Down Low on Ugandan Bathrooms

Our house as you all know does not have electricity; it as well does not have pluming. It’s very hot and dusty here so bathing is a must, which I find hilarious, considering most Americans do not bath as often. A shower in the morning and evening is considered minimum; most families will take three a day. I am blessed that my mama only makes me take one in the evening; we aren’t sure whether it is because we smell by then or she doesn’t want the school to think they aren’t taking care of us. Well the bath house is inside our compound but separate from the main house. It is a rectangle building with tall cement walls and floor, the door is on the skinny end. As you walk in it is built like a hallway, on the left there are two stalls, which thankfully are completely enclosed. The first is simply a hole in the cement; the second is a hole in the cement with a toilet seat placed over the top. Neither of these accommodations is meant for sitting however. LOL Then you move on down and there is an open air stall which is used for showering. I again remind you there is no pluming so a shower consists of a bucket, if you are lucky or spoiled like torey and I you get a small bucket of freshly boiled water and a jerry can of cold. You mix the two so its nice and warm, then stand in the small space kind of squat down over the bucket and using your hands splash water on yourself. The rest should be familiar to you. I am so blessed to not have hair to wash so I don’t have to worry about that. Our first day our mama took us outside to show us the strategy of scooping water and tossing on yourself before it falls out of your hands. There is some strange feeling of liberation being out in the open showering with the big sky above you. If we don’t get home by 6:30-7 the shower is usually done in the dark, as you can imagine the adds to the difficulty, you not only have to bath from a bucket, keep your fresh clothes clean, but now you have to balance a flashlight. My roommate torey informs me she doesn’t use the flashlight because then she can’t see the critters that crawl past on the walls. One time while I was showering or rather trying to I saw a cockroach and tons of ants on the wall; I gave up and came inside. When I talk with my fellow students we have a good laugh about the importance of cleanliness here. Most of us expected to shower more like 1 a week or every other day. We sometimes find it very bothersome and annoying to shower multiple times in a day and I have heard stories and from my own experience of faking a shower. Ha-ha we are such dirty Americans, we go in and simple splash the water around and then change into our clean clothes. I admit I have done this a couple of times when the bugs and mosquitoes were just too much to bear in one evening. Well I hope my description of the bathroom accommodations has given you a laugh.