Of the 16 ISL participants at the mid-session workshop Eliza and I are the only two that “have” to go a week to a week and a half between bathing. We could ask for water more at more frequent intervals, but our family does not have that much water, and we feel guilty to ask for it. As a result we give ourselves “baby wipe baths” every night before we go to sleep.
Claire’s family insists that she bathe every night, but she has to share a large walk in closet sized room with Jenna. Their room has enough space to fit their two twin sized beds, with two inches of space between them, and their luggage if they don’t unpack at all and stand their backpacks straight up.
This weekend ISL hosted our mid/in-session workshop in Entebbe at the Sunset Motel (hotel). They provided Clair and I with the key to room 8, and told us to follow the hall to the very end. Now as a bit of background, ISL told us that we would be staying in modest accommodations throughout our time with them. Last week we looked up the hotel on line, and saw they had private bathrooms, which excited us all. Anyway back to Claire and I going to the room.
The door to room 8 looked like it led to a small room tucked into the back of the hotel where the builders had extra space. WRONG! After Claire and I fought with the key and lock for a few minuets we opened the door to a crystal clean room with white smooth tile floors, two twin and one double bed with crisp white sheets and leopard print fleece blankets. Our mouths dropped and we started to squeal. I rushed over to the double bed, dropped my bags, and yelled, “Call it.” Our room also had a sitting area with a television, couch, and glass table. We could not believe our luck. Next we checked out the bathroom. The bathroom went long and narrow. The tiles from the hall turned to white bathroom tiles. We saw a toilet, and sink, and a squeegee in the corner. We didn’t think that the bathroom had a shower until we saw the gleaming silver showerhead and detachable hose nozzle mounted on the wall. I don’t think I have ever seen anything so beautiful in my entire life.
Claire and I, no joke, grabbed onto each other and started to scream and jump up and down like the girls do in the Disney Channel Original Movies. I left the bathroom, and threw myself full spread out on the double bed. We were still kvelling over the room when Eliza walked timidly poked her head into the room. “Hey guys. I’m in here with you I guess… Is this our room?!” She couldn’t help but erupt into a smile. When she walked into the washroom and saw the shower she also started to scream. We asked the rest of the ISL group if there rooms were as nice, and they were not.
That night when I did my abs workout I had room to do each exercise without hitting anything. I also had a small rug to work on instead of a concrete floor. The best part, however, was the hot shower I got to take after my sweaty workout. I cannot express in words the feeling of getting to rinse sweat off your body as soon as you finished a workout. I had not had a real shower in over a month, and had not bucket bathed in a week. That shower rinsed off a weeks worth of inadequet baby wipe baths, and sweat. It also washed off a months worth of stress. I rinsed, lathered, and repeated able to massage my soaked hair for the first time since I left Kampala. The water seemed to wash all the stress and exhaustion away down the drain.
After my shower I climbed into crisp clean sheets that fit my bed, and sleep with pillows not stuffed with small foam beads (a travel pillow, the one my host family gave me is a flat rock). At around 11 after a long day I drifted off to sleep with clean skin in a clean bed. These are joys and pleasures at home, but I don’t know if I have ever appreciated them as much as I did in that moment. I wish I could stay forever.
