Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Clean

It's not that I thought the people in Zambia would be dirty, but I wasn't expecting the incredible level of cleanliness that I've experienced here. Despite having to dip their washing water from a hole in the ground, Zambians are obsessed with washing.

There's a ritual where everybody washes each other's hands both before and after every meal, and our host offered us warm water to bath in the morning and evening before we let her know that our skin would fall off if we washed ourselves that much. There is a broom in every hut on the compound, including the bathroom, and in the morning the girls of the household sweep every inch of the compound, which has to be more than an acre, so that when we step out of our hut in the morning, our footprints from the night before have been swept away and replaced with the broom's wave-like pattern, overlaid with chicken tracks.

I've especially come to enjoy the afternoon al fresco bucket bath in the thatched bathing shelter, looking at the puffy clouds.

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