Taking a Bath

My host family doesn’t have running water (as far as I know, this is true of most of Mozambique once you get out of Maputo).  I am no stranger to this living situation; I spent every summer of my childhood in Denali National Park without running water.  I know how to wash dishes in plastic tubs and brush my teeth using water from a water bottle.  The bath situation, however, is new to me.  I must admit, when I signed up for the Peace Corps, I expected to be overall dirtier than I was at home.  I expected to take fewer baths, wash my hair less often, and have chronically dirty feet.  So far, this has not been the case.  I have bathed more since I got to Mozambique than I ever have before.  Mozambicans take at least two, sometimes three or four, bucket baths per day, depending on how hot it is.  A bucket bath consists of carrying a tub of about 10 cups of warm water to the outside bathroom and using a smaller cup to pour the water over yourself.  I never expected I could be so clean with so little water, but I can even wash my hair and get all the soap out.  I might even bring this back to the states! I’ll just stand in my shower with my bucket of water and take a bucket bath Mozambican style.  Some families here do that if they have an inside bathroom.  Some houses are plumbed for water, but the pressure is usually too low to actually take a shower. 

The other adjustment I had to make living without running water here is washing my clothes by hand.  News flash: it doesn’t actually take that long AND I think my clothes get even cleaner than when I wash them in a machine.  All you need is a bar of soap and four buckets: one for the initial soak, one for soapy water, one for the first rinse, and one for the second rinse.  Just make sure to wring out the clothes after the soapy water to get as much soap as possible off before you rinse. Also, don’t wring out the water of the last rinse or else your clothes will be wrinkled.  Wrinkled clothes are a big no-no in Mozambique.  Irons are a must.

Here are some photos of my shower/bathroom.  The big tub of water behind the toilet is to pour into the toilet to “flush” it.  Works just fine, most of the time.

So, living without running water isn’t bad at all.  And it makes you slow down and enjoy the finer things in life like watching the wind blow clean laundry drying on a sunny day.