I'm cleaner than you!

I’ll be honest to say there are not many things from home that I miss. Malawi has become my home and all the good and bad along with it is simply life. Sure there are times where I have a burning desire for sushi but it passes pretty quickly knowing that there is no way that I’ll be getting it any time soon. Same goes for grocery store cupcakes… I can safely say the one thing I miss most is a shower.

One of my favorite parts of going to Lilongwe isn’t necessarily the 24/7 electricity (err, when the power doesn’t go out) or the pizza joint across the street from Mufasa’s Lodge. No no, it’s a shower. It’s feeling squeaky clean, as if every fold of skin between your toes has been soaked long enough to dislodge the weeks of walking around barefoot. Or it’s noticing that the water washing down the drain isn’t expected clear water but rather a slight tint of brown...and the shock of realizing that “yep, that’s how dirty I am.” It’s not that I don’t wash at site. In fact, I bafa every day (being hot season you have to...if you don’t then, well, that’s just nasty) and scrub as best as possible. But nothing beats a shower.

Upon my return from my four weeks of travel I decided it was it’s time to take this shower making business seriously. Growing up, I admired watching my dad in the garage as he would tinker with things. Sometimes I would ask what he was doing, other times I would just watch. I was fascinated how he would come up with a new system of fixing something simply by what he had at his disposal. I admired that quality of him and, ha, secretly hoped that a future spouse would posses the same ability. Anyways, remember those times I thought to myself “there is no way I shouldn’t be able to figure out having a shower here!”

By now you all know I don’t have running water (if that’s a shock to you then you’ve missed reading a lot of my blogs...chop chop!) so obviously hooking up some sort of pipe was definitely not an option. Next I thought “my bafa is out doors with no roof so I could rig something up there.” I was trying to be as simplistic as possible. I’d heard of other volunteers hooking up some sort of tubing system that connects to a bucket and a shower head (read: head from a tin watering can)...or something to that extent.

First I went to my carpenter friend, who has built all but one piece of furniture in my house. “You are my customer” he tells me, and thus always gives me a good price on things he builds. So I explained to him how I wanted to make a shower and I needed a 120cm long board. He laughed, most likely thinking “crazy azungu, how are you going to make a shower?!” I told him I just needed the board and I’d show him! The next day I picked it up and strapped it to the back of my bike and drove home. Oh boy was I excited!!

I had determined the perfect bucket to use was one with a hand spout at the bottom. When you think about it you simply turn the handle and water comes out, right? Well my doubt was whether or not the water would come out fast enough to really simulate a shower. There is only one way to find out. After retrieving my bucket full of water I transferred it from my head to the board, fortunately the same level height. Now was the moment of truth.

I turned the knob and the water came dripping out. I turned it further and it came out in a steady stream. Holy cow, had I just done it?! Had I just created a village shower?! The simplest one, I dare say. If I recall correctly I began laughing, most likely confusing the heck out of my neighbors who already think I’m nuts for half the things I do. I was also laughing knowing that I had one upped my site mate, Justine, with the new luxury at my house. She has electricity, but I have a shower.

Really, the only reason I wanted a shower was to make my site more appealing for other volunteers to site visit me. Ha, NOT! Just kidding :p But I know my parents are planning a visit at some point during my service. Now, I know that my parents enjoy traveling in style - running water (of course, but palibe!), hot shower, coffee in the morning, bacon and eggs if possible - you know, the basics. So now that I have a shower set up (yes, we can do a warm shower by putting the bucket in the sun for a few hours, HA!) I just have to work on the continental breakfast and fresh brewed coffee. I’ve got the baking of cakes down so we could do scones, but that bacon we’ll have to work on, sorry dad ;) At least be happy I have a shower, though, because I smell much better and am much cleaner than I have been in months :)