Mongolian Healthcare
Trip Start
Jul 17, 2008
1
15
26
Trip End
Aug 16, 2008
Ulan Bator,
Mongolia
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
On Monday my eyes started to hurt. This usually happens because I don't get enough sleep and our late night karaoking certainly fit the bill. Tuesday the pain was a little more intense so I took the day off from building and slept all day. I literally slept 6 hours. By Tuesdy night things were still not good so I asked to see a doctor.
Yesterday we went to the SOS Mongolia Clinic for treatment. This is a chain of Australian expat 'hospitals' throughout Asia. So I guess technically this should say Australian Healthcare since I chose to see the expat hospital. Long story short, I have an infected eye and I'm taking anti-bioltic eyedrops. I'm skipping the anti-biotic ointment that says poison on the bottle though. I'm just not too comfortable with it.
For dinner we were given a special treat. The families suggested a goat roast for dinner. But it's a little more involved than that. They caught the goat. killed the goat, skinned the goat and then cooked it. Killing was actually very humaine. They put the goat on it's back. Made a slit over it's heart and then with fingers closed off one of the arteries inducing a heart attack. Could possibly be better ways but I thought this was pretty humaine given the circumstances.
I sampled goat liver, goat meat and goat intestine. The goat heart was gone before I could. Goat had a signewey (sounds like) taste. I'm not sure I would go out of my way to eat it but it was there. It was a good traditional way for the families to show that they appreciated our help. And the families had a great time too. They brought out vokda and were very generous with sharing with us. In fact, I'm not sure they drank much of it at all.
