Cold water surrounds me now
"That is the bathroom. We put it up especially for you." I had just arrived at the field office where I was to spend the next two nights, and the manager was pointing to four bamboo mats tied together in the middle of the front lawn, inside of which was a water pump.
The next morning I was less than excited when my alarm rang and it was time to take a cold bucket bath from the hand pump on the front lawn. I gritted my teeth and entered the little bamboo-enclosed space. There, in the corner, was a little pot of just-boiled water, waiting to be poured into the already-pumped-full bucket. I checked...was this for me? "Of course," they said. I felt loved.
The next morning there was a line inside the enclosure...apparently it's not entirely appropriate to throw ones clothes over the wall before showering. What had they expected? To my horror the answer came the next day.
By then I had moved on, and was staying in a mud house at the next field station. The hand pump was adjacent to the kitchen, outside, but enclosed in a sort of bamboo mat room. There were two door ways, lots of people both in the kitchen and in the yard, and no doors. How was I supposed to bathe? Then I realized that I have seen thousands of people bathing in this country, and every single one of them was completely clothed. So I put on the fastest-drying things I had with me and took my first bucket bath in clothes.
The next morning I was less than excited when my alarm rang and it was time to take a cold bucket bath from the hand pump on the front lawn. I gritted my teeth and entered the little bamboo-enclosed space. There, in the corner, was a little pot of just-boiled water, waiting to be poured into the already-pumped-full bucket. I checked...was this for me? "Of course," they said. I felt loved.
The next morning there was a line inside the enclosure...apparently it's not entirely appropriate to throw ones clothes over the wall before showering. What had they expected? To my horror the answer came the next day.
By then I had moved on, and was staying in a mud house at the next field station. The hand pump was adjacent to the kitchen, outside, but enclosed in a sort of bamboo mat room. There were two door ways, lots of people both in the kitchen and in the yard, and no doors. How was I supposed to bathe? Then I realized that I have seen thousands of people bathing in this country, and every single one of them was completely clothed. So I put on the fastest-drying things I had with me and took my first bucket bath in clothes.
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