Drinking and Bathing Like A Ugandan

Many Ugandans in the cities and towns have running water, but it continues to elude the vast majority, including all villagers.

Drinking

If you have it, you don’t have it all the time for specific reasons I don’t understand, but for the general reason of it being Africa. If you don’t have it, and need it, then you fetch it from a tank, well, or spring, and if you want to drink it, you must first boil it (or you should boil it first, but many villagers do not). If you do have it, and it works, and want to drink it, you still must boil it first and preferably let it sit for awhile as to let the pipe grime settle to the bottom of the pot; your own African filtering system if you will.

Washing

In General

If you have running water, and it works, you might also have HOT running water. If you do, then there is a button outside of your shower room that must be pressed on before you bathe (and you are a very lucky and happy person because: one, you have running water; two, you have working electricity; and, three, you are rich).

If you don’t have hot, running water, then you bathe like a typical Ugandan, which is by pouring water into a plastic basin and sponging or throwing it on yourself usually in a communal area outside, and hopefully you are partially obscured so that the whole village doesn’t see you bathing in the nude outside.

In Uganda’s Climate

Bathing with unheated water this isn’t a problem though, in part because you don’t have an alternative and accept it as an inconvenience inherent to life in a developing country, but mainly because it is never cool in Uganda. But don’t tell that to a Ugandan, that it never gets cold here, unless you want a laugh. Ugandans say it is cool when it is 73 degrees. And it never gets hot here, but don’t say that unless you want another laugh. The Ugandans say it gets hot at 83 degrees. They are kind of like San Diegans that way, only even more so. Uganda is on the equator, but the elevation keeps the temperature very comfortable unlike most African countries.

Want to read more about Uganda? Check out Natalie’s expat life at bigskyuganda.blogspot.com/