When I first moved to Hanhongor in 2002, one of the things that I was told my town had was a bath house. Since no one has running water in their homes, bath houses are very important for public health and cleanliness. My excitement over the bath house lasted for all of 5 minutes until I learned it was broken. Commence bucket bathing.

Fast forward to 2007 when this picture was taken

The bath house, the building with the pointed green roof on the left, was still broken and in even more disrepair. At this point I think everyone in town had given up on the prospect of ever showering in town again.

Finally fast forward to now. The rumors that the bath house was being repaired thanks to money from a mining company started to fly around last fall.  Once in a while there seemed to be some change over there, but I didn’t believe anything until one day in January when I was at school my director gathered up all the free teachers and took us over to the bath house for its grand reopening ceremony. A local television station filmed the ribbon cutting and then we all trooped in, joking that the first person in would get free showers for a year. While the bath house was no Japanese onsen, it was certainly a step up from a bucket bath (see Peace Corps Volunteer Emma’s blog for inside pictures). There are rooms for individuals and a larger room for a family, and while the water pressure is not great, the water is hot, you don’t need to lug your water from the well, and there is no mess when you are done. We have taken to showering on Sunday afternoons and I must say one of the best dollars we spend all week.