Ashley Aebersold '90 and her summer mission trip

For nearly three weeks this summer, a tiny orphanage in Khongor, Mongolia, flew a TCU flag, thanks to Ashley Aebersold '90.

Normally a deaf education teacher in Stokes County, N.C., Aebersold spent 20 days in June and July on a medical/mission trip handing out medicine, vitamins, eye glasses, even rubber tips to put at the base of walking canes.

"Patients would receive a month's worth of certain medications they needed," said Aebersold, who went on the trip with a group called LifeQwest and her father, who is a retired physician. "They were so happy to receive Motrin."

The group, which included two doctors, two nurses and support personnel also traveled to Baruunburen, Khutel, Orkhan, Dulaanxaan and Shaamar, passing out pamphlets in Mongolian about high blood pressure and prevention techniques. The team traveled to remote villages and set up "hospitals" for the day.

"People would line up for miles to see an American doctor, and we would have to turn some away due to time," she said. "We could only provide very limited medical services due to the availability of supplies in Mongolia. For example, there's only one magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) in the whole country."

In addition to passing along some English to the children, Aebersold did manage to teach the TCU hand sign and left T-shirts behind for them. The orphanage compound flew the TCU flag.

She intends to return to Asia again.

"We as Americans need to be thankful for our medical care," she said. "This is a wonderful organization, and I am definitely traveling back next summer!