The Help showed me the bathroom and told me she will bring me hot water for bathing, “you must be tired from the long journey” she said. I believe that was code for “you stink and I don’t want you spreading dust all over the house”. I wanted to tell her I had taken a bath that morning before leaving OlKalou, but I realized she was not asking. She was simply stating what I needed to do, so, a second bath, in the same day was imminent. Unheard of but imminent.
I thought I better follow directions before I was ‘fumigated’ for lice and ticks (ndaa na nguha). I also wanted to be in her good graces because I was going to spend the next one month with her and I did not want any bad reports being sent back to OlKalou. I was smarter than that.
The water heater was in the kitchen. She filled a bucket with hot water and led me to the bathroom. She placed the bucket inside a huge white tub that looked like a feeding trough (muharati), gave me a towel and wash cloth and left me to take my bath. I had never seen a bathtub in my life and here I was standing beside one wondering what to do next. Where was I supposed to bath? I stood in that bathroom for the longest time, trying to figure out what to do.
Finally I thought to myself: since she put the bucket of water inside that muharati, I assumed that is where I was supposed to bath, hopefully. There were different kinds of soaps, the only familiar one being Cussons Imperial Leather Soap. That is the one I used, I did not touch the unfamiliar ones in bottles. The porcelain bathtub was so sleek especially with soapy water, I spent much of the time there holding onto the walls to avoid falling.
That was quite an ordeal, but I survived.
