If last entry’s theme was dirt, this theme would be water.
Well… it was going to be water. I had this whole entry planned on my ponderings
during bucket bathing. But due to a treasure of an experience from yesterday,
today’s theme must sadly be reallocated to “liquid”. SideBar: People, This post is going to be a
little sporadic so just bear with me. Is that the right bear? Eff my English is
already slipping. Oh well, it wasn't much to brag about to begin with.
Background: Running water is almost non-existent here in
Uganda. If someone does have it, it is coming from a rain tank, has a tint
darker than my fairly tan skin, or has a parasite in it that wants to kill you,
KILL YOU. So when the end of the day
approaches and I realize I smell like how I imagine a hobo tastes, I grab my 10
gallon plastic bucket, head outside past the covered cooking area and
fill-er-up from the rain tank. For the
most part the water is, correction, looks
clean. But I find that if I let the water sit long enough in the bucket, and
lovely little film will form at the top. (I don’t know why I do these fun
little things to torture myself, like when I hold my drinking water bottle up
to the light to see if there are enough particles to make a mini tornado by
spinning the water around) Some people listen to the voices of experience
surrounding them and follow as directed. Then there are those of us who prefer
to learn through our own experiences, I believe the aforementioned group calls
these folks “morons”.
SideBar: Dang, ooohhh the bittersweet irony of being a
member of the latter group; always
needing to learn through my own experiences…::cough going to Africa for 2yrs
cough:: As soon as I typed that last line, my entire GI tract lurched letting
me know it is once again time to drop the kids off at the pool. (that means
shit) Except dropping the kids off would imply I have something solid to
deposit. I wish that was the case.
So I fill my bucket up and head inside to the bathing room,
aka the tiled room of watery death. Because
there is nothing I have found to be more humbling than carefully bathing and
scrubbing for 15 minutes only to slip on the first step towards reaching for
your towel. Furthermore, splaying and falling into the giant puddle full of
crud which used to be on you. Correction: is on you again…
WRITING BREAK: I’m currently doing my future site visit.
Where I get three days to go see the organization I will be working with for
the next two years. If you go check my
facebook you’ll see photos of my future house.
“Ni Kirungi” It is good. Anywho,
just took a writing break to walk for a half hour to town and almost had my 3rd
fall in this country about two feet outside my door. I slipped in cow shit.
Just another friendly reminder that I’m not in Kansas anymore. I’m not worried though. I know which little
bastard did it. The same little black and white calf circles my house every
evening. I’ll get him back…
Back to my story; So if the power is off, I go look for a
candle which has been melted to an upside coffee mug for a candle holder. This
way I can prop it up on the toilet lid (Don’t start thinking I have it too easy
because I used the word toilet. I use that term loosely, and remember? No
running water. I’ve still squatted and crap bagged into a hole). But, if I was
to be completely honest… sometimes when the power is on, I still use a
candle. It creates a nice glow in the
bathroom, kinda romantic. ;) Probably the most romance I’ll see in the next two
years… sad panda. I’ve learned though, and write this down folks if you are
planning a romantic candle evening for someone special, the lower the candle is
to the ground, the larger and less flattering your shadow becomes. One of the
first evenings I used the candle I saw something move out of the corner of my
eye and thought Shrek’s Shadow was creepin on me. I collected my cool, raised the candle up a
few notches, and continued scooping water up in a cup from the bucket to dump
on myself.
BTdubs. (Old folks, that means By.The.Way. If you still don’t
get it, go ask a hooligan who can’t remember a time without cell phones) After
the water sits all day in the shining sun in a black rain tank, it still
manages to achieve a perplexing temperature of “frigid bitch” There are some
baths where I’m positive my nipples will be hard for the rest of my life. I
could go through the trouble of boiling water to heat things up… but I always
manage to burn myself, or the charcoal stoves are being utilized for more
important things like cooking dinner for the family, and I don’t think I’ll
gain any Africa respect if I ask the fam to stall dinner so the Mzungu can
bathe comfortably. I realize that last
sentence might have confused a few people; I’m staying with a homestay family right now,
I’ve been here about a month, and have one more month to go, then I’ll move to
my permanent site and home. My homestay mom is Jane Bakubagana, and while she
technically has two biological children, through whatever events, there are now
9 teenagers up in this hizz-ouse. We’ve
goooooot Derrick, Dickens, Eddison, Flavia, Goretti, Annett, Rose, Shillah,
Becky, and now Khayla! Not so surprising, I’ve yet to hear my name pronounced
correctly in this country. Johnson is way easier, but people always laugh when
I tell them my “other name” (They don’t have last names here, just other name.)
Because in Uganda, only a boy would be named Johnson. Soooo thanks dad. =)
Returning to the bucket bathing… Final word of advice. Even
though the drain is usually in the corner of the room, you don’t have to be
that close to it. Give yourself some room to breathe. And Bend. Because after
falling, the 2nd worst thing to happen after bucket bathing is; after
one last bend/crouch to dump the rest of
the water out, and as you stand back up you feel a gentle scrape against your
bare, freezing, ass cheek. Oh yes, you’ve butt grazed the filthy wall. AND you
just dumped out the rest of your water.
I’ve done this more times than my pride will allow me to admit. And
every time it’s like Africa is literally licking my ass, teasing that until I’m
back in America. I will never be 100% clean.
So this post is looking a little long, I’m gonna save the mysterious liquid story for the next
blog. I hope your anticipation of said story wasn’t the only reason you were
hanging on this far. My bad.
Mzungu out!
The visuals are making my day!
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