Buckets are an essential part of my existence lately. Power only works about 60% of the time and running water is even less than that. When things are working right, we have 2 stalls that have very low flow showerheads on them. There is no hot water heater to speak of, so to accomplish this the shower heads have electrical coils in them that you have to preheat before you take a shower. It works sort of like the coils on an electric stove to heat through convection. When either of these things aren’t working-this means a bucket shower! A bucket shower is exactly how you imagine it-naked in complete darkness with the exception of a candle-Emmah, our housekeeper will boil us up some water on the gas stove which we cool down with a drum of cold water in the shower stall. You then take a cup of this water and dump it on you and hopefully you got the temp right. After the initial wetting, you soap up and then rinse-usually by dumping said bucket on head. If done right, this is how you shower when you have no power or running water (and hopefully you have saved enough rainwater or have enough govt water to take it). It ain’t the W, but it works when you are sticky and coated with a thick crust of sweat after a hot day in the Kenyan sun. Today was the first day I had to do laundry…by hand…ever. This process ups the technology threshold to 2 buckets and a cord! Washing clothes by hands completely sucks. You basically have to wash the clean clothes first because your water is so full of debris before you are done, the process simply transfers the dirt between clothing before hanging them on a line for the sun to bake in the scum. David and I made the same mistake-we used enough powdered laundry detergent for a laundry machine for our bucket. This leaves all of our clothes with a powdered soap encrusting even after rinsing. I don’t necessarily see this is a bad thing though-because the next time you sweat, these moisture release freshness crystals will unlock and the garment will literally wash itself while you are wearing it! I wouldn’t call it a mess-up, I would call it GENIUS!Swahili Translation of the day
Are you trying to use your family connections to get you a discount? Try this Swahili phrase!
Kakangu anaitwa Sadamu
My elder brother is called Sadam
Just after my sister bought her condo, there was a major renovation of the sewer system for the whole complex, leaving her and her infant with no running water for more than 3 weeks. I think she depended on buckets the whole time. I guess we add this to the list of essential things, right after towel ('cause you need to know where that is at all times!).
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