Zeb CP#5

    Thursday afternoon I met with Bayasaa. I started out with saying “Bayasaa, since you are a doctor I have a question for you. I have a sore throat. What should I do?” He asked if I had a fever, which I didn't, so he thought maybe it was because it was so hot outside and maybe I had drank something very cold. It was sort of interesting getting a mini-consultation. I asked him if a radiologist has to study any general medicine, or if they only study radiology. He replied that in Mongolia first there are doctors of general medicine, who must study for six years, then there are specialists such as radiologists, who must study for an additional two years after their general medicine studies. Within the field of radiology there are also four or five further specialized branches, including sonography, (diagnostic ultrasound) which is Bayasaa's field of practice.

    I have found that with Bayasaa I don't need to worry about trying to come up with any kind of specific plan of conversation since there are so many things in which we share similar interests. About 30% of Mongolia's population are nomadic or semi-nomadic livestock herders (that number used to be much higher), so agriculture is something that Mongolians are well acquainted with. I forget how we got on the subject, but Bayasaa asked me if I had a dog, which I do. I was explaining what kind it is (Border Collie) and that it is a working stock dog that I trained myself. I then showed him a video of Border Collies working sheep, which was interesting to him (Mongolia has about 7 times as many sheep as people). He then told me about a horse he has that he started training when it was very young (it is 15yrs. old now) that is very good at working cattle. From there the conversation moved on and he asked me what my hobbies are. I told him I like to hunt and fish (things that are common in Mongolia) and do mechanical work. He said that he likes to do mechanic work as a hobby too. When he was 17 or 18 he took a bunch of parts from old Russian cars (Mongolia is a former Soviet republic) and put them all together and made a car. I then showed him pictures of my mechanical project where I took the original engine and transmission out of a Toyota Land Cruiser and replaced them with the diesel engine and transmission out of a heavy truck.

    Bayasaa asked me when I was going to Costa Rica, and I replied that I don't know for sure, but maybe in several months. He was trying to express the concept that he would miss me, but he didn't know the word yet, so I explained it to him. It took several minutes before he understood, and I had to use the example that he misses his wife and children because he is here and they are not, so anytime we are absent from a friend or our family we can say that we miss them. I asked him if he knew the word 'enemy', which he did, so I gave the opposite example that if we are absent from someone who is our enemy we do not say that we miss them, because we are glad that they are absent.

    We finished our conversation talking about the upcoming CIES field trip to Wakulla Springs. I explained what it is and showed him pictures of a river boat tour that I took there late last year, including pictures of alligators. He knew the word 'crocodile', but alligator was a new word for him. He had said that due to having had some kind of near-drowning experience in his early teens he doesn't like to swim now, and I'm afraid that the pictures of the gators finished off any possibility of him ever swimming at Wakulla Springs.