i took a shower with someone last night...

well really i used a cup and a bucket which is not exactly a shower shower. and it wasn't really some one as it was something..and he scared me to death!!! because he was chasing me around the bathroom! and i was squeeling like a little girl.

My family thought it was hysterical how hysterical I was. Only because this little dude was seriously aggresive!

Here's how it went down.

So a bucket shower consists of a deep bucket, a shallowbucket, the shower basin and a cup. And my family fortunately has a drain so you can dump the water down it. The drain basin is about 3 inches deep but there's no curtain or really seperation from this would be shower and the rest of the bathroom. My procedure is to stand in the shower drain and splash from bucket and use my wet wipes. I call this part: Wet wipe phase 1. That's the shower part.

You have to save your feet for last becuase they are soooo dirty. if you washed your feet first, then your water would get all dirty and you would basically just be smearing mud all over. The feet washing is it's own step. I call it Wet wipe phase 2.

Moving on to the Hair Wash step, you step out of the shower drain, pour some water into the shallow bucket to wash your hair. I usually just dip my head in and use the cup to make sure my hair's all wet. Then i shampoo over the shower basin so i don't get soap in my clean water. After i'm as lathered and clean is is possible in Africa, i use the cup and the shallow bucket to rinse my hair. It's a slow process but i'm getting pretty good at it.

So this little bugger attack begain as I was in round one. At first i was standing in the basin, using my cup and my bucket and he was just walking around the bathroom floor. So for Wet Wipe phase 1 and 2 i was just keeping my eye on him. And he was circleing the room like i was a criminal on trial. Back and forth in parallell lines slowly getting closer to the shower area. I decided since i was being interrogated by this enormous thing, this time i would just wash my hair from within the shower basin. So i bent over to stick my head in the bucket. After my hair was totally submerged in the water, i looked up to grab my shampoo. It was like a face off. He looked at me. I looked at him. We both wondered what was going to happen next. And the next thing i knew, he was charging me! Running straight for the shower basin at full throttle. I did the only logical thing a poor naked white girl could do in africa while being charged by a mammoth sized creature. I flung my head back, screamed, and ran to the other side of the bathroom as the bugger cannon balled into the shower basin.

From the other side of the all too thin bathroom door, i could hear my host family shuffling around. I wondered if they would try to come through the unlockable door to make sure i was still alive. And that thought panicked me even more.

And so i forced myself to re-enter the scene of the almost fatal attack and watched as the little bugger struggled to remove himself from his unintended prison. He was too big to crawl down the drain. He was too stubby to climb out of the basin. Although, when he stood on his hind legs at the edge of the basin, he could almost reach the top. So I grabbed a bucket, and placed it on top of my now captured former attacker. And proceeded to wash my hair over the shower drain. The soap and water, and even the bucket, didn't phase this thing. he somehow crawled out from under the bucket and continuted his frantic laps around the shower basin.

What else could i do? I grabbed my camera. ( I did get dressed first before entering the living room - just so you know.)



He was fortunately not still in the shower this morning.

I believe he is the bigest cockroach I've ever seen.

Blessings!

Shai