Those of you nearest and dearest to me who know me well know how I feel about the amazing power of a hot bath. Throughout my life the tub has been my refuge, my relaxation place, and is second only to my bed in terms of places I absolutely love to spend hours on end. This is such an ingrained culture in my family that my sister has told me that she regularly threatens our mother to remind her “don’t you slip and tell Jenny to take a hot bath when she’s crabby there, don’t you do it!” as since I have been to Africa, other than a few harried minutes in my friend Caitlin’s homestay tub, a hot bath is a luxury I have been without. The only other time I’ve gone this long was when I was in London when I couldn’t bring myself to scrub and scour enough to submerge my body in the tub of the shower I shared with 9 other strangers..( my how things have changed, what I wouldn’t give to have hot running indoor water at my disposal whenever I want it….) The tub of the hotel in the red light district that ended that bath drought in Paris seemed like a dream, to the point of my insisting we stay there again when my mom and sister came to visit.
Back in Africa, part of my settling in process has been to adjust to life without things and people and cheese and cultural things I love, and to try to accept those lovely little additions that have made my life… Interesting (Lizard this means you). Being that I am now in a space where I have an actual bathtub and have finally gotten it to a state of some semblance of clean, it seems a shame to continuously squat in it every day pouring cupfuls of hot water over myself alternately scalding myself and freezing while my goosebumps get goosebumps, and then using the water remaining to soak and wash my laundry. So I decide that it’s Friday, I’m made it through a week at site, and I’m going to treat myself. To a hot bath.
I filled up my tea kettle and the only other pot I have and set them to boil on the stove. I lit the candle in the bathroom (I’m not being romantic, it’s the only way to light the place, and generally makes me laugh when I squat in the tub and shiver my way through another bucket bath that this is the lighting available to me) and wait for the water to heat, and walk back across the room to dump it into the tub. A process I repeat countless times over the course of the next hour and a half. After the first hour, I notice that the water that is in the tub is cooling and the gas from the stove might be leaking more than burning and the air is getting thick. Not willing to give up my dream I lift up the long skirt I’m wearing, take off my underwear and sit in the tub, the water at a level at which, after all this work, still only barely covers the tops of my legs. And if my feet are flexed up my toes hang out. The water has reached a degree of heat somewhere between tepid and lukewarm at this point. I sit in the water, in my sweater, holding up my skirt that I haven’t taken off yet. I have to keep warm in order for the experience to work. I still need to get the kettle and the pot off the stove. This entails walking out into the next room, the window of which is open so that I can breathe through the noxious gas fumes that are helping heat the water. I sure as hell am not going to be walking through the room naked, as if the people of the village stare at me as I walk down the street I can only imagine the stir the exposure of my white ass would cause.
I finally get enough warmish water in the tub to get completely naked, and feel the grittiness of the dirt that has come in from the tap under my feet as I lay back, trying to get warm while still so happy to have my entire body wet at once. Even though I’m more than slightly uncomfortable, I’m still appreciative for this water in a way I couldn’t possibly be had I simply turned on the tap and walked away to do something else as the water ran, only to return in five minutes to find the bathtub filled with hot bubbly water waiting for me.
I laugh out loud as I realize the sheer ludicrousness of the whole situation, whilst simultaneously realizing that this will not be the last time I try this particular stunt.
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