enjoying their hospitality. Here is one family that was really great
You can see me in the back. This family had four generations living together and in the winter have to migrate through mountain passes to Huvsgul to find adequate pasture for their animals. See an article in the 2003? National Geographic about Mongolia. The little grandma in front was 77 and never had her picture taken before. I had equal success in developing my relationship with the local health system. I became good friends with the hospital director (a great surgeon) and have several project ideas. An example of some of them are in developing ommunity partnerships for health through education and advocacy, scholarships for Renchinlhumbe students, developed through community funds, to attend medical school and a project to develop a more responsive Bag system of government. All of these were developed through ideas the community health providers had established.
I also taught a course to assist the health staff in putting together good proposals and in basic program design to show them how they could improve their practice to make themselves more attractive to foreign donors. Such an attentive class, I tell you I would love teaching in Mongolia!

In order to provide some information on my work in the community I set up a blood pressure stand and a brief presentation I developed on powerpoint in Mongolian (with Tugsu's help) on my work for the commnity to view as I was taking blood pressures. It was alot of work, I took over 65 blood pressures and had to interpret for the BioRegions staff member distributing glasses next to me. However, it and the festival on art BioRegions sponsored were all very successful. Tugsu played a really junky violin with a Moriin Hur bow at the oncert and still had people in tears. What a talent!

I travelled with the hospital director to the state capitol a few days before the rest of the group and was able to arrange successful meeting with a neighboring soums hospital direcor, the capitol hspital director and the state public health director. Not only were they successful I was given alot of support for my results. I also attended a conference on disability in the ountryside that was very interesting. This mirrored the results I had in my concluding meeting in Renchinlhumbe. There I brought the hospital director, former governor, welfare office director, and the school director together for a long presentation on my work and findings. The results were overwhelming, tremendous support and the posiblity of a group coordination in the future! The former governor also offered me an all expense paid tour for my family and I when we return to the valley. As he works with a major US tour company this is no small offer. One thing I have left out of this though is the success Amina had integrating into the community. She made many friends, herded sheep and even fed the babies. She is now ready to dedicate her life to being a hereder.
So on that happy note I will leave my duscussion on the Darhat. IN my next posting I will attempt to bring you up to date with what we are doing now. All the best to everyone, and write more comments! Also, let people know I have updated my blog. See you later!

My work in Renchinlhumbe

2006-06-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

I was working with a physician, named Kherlen as mentioned before, and started administering surveys on several different areas to the local residents of Renchinlhumbe. We began in the countryside and had some great success in determining what was working. Next we had to make a transistion to the town. Luckily we had the assistance of a respected local ommunity leader and Bioregions reputation made working in different organizations easy. The school and the government were also focuses of our work, both for recruiting townsfolk as well as for getting more info. about the community.
This is the school, they teach every grade and have a total of 825 students. Throughout the winter they must also house 250 students whose parents have no accomodations in town. I was very dissapointed to find a lack of statistics everywhere I went so it was truly a wonderful day hen we discovered the governmental statistical officer in his office. He had a computer and generator hookup that also powered a printer. So we were finally able to make some real changes to our survey design and print out some revised pages and addendums.
Now that we were prepared and meeting people in the city we felt prepared to once again enter the countryside and discover more. First, we traveled to the first and second bags (sub-county units) to visit the doctors that work there. They are prepared no more than nurses and yet are completely responsible for maintaining wellness of areas sometimes approaching 250 square kilometers and with up to 1,250 people. An impossible job under the best of circumstances and in this remote area even more difficult. Only one of these doctors has a motrocycle the others must all travel by horse. We also completed some interviews there and were horrified when performing healh screening to find the blood pressures of some people. It was routine to discover BPs of >220/>110, the record being 285/142. Unbelievable!
We then traveled to another bag where they had stationed a ger hospital and were able to observe a training day. I was not surprised to see the turnout as 100% female. However, the staff do not get paid for this service and work very hard to carry it out effectively. They rely on the community for food, wood and transportation of their supplies. Anoter wonderful chance to get some surveys done.
I then returned to the town and started developing projects with local key informants as well as beginning to relate my results to the community. I was aksed to teach a course at the hospital and chose basics of program planning or the presentation. I was hoping this would help them in providing stronger proposals for health improvement in the future. The current proposals I would sometimes receive were all budget and no proposal. I was told my course went over beautifully.

