DIP AND DUMP

For any who may have visited me in Spokane between July 2016 and November 2018 you likely would have seen, or experienced first-hand, the most notable and extraordinary element of my old manor apartment: a 9-spigot shower. Yes, ladies and gents… no less than nine water sources adorned that stone tile-clad shower. Count ‘em: two overhead faucets, one hand-held faucet, and six wall jets. It was beyond extra. As the first tenants after a new remodel, my roommate and I were the first to use that glorious, bright, clean, spacious shower; and the first to lose our minds over which valve on the wall controlled which water source. You could drown in a hot second with the deluge of water that shower could supply; a “human car wash” as someone once put it. I moved from that apartment in late Autumn of 2018 to a very lovely little craftsman style home nearby. The shower is adequate, but by comparison it is very pedestrian, nothing anyone would point out on a tour of the home, unlike the shower I moved from.

There is something cathartic about a shower. Whether it is an early morning wake-up shower that wraps your body in steam as if is it protecting you from the morning chill, or the shower that strips you of all the sweat and grim from a long afternoon of grueling yardwork that involves gutter cleaning; showers simply restore the soul. It is as if they give you a very tangible way of starting over fresh, and who doesn’t like a good, clean start?

I have experienced a wide variety of showers throughout my life, from the excessive nine-head shower of the manor apartment, to a 5-gallon bucket with a few holes poked in it hanging from a tree near the lakeside, and everything in between. Of all the showers that I have experienced, bar none, the Indian showers remain my favorite. Indian showers often involve a serious of spigots and valves (again, never sure which one turns on what water source), several buckets, and a plastic water pitcher. Occasionally there is an overhead shower head, which I have learned to ignore because they often haven’t been used in ages, spray in 72 different directions other than what you want/expect, are not supplied with hot water, or all of the above. Some showers simply don’t have any overhead water source, so it is best to learn to do without around here. Initially I was a little overwhelmed by the showers here as they lacked a few elements that I was used to, and had a few extra elements I didn’t really know what to do with.

The method of showering I’ve adopted in India is as such: fill the large bucket with hot water to a little less than half full. It is truly surprising how much water you don’t need to shower fully and properly. Then you take the small water pitcher, dip it in the bucket, then dump it over your weary, grimy bones. Dip and dump. Pause to soap. Rinse. Repeat. It is simple. Effective. And glorious.

I can’t really put my finger on what element of this experience makes it so enchanting for me. Maybe it is a fantastic effect of the war being waged on the battleground of exposed skin between the warm water and the cooling air in between the dips and the dumps. Maybe it is because in all the bathrooms I’ve had this experience, the only thing that feels truly clean is my being and the juxtaposition of becoming clean amid the unclean is tantalizing to the psyche. I’ve also thought that the simplicity of it all is calming. Not that taking a shower is complicated (unless you can’t figure out which valve turns on which of nine water sources), but we’re talking a bucket, pitcher, and a knee-high waterspout here folks. Whatever it is, I’ll take the romance and magic of the dip and dump shower over the abundance of nine shower heads any day. It is a good reminder to me that when things don’t appear adequate or what I am accustom to, I need to lay aside my preconceived ideas of how things should be done and experience another way. Who knows when that “other way” might just become my favorite way? And for those of you who visit me in my little craftsman style house in Spokane, don’t be surprised to find a bucket and a small pitcher in the shower. 😉

This photo has little to do with the content of the post other than I had the luxury of another dip and dump shower in the apartment that belongs to the balcony this photo was taken from. My friend, Shikha, took me out to dinner last night for Southern Indian food and then I stayed at her place for the night. It was refreshing to be with friends instead of banished to the confines of my lovely, but rather dull hotel room. 

The top floor of this apartment was my safe haven last night. Sharing time and space with friends is even more magical than dip and dump showers. ;)