Mongolian wasteland paradise

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Note: this was written over many several disjointed days so I apologize for any disjointed thoughts and events…

Since I haven’t written in a few days, I have forgotten most things I did last week. Looking at my last post though, that is probably best as it removes the majority of rambling that no one really wants to read anyway. Tina arrived at SaiBei Farm on Friday afternoon thankfully as Levi left me alone to fend for myself (I thought I had rid myself of his existence - unfortunately, as I would later find out, that would not be the case). I am not really sure where he went or for how long he was going to be gone. This appears to be the way most Chinese conduct themselves. Coming & going as they please seems to be appropriate with no regard to other’s schedule. It is very frustrating as I am the kind who likes to know what is occurring at every second of the day. Being organized not only makes things more efficient, but also would allow me to plan my work. I have to write reports on each farm a I attend and since last Wednesday I’ve worked 6am-7pm, and I write reports from about 7-8:30. Then I go to bed. Phenomenal lifestyle I’ve chosen for myself this summer. Very glamorous - hand up cow’s ass by day, report writing by night. Who wouldn’t want this job?

The majority of work at SaiBei farm was walking (which could double as hiking because the place is so bloody big) from barn to barn looking at cows and calves. I tried to focus my attention on calves since that appeared to be their biggest problem with simple solutions which would produce immediate results. I think that if the Chinese don’t see immediate results they assume something does not work. I tried to explain to them the importance of preventative medicine through the use of vaccination programs for a multitude of diseases which can be rapidly mitigated through this simple procedure. This appeared to be beyond their comprehension - or Tina was unable to effectively communicate (understand?) my instructions. Regardless, one Mongolian farm manager was great to work with. He was pretty funny and very interested in learning. So far, my Mongolian encounters have been very positive and they are most unlike the Chinese. I think he liked me quite a bit because I told him he didn’t look very Chinese (big nose, more round eyes) - he smiled and pounded me on the back. I think whatever flehm I had in my upper respiratory tract at that moment rapidly evacuated. He may have crushed one of my vertebrae as well. Hard to tell - I’ll have to give it time. My neck was sore the other morning so possibly….

I noticed a calf with a sloughing skin lesion around his ears and asked what had happened - assuming that he wasn’t the masochistic type. They said that they just purchased calf dehorners and they were unsure how to use them. I liken this event to giving a loaded gun to a toddler and telling him to go play with it. Whoever thought this was a grand idea should get a medal. Really - phenomenal thinking. Regardless, I found a calf to show them how to dehorn. I don’t really enjoy inflicting pain on calves without the use of a local anesthetic, but I figured they were going to do it anyway so they might as well learn how to do it properly. I did the first calf (a little hesitant at first as I have only burned horns a few times - but it looked pretty damn good if I do say myself - I’ll have to thank the large animal tech Shelly when I get back to school this fall for knowing exactly when to flick the horn bud out and not burn a hole in the calf’s skull…). I made the barn workers do the next few and they appeared to get the hang of it (generally). Keeping something flat is a bit of a challenge due to lack of effective head restraint but hopefully after a few (and possibly burning themselves - actually, I hope they burn themselves a few time to learn how important it is to hold the calf and keep the burner flat - cruel, but learn to do by doing right?). I also looked at a cow with obvious hypocalcemia - and they were treating with antibiotics. I did some quick fluids calculations (thank god I actually learned that last year…) and we infused her with calcium and dextrose. About 1hr later she was up and walking around. I’m a miracle worker. Truly. I think I might be sainthood on that farm in the next year. My hands are gold…hopefully she didn’t die when I left…

Saturday night I spent with the Mongolian barn worker and his girlfriend. We had a big meal and chatted for a bit. His English is quite good since he worked on the New Zealand farm AiYou in Mongolian before coming to SaiBei last year. AiYou is run by a Kiwi and insists that weekly English lessons be taught to all managers (and they should pass this information on to workers). It appears to be effective. He told me that he really doesn’t enjoy working on this particular farm, but it is convenient and allows his girlfriend and him to save money. They are planning on moving to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar in the next few years as the majority of his family lives there. He tried to teach me some Mongolian. I am as hopeless at learning Mongolian as I am at Mandarin. Regardless, I think it brought him some good entertainment. There was a party going on at the central dormitory that night that a lot of people were trying to drag me too, but after a long and exhausting day pretending to be a vet I called it a night fairly early (I also didn’t feel like being stared at for several hours while people talked about me - flattering the first 18 times yet annoying from then on).

