Shower shower
The idea and the actual act of taking a cold shower is a ritual I dread. Every morning since way back in high school through college and now, I have always been frustrated by the thought of taking a cold shower.
Mind you, I cant warm the water because that will effectively dash any thoughts on the minds of those who respect me that I am a full blooded African male. A full man, as we say where i come from.
My fear for cold showers was not informed until I went to high school. Up to that time had resigned myself to the comfort of warm water in a basin.
As you may not be aware, when I was growing up tapped water was an illusion in my village. We had boreholes and they still exist, though the government through Constituency Development Fund had ensured we now have tapped water.
Anyway, when I joined high school at the twilight of the 20th century a rude shock awaited me.
I was admitted at a school at the cold slopes of Mount Kenya.
The high altitude means that the weather was cold all year round. I soon realized that the school provided hot water only for those who had a doctor's letter against cold water. Whether the letters were always valid is an issue I never bothered to delve into.
The rest of us had to carry ourselves across the bridge of perpetual cold showers.
We were required to take showers before form threes and form fours came to the showering area. Therefore the nasty ordeal of showering always took place before 5 am before the “elders” woke up.
Since fear had been instilled in us, we never feared cold water, though the water was always ice cold.
A cardinal rule was that you could not fail to shower since that would put you on a messy collision course with the senior brutes.
Then came 'our time' when we became seniors ourselves at form three.
All of a sudden we regained our freedom and funny characteristics which we always dimmed as juniors emerged among us.
Now cold water became a problem.
We now changed showering time from the ungodly hour of 4.30am to 5.30 pm after evening games.
This, we argued was ideal time since we had just been out sweating in the field and therefore it was natural to take a shower at that moment of time.
The antics that students used to enter a shower were hilarious if not embarrassing.
The first thing was to announce from the top of your voice to all and sundry in the dormitory that you are going to take a cold shower.
One would then proceed to strip and tie the towel over their waist. The journey to the bathroom was overcome through jogging.
We were always more than two boys. We argued that by jogging we retained the sporting spirit from the field.
Upon arrival to the bathroom we would then start performing Push Ups. The aim was to retain the warmth in our bodies.
All this was done without any juniors school student at the vicinity. So after jogging for about five minutes we new that the hard part had just beckoned.
The bathroom area was a large room with three walls and an open entrance. In it there were no shower as we know it. The shower caps had disappeared and therefore all that was left was a pipe ending.
That made the water to pour in one thunderous line as opposed to having numerous sprinkles in normal showers.
Therefore, when one entered the showering area you had to move your body sideways to ensure the water touches on all body surface area, but before that happened boys became almost hysterical.
Since we respected each other no one pushed the other to the pouring water fall. The onus was to the individual to immerse himself to the line of the poring water.
This was gradually achieved by first slowly putting your leg forward and letting the tip of your big toe touch the gushing waters.
The ordeal was done meticulously as it was meant to check the temperatures of the already cold water. Whatever the outcome of the temperatures was, after being checked with the big toe, loud screams could be heard from the bathrooms.
The next step was to put forward the tip of the longest finger this again was followed by equally loud screams and curses. The reason for all these shenanigans escape me up to today..
During this spectacle one was careful to ensure that you do not accidentally sprinkle water on your age mates.
Finally one could then muster courage by bending the elbows as they do in television Wrestlemania and jump to the gushing cold water.
The screams, songs and curses that could be heard at from those often dirty bathrooms would dwarf those produced by Kenya National Theater actresses as they act in high school play books.
That is how we overcame the fear of taking cold shower at high altitude. Nowadays I still remember those moments every timer I strip for a shower. A cold shower.
ENDS
Good one again.
ReplyDelete