Showering: once a luxury, now a chore...

Eric's shower, water heater & toilet...

I used to look forward to showering in the States... now I absolutely dread it. As I've alluded to before, I don't have hot water in my apartment and have been told just to boil the water and sponge bath. I'm probably down to one or two showers a week, in Eric's apartment because he has hot water, or by sponge in my kitchen. It wasn't really that big of a deal in the Summer and was actually somewhat refreshing but now I can barely wash my dishes without going numb.

No worries though, because my wood stove keeps my living room nice and toasty. I've also moved into just my living room, I sleep on the pull-out couch and do everything in here. It's easier and more practical just to heat one room than the entire apartment and is typical here. When I lived with my host family, they had an electrical heater in the living room and would keep the door closed to trap all the heat. It gets really toasty right after I cook too and I just leave the oven open. I'm trying to go as long as I can without using my wood stove all the time though because I don't want to run out of wood.

My bathroom: Shower, water depot, toilet and water to flush.

Anyways, I took my first warm shower since Thanksgiving and I soaked up every minute of it. During pre-service training one of the things the current volunteers told us is that in some apartments "you can shit, shave and shower, all without moving," and in our bathrooms in Bajram Curri, that's held true. But as Peace Corps promises: "Everyone's experience is different," so don't think all volunteers in Albania have these shower situations. Most have hot water and a western toilet. I've actually been told by other volunteers to make a stink about not having hot water but I think it's kinda fun to figure it out on my own. Turkish toilets are more popular in the Northern part of Albania and I would say less than 1/3 of the volunteers have one in their home. It's been said that in the north, volunteers get a more rugged experience because of these facilities.

Shower curtains are a thing of the past, moving your toilet paper so it won't get wet during your shower, a thing of the present. Eric and I joke, that between the two of us we have a full apartment, while he has hot water, he doesn't have a water depot and today I had to wait until 4:00pm until we had water to rush and fill up all my buckets in my apartment and run downstairs and take a shower in his apartment. When the water is on we usually have about 30-45 minutes of water. I've also started drying my clothes in two different phases because it's so cold: 1. Hang dry outside for a day. 2. Move inside and hang dry in my living room over night. It's too cold for them to actually fully dry outside so I have a system that's been effective so far. A hair dryer is used sometimes to speed up the process if necessary.