So that brings me to the point of relaying some of my results from the work. This is a posting for another day. Sorry, we will get caught up soon. My work in UB (the capitol) is going well and Tugsu Amina and I are all well. Talk to you all soon,

Finally........An Update!

2006-06-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Alright, try not to hate me, it has been a month and a half. However, when I am done with my update I hope you can be understanding. First, we made it to Renchinlhumbe soum in northern Mongolia safe and sound. Here is a map of where we were in Northern Huvsgul. If you want more information on where this is in relations to other places in Mongolia search out lake Huvsgul on google.

When you see where it is located you will not be surprised to find that it was still snowing sporadically there after we arrived on May22nd. Wow, that lead to some miserable nights even if we were staying in a ger.

The valley though was beautiful, ringed as it is by tall mountains. I can see why BioRegions, the NGO from Montana State University I was working with, was so dedicated to preserving their natural beauty and resources.

The work began right away. There were interviews at the hospital, the government center, the school and the Mongolian local coordinater of BioRegions. Fortunately, I had attained permission to work from the Ministry of Health and was ably assisted from the state capitol of Murun by the state health director. Also, the physician I had brought along to assist with my surveys was very quickly able to build relationships with the local people. A few days after we arrived we drove about 4 hours out to visit a remote mobile ger hospital they have developed. We got to see the rural health in action as well as pilot our survey.

The work was turning out to be challenging, however, as technical support for the development of our work was unavailable. It took us two weeks to find a printer that would work, there is no electricity and an unreliable supply of petrol to operate the many personal generators that are around, only one central place to make phone calls, so of course no internet, and the nearest place we could go to to find these necessities was a twelve hour jeep ride away ($175 round trip). We had to improvise as best we could. A description of the work we carried out and our results will follow. Stay tuned...

We made it safe and sound

2006-05-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

I am sure a few of you may be anxious to know that we made it to Mongolia, well we did. Since then we have been quite busy, but first a little about the trip. It started out with the United Airlines ticket agent telling us our visas to Mongolia were not in order so our trip was over before it began. Fortunately, the travel agent who screwed all this up in the beginning for us was completely incompetent and couldn't even screw up our itenerary right. Thus we are still leaving Beijing on the 11th of August but we will be leaving Mongolia on the 9th (tentatively). So I convinced the ticket agent this was all within the legal limits of travelling to Mongolia without a Visa and we got on the plane. We got to Chicago alright but then found the trip to China was to take place without movies or inflight radio. They promised a goody bag for us after we exited the flight but one was not forthcoming. Luckily, Amina is able to entertain herself but I am thouroughly disgusted with United. Our flight to Mongolia was delayed 3 hours and after searching for a way to connect in the airport at Bejing for an hour and 15 minutes found this out and waited with no seats (they only have seats at that airport at the gates) for 5 hours. A more miserabletrip it would be hard to have but it did not dampen Amina or Tugsu's spirits.
Fortunately, the trip on MIAT was wonderful, after the completely apathetic United stewardesses the genuinely friendly ones on MIAT were a wonder. We arrived in Mongolia to a hero's welcome at the airport. We went from there to Tugsu's families house at around 1:30 AM and finally went to sleep around 4. We have since been mostly visiting friends and family the past few days, which has kept us very busy and very full! So much wonderful food.
We are currently staying with my friend Anuu and her family, she has a 4 year old daughter who gets along great with Amina and since neither speaks the others language they are both very eager to learn. Tomorrow the real work begins, I have to register with the polic, the embassy, the American Center for Mongolian Studies as well as meet the Mongolian physician who will be carrying out the interviews with me in Husvsgul as well as my friend Khurelee's father who used to work at the Ministry of Health. He will be a great source of information. You will certainly hear more from me about that later. I am off to bed, still having a little trouble with the time adjustment. However, it is to be expected, I am not as young as I used to be. All the best.

