Recipe for a school shower

You want to wash? OK, take one of the camp's water bowls. You know the ones. They are the ones where you wash the cutlery and crochery after each meal, or where you wash your clothes, or where you wash your hands.

Now pour in the water. Only three quarters mind. As you will have to carry it somewhere dark, quiet and secluded. The stronger you are, then the more water you can carry. You will get stronger if you want a longer wash. To fill it up use the jerry cans at the door. If they are empty, then find the key for the tap on the other side of the school - yes, the school's only tap up near the open field - and fill up the empty jerrycan. They will weigh 25kgs when you are done. 1litre of water equals 1kg of weight to carry, you know.

How you put the water from the bowl over your body is up to you. Most people take the mugs that we drink out of and stand in the bowl and pour one mug over themselves at a time.

Scoop and rinse. Scoop and rinse. I assume that everybody gets naked in their dark secluded patch, rinses themselves and then washes and then rinses the suds off. Just remember that you are limited by the amount of water you have in your bowl that you carried out with you. SO don't get carried away and use all you water on the rinse part. You still have to wash everything off!

I just use some soap for washing and a little bit of hessian sack for a scrubbing brush. They seem to do the trick. For the dried paint, you need to clean it off when we finish in the afternoon, otherwise you will be taking that paint to bed.

Just a hint borne from experience. Remember that where you decide to have a wash, that you keep your clothes and towel out of the water. You don't think that you are not going to make a mess are you scoop and rinse, do you? That's part of the fun! Seriously, water on red ground soon turns into red mud. And red mud sticks to everything. So choose your spot well. There is a nightwatchman around, but he goes to sleep somewhere in the boarding school after he does his rounds. The school also makes for a convenient through route for locals after dark. Oh yes, if you have any light shining from behind you, then those out in the dark will see you. But you won't see them. I am sure that naked Europeans will hold their interest for a while. But really it is nothing to worry about. Really.

You don't really want to hang around while you are showering because the mosiquitos are in force after dark. If I was a mossie and there was a naked body somewhere out there in the dark, I would have thought all my mossie good-times had come at once!

Just remember to clean out the bowl and the mug when you are done. Don't forget to replace any of the communal stuff you might have used. Other people will need to use it too. You get used to it. If you get a little earlier, you will see the boarders doing the same thing just around the corner. Except that they share the bowls of water! It puts things into a little perspective, doesn't it?

But a shower before bed is worth it! Clean and cool getting into bed. What a pleasure.