Mongolian weather and washing clothes

Hi all! I was out of commission for a couple of days with my first bout of upset stomach and all that goes with that. I will spare you the lurid details but suffice it to say that I made quite a few trips to the outhouse and didn't eat for about 24 hours. Fortunately, the medicines in the Peace Corps-issued medical kit got me back on track. So, a few people have asked me about the weather here. It is quite beautiful but erratic. There's a saying in Kentucky that if you don't like the weather, wait a day. In Mongolia, the saying should be if you don't like the weather in Mongolia, wait a couple of hours. In the first town we were in for orientation, the day would start out warm and sunny at about 6:00 AM (and, yes, I was up at 6:00 AM or earlier thanks to jet lag and no curtains on the large windows) and then by 8:30 AM when it was time to go to class it was cold and rainy. We had several days of 50-ish and rainy. Other PCVs told us that it has been known to snow in June. Since moving in with my host family, I have not seen much rain at all. Actually, I have seen rain on the mountains, but it hasn't rained in town much. Watching a storm in the mountains is really cool. It will get cloudy and dark over the mountains but remain sort of sunny in town. You can see the rain falling from the clouds like streaks on a window. Occasionally, there will be a strike of lightning but high in the clouds and just a flash across the sky. The clouds make these awesome shadow patterns on the mountains. And it is usually very windy so you can see the storm move across the mountains. I took some pictures of a mountain storm one day. I hope to post some pictures at some point, but that's a little difficult to do in an internet cafe. I'll try to get some posted this weekend maybe. It has been quite pleasant, in the high 70s and low 80s. Today is the first really hot day. You can really feel the intensity of the sun in the Land of Blue Sky. It's probably in the low 90s. However, the air is dry. You don't start sweating the second you step outside like in Kentucky or Virginia. And there's usually a brisk breeze to cool you off every now and then. Sometimes that cool breeze turns into a dust storm. The first weekend I was here my host sister was going to help me do my laundry. We filled 2 large buckets, or tumpuns, with water and set them in the sun to warm. In the mean time the wind really kicked up and dust was blowing in circles all over the yard, or hashaa. My sister told me we could not do my laundry then because it was now too windy and the water and my clothes would get dirty from the dust. So, lesson number one in hand-washing your clothes: it can't be too windy. My host mom helped me to do my laundry the next weekend, and I did it indoors. Lesson number two in hand-washing your clothes: don't wait til you have 2 weeks worth of laundry (or wear fewer clothes, one or the other). It took me 2 hours to hand wash all my laundry. I only used one tumpun this time, but two may have been better. You divide your clothes into darks and whites, just like at home, and you save your dirtiest clothes for last. I did the whites first. You pour some detergent into some warm water. We poured some water straight from the house hold supply of water (which is a large tin old-fashioned milk jug) and warmed some water in this tea pot/pitcher that sits on a hot plate. You put all your whites in the tumpun with the water (and it's not a lot of water maybe 2 or 3 inches deep, maybe) and you scrub them with a large bar of soap. Once you've soaped and scrubbed, then you wring them out and set them aside. My host mom did not explain the whole process before I started; she was showing me as I did it. So I was a little concerned that there wasn't going to be a rinsing stage. There was a lot of soap in my clothes, especially my athletic socks, which you could squeeze and suds would ooze out. When you're done scrubbing the whole load, then you dump the dirty water (and it is dirty) into another pail and put some clean water in the tumpun to rinse the clothes (thank goodness!). You rinse the clothes and wring them til there is not a drop of water left. Now, I know why the PC told me not to bring any clothes you don't want ruined. This laundering method is very hard on your clothes. Then you hang the clothes on the clothes line in the back yard, and start all over again with the darks. This is very rough on the hands. I rubbed some skin off the first knuckle of a finger. My host mom told me I should have used the palms and base of my thumbs to scrub and not grip the clothes with my fingers to scrub--Lesson number three. You wouldn't believe how dirty the water is when you get through. It makes me wonder if machines actually get your clothes clean. I threw that water down the outhouse hole. (I'm learning which water you save and use for something else, and which water you throw out--the water from washing your hair in the tumpun is saved to mop the floors). On the upside, it only takes about an hour or so for your clothes to dry outside. I guess I'll be doing this once a week, and hopefully I'll get better at it. Well, I've been online for a long time now. I'll write again soon.