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In India, we definitely didn’t put our cleanliness first. And Pastor didn’t ask us to shower more. In fact, we had to have him build us a shower while we were there. We went and bought a drum, along with piping and a faucet. We then had to fill up the drum with water. So, we didn’t really take advantage of the shower that we built. Only when Joel and Melina came to visit us did we even get questioned on our hygiene. We waited until we could smell ourselves to shower in India. Here, we are requested to shower multiple times.
After pointing out the showers to us, Pastor told us, “You can shower at morning and night.” It’s not that we smell. It may have to do with how we look. We have only one mirror, and it’s not near where we are staying, so we don’t look in it often. So, I wouldn’t doubt that is has to do with our appearance. Also, a certain member of our team has yet to even visit the shower.
On Saturday morning, before church, the neighbors come over and we all sit together in the prayer bench area. We thought that we were ready for church to begin. Oh, how we were wrong. About 10 minutes before the whole congregation arrived, the Pastor and our neighbor pointed out some changes that we needed to make. First, he looked at Brody, pointed at his hair and said, “Brody, your hair. It is not good. You comb?” Brody walked away to change his shorts into pants and dejectedly went to fix his hair. As he was leaving, the team was laughing at the irony of the situation.
As the team was laughing, with Kaitlyn laughing the hardest, the neighbor pointed at Kaitlyn’s hair and said, “Kaitlyn, you brush hair. Is all over.” Shocked and a little hurt, Kaitlyn walked away to look at the mirror and fix her hair.
The whole time, Josi was getting a kick out of this. She laughed so much when Kaitlyn got called out right after Brody. But Josi should have known that she who laughs hardest is next. Sure enough, the very next thing that the neighbor said was directed at Josi.
He pointed at Josi’s hair and said, “Josi pull back hair.” Even though her hair was fabulous and curly, it must not be acceptable for women to have their hair down in church. I’m not sure.
So, needless to say, we have learned a lot since India. Nepalese people like to shower two, three, or four times a day, and sometimes it is very necessary because of the heat. We are slowly adapting out of our shower-free hippie ways into the culture of the Nepal. Oh India, you set us up for heartbreak.
