Life just comes in buckets.

So like with many of the things here in life in Mozambique that are simplified down to the bare minimum, so is my way of usage with water and bathroom dealings.  And how my life around this is currently set up, my life is technically run out of 3 buckets in my room.  I have my bath bucket and my drinking water bucket, that are used for obvious reasons.  And my last bucket is called my xi-xi(she-she) bucket, which unless you speak Portuguese is less harder to see the obvious meaning.  So what it is in a simple explanation, it is my midnight pisser.... Yep I get a simplified master bathroom in my room in my house in Africa.  And as grossed out as you might initially be reacting, which I did too at first, but after a few uses out of serious necessity of waking up at 3 am because the dang roosters already started chirping.  I actually became pretty happy I had such a simple luxury. 

Alright, so this is not where this post ends but rather starts with this background info.  I tell you this in advance so that you will get the full appreciation and unfortunate-ness and or gravity for the rest of the story to which it would rather not be a story worth posting at all.  One other thing, in my short time here I've quickly learned from my own and hearing other peoples' experiences that to stay sain it seems you really gotta learn to laugh at yourself. So I am currently chuckling.

When I am taking my bucket baths, outside in my open air "shower" area that is also conveniently made from the same structure that also holds our "toilet" area, I've been trying to let my bucket dry out as much as possible while I'm drying off to drip less water in the house when I go back in.  So, to help dry it out lately I was hanging my bucket upside down on a wooden pole that was attached to the bathroom structure holding my door up on its hinges.  While up there after one of my recent rejuvenating baths, the bucket slipped off and cranked upon hitting the ground putting a good size hole in the bottom.  Well me being the McGuiver I am, I decide to try out at being that resourceful volunteer that can fix anything and role with the punches.  I jimmy-rig a patch with some e-tape and cardboard for rigidity.  Looks good and I test it out the next night.  Holds water ok in the house so I go for it.  Make it to the start of bath and I see it's leaking already.  So screw it I tried and I know we have other buckets in the house.  I take it to my Mae and show here, tell her I'm really sorry.  She shrugs me off and takes the bucket form me. 

Morning after that, I return home from my morning run with a good sweat and am in need of that bucket bath.  So I stroke up to my Mae on the living room couch and ask her which bucket I could use to take my bath?  She says some stuff quite fast which I miss and points in the general direction of  both the kitchen and my room.  In the kitchen above the dish shelves are the buckets for laundry.  Cool, perfect I'll just use one of those for the time being.  I go and start taking down one of the buckets when she comes in the kitchen and tells me to stop.  I do and back away into the doorway of my room to get a view of her and ask here which bucket I should be using, I point at the laundry buckets and say, "isto?"  She shakes her head and points threw me into my room behind me and says, "isso." 

My stomach instantly drops, I know exactly what she is getting at.... I remind you, I live out of 3 buckets; one is full of my drinking water and another just broke, yeah.  So I quickly try to change her mind with my weak/broken Portuguese but nope, she sees no foul in this or reason why I shouldn't use my xi-xi bucket.  And me standing there all sweaty and with no good enough reason, the deed had to be done.  I used it, TIA(this is Africa).  

P.S. As grossed out as you might be now and I kinda don't blame ya.  I have to try and save face.  In my defense every morning after I ever used my xi-xi bucket during the night I rinsed it out with water.  But yeah, the principle is all the same...

The Trio

Bath bucket with hole

Drinking water bucketXi-Xi bucket......