In Guatemala, there are two ways to bathe. The first is the classic bucket bath, where you fill a bucket with water and scoop it out to wet and rinse. That's what we have at my current host family, but I wanted to take some time to acknowledge the hilarity and ridiculousness of the Lorenzetti, which I had in my old host family.
It's this electric showerhead. Wait, you say. That doesn't sound safe. Electricity and water. Well, I mean I guess technically it is. As long as you don't touch it. If you do touch it, shooting pains. Up and down your arm.
I would know.
Anyway, showering in my host family now is even more of an adventure.
As you can imagine, living with a new family produces an early morning race to the bathroom to see who can be first to bathe.
So I always get up first so I don't interfere with their routine. This morning, I walked into the bathroom in the barely dawning morning to find the trash basket that contains all the used toilet paper (3rd world country-experienced people know what I'm talking about) tipped on its side. I figured the dog had just turned it over, but then it squaked a little.
I looked inside. Bam, chicken. I tried to just scare it without touching the ickiness of the trash basket but to no avail. I got a stick from outside and began beating the trash can on the side with it to scare the chicken away. Of course it ran to the complete opposite side of the bathroom and hid in the corner under the chair that they use as a toiletry cabinet.
The whole thing quickly deteriorated into me balancing on the side of the bath tub, prodding the chicken with a stick and dodging the German Shepherd who obviously thought this was just too fun a game to risist and was nipping at my ankles.
By the time I finally got the chicken out of the bathroom, the sun was fully up and the water was fully cold. And, needless to say, I was fully awake.
It's this electric showerhead. Wait, you say. That doesn't sound safe. Electricity and water. Well, I mean I guess technically it is. As long as you don't touch it. If you do touch it, shooting pains. Up and down your arm.
I would know.
Anyway, showering in my host family now is even more of an adventure.
As you can imagine, living with a new family produces an early morning race to the bathroom to see who can be first to bathe.
So I always get up first so I don't interfere with their routine. This morning, I walked into the bathroom in the barely dawning morning to find the trash basket that contains all the used toilet paper (3rd world country-experienced people know what I'm talking about) tipped on its side. I figured the dog had just turned it over, but then it squaked a little.
I looked inside. Bam, chicken. I tried to just scare it without touching the ickiness of the trash basket but to no avail. I got a stick from outside and began beating the trash can on the side with it to scare the chicken away. Of course it ran to the complete opposite side of the bathroom and hid in the corner under the chair that they use as a toiletry cabinet.
The whole thing quickly deteriorated into me balancing on the side of the bath tub, prodding the chicken with a stick and dodging the German Shepherd who obviously thought this was just too fun a game to risist and was nipping at my ankles.
By the time I finally got the chicken out of the bathroom, the sun was fully up and the water was fully cold. And, needless to say, I was fully awake.
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