Day 16- Twenty Seconds of Comfort

I usually would never admit this, but I know I’ll have worse experiences while I’m in Peru. Here’s the thing…I went three days without a shower this week.  It’s winter here in Peru. I’m not saying that it’s freezing cold. Usually the days are fairly warm. However, the sun only stays out for approximately twelve hours. So the water in the water tank doesn’t have enough time to warm up in the sunshine. Normally in Florida when I’m at the pool or the beach with my friends, I pride myself in being able to handle the cold water. In Florida, as soon as you get out of the water, you start to warm up again. However…this is different. You don’t warm up after these showers. It’s not just a little chilly. It’s like taking an iced shower. I know athletes take iced baths all the time for their weary muscles, but my muscles are fine! I don’t need to ice them! So as I’m taking a shower, I’m practically doing a backbend trying to get my hair wet enough to make the shampoo sudsy, yet keep the rest of my body free from the falling ice droplets. I finally take a deep breath and step under the running water just long enough to rinse off before I grab my towel and try to get warm again. My family has been trying to get the electrician over to the house for the past few days to fix the water heater. Hence the three days without a shower. The family told me the heater would be fixed tomorrow. I think, “Ok, I didn’t sweat at all today. I can go a day without a shower and just wait for the warm water.” I thought this twice before I realized that in Peru, “tomorrow” does not always mean tomorrow. So finally I man up enough to take another frosty shower. Finally the electrician fixes the water heater. Yes! Finally a warm shower! Here in Lima there are three settings of water temperature. The middle setting is the normal cold water. If you flip the switch to the right, the water gets a little warmer: just enough to make the mirror a little foggy.  If you flip the switch to the left, the water is supposed to get a little bit hotter: just enough to thaw out my skin from previous week of cold showers.  I get in the shower and flip the switch to the left. I relish the warm water for about twenty seconds. Then all the lights in the house go out and I’m left taking another freezing shower…in the dark. I decided that next time I take a shower, I won’t be greedy. I don’t need to thaw out during every shower. I just need to make the mirror a little foggy.