Zwedru

My bath house

Going a little more native

An alternative bucket bath

BUCKET BATHS   I don't think I ever got used to the Liberian heat.  There were no fans and certainly no air conditioning.  No matter how hot it got, the Cokes were always served warm.  The days could be blistering and some nights I'd lie in bed so hot that my skin would sting.  The only thing to do then was take yet another bucket bath.  I took four or five baths a day. 

I had a metal enclosure in my yard for bathing.   In the mornings, my house helper spoiled me.  Before Toe went to school, he'd heat up a bucket of water.  It made carrying the bucket out to the bath area a treat.  I didn't feel quite as decadent during the times when there was electricity and I heated the water up myself.  I especially liked taking bucket baths at night under the starry sky. 

My neighbors watched everything I did for two years.  Well, that included my bucket baths.  As they walked through my yard, they waved at me.  I smiled and waved a lathered hand back at them.  What else could I do?

I didn't know how much I appreciated my bath house until I saw what another volunteer used in Lofa County.  It was definitely more of a cultural experience than I had. 

And, if you didn't like my bath house or the thatched version, there was still one more alternative for taking a bucket bath.   Little Kevin didn't seem at all unhappy with the his option.