23Mar08
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2008
1
6
13
Trip End
Ongoing
UlaanBaatar,
Mongolia
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Hello again from Mongolia. So many exciting things have happened recently I thought it was time I wrote another blog entry. I have moved into my permanent flat in UB, started my work at the veterinary laboratory, and visited a number of new areas of UB.
I started work on Monday (the 17th) at the State Central Veterinary Laboratory (SCVL) where I will be based this year. It is situated in the southern suburb of Zaisan, at the base of the hills that surrond UB and with great views back to the city (I have attached some photos of the building). The institute's main role is to carry out testing for veterinary diseases, but it also does some research too. I have really enjoyed my first week there, I have been made to feel very welcome by all the staff and am really looking forward to working with them
The State Central Vet Lab
. My jobs this year will include setting up some cell culture facilities so we can carry out virus isolation and neutralisation tests, and devising and optomising some new PCR tests for various different diseases. I have also been asked to give a seminar a week on various topics suggested by the staff such as poxviral diseases of livestock, the immune response to viral pathogens and such like. During my tours around the laboratories I have been very impressed with the facilities, there is a real-time PCR machine, a new ultracentrifuge, numerous class 2 tissue culture hoods, and a newly constructed biosecurity category 3 laboratory suite. I have been delighted with the English language ability of the SCVL staff! They all speak English far better than I speak Mongolian which is going to make life a lot easier than I was envisaging. My Mongolian didn't ever progress much past the "I like green apples but not red apples" and "When I was 12 years old I played basketball" level, and definitely didn't reach the standard required to discuss PCR primer design or determining end point titres for haemagglutination assays. So I'm relieved that I can put my Mongolian language textbooks away and rely on the SCVL staff's English! In summary, then, I have settled into my very large and comfortable office (photo attached!), received my lab coat, and will be working on objectives and priorities in the coming week as well as starting work at the lab bench
My workplace
!I also had some great news from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Trust - they have awarded me a grant to investigate veterinary diagnostic pathology in Mongolia. This will allow me to visit some of the regional veterinary laboratories, determine their diagnostic pathology capabilities and make suggestions for future developments [for the non vets: diagnostic pathology is the branch of veterinary science that determines why animals are sick or why they died. It includes taking blood, fluid and tissue samples, carrying out post mortems, and examining samples under a microscope]. This is a really exciting project with huge potential benefits for Mongolian veterinary disease diagnosis and surveillance, and I am very grateful to the RCVS Trust for their support and looking forward to getting started with the work.
I have now moved out of the temporary guest house and into my permanent accomodation, a very comfortable two room flat in the centre of UB. It is in the Chingeltei district, near the Mercury Market, and my Smith Lab GPS reads 47O 54.685N, 106O 54.070E in case anyone wishes to Google Earth me. The flat is on the fourth floor of an apartment block with a lovely view of the hills (see photo)
The SCVL from Zaisan monument
. It has lovely wooden floors and solid pine furniture. The desk had an added bonus of four drawers full of neurosurgical textbooks and notes - quite bizarre. I can only guess that the previous occupant was a specialist at the local UB hospital, I wonder if they meant to leave behind their notes? The two most exciting aspects of the flat are (1) I can receive BBC World Service now, whereas I couldn't in the guest house, and (2) it has a washing machine!! It's a twin tub but works just fine, and is far far better than having to either wash clothes by hand or frequent icky laundrettes. My most favourite invention has to be the washing machine. I actually moved into the flat a few days later than planned, on Tuesday which was also my birthday so it was a particularly exciting day with phone calls, presents, packing, moving, and unpacking. It was exhausting, but a lovely feeling on the evening of my birthday to be settled in my flat with my things unpacked around me and a loaf of bread cooking in the bread machine!
I had a really interesting visit to another VSO volunteer last weekend. Ruth works out in the ger district to the north west of UB. I think I mentioned the ger districts in a previous blog, they are very deprived areas of the city containing many displaced rural families
Chingghis Khan
. Ruth works and lives on a small farm owned and run by the Mongolian Women Farmer's Association. The Association was set up 10 years ago by a lady who realised that women could provide food and eventually an income for their families by growing vegetables to eat and sell. The farm and its work are now a very well regarded charity which provides advice, support, and, initially, seeds and equipment to families who want to grow their own vegetables on their little plot of land in the ger district. I have attached a couple of photos from my visit - one is of the farm with a few polytunnels and construction materials and some ger district houses in the background. The other photos is of Ruth's ger in the corner of the farm - it is really cosy inside! I have also paid a visit to the infamous Black Market of UB. I needed to buy a few things for the flat, so my new workmates very kindly took me to the black market on Wednesday afternoon. Its proper name is the Naratoul Market, but everyone calls it the black market, and it is a huge open and undercover market just to the south of UB centre. It sells everything you could ever possibly need and more from loads and loads of little individual stallholders. Visiting it was quite an adventure, especially since the market is known attract many pickpockets and westerners are a top target for them. However, I managed to keep all my possessions safe and with the help of my Mongolian colleagues bought some real bargains
Me and Chingghis Khan
. I enjoyed it so much, and the prices were so low, that I am planning a return trip some time soon.I think that's pretty much all the news for now, but do let me know if you want more information about anything I mention in these blogs. For example, I can put you in touch with Ruth if you'd like to know more about the Mongolian Womens Farmer's Association, or I can tell you more about the RCVS Trust funded project if you are interested.
Love
Pip
