THE DELIVERY

The patient came in looking ready to deliver.





















There was no time to gown up so the doctor grabbed his instruments, poured boiling water over them (I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies, Scarlet) and got ready to bring this cabbage head into the world.


The head is crowning, the kitchen is tense in anticipation.

Its a double footling breech, difficult delivery but the doctor is experienced.  The forceps are placed carefully so as not to injure the head.  It looks like its going to be a bloodless delivery.  Amazing.  This doctor knows what he's doing.


Looks like the legs are in tact and it has been a successful delivery.  The patient must be relieved to have that 10 pounder out.



Its always nice to have a photo of the doctor holding your precious bundle.  Good thing this little fella has a mother who will love him because he has a very big head and looks like he just came out of the cabbage patch.
Good work, doctor!

GOOD EATS IN MONGOLIA

 We invited this little feller to our branch activity as the honored guest.  Everyone went home after the activity except for him.

 I told him not to play with the sheep heads but does he listen?
 

 Its fiercely hot next to the cooking pot but this good lady never left her post.  Each meal took hours of cutting, dicing, cleaning and cooking.

 This was the finished soup.  Looks good doesn't it. (It was really nasty so we ate from our stash of senior couples camp food but didn't tell anyone...no need to hurt feelings).
 

 Sometimes you just have to make chocolate chip cookies after a hard day at the office.

 It was a big surprise to be invited to a member's home for dinner and be served these happy cupcakes for dessert.  Usually there is no dessert.

 We have found some fun ethnic restaurants and this place served what looked like American food but it wasn't.  Too bad.

 A trip to our local zac yields very fresh fruits and veggies, but the vendors always tell me the fruits and veggies are from China and not good.  The China goods are half the price of Mongolian fruits and veggies and I like them.

 Off with his head!  The sheep head ended up on the lid of a pot and was served to us with pomp and ceremony and we ate it with pomp and ceremony (lots of "this is yummy" sounds).  This was the one that David ate the eyes out of the sockets and was instructed to eat the ears in front of the lady who gave us the head.

 Sometimes we long for home and iced sugar cookies...but only for a short moment.

 Everyone in Mongolia is a butcher!  The wooden block has sheep liver on it and it is being chopped and added to some onion and stuffed into the sheep stomach and sewn shut and dropped into broth to cook long enough to solidify.  I ate some and it was pretty good.
 

 Stone soup lives in every country.  Actually they heat the rocks in the stove under the pot and drop the hot rocks on the meat and potatoes and the rocks help cook the soup.  Now this really tasted good.  I guess all the cinders from the wood fire where the rocks are heated adds just the right smokey flavor.

 A part of Korea lives in Mongolia and this is a Korean restaurant we were invited to where you cook your own soup adding ingredients that you want to flavor your broth.  Not quite my cup of soup.

 Can you guess which yolk is from a brown egg and which yolk is from a white egg?

 I ate this fish head (yes, the one looking up at me with the big smile).  It was served as lunch after one of the RS sewing projects in Choibalsan.  I kissed it first and then ate it.
 

 I just wanted you to see what looks suspiciously American, but its not!

 One of the unusual ways to make a cake in Mongolia.  The older you are the taller your cake and greater honor to you.  This is the traditional (cake?) made at the biggest holiday in Mongolia called sagan sar which means white moon.  The holiday changes dates but always occurs during the new moon sometime in Feb. and is kind of like New Years Eve only it goes on for at least a week.  At the end of the celebrations they take these hard logs apart and offer them to friends and family as a gift.  Its really a big deal here and fun to be invited to peoples homes to eat botz and hoshers (little meat packets deep fried or steamed).

 Eat the meat etc. off the bone until it is white or you are in trouble.  Elder Faber (the head on the left) had to help me.

 Octopus spaggetti served hot!  This was a practical joke the elders played on each other with the encouragement of Dr. Lewis.  It was my job to cook the octopus and make it into something delicious.  To my surprise it was quite good and the elders ate a big plate of it.  (The elder who ate the octopus also ate sheep testicles).
 

And for the finish, here is the elder with the killer octopus attacking his face.  Anything for a good laugh!  We love the elders and sisters.  They make us smile and cry and laugh and scold and marvel.  They are the best!