Growing up in the Ger Horoolol(Ger District in Mongolia) was not an easy task for my family. Unlike more developed urban areas, Ger Horoolol neighborhoods often lack basic infrastructure such as running water, sewage systems, and central heating. People typically rely on coal-burning stoves for heat, which contributes to significant air pollution, especially during the harsh Mongolian winters. The idea of leaving the comfort of my blanket in the dark winter morning was far from inviting, with every breath producing mist in the freezing air. As normal as other people are, I also had to go to the restroom every morning, which was our outhouse, and you wouldn’t imagine how painful it was to perform a personal excrement. However, I have endless gratitude for my parents, who tirelessly tended to the vintage pellet stove- the heart of our home. This stove kept our small 500-square-foot house warm, cooked our meals, heated laundry water, and served as a dryer.
On weekends, my first chore was to fetch water from the well. Every other day, I hauled 200 pounds of water on a cart, navigating icy streets as the cold wind bit at my face. Our streets were full of steep hills and had no pavement, so pushing and pulling the cart over the rough terrain was an intense workout- no gym or fancy fitness center needed. When I returned from the well, my dad was usually shoveling snow in our front yard. I didn’t like it when he did it because the snow made everything look clean and pristine; once it was cleared, all that was left was dirt and dead grass.
At exactly 6 p.m, my mom would call out, “Uuganaa(how my mom calls me), bring the meat from the ambaar (vestibule) for dinner.” In other countries, this might translate to, “Uuganaa, take the meat out of the freezer.” After waiting for an hour for the meat to thaw just enough to cut, my dad would bring in the pot. He would quickly remove the stove’s lid and place the pot inside before we suffer from carbon monoxide. After dinner, my brothers and I settled who would wash the cups and dishes by playing rock, paper, scissors. Washing up was no small task either; we heated water on the stove and scrubbed everything by our hands obviously because water would be frozen and our dishes and cups would be covered with oils and fats, only washable by hot water.
The pipes and radiators were old and made of copper. As I mentioned earlier, the process began by pouring water into the beaker, which was then heated as it flowed through the pipes along the stove. By separating the pipe and stove with a valve, the water got hot easily and readied to travel around the house. The hot water traveled through pipes that snaked around the kitchen and the storage room. After warming these areas, the pipes intersected at a large radiator in the corner of the kitchen before entering our bedroom and the living room. Leaving the radiator through another pipe, at the farthest corner of our bedroom, water stopped, and a spigot at the end of the system made a noise of boiling pot. And this was the signal for me to notice the temperature in our room dropped, so I knew it was time to drain the water from the spigot and pour it back into the beaker, restarting the heating cycle. Every three hours when I shifted the water from spigot to beaker, I used to spot the change of color, turning into a reddish brown each time. Nonetheless, adding a small amount of water didn’t do any harm.
Cardiac Conduction System
Can you tell your heart to stop, slow down, or speed up at will? We cannot, because the heart possesses its own intrinsic control system — the intrinsic cardiac nervous system. From its first beat around the twenty-second day after our conception in our mother's womb, the heart sustains its rhythm without rest, continuing its work even in stillness and sleep. This relentless, self-regulated activity ensures that blood flows to every part of the body, sustaining life with each beat. Like the heating system in my home that continuously circulated warmth, the heart quietly maintains its own flow, tirelessly working for our survival.
The electrical conduction system of the human heart is essential for controlling its rhythmic beats. This process starts in the sinoatrial (SA), known as the heart’s pacemaker, located in the upper part of the right atrium. The SA node initiates electrical impulses that quickly propagate across both atria, triggering their contraction. This transmission happens through specific pathways: the internodal pathways within the right atrium and Bachmann’s Bundle, which links the right atrium to the left, ensuring the atria contract in unison. Once the atria contracts, the electrical impulse travels to the atrioventricular (AV) node, located at the junction between the atria and ventricles. Here, the impulse is briefly delayed for about 0.1 seconds. This pause is vital for two reasons. First, it gives the ventricle time to fill with blood and to the atria to relax before the ventricular contraction. Without this delay, the atria and ventricles would contract together, resulting in ineffective blood circulation. Second, the delay occurs because the AV node has fewer conduction fibers and a smaller diameter, which naturally slows the flow. After leaving the AV node, the signal moves through the Bundle of His, a pathway that transmits it from the AV node to the ventricles. The signal then divides into the right and left bundle branches and spreads into the Purkinje fibers. These fibers ensure that the ventricles contract swiftly and in a coordinated manner, efficiently pumping blood out of the heart.
My house is the HEART. Comparing complex cardiology to a heating route in my house, that’s how I learned the HEART’s conduction system. Like SA node in the right atrium sends charges through pathways, and charges gather at AV nodes to travel further around ventricles, Our vintage pellet stove in the kitchen sends heat through pipes, and heat gathered at the radiator to travel further around the bedroom.