The time is near (our itenerary)

2006-05-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we leave tomorrow at 5:30 AM for the airport. We still have alot to do but everything is coming along nicely. However, it may be a couple days before I publish on the blog again. You are warned. Tugsu is in the process of repacking our belongings. We will be subletting our place so everything must be put away and cleaned. One extra headache. We are all very excited. We had nice send-offs from our friends and family and a particularly memorable concert put on by Tugsu.

As we prepare to leave we would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and kindness. We also would like you to all have our itenerary. It is difficult for us to receive mail so please use e-mail to get in touch with us. Here is what our schedule looks like:

May 11 Flight #: UA0365 Airline: United Airlines Inc Depart: 07:55 AM Airport: Detroit Wayne County Arpt Terminal LS Detroit, MI USA Arrive: 08:07 AM Airport: Chicago O'Hare Int'l Arpt Terminal 1 Chicago, IL

May 11 Flight #: UA0851 Airline: United Airlines Inc Depart: 12:02 PM Airport: Chicago O'Hare Int'l Arpt Terminal 1 Chicago, IL USA Arrive: 12 May 2006 Airport: Beijing Capital Arpt 02:25 PM Beijing China

May 12 Flight #: OM0224 Airline: Miat Mongolia Depart: 07:30 PM Airport: Beijing Capital Arpt Beijing China Arrive: 10:45 PM Airport: Ulaanbaatar Buyant Uhaa Arpt Ulan Bator Mongolia

Then we will spend 8 days in the capitol, Ulaanbaatar, before heading out as a family to the Darhad Valley in northern Mongolia's aimag (state) of Khuvsgul. Here is a link to an introduction on the place. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Khuvsgul

We will fly from Ulaanbaatar to Murun on May 20th and hopefully be driven 8 hours by jeep to the town of Renchinhlumbe the same day and set up our camp there. Tugsu and I will share a tent and Amina and her niece (nanny) Bandruush will share one. We will stay there till around June 18th and then head back the same way we came to Ulaanbaatar. After we return Tugsu will meet up with her internship coordinater with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Mongolia and head out to Dornod aimag in the eastern steppe for probably a couple weeks.

http://www.legendtour.ru/eng/mongolia/r0600.shtml

I expect her back around July 12th or so. Meanwhile I will take up my post at the National Center for Health Development, an organization managed by the Ministry of Health to provide research and oversight of the public health in Mongolia. I may head back to visit my friend Bill Honeychurch the archaeologist during this time in either the Egiin Gol river valley (my old stomping grounds) or at his new site in Baga Gazryyn Chuluu.

http://www.csen.org/BGC%20All%20Files/BGC_Survey_2006/2006_BGC_Index.html

Then after Tugsu returns we will spend the rest of our time in the capitol enjoying ourselves in a country we love with friends and family we have not seen for almost 6 years. Our return trip looks like this:

August 11 Flight #: OM0223 Airline: Miat Mongolia Depart: 07:25 AM Airport: Ulaanbaatar Buyant Uhaa Arpt Ulan Bator Mongolia Arrive: 08:30 AM Airport: Beijing Capital Arpt Beijing China

August 11 Flight #: UA0888 Airline: United Airlines Inc Depart: 12:05 PM Airport: Beijing Capital Arpt Beijing China Arrive: 08:48 AM Airport: San Francisco Int'l Arpt Terminal I San Francisco, CA USA

August 11 Flight #: UA0720 Airline: United Airlines Inc Depart: 02:00 PM Airport: San Francisco Int'l Arpt Terminal 3 San Francisco, CA USA Arrive: 05:25 PM Airport: Denver Int'l Arpt Denver, CO USA

August 11 Flight #: UA0452 Airline: United Airlines Inc Depart: 06:35 PM Airport: Denver Int'l Arpt Denver, CO USA Arrive: 11:22 PM Airport: Detroit Wayne County Arpt Terminal LS Detroit, MI USA

A long day to be sure, I believe 41 hours. We will see you all then and wish you a wonderful summer. Keep checking back occassionally for updates. Bye!

