THE MEANING OF THE WORD NEED…

When you live without amenities for a while you start to realize how
blessed you are to have them.  Sunday was my first time doing laundry in
Ghana.  Here at the home base we don’t have laundry services or a
washer/dryer.  Instead we use good old well water captured by a bucket, a
large bar of soap, elbow grease and a big tin bowl to wash away the smells
of a long week of work under the African sun.  The trick is…do laundry
before you really need it.  Despite how warm you might think it is in
Africa, Ghana is a very moist humid place in the rainy season and it can
take a few days for things to really dry.  Thankfully I wasn’t sure what I
was doing at first and didn’t dive in with all of my clothes at once so
while I’ll be wearing the same thing to placement on Monday that I did on
Friday…at least they will be dry!
Speaking of amenities – we don’t always have running water in the houses.
Water is very scarce here even though it seems like it rains every night
and most days.  Worse than no water is the idea that water must run uphill
a bit to get to the house that I live in across the street (more of a dirt
path really) from the main house.  All this comes up to meaning that water
pressure, enough to run a shower, is a rare and wonderful treat.  Instead
we take bucket showers.  We capture rain water from a big bin (looks like
a trash can in America) fill a small bucket and do whatever you have to,
to work your magic, and get as clean as possible.  You never truly feel
clean here.  When you have skin like ours you find yourself sweating a lot
more than the people who are from the region.  It’s both an amazing and
gross thing all at the same time.  The only day I have truly felt clean
was the day we went to the waterfall and water blasted all over me from
what seemed like a mile above in the sky.  I look forward to coming home
to a hot shower with plenty of shampoo and body wash and no rationing of
any of it.  What a luxurious treat!