The bulldog returned on Sunday to SaiBei. Tina and I had already arranged to leave on Monday but he insisted that we go with him to Xilinhot (“she-lynn-hot-te”) immediately. Both of us were rather annoyed, so I took as long as possible to pack. I perfectly folded each item of clothes and placed each in to my bag as slow as humanly possible. I could tell he was getting annoyed - but I think he understood why both Tina and I were frustrated with him. He said that Xilinhot was close to were we were. 6 agonizing hours later (6 silent hours that is) we arrived in Xilinhot. This city is not included in the Lonely Planet guide for China. No surprise - as it is a manufacturing wasteland in the middle of the Gobi desert. The highlights include several tall smoke stacks which I am confident have contributed to the development of lung cancer or anthracosis - possibly both. There are also several gleaming piles of coal strewn throughout this paradise of a city. The only thing this city has going for it is phenomenal food. Lamb, potatoes and corn are staples with a bit of meat and veg surprise here and there (which I eat - waiting for explosive diarrhea to begin at any moment upon consumption…).

We met the managers of the farm and had a big Mongol meal Sunday evening. I was fairly tired, so ate very little (except for about 5 cigarrettes worth of suffocating smoke - which I suppose was filling; in my lungs rather than my stomach though. Disgusting). For the next few days we went from farm to farm through backroads - which is a nice way of putting it as they were more likened to two tire tracks in the desert. It was fun the first time we went 130km/hr over the two foot deep pot holes, but got a little annoying and painful from thereon in (it’s all an experience though, right?). (Note - I am writing this several days after these happened so I don’t really remember if anything worth talking about actually occurred and since I cannot remember anything, that likely means that nothing of interest actually occurred). The only think that I was happy about Xilinhot was the mass quantity of Mongolian BBQ selection available. Tina and I chose not to out for supper with the farm managers one night - because if we had to eat one more sheep meat surprise or milk tea I think we were both going to be sick right there. We headed out and found a really good BBQ place and ate quite a bit - nothing says delicious like meat on a stick!

We left Xilinhot (with Levi….we can never get rid of this guy!) on Tuesday at 7:30 and he was going to drive us to Wulanhot. He told me it wasn’t far. I should have had a notion that this is more of a relative statement as we didn’t get to Wulanhot until 4:30 in the afternoon after driving about 800km. I would hate to know what he considered far - and I would wish no one to ever have to be in a car with him for that long. On a happier note about Levi though, he finally understands that I don’t particularly enjoy inhaling his second hand smoke, so he pulls the car over to smoke now (which is quite often, thus contributing to the excessive driving time). He also has a very funny way of driving. He’ll go 140km/hr then pop his shift in to neutral and coast for a kilometer or two then gas it back to 140…very strange. I think he assumes that is saves gas. Someone better give him a quick lesson in logarithmic mathematics. Regardless, it brought some entertainment every time he did it - I just shake my head.

