I woke this morning around 8:30 and got myself ready for the first day at SOS Medica. I wandered outside and realised how cold it really was. It's a good thing Michelle told me to bring my big fluffy down North Face jacket with me. I started walking around to get myself orientated but found that it was quite fascinating to see all the shops. I ended up walking the several miles to SOS Medica and arrived there around 10:30. On the way, I passed a number of dodgy medical centres with various names but my favorite was one called "Honey Boy".

SOS Medica is housed in a nice 2 storey building with a hotel-like lobby. The couches are leather and there's a coffee machine as well - yeah! I met the clinic manager from New Zealand, an expat doctor from Queensland whose only here for a week, my Mongolian doctor (supervisor) Mr. Gultangan, and all the others such as lab tech, pharmacist, marketing manager, and the nurses. I spent a few hours talking with them about the medical system in general and got a basic idea of how things work around here and how SOS Medica fits into the big picture. Basically, SOS Medica is a GP Clinic with good doctors, clean facilities, and lots of connections to escalate medical issue when needed. They liaise with the local expertise for some of the specialty areas when they feel the local service is adequate but usually for anything serious they arrange transport to Beijing.

After chatting with my supervisor and clinic manager for a while I think the plan is for me to come back tomorrow and I'll get a tour of the local hospitals, at least the ones that will allow us in. Apparently, there's a lot of national pride (ego?) when it comes to local hospitals and clinics. Since SOS Medica frequently does "assessments" of the quality of the local services to determine what's acceptable and what's not for its customers, I've heard that several hospitals will not allow them to visit/inspect. Fortunately, there are good relations with most and I should be able to visit. It sounds like I may do some time on the ambulance (mostly traumas related to car accidents), some time in the primary city clinics, and possibly some time at a remote SOS clinic. I'll know more tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm to get myself a mobile phone that works and check back in a 10 am tomorrow.

The rest of the day I spent wandering the streets, trying to keep my plantar fasciitis to a minimum. I walked through the main city square that has a giant statue of a fat man, past all the embassies, and past all the little shops advertising pizza, internet, and beer. Those were the only signs in English. All the other signs were in Cyrillic script so I couldn't even pronounce the words. Ive been trying to learn the pronunciations but its quite different than what I'm used to. Another problem with getting around a city like this is that all the guide books have the street names in English (i.e. Seoul St, Peace St) but all the street signs are in a different script altogether so it does you no good. I tried asking for basic directions from the locals by pulling out a map of where we were but they looked completely perplexed. They seem to be particularly bad with maps as a whole and couldn't even figure out how to read it.

For late lunch, I managed to find a little German beer garden in the shape of a gher (a round tent building). They had decent pizzas though my vegetable one came with slices of some kind of meat. I pulled those off and ate the rest, as all I had for brekkie was a bread roll and a protein bar. My "mixed vegetable salad" turned out to be a heap of shredded carrot, a heap of shredded cabbage, and a heap of shredded lettuce. It wasn't bad though. My Khan Brau beer was really weird tasting though. I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I suppose I'll give it another try later.

After that I went on a phone hunt but had a hard time finding shops that carry them. I was told I could buy one for 30,000 ($30) but all the ones I found at the Post Office were closer to 200,000. The State Department Store, the biggest single mall here, had some but again they were a bit pricey. Plus nobody ever came to serve me so I left. I did see one for 10,000 but that seemed too cheap to be real so I didn't get it. Plus I can't understand yet how to get the phone cards. I'm sure I need a SIM but I'm not sure how to get a prepaid one, and that phrase is not in my phrasebook of translations.

Anyway, so now I'm back at the guest house writing this and about to sort out some food for dinner and wrap up this phone thing before tomorrow. Apparently the department store stays open late so I'll wander back that way soon.

See ya!

So I ended up not getting to the department store tonight. Just as I was about to leave, I ran into a fellow guest here at the house who's been working with the Christina Noble Foundation on and off since 2004. She's been here for 3 weeks and is staying another 6. Her work involves running health check on the children of the street, helping with gher donations to poor families, helping battered women, and a few other programs. Anyway, being from Scotland, she has been helping run an English Club at a local pub. Apparently every week a group of Mongolian English students gather with some native English speakers to practice conversational English. I was invited along for the evening so I decided to go.

The sessions are run at a place called "Dave's English Pub". It's located next to the main square (Sukhbaatar - sp?) between the democratic building and the cultural arts building. It's actually in a basement but in typical English style, it's well appointed and upscale looking inside. Shortly after we arrived, a group of 10 students and an English teacher from a local university turned up because they heard that the club had reformed after about 8 months of dormancy. Apparently the club's run for years but stopped meeting for a while when the leader left. This club is actually now an amalgamation of two other clubs, one run by Katrina (Scottish) and one run by Lee (American). Lee turned up just a bit later so in all there were 4 native English speakers and about 15 Mongolian speakers. Conversation was aimed at basic skills building by going around the table and telling everybody what your favourite animal is. A bit later, the owner of the pub, Dave, joined us for a bit of conversation. Lee brought his guitar so we sang along to some Beatles songs as well.

The pub also had some good food. I ended up with a grilled cheese sandwich and a pint of beer for the evening. Yumm!!

So that pretty much wraps up the evening. I was finally able to get through to Michelle on Skype and it was great to hear her voice. The video on Skype works occasionally as well, which helps feel a lot more "connected". :) G'night!