Dec 26 2007
baby express
A tidbit that was joggled in my memory which I may or may not have mentioned before:
Young children, as with US airlines, pay about half price for a seat or go free if they’re small enough. Unlike US airlines, they are not minded by the flight crew but rather by whoever may be on the plane and willing to do so. Sometimes people will bring their child to the airport and ask someone (who typically isn’t a total stranger; in a community of 30,000 with large families, most everyone is a sister/cousin of a friend or another relative, it seems) to carry em along. Most volunteers, if not all, tend to refuse outright for airplanes, as kids tend to fuss more on said planes with air pressure, etc., not to mention the vague worry of “what next” if they get to UB and there is no one to pick up the kid. Regardless, it’s kind of fun to watch, as so many people here really seem to dote on babies or young kids and definitely fuss over em…
This actually sort of happens in most transportation situations, though – many a Peace Corps volunteer here can tell a story about being on a 10-hour minibus ride where they’re handed a baby to hold and several hours pass before they return the bundle back to its rightful owner…
Likewise, in a way that would make Homeland Security despair, people often ask passengers to take a bag or letter(s) to Ulaanbaatar to be handed off to a waiting relative/friend at the airport. The other option tends to be post, where they may overcharge you and it can take forever to get to its destination. Plus if the recipient isn’t expecting it, they may never swing by the post office to see if they have anything and thus more delays. I don’t know how long mail *actually* takes to get back and forth though I do know that it comes in on the planes, not overland.
I kinda wish that there was that kind of community/trust in the US concerning children – I kinda feel good when some person I know hands over their baby to me like I should know what to do with it while they run an errand or do their makeup or whatever. Holding babies is kind of like holding a bag of flour, so those home ec (or life skills or whatever it was called) people in Texas knew what they were doing.
Then again, babies on a trial basis may be the best contraceptive 