An interesting interview on AIDS

2006-05-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting interview I found on what I consider to be the best blog on Mongolia right now. It can be found at: http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/
The interview is provided below:

All quotations from this interview must be attributed as follows: “‘Mongolian Minister of Health L. Gundalai on HIV/AIDS in Mongolia,’ an Interview by Luke Distelhorst, http://mongolia.neweurasia.net/”
May 8, 2006
Luke Distelhorst: From 1992 through March 2006, there were only 15 official cases of HIV/AIDS in Mongolia. Now since April 2006, there have been five new cases.
Lamjaviin Gundalai: Yes, last year before 2005 there were only 10 cases. In 2005 it went up to 15. When I took office, I saw the balance, and last year we had many more AIDS cases. I took action; it was very obvious that AIDS is spreading in Mongolia. I am a Mongolian and a medical physician, I studied medicine in Germany. I have the duty to make the public aware of the issue of HIV/AIDS. You know Mongolians are so sexually liberal. They sleep with each other like animals. There are no rules or customs in Mongolia. Mongolia is one of the most liberal countries in the world. We are an Asian country, but we are not like other Asian countries in terms of sexual liberties. Therefore this one indication that AIDS can spread quickly in Mongolia. Second is the poverty; 60-70% of Mongolians are poor. They cannot afford condoms; they have a lack of money. When they have some money they will use it for food, or vodka or cigarettes. Now they hear they have to use this money for condoms instead of vodka or some other nonsense. Therefore, my duty as Minister of Health was to inform the people about HIV/AIDS. I started a campaign, “Mongolians must learn to use condoms like they ride horses!” Also during the socialist times there was a slogan from Lenin, “Learning, learning and learning.” Now I have changed it to, “Condom, condom and condom.” All Mongolians know these slogans. Now I have said, “Tsövüün tsag,” [devastating times], it is not bad now, but will soon be much worse. I have sent these three messages myself. It is the first time that all Mongolians are aware of the danger. All of the people in the countryside say, “Oh, aids it can be here with us.” All people are now aware. For 14 days we had commercials on seven different channels, all day. I asked stations to give us good air time and reasonable prices. They gave us very cheap prices, normally they would charge us USD$60,000/year, but they made us pay only $6,000. It was only 1/10th of the price. I told them I would give them only $900 and they had to play 10 different commercials for two weeks at the most popular times that people watch TV, all against HIV/AIDS. This is very cheap and effective. Now people know about this danger, and we have reached one of our goals.
LD: Some Mongolian journalists wrote, and some people thought, that the only people who could get HIV/AIDS were sex workers and drug addicts. How is the Ministry of Health (MOH) combating these falsehoods, especially in countryside areas where educational materials are hard to come by?
LG: The Mongolian people are crazy for TV; they always watch TV, from 9 in the morning until 1 at night. There isn’t a whole lot of entertainment in Mongolia, especially in the countryside. A lot of herders have satellite dishes, and if a neighboring family doesn’t have a dish they all go to the family that has a TV. Also there is a lot of, “mouth to mouth advertising,” or conversation. Now it has reached every family in Mongolia. We made these commercials deliberately like this. In Mongolia we have a saying that if you say something one time, it will be repeated ten more times. Also in Mongolia we have a lot of sexually transmitted infections (STI). So if we can educate people to use condoms we can also stop the transmission of STI.
LD: Yeah, a 2003 UNDP report said that 58% of sex workers in Mongolia had at least one STI.
LG: Yes I know. It is a very high number.
LD: The World Health Organization (WHO) advises against coercing any group for testing, not only high risk groups, but testing people from all walks of life. In 2002 the MOH admitted to secretly testing people they felt were high risk. Is this something that they are still doing?
LG: My first goal is not to test the people. My task is to prevent. Healthy, responsible people will not get infected. When someone has AIDS, then it is their problem. When we let the people know about these dangers and they use condoms, are abstinent or are faithful to their partners then we can stop the spread. My problem is not for those who have contracted HIV/AIDS. They have been infected and we can’t do anything. So my goal is to first inform the people about these dangers and make them use condoms. In this way, we think that we can stop the spread in Mongolia. Generally now people are afraid of getting AIDS! So then the problem is solved. Now everyone knows that AIDS is dangerous and that there are a lot of cases in Mongolia. All of the people, not only the people in Ulaanbaatar, but the countryside as well; young, old, rich, poor, now they all know, but we will not stop.
