Public Bathing: Steamy Or Just Unsanitary?

You know one thing that most first world dwellers take for granted: their shower. A nice flow of hot water to wash yourself every single day if you want. The simple ability to turn a knob and have a way to wash away the dirt and grime of the day. You don’t really think twice about the fact that your house has a shower or a bathtub or a jacuzzi. You might wish you had a four person shower with rotating showerheads or a giant whirlpool bathtub or maybe you get annoyed because you have to share a bathroom with your sister who takes twenty minutes to do her hair…but other than that you don’t really contemplate your shower much. Perhaps after a long run or a hard day’s work you say to yourself, "I can't wait to take a nice, long shower." But you never think …”I can’t wait to get home and wash myself in the sink.” Some of us may even consider our shower as a burden. It takes a lot of energy to wash your hair and your body every day. So if you can get away with it (especially if you are in college) you may skip a day or two.

I never really thought about the fact that a large part of the world’s population don’t have showers…at least not until I moved to Guatemala. Can you imagine doing what you do all day and then not being able to spend at least ten stress free minutes alone in your shower? We are so accustom to it. None of us have ever had to bathe in a sink…well at least not since we started bathing ourselves. In Guatemala, 75 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Bathing isn’t a top priority when you are trying to figure out how to get food for your kids. A large percentage of people work outside and then are not able to shower afterwards. So they have to take what we call “bucket baths”. They heat water on the wood burning stove and then bathe by pouring it on their bodies. There are even volunteers here in Guatemala who live without showers. They spend two years taking bucket baths. My first three days in Guatemala, I had to do it. That is when I realized that once I got to my site, finding a house with a shower would be a top priority for me. I am not a martyr. I think I am sacrificing enough without smelling like a sweaty mess all the time.

For those of us that do have showers, they still are nothing like the United States. I would consider Guatemalan showers a health risk. Sure, the water is heated by electricity. But the wires all hang into the shower. So you are standing under a flow of water while trying not to get electrocuted by the very mechanism that is helping you get clean. I think every volunteer has felt that small shock every now and then when they put their hand in the wrong place or bump into it the wrong way. It is a bit of a wakeup call.

So what sparked this thought pattern on the world of body washing techniques? This past weekend, I visited a town called Zunil with a few other girls from the Peace Corps. We went to take a dip in their public baths. Wait a second…Caitlin! You took off your clothes with a bunch of Guatemalans? Scandalous! The first image that pops into your head is a pond full of overweight hairy Latin men washing parts of their bodies that you never wanted to see. Sounds disgusting right? That’s exactly what I was expecting. But luckily, I was way off the mark. The public baths are actually private rooms with tiled tubs in them. There are two faucets, one for hot water and one for cold. You fill up the bath and either enjoy an hour of steamy swimming or you just soap up and move on. We decided to use the rooms as our own private saunas. The hot water comes from natural springs heated by the volcanoes that surround the town. Mostly the locals use them for a daily or weekly wash, but we put on our bathing suits and made a party of it.

After two years of showering in an electric deathtrap, I know I will appreciate my shower in the States even more. And after walking by several houses where women have to wash their hair in the sink, I know that every time I reach for the shampoo I’m less likely to take for granted the annoying task of washing my hair. For those of you who enjoy a daily shower, just remember that there are a lot of people in this world who are denied that simple pleasure just because they were born into a world where life is not as easy. So soap up and remember to be thankful for the little things because to some people they may not be so little. Now go shower. You stink.