We Couldn't Live Without Our Bucket

Written by Bessie about Myanmar. Feelin' happy

She's our shower, our washing machine, and we couldn't live without her. She's our Red Bucket, and I won't share her.

Some background:
The thing that caught me off the most when we started visiting friends' apartments in Yangon was that they showered with buckets. Now, I'm sure many people in Myanmar's former-capital have bothered to install showers, but we've met a number of people that still hold on to their bucket-lifestyle. It's traditional & it's present-day: many people in Myanmar still use vats of water and a bucket to wash.

Woman bathing in Villages near Inle Lake, Myanmar b1

A common sight around Myanmar: A woman washes at a stream near Inle Lake.

My friends proclaimed - "I love taking a bucket shower!" With a lot of enthusiasm. My thoughts went to my few experiences on cold mornings in Guatemala when I'd attempted to wash from a steel metal bucket. Bleh. It was borderline-torture voluntarily dousing myself in freezing-cold water. So hearing my friends say this now, I gave a polite smile and thought them a bit crazy. I was happy that I'd go back to a hotel room with a warm shower.

Oh, crap. No shower?
So upon moving into a place of our own, we exchanged looks of slight panic that there wasn't a shower head, only pipes running to a water storage basin and another to a faucet. We stood up straight and proud, and said, well, if other people like it so much, we have to at least give it a try.

Washing with our red bucket. (Sorry, no showering photos available.)

These days:
We've had our place 4 months, and now that we have our own bucket, we don't even think about installing a shower. It just seems silly. Of course, it started out pretty rocky with the red bucket. Our first few weeks, I resented the splash of cold water. I'd shiver, squatted down in our bathroom, a bit miserable. But after buying a water kettle to heat the water, a love affair has blossomed.

I'm no longer scowling while dousing myself with cold water, now I'm one of those ladies in the shampoo commercials singing joyfully under a splash of warmish water. Well, sort of. But I do wake up each morning a bit proud and happy to embrace the bucket shower. I never would have guessed I'd say it, but I love my bucket shower, too.

She's a bold, red bucket, and helps us making our statement in Myanmar: "We know we don't blend in here, but we'll make a darn good effort."

« Through the Hidden Waterways of Inle

The Makings of a Buddhist Temple »

June 29, 2011 Jacs_13: That is so great! Awesome post guys, teaches us what we can do without! That's so cool, a lot of people think they NEED the shower, washer. and dryer when in fact more then half the world shows us that we do not! Very cool! :)

July 03, 2011 Kyle: We don't need those things per se, but we definitely wouldn't object if someone provided them for us :)

June 29, 2011 shawna: All I can say is WOW!!! I'm very spoiled. When we used to visit Ohio in the summer to see my mom's mom and dad they had no running water and we always took our bath and washed in a metal container. Outdoors to a 2 seater we went with hopefully toilet paper but often a Sears catalog. As a kid for a couple weeks it was fun but i know mom and dad with three girls it was not always the best of vacation time. Kyle went back one summer with us. Where we stayed had running water but I will always remember the summers at my grandma and grandps Shaw's house. Lots of une and memories.
Looking forward to seeing you to in July. You too might get spoiled when you have a warm shower with a great shower head!Love to you two. shawna

July 03, 2011 Kyle: Ya, I can definitely say that we are looking forward to constant electricity and instant, warm water!

July 03, 2011 Bessie: Great story - it's proof of what I've figured being here, that we're living with some of the techniques our grandparents & great-grandparents did. We have a much great respect for modernity & the many developments the US and other countries have made!

June 29, 2011 Dyanne@TravelnLass: Clearly you two were MADE to travel. Good for you, for embracing local custom with gusto!

July 03, 2011 Bessie: Haaaa, yea, we've taken the notion of cultural immersion to a whole other level.

June 29, 2011 Barbie: Love this post!

July 01, 2011 Erik: Great Post! Love the insights into other people's travels most never share!

July 01, 2011 Audrey: I love this post, especially with the photo at the end with your beloved red bucket. Although I'm sure there are so many things you've adopted into your lives and adapted to while in Myanmar, the red bucket is a pretty cool symbol of all that you've learned and done.

July 03, 2011 Kyle: In light of this great comment, I think we have a name for our beloved red bucket. We'll be cleaning our clothes in ol' Red Audrey tomorrow :)

July 04, 2011 Erica: We're about to head into a home stay in Guatemala and I had no clue that they bucket shower... in the cold. Awesome. This will be interesting.

July 04, 2011 Kyle: Ha! Bucket showers, I can do without a problem. Cold showers, though. (shudder) Good luck on getting through those in the morning! :) At least you'll need less coffee to wake up.

July 08, 2011 jessa: LOL this is so funny! i had a boyfriend from africa who, though we lived in DC, would prefer to use the bucket filled with water to bathe ... he and his cousins always used the bucket though they could have easily used the shower ... one day i got curious what was so great and tried it myself, and i admit, i loved it too. it's soft feeling compared to the shower! though it's not a daily thing, i still do the bucket baths ... 8) ... great blog by the way! just found it ... so inspiring 8)

We Couldn't Live Without Our Bucket

14 Comments

Leave a Reply

Let's be friends.

Us in a Nutshell...

This Post, Mapified

Where have we been?

Recent Posts