My First Bucket Bath

Before moving in with our host families, we had heard tales from previous volunteers about the infamous Bucket Bath. Supposedly, the Bucket Bath was full of interruptions from our mamás trying to show us how to scrub ourselves squeaky clean, or from little kids peering in through the bamboo walls. However, I have found the Bucket Bath Experience to be quite enjoyable and relaxing. Here’s how it works, in case you want to try it at home: put about 2 inches of boiling water in one of the big blue basins, and then add about 2.7 jars of unheated water from the giant water barrel next to the kitchen, and stick your fingers in to see if it’s a good temperature. It holds heat well so there is no danger of being left with only frigid water by the final rinse of your bath. You carry your bath – without sloshing too much out on the way – to the bath structure, which in my house (some people have indoor bathrooms. psh) is a 5x7 foot concrete box with a curtain door that blows in the breeze so that as you’re standing there naked except for your flip flaps (as our doctor calls them) you have a full view of an entire side of the house and the neighbor’s compound. Using the cup provided, carefully pour water over yourself, rationing it so that you don’t find yourself covered in soap suds with no water left. There is no electricity in the bathroom, so either I bathe in the dark and hope I got all the dirt off my feet, or borrow a candle and bathe by candlelight. It is quite romantic.

Above: where the magic happens