Preparing for Mongolia

Our trip is less than a week away. After much indecision, we decided to take our little boy. Now, traveling to Mongolia for a two-week field excursion in the bush is one thing, doing so with an 18-month-old adds a level of anxiety that only a parent can appreciate. Allow me to list a few fears. Tetanus, hepatitis A, gut-bombing bacteria, the bubonic plague, drunk drivers, Russian jeeps, plane crashes, hypothermia, and marmots. Ok, I’m not sure about the marmots. This one here looks harmless enough, but can I ever really get a “sense of its soul”? We decided to take him with us not because it will be a formative experience for him, but for us as parents. We don’t want our fears to fundamentally change our approach to life, with or without children, although we recognize that a certain level of precaution is necessary when traveling with young ones. Since this is a research trip, we have the luxury of being able to ship much of our gear ahead of time. Food is a big concern since most adults we know that have visited to Mongolia have gotten sick at some point; for a toddler, a bad case of diarrhea can be quite dangerous. We’ll be heading out into the field with two jeeps with decent storage space. Here’s what we packed for our beloved Augú:
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