Shower Victory!

There are always adjustments in new places, especially in a foreign country. One consistent challenge for me in all my travels has been figuring out the shower. Those of you who have traveled know what I mean, right? I am pleased to announce that I finally had a hot shower in Eldoret this morning. It only took me five days to accomplish this monumental task!
I am staying at the Open Arms International office in Eldoret, Kenya. It is a five bedroom house and a vast improvement from the office they had downtown when I was here last summer. I even have my own bedroom and bathroom next to it. I wasn’t expecting that! When I was shown the bathroom the night I arrived, I noticed that the room contained a toilet, sink, and shower head all in the same space. You could take a shower and use the toilet at the same time. That’s efficiency!
Then I was shown the switch on the wall that turned the hot water heater on for that shower. I was told that I didn’t need to wait more than a few minutes for the water to get hot. It was important to turn the switch off as soon as I was done, to conserve electricity.
I woke up my first morning and turned on the switch for the hot water. Waited a few minutes and turned on the water to the spigot about 2.5 ft above ground. I waited for the water to get hot before diverting it to the shower head. It never got hot. So I settled for shaving my legs in the cold water and washing my face and underarms in the sink (also cold water). I told Renee I must have missed a step in the instructions the night before. She was concerned that the hot water heater might be broken.
The next morning, I waited longer for the water to heat up and still only had cold water. At least I had running water! There was only a trickle of cold water coming out a 2 ft high spigot my first trip to Rwanda. This place has much better water pressure than that.
Then Renee and Ruth told me that the hot water only comes out the shower head. The spigot and sink don’t get hot water. Ohhhhhhh. So I turned on the switch to the hot water again and jumped in the shower. This time I diverted the water to the shower head. Still no hot water! Then it occurred to me that the local staff had arrived and perhaps one of them had turned off the switch. After all, there is a sign posted above the switch stating, “PLEASE TURN OFF AFTER USE” So I took a chance on sneaking into the hallway with a towel wrapped around my body to check the switch. Sure enough, it was turned off.
I was happy to have warm showers the past few days. This morning I discovered that I really can get hot water out of the shower head IF I don’t turn the faucet so far. I should add that we take conservation showers in Africa. Perhaps you are wondering, “What is a conservation shower?”
Conservation shower 101: Step 1) Turn on water to get wet. Step 2) Turn off water. Step 3) Apply soap, shampoo, etc. Step 4) Rinse off.