I always loved the words from the Christmas song where it said, "The weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful". I have some fond memories of moments in times past where that song was very valid but it is not a tune I hum here in Mongolia. One might think that is because there is no fireplace inside but actually the weather might hit -40 outside but it is not too bad. Now I would hate to be a sheep herder out on the range watching after my herd at -40 but just walking around town or going to the office, it is not too bad. It is very dry and there is little if any wind or precipitation. The sun is usually shinning and the sky is almost always a bright blue color. Some folks have told me "Mongolia" means land with the blue sky.
When I was preparing to come to Mongolia, I heard nothing but how cold it was in this country so I went for the warm clothes. I have a pair of double lined blue jeans and a pair of boots from REI that are good to a minus 25 or better but I almost never wear either one of them. I just wear a pair of old black roper boots like the ones I wore in Oklahoma, in the winter, 45 years ago and a medium pair of trousers with a medium weight undergarment and a big coat of course and I never get cold. I bought liners for my ski gloves but I never use them.
So I minimize any major concern about the weather but I do not minimize any worry about walking on icy sidewalks. I try to utilize what I learned in a walking meditation class from a Vietnam Buddhist at Spirit Rock Dharma Center who taught a course on Walking meditation. You need to be very present when you are walking and pay attention to each step. It is a practice of focusing on the here and now because if your mind starts dreaming about something else then you can be in big trouble. This is especially true at night, when you have to watch out for open man hole covers where the homeless have gotten down in them to be close to the warm underground hot water pipes that are used to heat all of the buildings in the city to avoid freezing to death. I saw a couple of guys the other morning going through the dumpster and I thought how tough that would be to try to find something to eat. Whatever they found was going to be totally frozen and those guys certainly do not have micro waves to thaw out their frozen food for breakfast. I felt a little bad enjoying my hot coffee as much as I did when I got to work that morning, but as every morning, one of the things that went through my mind in a moment of thanks was not just for the hot coffee but the fact that I had not slipped on the ice and broken my neck as I walked, very carefully, to work as I do each morning.
Just remember, when you come to Mongolia in the winter, watch out for the open manhole covers at night and the slippery ice....or you can come in the summer, like most intelligent people do, and enjoy the beautiful green grass in the wide open country and great weather but who would want to do that....oh...I think I see a few hands going up amongst the readers of this blog.
