Well, let’s just say my culture [American culture] taught me to value cleanliness at an obsessive level. You can spot an American in Africa because of the 5-gallon containers of Purell and suitcases of handywipes they carry with them. Africa is a shake-your-hand-kind-of-culture and Purell doesn’t go as far as it would back home. When we moved here in 2000, I probably brought a dozen or more of those instant-germ-killers. Now? Well, hey - we still do use soap at least.

 

Another thing our culture likes to do is to bathe or shower multiple times a day for multiple minutes at a time. Okay, so maybe that’s not JUST an American thing, I admit. But our obsession with a GERM-FREE environment hikes the whole bathing issue up a bit more in our minds.

 

Here is Kat. She’s my 5-year-old. I have 3 more kids who are older than her. When they were 5, I gave them pretty regular baths, of course.

 

I don’t give Kat pretty regular baths here in rural Africa. She showers. Not that the water is all that more clean when she showers. You just can’t see how dark it is

              because it’s thinned out.

 

Kat wanted a tub bath, though. So we gave her

 

I know. Gross.