No Bugs...

This morning we woke up to the howl of blowing wind and snow. Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny 66 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Today is a blustery 23 degrees with about 3 inches of snow and more to come. I don't know what the wind chill is but we have been out walking in it since 8 and it is bone chilling. Deni has joined a yoga class that starts at 8:30AM. She has 3 of the group coming to the church for our Saturday English class. She didn't want to go this morning but I convinced her that we would be able to catch a taxi and she wouldn't suffer much. We did catch one right away and he took us right to her class for 60 cents. We needed some carrots, onions and potatoes for the missionaries that we are having to dinner tonight so I braved the storm and walked about a half mile to the stores.  I found that none of the workers wanted to brave the storm to open early so we will have to walk back again after I get Deni from her class.
We are busy nearly every day with English class and humanitarian projects. We are "sponsored" by The Children's Castle which is like a YMCA so we teach English there on MWT then we teach a free class at the church on Saturday. We get about one request each week to teach at a business but our main purpose is not to teach English so we decline most. Deni has a soft heart and gives into the individual requests so we spend a lot of time helping people learn English.
We are working on several projects to help the community. We have a "garden project" where we help provide tools, training, and seeds to help poor families provide vegetables for themselves.This Saturday we are sponsoring a "city cleanup" and we are working hard to make a difference. It is now Thursday night and it is still cold. It only got into the 20s today and it is now 19 and still snowing. We haven't seen much snow here all winter (I'm told that it is too cold to snow) but we got a few inches today.
Tomorrow will be in the 40s and Saturday will be back to the 60s.
We had to dig out our cold clothes and I even found the black tights that I wore under my pants every day this winter. Walking around town today, I was really glad that I was wearing them.
I realize that if I only talk about the weather people will stop reading so I will tell you a little more of our joys and frustrations. I have come to realize that I can live without taking a shower every single morning. I have slowed down on taking them for several reasons. One, the water temperature is just above warm. I am very grateful that it isn't cold but I enjoy a hot shower and the water in our apartment isn't like our last apartment where you could cook your vegetables with the water straight from the tap. Two, the weather is so dry that my skin is dry and cracked. My feet crack and get sores on the bottom and I am told that soap drys skin so I try to wash often for sanitation but I don't want to dry out my feet and hair.
We saw NO INSECTS all winter and we are just now seeing a very few flies and spiders. I think it is just too cold for insects to survive. I haven't even seen an ant or mosquito or anything that you would think would come out in the spring. Maybe they will when it gets really warm. We'll see.
This morning I used our printer to make a sign for us to remember to cover the printer. It is SO DUSTY here and I'm afraid the new printer will stop working if we don't keep it covered. I vacuumed our apartment and when I emptied out the bag it looked like mud. I've tried to figure out why they have the custom about not EVER putting anything personal on the floor. It may be because things are so dusty and also because that dust comes from the ground that everyone (including us) spit and farmer blow our noses constantly. For some reason, mucus just seems to snowball, especially in the cold and much of it goes onto the dirt which becomes dust. Their propensity to not have anything on the floor is sometimes comical. In the winter when everyone is so bundled up against the extreme cold and they come into the church they will take one seat for themselves and at least one seat for all of their stuff. You can look under the seats from the front or the back and not one thing will be on the carpet. If I put my backpack or my books on the floor someone will come up and politely move them to a chair, I'm sure, assuming that they must have fallen because no one would intentionally put something on the floor. 
I will close by expressing our appreciation for our health, safety and protection, and our family and friends. We are truly blessed beyond measure.  We love Mongolia and we love the wonderful people here. 

Here is a picture of our good friends in Darkhan, President Baji and his wife, Suvdaa. I got to visit with them last week when I was in Darkhan for a meeting. We miss them very much.