Around the House

Jason and I are settling into our new home quite nicely. Since our home is lacking in the plumbing department, we use a tap that is located in the backyard. The tap seems to be the center of attraction around the home, even the neighbors that live behind us come over every night to fill up all of their buckets full of water for the next day’s activities. Since the tap is located beside our bedroom window we get a chance to interact with everyone that comes to draw water. The tap water is clean and safe to drink. The tap usually has running water but the water pressure in the morning is almost like a trickle, but usually gets better before noon. By the end of September I am told that the water will be turned off on a regular basis for an unknown amount of time. It could be only a few hours or a few days. We try to fill up a bucket of water before we go to bed, that way we are sure to have water to do our morning ablutions.

When it comes time to do laundry you fill 3 large buckets full of water. One bucket is for washing, the other for the pre-rinse cycle, and the third is for the final rinse. Natalia, who is 15 years old, does the entire families laundry, not to mention most of the other daily chores around the house. I do not want to add to her work load and I am perfectly able to do my own laundry. We were here almost 5 days when I had some time to do some laundry. Natalia had started doing some washing so I went to help her. I have been doing laundry by hand since we arrived (except of course when Stuart would do my washing…ahhh, I miss Stuy!) and I never realized how poorly I was actually doing it. Natalia started laughing at my washing attempts, and then she just told me that I should be in charge of the pre-rinse and rinse cycle, and I could hang the clothes on the line.as well. Since there was barely enough room for 2 people to use the same bucket I did what she had asked. Almost 3 hours later we were finished; the laundry was washed and was hanging up to dry. The next day Natalia started washing all of the bed linens. I went out to help her again, but she wouldn’t let me help her. I think because she can probably do it faster then with my help. Natalia was using a wheel barrel this time because the blankets were to big for the buckets. I brought out my own laundry and started washing beside her. She kept trying to give me tips on my technique, but I think it will just come down to practice practice practice! I don’t think that I ever appreciated having my own washing machine until now. I was always happy that I didn’t have to go to a laundry mat, and it never really bothered me when I did go to the laundry mat, but I never really realized the convince of walking downstairs and throwing in a load of dirty clothes, turning a nozzle and ta dahhh, 30 minutes later nice clean clothes. Doing all of your laundry by hand also makes you really think about what clothes are actually dirty. Could you wear your pair of jeans and jumper just one more time?

Another new way that I have been using water is when it comes to bathing. We no longer have the luxury of a tub or even a shower. Instead we take a bucket of water and heat it up over a fire and then bring it to the “shower”. The shower area is approximately the same size as your standard shower stall. The walls are made out of grass, and there is a concrete pad for you to stand on. You bring your bucket of water, a large cup, and anything else you might need for having a bath. It is very dry and dusty here so you really have to scrub every nook and cranny of your body to get ride of all the dirt. To help you scrub they use a coarse stone, similar to a pumice stone, they also use lufa sponges. This isn’t your ordinary lufa sponge.

It is a natural lufa that grows on trees. Lucky for us there is a “lufa” tree that danggles it’s branches over our shower stall. If you need a sponge you just look up, pick the size that you want, unwrap the packaging (which in this case is a peel) and ta dahhh, instant lufa sponge! It is uncommon for you to bathe alone. Girls bathe with girls and boys with boys. If you are married you can bathe with your spouse or you can still bathe with another female, the choice is yours. If you have no one to help you bathe you will just have to go by yourself. The reason for having a “helper” is so the helper can scoop the water out of the bucket and pour it over you while you scrub, this also prevents soapy water contaminating the rinsing water. Of course if there is a spot on your back you can’t quite reach they help you with that as well. By the time Jason gets home from work it is already dark so we take a candle and walk to the back yard and have a bath. It is a nice way for us to have some time where no one else in the family is going to bother us, and we can tell each other about our day. Just as an aside; Showering by candlelight underneath the stars is also quite romantic. I thought that bathing this way was going to be awkward and not enjoyable at all. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

Going to the washroom is definitely not as pleasant as bathing. The pit latrine, or outhouse as Westerners would refer to it as, is located in the backyard as well. It is a concrete slab with a hole in the center and 2 foot rests on either side. The slab is surrounded by a brick wall and a tin roof. There is a cover over the hole to prevent flies from living inside, as well as a grass door to help keep the flies out. There isn’t much to say about the pit latrine except for a few little pointers that I have picked up along the way:

1. Keep your feet on the foot rest; they are there for a reason.
2. Keep the cover on at all times, and make sure you stress in importance of the cover to other pit latrine users. The cover is similar to closing the lid. It keeps the flies and any other vermin out.
3. Carry toilet paper with you wherever you go.
4. If you can, bring water with you to wash your hands, you never know if there will be clean water around.
5. It is probably going to be a little smelly no matter how clean you keep it, hold your breath and count to 10, or just bare it, it isn’t that bad…is it?
6. Lift your skirt high, no one is watching!
7. Try to relax, your balance will improve.
8. Bring a match or a candle at night.
9. Don’t have anything in your pockets that could easily fall out when moving around. If something does fall in, leave it. Nothing is worth going after in there. It might as well be called the bottomless pit latrine.
10. Make sure you say “Odi!” (Excuse me) before entering or cough really loud when you here someone approaching. There is no door to close.

• Humans need between 20 and 50 liters of water every day to meet their basic needs.
• A person in sub-Saharan Africa uses between 10-20 liters of water a day while on average, Canadians use as much as 326 liters a day.