It had been a long day of working in the 100°+ temperature. People were tired, people were sweaty, people were painted,
people needed a shower.
Though deodorant had done a great job in clothing each of our stenches that we carried around with us, the deodorant, no matter how strong, was not strong enough to satisfy how we felt individually. When you have sweat and dirt covering just about every inch of skin, all you can think about before bed is getting clean.
I needed a shower.
We went down two by two to take showers, letting the girls go first of course. They wanted the showers more than us, and the guys were fine to wait a bit longer if the girls were going to be happy.
Because there is nothing like dirty, frustrated girls,
especially in Africa.
After waiting some time, it came to Cameron and my turn to take showers. Now, in America there is really nothing complex about taking a shower. Maybe you have a bit of trouble finding the proper hot-to-cold ratio for taking the perfect shower. In the Bush, you end up facing different issues.
Everything is a bit different in the Bush.
So here we are, in the middle of West Africa, still hot—even though the sun had been down for over an hour—walking to the two stone stalls set apart from the rest of the buildings, down by the storage room.
We were a bit nervous and confused.
Nervous because we had just been told by Kevin, the missionary, that we had to be watchful for pencil vipers. Snakes that can kill you in five minutes.
death
in
five
minutes.
So along with being scared for our lives, pointing our flashlight on any little movement we saw on the ground, we were also trying to figure out how to go about showering, since it was nothing like home.
On the way down to the showers we had stopped two of the girls coming back from their shower and asked how we were supposed to use each bucket. Though it had been explained to us earlier that day, we needed a little reminder since we had so much other information being shoved into our heads. With all those other facts and stories, the shower directions must have been pushed out. There is a lot to take in from Africa.
a whole lot.
Luckily, the two girls were in a good mood (they had just taken a shower, duh) and they were willing to explain how to go about this journey of showering. They began by explaining that there should be two buckets and a basin. One bucket should be full of soapy water, one full of clean water, and the basin is the left over dirty water because that is what you stand in to pour the clean water on you after you soap up.
This made sense to us,
no problem.
Yet, when we actually arrived at the stalls, there were two empty buckets and a dirty basin.
This was a problem.
To add to our confusion, as we stood there staring down these buckets, one of the African maids came down, picked up the dirty basin, poured it into one of the empty buckets and then left with the basin.
As she was leaving we tried to ask why she was doing this, but she didn’t speak enough English, and we didn’t speak enough Jula to get a clear answer. So we waited,
the two of us,
watching for snakes,
alone.
confused.
Then out of the shadows came the same maid with the basin balanced on her head, this time, full of clean water.
We were more confused.
After she left, Cameron and I stood there discussing the proper course of action for taking the shower. We talked through possible situations, with hypothetical outcomes, yet none of them sounded very intelligent. Either way, someone was going to take a dirty shower. So finally, after too much discussion, I stepped up.
I showered.
It was awkward. I contaminated the clean water in the basin with the dirt and the paint I had collected throughout that whole day. Plus, I had soaped up in the dirty water bucket which contained, who knows how many of my fellow member's, dirt and grime.
But I felt better.
I felt a moment of coolness, and though the process of getting clean wasn’t my number one choice, I was cleaner than when I walked into that stone stall. For that, I was extremely grateful because I knew I could get good nights sleep.
There is something refreshing about getting off all the dirt that you carry and
just
be
clean.
