Shower obsession

We're all obsessed with showers here. I mean the foreigners, not the locals. And I don't mean those foreigners either who were put in nice hotels by their companies or aid organisations, with hot showers and all.

I met another one of 'us' on Sunday, and she identified herself straight away when the conversation topic moved to personal hygiene (as it so often does over here.. ?). She's an ex-VSO (Volunteers Services Overseas, a European organisation not too dissimilar to the US Peacecorps) teacher in rural northern Rwanda, came down to Kigali for the weekend for some fun and showering at the Mille Collines pool. After 3 or 4 minutes of talking about her *need* for hot showers in her future life, she admitted having aquired a problem with the showers she takes where she lives now.

Up till last Saturday, we lived in a place with cold showers. Cold, but nonetheless running. When I could be bothered, I asked for a bucket full of hot water from the kitchen and stood in it, effectively mixing the cold sensation of my upper body with the warmth of my feet. It did work. Whenever we had the chance though, we'd bum a shower off one of our expat-type friends, and invaded their hotel room where that ever-elusive hot shower was to be had.

Since then I've moved on, and I now have a shower that takes about 5 minutes to decide if it wants to run at all. This morning, to my delight and surely to the continuing happiness of those around me today, it did decide to spew some water down on me. It stopped after a wee while - but my horror only lasted for a minute or so, when it started again.

My VSO friend from up north doesn't have that. She showers by sloshing water from a bucket at different parts of her body. The result: next time she moves, she'll go to a country with hot showers. Some changes are just too difficult to get used to.