I’m looping back to Mongolia because I had a funny memory while I was binge watching ” Cobra Kai” the Karate Kid saga remake on youtube…
This is my (very patient) host Jvvureg. In the picture he’s demonstrating how to artfully split an animal bone (goat on that day I think) in half to eat the gelatinous marrow and insides.
I thought his name was spelled Durukh- that’s how it sounds phonetically and if your familiar with Cyrillic alphabet, it makes sense that he would spell his name Jvvreg.
During the post meal evening routine one night in the Ger, Jvvreg was sitting across the way from me smoking a cigarette. Yes! It’s perfectly normal for Mongolians to smoke cigarettes in side the confined space of the Ger. When you think about the temperature outside (below 0 F for a good part of the year) it makes sense. I wish I had captured that moment in photo but the thought didn’t come to me.
I’ve had asthma since childhood, although it hadn’t really bothered me from adolescence until just a few years ago. Anyway the smoke was starting to make me a bit uncomfortable so I resorted to my inhaler. Jvvreg and his wife Biyambai were 
wondering what I was doing so I looked up the word for asthma (menger or мэнгэр) in my handy-dandy $4.00 Mongolian phrase book.
They understood what I meant as they repeated the word. Anyway, Jvvreg said “ah ‘menger'” as he exhaled a lungful of cigarette smoke in my direction….. It was a bit of a comedic and surreal moment that should have been a scene in some kind of comedy movie. 😛 I’m sure they were both thinking “Ah, Asthma ..big deal!” which is a reasonable attitude given the harsh lifestyle and other health challenges of the nomadic folk.
Well, Jvvreg finished his cigarette and I didn’t die (hah hah) 🙂 , but I started to remember how some people I knew back in the USA describe Asthma as a “first world disease”. It seems like a real disease though when you’re struggling for a breath of air as a child. I admit that the use of the inhaler these days is premature and a bit abused (by me).
Well fast forward to 1 year later and I ‘m watching “Cobra Kai’ on youtube and the ‘asthma’ scene comes up:
Well, there you have it…a flashback and a interesting view of ailments through the eyes of a Mongolian nomad and (fake) Karate instructor!
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