Diapers

Dedicated to Gramma-Wamma-Lamma Bing Bong

It is not scientifically proven, but accepted as fact that the most frequent topic of conversation among Peace Corps volunteers is…

...poop.

Why? It’s something everyone has to do every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and when you’re in a different place, you wonder whether the rules/bathrooms/jokes are different. Poop is not usually talked about in public, so when volunteers are together, we have to get it all out (the words, I mean). Poop is a way of telling if your body is doing ok, and often in the Peace Corps, it’s not.

So the following doubt, presented by my most loyal blog-post-commenter, was a most welcome interrogation.

Question: Do babies wear diapers?

Good question. I wondered that myself for a long time. It depends on the place. In the cities, people tend to use more things that we are used to as Americans, like diapers, strollers and bottles. In Nauela, I don’t think there’s a single disposable diaper. I have seen babies wearing cloth diapers, attached with a small Y-shaped bendy plastic apparatus  near the crotch, with a clip at each end to hold all the cloth together. Some babies have plastic underwear-pants that they wear outside the cloth diaper to keep everything from getting wet. Some babies just don’t wear diapers. Most babies are carried on the mom’s or sister’s or aunt’s or cousin’s or someone female’s back, and people who know the baby well can feel the movements of the baby and know he or she wants to pee or poop, in order to anticipate it and move the baby to some nearby bushes to keep from getting soiled. Sometimes they just get soiled.

So always remember what the wise Anne Cipriano once said: “When in doubt, do it!”