Keeping Clean

A bar of Janako Brand soap. Suggested uses: Washing hair, body and clothes.

The importance of washing with soap is repeated over and over again in advisory posters from the Ministry of Health.  We have about 4 of them in the Mama Tumaini Health Clinic.  Prevent Cholera.  Finish Sickness.  Wise advice.

A few weeks back I stepped out of the hellpot and into the morning air.  The sun was bright and the day full of warm and unnecessarily hot promise.  I headed to a small faucet a few away and proceeded to wash my hands.  Without soap.  I just didn’t have any.  Not that big a deal, I thought.  I had planned on using some ancient hand sanitizer tucked away in one of my bags.  I didn’t want to linger in the sun looking for a lost bar.

As I’m bent over washing, I couldn’t help but notice my filthy sandaled feet.  I stuck one in the cool water and washed it off.  I took off my sandal and gave it a quick once over.  I do the same to the other.  All the while visions of sprinklers and vast murky bodies of water danced in my head.

Finished, I splashed some water on my face and froze in horror.  I was thinking of the fact that minutes ago my sandals were on the floor of a squatter toiler.  And now, I’d just splashed my face with the same hands I used to clean them.

Appalled, I made a beeline into my room to look for soap.  No.  I’m out.  Way to go.  I rummaged in my bags and found the hand sanitizer.  “Kills 99.9% of germs” it touted.  I can deal with .1%, I tell myself.  My hand squeezed the bottle which erupted in a wet splash.  And before I knew it, I was rubbing alcohol based goo all over my sun burnt face.

My face now burning and eyes watering, I went straight back to the faucet and splashed my face reputedly.  The stinging subsided and I let out a sigh of relief.

Crisis over, I stood up and looked to my left.  Sitting there were 20 or so of my senior school students.  They’ve come to pray for Ramadan, but instead were furrowing their brows at me.

I smile and wave.  A few wave back.  Most just stare.

Great.  I thought.  See you all in class.

-

And, no, I didn’t get sick.

Bryce’s Guide: Cords and Nails

Destroyed Cord, Nail, Screws, Crudly drawn diagram.

The ambulance pulls up and Nassir hops out.

“Bryce. Can we use the blue electrical cable?” he asks, his eyes showing a sense of urgency.

I pause for a second eyeing the young man in the passenger seat. Not that he doesn’t look responsible, but I love that blue cable. I cherished it last year and never thought I’d see it again. It’s my computer’s lifeline.

“Now? Where are you going to use it?” I respond.

“Yeah, up at the school. For the afternoon,” says Nassir.

“You’ll be done with it before tonight?”

“Yeah.”

With that, we step on to the house and I hand it off to the young man.

Five hours later, I’m wrapping up class and decide to check up on the cord. The man has been welding all day up the hill in the vocational school cafeteria. I climb the steps and find the first piece of my cable.

Inside are the rest of the pieces scattered about. Copper wires stick out the ends of multicolored plastic and unfamiliar parts lay scatter at the base of the cords coils. I look over at the generator and follow a different cable towards the welding mechanism.

The young man sees me tearfully eyeing my cable and comes over.

“Are you done,” I ask.

“Yes,” says the welder. “We didn’t use today.”

“I know.”

He then produces a paper diagram of what wires go where in the plug. Fair enough. All I need is a screwdriver he points out.

“Do you have one I can use?” I ask.

“No.”

A handy nail can sometimes substitute as a philips screwdriver!

This leads up to this episode of Bryce’s Guide! Have a torn up electrical cable? Need to fix something while ten people watch you? No problem! You’re one nail away from all your problems being solved. What you’ll need:

1 destroyed 25 foot blue extension cord.
Misc pieces of said cord
1 1/4 inch nail
1 diagram drawn on the back of a receipt.
2 kids to wonder what the hell you are doing

Amazing nail also doubles for a flathead screw driver!

Directions: Find dismantled cord. Obtain diagram from welder. Find unoccupied school desk and children. Use tip of nail as Philips head and top as a flathead screwdriver. Tighten up electrical fittings. Plug in and hope for the best. Do not repeat.

“Where do you shower?”

asks Khadija. She’s the program director at Wind of Hope in the Arid, the HIV/AIDS community based organization I am currently with. I’m also living in her house. We were talking about insecurity, the displacement going on and the gunshots we heard this morning. But now we’re on to more important things.

“In fact I was wondering the same.” says Stella, the program nurse, “I never see you coming in or out.”

“I don’t shower,” I say. I haven’t since I came.”

“You’re a dirty boy,” says Khadija. She knows I’m lying… I hope

A hot shower is an hour in the sun away!

…which leads me to this edition of Bryce’s Guide. Want a hot shower? Got a water shortage? Inconsistent solar powered well? Here’s my solution:

2 one liter water bottles

1 “I Love Mexico” shirt

A water source

A place where the bottles won’t get stolen

I do love Mexico

Directions: Find empty water bottles. Clean said bottles. Fill with water (preferably non-salty water). Leave in the sun for 1 hour. Wrap in I Love Mexico Shirt. Keep until night, then shower away!

Following these simple steps ca ensure a clean heart and mind.  It can also lead to comments like, “But it’s good, because when there is no water, you can still bathe.”

Bryce’s Guide: Lunch

A pretty typical bryce lunch.

It’s sometimes quite necessary to sneak in a quick meal during Ramadan.  I say sneak, because in respect to the fast, I’d just assume not have a giant meal in front of everyone.

Anyway… on the menu for today:

1- Avocado

1- Bannana

1- Nandazi

Peptang Chili Sauce

Nuteez Natural Peanut Butter Spread

Kensalt Ionized Table Salt

500ml bottle of ZamZam Drinking Water

Gets the job done!