Today I had a HOT SHOWER!!!
Okay, this may not seem like a big deal but when you have gone days desperately waiting for the sun to heat your water so you can have a hot shower because it's CRAZY cold for some reason, it's a BIG DEAL!
Let me show you how my perspective has changed over time in regards to hot water.
November, 2011- Waxhaw, North Carolina
I decided to take a "stress shower" so I did. Yeah, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. If you had a bad day and you don't care about your water bill (that is not in front of you....that does not REALIZE what kind of day you have had and you "deserve" an hour long shower) you can wash it all away in a steaming hot, FULL pressure shower, for as long as you want to. This is the kind of shower I could take. Or the I-just-went-for-a-run-gotta-get-to-bible-study-in-ten-minutes-so-I-need-a-quick-shower kind of shower. This is a shower in the states. One where you don't think twice why the water is hot, who is heating the water, or why you should even bother answering those questions!
February, 2011- POC, Madang, PNG
In order to obtain hot water at my Pacific Orientation Course in PNG we had to light a fire. Now this isn't just any kind of fire, because if it was, my two roommates and I would have been able to light it at 5am and then go back to bed with no fuss... OH NO! This furnace was ridiculous. One of the first days there we were given a tutorial on how to light the furnace and keep it lit. If we scrape this, and stack this, and the kero goes like this, and then check it 30 minutes later...no problem right. WRONG! This is how my roommates and I would light it. We would roll out of bed, grab a skirt, trip around the room to find the Furnace Bucket, go out in the dark/often rain, and stand in front of the furnace. we would do everything they said to light the thing: scrape, stack, spray, light. It would go..pretty big in fact so we would leave. 30 minutes later...it was dead. The point of lighting the furnace at 5am was so that at 6 when most people started to get up it would have heated the water for warm showers. They would come into the bathroom fill a bucket with warm water (that is, if the one of lighting duty could get it warm), pour the bucket into another bucket with a shower head on the bottome, use a rope to pull the "bucket shower" to the top, tie the rope off, and voula...a shower. We'll just say...cold showers were looking a lot more promising to me on those days (it was so hot I often didn't mind)
April, 2011- Wayu Village
A hot shower? What's that? What's a shower? River washing all the way. Yu go waswas!
June, 2011- Ukarumpa, PNG
The water at my apartment is heated by use of a solar panel. It is great when the sun is bright and the water is flowing off the roof into our tank. The showers are so hot and wonderful!!
July, 2011- Ukarumpa, PNG
I am getting desperate! It has rained for ...MANY days and the sun has hardly appeared to heat my water. I have quickly learned to check the water in the shower before even preparing to take a shower. Why bother getting ready if it's going to be cold? This is when I say, mi les (I don't care, I'm lazy) long waswas (to wash). During this time though I had decided I was in desperate need of a shave but I was certainly NOT going to shave with cold water. So I made a plan. If I heated water on the stove and poured it into the tub...Hmmmm. It worked. I have to say, I did feel a little ridiculous. But hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
So Mr. Sun, you are welcome to shine on me any day!
Enjoy your hot shower today!
Okay, this may not seem like a big deal but when you have gone days desperately waiting for the sun to heat your water so you can have a hot shower because it's CRAZY cold for some reason, it's a BIG DEAL!
Let me show you how my perspective has changed over time in regards to hot water.
November, 2011- Waxhaw, North Carolina
I decided to take a "stress shower" so I did. Yeah, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. If you had a bad day and you don't care about your water bill (that is not in front of you....that does not REALIZE what kind of day you have had and you "deserve" an hour long shower) you can wash it all away in a steaming hot, FULL pressure shower, for as long as you want to. This is the kind of shower I could take. Or the I-just-went-for-a-run-gotta-get-to-bible-study-in-ten-minutes-so-I-need-a-quick-shower kind of shower. This is a shower in the states. One where you don't think twice why the water is hot, who is heating the water, or why you should even bother answering those questions!
February, 2011- POC, Madang, PNG
In order to obtain hot water at my Pacific Orientation Course in PNG we had to light a fire. Now this isn't just any kind of fire, because if it was, my two roommates and I would have been able to light it at 5am and then go back to bed with no fuss... OH NO! This furnace was ridiculous. One of the first days there we were given a tutorial on how to light the furnace and keep it lit. If we scrape this, and stack this, and the kero goes like this, and then check it 30 minutes later...no problem right. WRONG! This is how my roommates and I would light it. We would roll out of bed, grab a skirt, trip around the room to find the Furnace Bucket, go out in the dark/often rain, and stand in front of the furnace. we would do everything they said to light the thing: scrape, stack, spray, light. It would go..pretty big in fact so we would leave. 30 minutes later...it was dead. The point of lighting the furnace at 5am was so that at 6 when most people started to get up it would have heated the water for warm showers. They would come into the bathroom fill a bucket with warm water (that is, if the one of lighting duty could get it warm), pour the bucket into another bucket with a shower head on the bottome, use a rope to pull the "bucket shower" to the top, tie the rope off, and voula...a shower. We'll just say...cold showers were looking a lot more promising to me on those days (it was so hot I often didn't mind)
April, 2011- Wayu Village
A hot shower? What's that? What's a shower? River washing all the way. Yu go waswas!
June, 2011- Ukarumpa, PNG
The water at my apartment is heated by use of a solar panel. It is great when the sun is bright and the water is flowing off the roof into our tank. The showers are so hot and wonderful!!
July, 2011- Ukarumpa, PNG
I am getting desperate! It has rained for ...MANY days and the sun has hardly appeared to heat my water. I have quickly learned to check the water in the shower before even preparing to take a shower. Why bother getting ready if it's going to be cold? This is when I say, mi les (I don't care, I'm lazy) long waswas (to wash). During this time though I had decided I was in desperate need of a shave but I was certainly NOT going to shave with cold water. So I made a plan. If I heated water on the stove and poured it into the tub...Hmmmm. It worked. I have to say, I did feel a little ridiculous. But hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
So Mr. Sun, you are welcome to shine on me any day!
Enjoy your hot shower today!
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