Mongolia

This month the Air Force sent me to Mongolia with a large group of doctors, dentists, optometrists, and engineers to do a little service and build friendships with the Mongolian doctors, dentists, etc.   Here are a few photos from our trip (none taken by me, as the Hackett camera was traveling in Okinawa, as you may have recently seen).

If you are a grazing animal (sheep, goat, cow, horse) then life doesn't get any better than Mongolia in the summer: green grass for thousands of miles, no fences, few roads/cars.  A large part of my trip was spent in a bus driving to our work sites in northern Mongolia, and this was the view for hour after hour.

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Here's part of our team at a school where we set up a clinic for a few days.

Shhh, can you hear that heart beating?

We had a large turnout where ever we went.

Here are a few likes to some videos the USAF made from our trip if you're interested:

http://vimeo.com/104099644

http://vimeo.com/104092967

Here's a close-up of a yurt (or "Ger" as they call them), the movable homes of the nomadic herdsmen.  

Two little Mongolian girls in their Ger.

A few straw camels up from the Gobi dessert region of Southen Mongolia.

Beautiful scenery.

  

Lest you think Mongolia is all fields, here's a view of a small town we visited.  Don't misunderstand though; Mongolia is the #1 least densely populated country, with average 4 people/sq mile.

We entered and left the country through the capital, Ulaan Bataar, and here I am paying homage to Mongolia's favorite figure, Genghis Khan.

 The traditional instrument of Mongolia is the Horse Fiddle, a cello-like 2-stringed instrument with a horse-head scroll.  We had multiple opportunities to hear it at many closing ceremonies at each site we worked at.

Finally, here's what a true Mongolian Barbecue looks like: fermented mare's mild, home-made cheese, and then beef, beef, more beef, lamb, goat, and more beef.