We were dropped (literally - he barely slowed down to throw us out of the car) in the Wulanhot train parking lot. We had to buy tickets to Haerbin. If it was one thing that is frustrating about the Chinese train system is that you can only buy a ticket for the train in the town that you are leaving from. Therefore, if you buy the ticket too late, you have to take what is available. We bought our tickets only a few hours before the train was to leave. For 36RMB (~$4) we bought hard seat tickets for a 10 HOUR train ride through the night….Typically, you can buy upgrades on the train. We walked around the town of Wulanhot for a bit. Nothing to see, nothing to do so we just grabbed some BBQ then headed back to the station to hang out. After we were herded like cattle in to the hard seat cars (which are truly hard seats with dirty cloth coverings - there are 3 people per bench facing 3 other people…my legs go right across because I’m so tall and if I put my legs in the aisle they either get kicked by people walking buy or run over buy the lady who yells - no, screams - that she has beer for sale in a cart that drones up and down the train cars). After awkwardly arranging myself in to the seat, Tina went off to see if we could upgrade. They said yes - hurrah I thought! - but not until 2pm the next day…we were getting off at Haerbin at 4:30am. Dang. After about 6min of sleep that night and stopping at every train station possible between Wulanhot and Haerbin, we finally arrived. We checked in to a dirty train hotel (where I think someone insisted on hammering something for hours on end) and crashed until 12pm.

When we finally got up, we didn’t have to catch the bus to Soihua (2 hours away) until later that afternoon, so we took the opportunity to cruise around the city. It is quite a nice city situated on a very large lake just a few hours from the Russian and North Korean borders. There is heavy Russian architectural detail here as it was once controlled by Stalin (there is also a “Stalin Square” where a large stature of him once stood and was in front of a large Roman Catholic Church which is now an architectural office). Unlike the rest of China which often has English or pin-yin writing below Chinese characters, there was only Russian as that is the majority of their tourists here. We had some dumplings for lunch and hopped on the bus to head to Suihua. We were met by a member of the Agricorp team (as there is an Agricorp office in Haerbin as well as Hohhot) and he took us out for supper to a restaurant called “Crazy Hot Chicken Wing” (literal translation). I am quite sure he brought us there for his own entertainment to watch me eat the crazy hot chicken wings. He first bought “hot” and I told him that they weren’t too bad (which was the first mistake). He proceeded to order the house specialty of “crazy hot”. Agreed. Crazy hot. Not only did I burn several epithelial layers off my esophagus, but it looked like I had collagen injections in to my lips - they were on fire! But I eat them in spite of him and told him that they were bearable … hoping that nothing got worse …

The next morning after staying in a fairly nice hotel (but did not have hot water - or even warm water), we drove about 30min to the farm. The farm is quite nice with 850 cows housed in southern US style indoor/outdoor pens. They staff is quite young and eager to learn, and from what I’ve seen so far they are doing most things correct (regardless, they probably know more than me anyway through experience…). We spent the day looking at cows with diarrhea, an LDA (which we rolled and shook - but it didn’t work - hopefully they don’t think I’m some crazy foreigner who likes to roll cows), and a cow with bloat. The manager (or owner - I’m not sure - sometimes I think Tina does not translate very well) came back to the farm for supper. Tina told me that he is a very busy and has made time in his day to eat supper with us. Oh boy - thank you so much for making time in your oh-so busy schedule. I feel so honored (note sarcasm). I told him thank you for adjusting his schedule to accommodate my attendance - it was greatly appreciated as I would enjoy learning from him at supper (diplomacy at its best - which I have quickly learned is my role here; Tina said that in China, whether or not you provide any significant amount of service to the farm, they just need to feel like Agricorp is paying attention to their needs - that is why I am on their farm. It helps sales and apparently this particular farm has heavy investiture from the World Bank and is very influential upon other farms in the area - so if they continue to work with Agricorp, they will promote it to other farms. Case in point, on Monday we are going to a farm for only ½ a day but since they are a new client recommended from this farm, we have to pay attention to them too….very bizarre but I suppose that’s business - in China at least!).

This morning we got up at 6am - no, edit that - I got up at 6am and had breakfast and started walking around the farm. Tina frantically called me at 6:45 when I was in the calf barn wondering where as I didn’t answer my door when she knocked on it. I reminded her that she told me the night before to be at breakfast by no later than 6:15am. So I was. The things I have to do….

Anyway, that’s all for now! (by the way - in regards to the Earthquake here, I was in no way affected as it was in southern Sichuan province, southwest China and were are now in the far north east, but it is quite a terrible thing. Tina said that a friend of hers from college was in that town and she hasn’t heard from her so she has been a little more frantic than usual in the last few days).

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