LD: Right, but for international people coming to Mongolia, are they tested? AIDS groups working in China, just to the south, have speculated that there are as many as 700,000 infected with HIV/AIDS. Now when people come here to live, what is the system? I know that international students need to be tested, but there are thousands of impoverished laborers here as well.
LG: Yes, these people do not have the requirement of being tested. At the same time I am working with the Ministry of Labor to try and write a resolution together so that every worker who comes here for a long time has to give an HIV test. We have agreed on this and we don’t need a law for it. We can do this within the ministries and put this into use. Also I am planning to pass a law in Parliament that every bottle of vodka and every pack of cigarettes must have a condom with it. This will help us reach everywhere. Just like TV, there are cigarettes and vodka every where in Mongolia. We want to put condoms in all of these places as well.
LD: There are a couple of NGOs that have worked with homosexuality and HIV/AIDS in Mongolia. Is the MOH also working with these groups to not only look at heterosexual transmission, but homosexual as well?
LG: Homosexual transmission is very rare in Mongolia. It is just a few people. Maybe a couple thousand people and it is their problem. We do not go to them and test them. Again, we are working for education.
LD: In 2004 there was a law that was passed to protect the identities and rights of those people who were found to be infected. Not too long ago there was the incident where a woman’s boss claimed she had AIDS, it was printed in the Mongolian papers and her husband beat her to death. She, in fact, did not have AIDS. How can we protect people from situations like this one?
LG: This was a bitter lesson for Mongolia. Now newspapers or TV will not broadcast about someone who may or may not have HIV/AIDS. Mongolia is small, everyone knows each other. It was a bad lesson, but at least now people have learned what they shouldn’t do. I don’t think we will see those things in the newspaper or media again.
LD: Two weeks ago on The Forum Show, the first TV interview with a Mongolian who has AIDS was broadcast. How important was that for Mongolians to see another Mongolian who has AIDS, and hear that person talk about it in a more personal way?
LG: I think such kinds of TV are very important in Mongolia. People understood quite well, about how that young man is living. Now people are afraid of getting AIDS.
LD: As you mentioned before many people cannot afford condoms. Many places, such as schools, universities and clinics, in developed countries have condoms available for free. In Mongolia the companies that sell condoms keep the prices low, and only make enough money to cover the import costs. Is the MOH working to make condoms widely available for free for the impoverished citizens of Mongolia? In surveys, Mongolian youths reported that they are having sex for the first time at the ages of 16-17.
LG: [big sigh] ah, this is a problem. I have never seen free condoms in Mongolia. The Global Fund distributes some free condoms to the countryside and some groups of people, but in reality the shops or kiosks resell these condoms. I have never heard of or seen free condoms in Mongolia.
LD: In 2003, before you became the Minister of Health, the MOH stated that as many as 200 people had already died of AIDS, and up to 1,000 are currently infected. How much have those numbers changed in the last three years?
LG: I think this figure is low. I think there are even more, which is a quite significant figure.
LD: Some Mongolians are very poorly informed and think that they can only get HIV/AIDS from foreigners.
LG: Yes, this is also a problem. The last case, number 20, he contracted it from Mongolian sex workers. We said this on TV that he got it within Mongolia. We need to say to the people that it can be everywhere. This is our message, if you don’t use condoms it can hurt you.
LD: Also a couple weeks ago there as a student march which involved many young people, and the commercials you have put on TV primarily use young, popular figures. Singers, athletes, etc.
LG: We sent out 12 different messages with pop and hip hop singers, MP S. Oyun, big wrestlers and even myself. This kind of message is quite interesting because the youth listen to these people. Now the youth are saying, “AIDS is in Mongolia, you must use condoms.” Under each message we say, “use condoms.” We don’t have too many drug users, and we still don’t have a confirmed case of AIDS that has come from blood transfusion. All of our cases have been sexually transmitted.
LD: Back on the Mongolian media, some papers will only report the short facts and stats of new AIDS cases, and don’t go into the disease in a personal way that more people will be able to relate to. How can the MOH get involved to help the others relate to those who have been infected and show that there aren’t any differences?
