Showertime

In Peru, I wrote a story about the process that I went through every time I tried to take a shower which included the possibility of electrocution and a toilet plunger, if that tells you about how interesting of an experience it was. And I have gotten more comments about that story (and the pumpkin pie story) than anything else I've written in a while. So I decided that I'd also tell the N'Zerekore version of how I manage to take a shower.

The process of my showertaking starts with William/Bill/Mustapha. He's the office cleaner who also cleans my "guesthouse" and who cannot make up his mind what his name is. He:

1. Goes to the logistics department and requests a car.
2. Loads up the large yellow 14 liter oil cans.
   
3. Goes to the International Committee for the Red Cross hand pump about 5 minutes driving down the road.
4. Waits in line for the local women, who cart their water off in cans on their heads.
5. When it's his turn, he starts pumping the water out of the ground. And continues doing that until he fills up the 14 liter oil cans.
6. Brings it back to the guesthouse and totes the gas cans into the bathroom.
7. Dumps them into the huge trash cans until they are full.

This is where I enter my shower taking experience. My shower starts in the kitchen, where I take my biggest pot and fill it up with water from the kitchen water trash can. I turn on the gas valve for the stove and light 'er up.

Then I boil... and boil... and boil... While I'm waiting on the boiling, I go to the bathroom to get the plastic bucket. I pour the boiling water into the bucket while attempting to not fog up my glasses (impossible) and carry the steaming bucket back to the bathroom. I tone down the steam with three more bucketfulls of William/Bill/Moustapha's bathroom trash can water.

Then, I start dumping. One cup over my head and wash my hair and wash it out with another cup... and so on until the bucket of water is gone. And believe it or not, it's actually a pretty refreshing shower.... Beats being stinky!!