Yes, this is my bath water BEFORE bathing - I promise you, I'm not THAT dirty after a day on the farm ! Like most women, I particularly enjoy a long, hot soak in a perfumed, bubble filled bath – especially at the end of a tiring day. Another of my requirements for this (which many people take for granted) is to have clean water in which to do it. Yes ! Just take a look at what my bath water looked like last night in the picture above – if you look carefully, you can even see the layer of muck/silt floating below the water egh ! I had to let all the water out and run the taps for ages until the water got a bit cleaner (i.e. to a yellowy brown colour) and add STACKS of perfumed, coloured bubble bath before I could hop in.
When I travel I look forward to the obvious joys of being off the farm and usually, in a more “first world” environment things like …. restaurants, movies, shopping, magazines, decent cappuccinos, book shops, being around lots of people, smooth roads, fresh chocolate, 24/7 mobile ‘phone reception, different food – and clean bath water, too ! There is nothing as nice as relaxing in a hot bath filled with crystal clear water …. and knowing that when you wash your hair (or clothes) they will actually be 100% clean when you are finished !
Our water originates from Mt. Kilimanjaro – from a stream that runs off the mountain and (via pipes) into the farm’s 30 000 litre water reservoir. From here, it is gravity fed (also by pipe) to our 5000 litre water tank which supplies our house. The reason why the water is sometimes so dirty, is because after lots of heavy rain, it stirs everything up and as a result the sediment gets mixed in with the water.
Baths aside, I can NEVER use tap water for cooking. Even when it is “clean” it is never 100% crystal clear (or hygienic enough to drink / use for cooking). I use bottled water (which is really cheap here) for boiling veggies, pasta, rice etc and for making ice and adding to dishes I am cooking. I rinse all my salad ingredients in tap water to clean them, then rinse them with bottled water to finish them off. It’s tricky at first, but you soon get used to it !
But still, I am grateful that at least I have water when many people in Africa have no access to clean, running water and many years ago when my husband and I were building a camp in the Tanzanian bush, we had no running water for many weeks and had to bath out of buckets of water fetched from the river.
So, I won’t complain and maybe next time I’ll follow my husband’s suggestion and have a shower instead of a bath. I suppose it’s better to have muddy brown water cascading over you like rainwater, than actually soaking yourself in it ! (?!)