LG: When we had the 18, 19 and 20th cases, each time we gave a press conference and said if the person was male or female, how old, how they contracted it, etc. But the media only writes what they like, they don’t write too much. We invited them and gave them all the information we could and convinced them to write. All of the MOH people were there, and they asked us many questions, but they didn’t write anything. We told them to report this issue well, and told them that if they did a good job we could give them Tg10 or 20,000. But they didn’t do it. This is one dilemma in Mongolia; all of the newspapers have their own bosses. Most of the bosses are politicians and are affiliated with certain parties. I am the chairman of a new party, I don’t have a TV station or paper, and other groups don’t want to broadcast about what we have done here. This is why we asked them to put these stories on the front page or maybe the second page and we could pay them a little more. We had fundraising and got money for advertisement about HIV/AIDS. Without this funding for advertising it will not go through and get into the mass media.
LD: What is the current main focus of the MOH on HIV/AIDS? Finding out how many cases actually exist, or education and prevention?
LG: Prevention and education is the easiest thing we can do. Mongolia is not a rich country, and right now we don’t have much money. We can’t treat all the people and most of the time we don’t have sufficient equipment. Now we are planning to have a forum on TV that will be only about health in Mongolia. We have talked with many TV stations, and they want USD$1,000/week. So for a year it is almost $60,000 and the MOH doesn’t have this kind of money. Even National TV which is now public, asked us for Tg1.6 million per week, which is USD$1,300. This is for a 50 minute program, only about health, once a week. Even they don’t support us at all. The old forum show covered all topics in Mongolia and is now done, but the new one that we want to start will only cover health. There are a lot of topics that need to be covered on health! Some of our future campaigns are going to cover traffic accidents and household accidents that can be easily prevented. In traffic, every five days, one child is killed by a car accident. Every second day, one adult dies in a car accident. It is like a small war in Mongolia. Also in Naadam so many small children get injured falling off of their horses. Also in winter they still race their horses and get frostbite and eye damage. More than 10,000 children get injured in horse races every year. We must stop this, this is so stupid, and we aren’t caring enough for our children. There are many simple things that Mongolians don’t know about how to protect our children. Every year, 70 children die from drinking poisonous items like acid that are kept in refrigerators. We will address problems like this that are so easy to fix, and say it on TV so many people will hide or destroy these poisons. Also we need to work on stopping the import of such items. Mongolians have a lack of knowledge about these problems.
LD: Is the MOH going to print out educational books and pamphlets for those who do not have access to TV, especially in the countryside?
LG: No, no. I spoke with all of the HIV/AIDS organizations here and told them, “Let’s all work together, we need to be united.” Then we can have joint programs and have better results. For instance the Global AIDS Fund spends a lot of money on brochures and books, but I said this is bullshit. The most important things in Mongolia are TV and radio. Nothing more. If you want to spend money against HIV/AIDS, give your money to TV and radio, and since then they have paid three times as much as we have for advertising and educational programs. I also said that I will go to these stations myself to meet with the directors, and I did. I went there with less than $1,000 and told them that they must do this, this is for the Mongolian people, and they agreed. Before I sent my workers, and the directors said they had to pay $60,000. I don’t have this money! The education is most important though. I also want to improve primary health care in Mongolia. We have too many specialists, and not enough general practitioners. In developed countries these general doctors and family practice doctors can treat up to 80% of the patients. In Mongolia, it is only 20%.
LD: Well thank you for your time.
LG: Thank you and I hope we can fight against HIV/AIDS in Mongolia. AIDS has already spread so much in Mongolia, and we can’t stop what has already happened, but we need to stop the spread and save our future generations. I want to make the people aware, and make sure they protect themselves, because we can’t protect them.
END

I would love to hear what you experts in HIV/AIDS think of this interview.
You can either post a comment here or send me your thoughts via e-mail.

Talk to you about Mongolia soon. We leave in two days!