Mercury Contamination and Poisonous Vodka

Days of -30C degrees, blizzarding snow storms, wearing yak tracks to prevent falling on ice, and eight hours of sunlight days are over. Spring has finally arrived after four months of endless cold and freezing temperatures. With Spring come dust storms, unpredictable weather, greatly varying temperatures, and the occasion snow storm the day one decides take off the long underwear. Nowhere in my invitation did Peace Corps mention having to don three layers of clothing at all times for half of the year in order to keep warm. Then again, I would have had second thoughts if they had.

This winter saw the scare of a possible mercury contamination in the local rivers due to illegal mining (and, thus, affecting the drinking water) in the provinces of Bayankhongor, Selenge and the city of Darkhan (where I am sited). This news put Peace Corps Mongolia in a frenzy collecting water samples to be tested by the National Inspection Agency. Although the results concluded that the levels were lower than the US standards set by the EPA, Hongor soum (which is only 20 minutes away from Darkhan) in the Selenge province, is rumored to be heavily affected with news of massive migration out of the area, deformed animals, and the inability to sale vegetables.

Additionally, January held the ban on the sale of vodka for the whole month. Although the 14 deaths by ingestion of dangerous levels of methanol (the 20% of 'waste' product produced during the distilling process before it becomes ethanol) where only found in Asian Wolf vodka products, the scare caused a country-wide alcohol sale ban (including beer and wine) that started from New Years to Tsaagan Sar (aka: Lunar New Year). The lost of alcohol in a country that heavily uses vodka to celebrate joyous occasions during the most important holiday of the year was a blow.

So the sacrifice of two of my frostbitten fingers to the Weather God only resulted in a transition into dust and wind storms. Although national crisises of possible mercury contamination in drinking water and country-wide alcohol ban due to death by poisonous vodka have become a normal way of life, I will never get use to the weather.