Doesn't It All Go Down The Same Way?

October 14, 2008

One thing I appreciated about a developing country was that people seem to use what they have. Things are multi-purpose and we don’t really buy things that only accomplish one task. We drink tea every day but don’t have a kettle. You just boil water in a small pot.
We only have a shower stall so we boil our bath water and pour it into a plastic tub. The same tub is used to mop the floor and hold water for any other cleaning (car, windows, etc). That one disturbed me at first but I just closed my eyes and reminded myself that the water is boiling and I can clean it out first.
There are other multi-uses that I think are a bit gross. Like using the same dish rag to dry the dishes, wipe the counter clean, and wipe spills off the floor. There’s also the 25 liter jug that used to hold cooking oil but now holds drinking water.
So I thought a sink was a sink- a place where one could wash their hands and other things. But I just brushed my teeth over an empty kitchen sink and my host mom freaked out. “Did you just spit in the sink??” Yes. “We use that for dishes, don’t do that.” The sink is empty, it’s all going down the drain, we put those dishes in our mouths, and someone is in the bathroom.
She was just so disturbed. This from a woman who washes clothes, her body, and her teeth in the bathroom sink. And I know it’s soap but I think it’s gross that they use the same soap in the shower to wash their bodies and them put it on the sink to wash their hands. Can soap carry infections?