More Clinics

You'll never guess what I did today. Yup, more clinic tours. Actually we went to the ambulance center today. It's not an emergency room, but it's where all the emergency personel leave from to go to pick up people in the ambulances. They have 5 teams of 3-4 persons each. Consisting of a doctor, a nurse, and a driver. They have at least one four wheel drive van for winter. We rode inside on and it was pretty similar to ours except that there were no IV stands or oxygen tanks, just an empty van with 2 seats and a stretcher. All their medical supplies are put together in metal toolbox kits. They have radio contact with the command center where we were, but they take the sick people to the hospital according to diagnosis, and only if they need to be hospitalized actually.
From there we went to the city hospital which was in a bit better shape except for the remodeling they were doing. My favorite thing about it was their oxygen system... It comes through little pipes! One for each bed and they just turn a nob and attach a measuring maching to regulate the flow and that's it! There is a big oxygen tank outside that supplies them! I asked them if they ever had any problems with the oxygen running out and they said no.
Now a few funny side notes:
1. Russians make good use of their small apartments. Ours has three rooms. One is exclusively the parents bedroom. The other two are a family room and study. The "study" is my bedroom. Guess what the couch in there doubles as? Yup my bed. I just take the back cushions off and spread my sheets and blankets out and voila! Then in the morning I have to fold them up and put them back away.
2. Last night we had fish... Not very cooked either. I think it was salted and smoked or something? It tasted a little like salmon, but didn't look like it. I thought that for sure my head would be in the toilet by the time dinner was over... But I survived with only mild digestion problems. I am sure that I will need to be treated for mercury poisoning when I get home though... We were never allowed to eat fish as missionaries.
3. The reason that my host mom said we needed to eat the fish is because there is no vitamin D in the milk here and you can only get it from fish and the sun.... Also the iodine is in certain types of bread here, not in the salt.