I travelled to Kenya at the start of the year, staying in a Maasai village for nine days. We had access to water but it was all carried in via moped in containers from a nearby house’s rain water collection system. When this ran out they would revert to collecting water from the reservoir had made by creating dams across the waddies.
For my personal washing I took with me a range of small flannels and a bar of soap. This had served me well on many a trip and avoids the curse of the wet wipe. I knew that there was no waste disposal in the village, I learnt that everything is buried or burnt or often burnt then buried. So this seemed like a suitable option.
“Although I can wash with a flannel, soap and less than 250ml of water if I need to. I cannot get that flannel clean enough to use again without vast amounts more water.”
However I hadn’t considered just how much effort it takes to get the water in. Although I can wash with a flannel soap and 250ml of water if I need to I cannot get that flannel clean enough to use again without vast amounts more water. Previously I think I’ve kept a dirty flannel for a day and washed it out when we’ve found a running water supply often a tap, as this isn’t something I have noticed being an issue before even when we are low on water supples. In a static camp in a water stressed part of the world this was clearly not an option.
Therefore my washes ended up having a somewhat strange feel to them, I’d be super minimal on my water usage whilst washing and therefore end up having to wash out the flannels even more. The super fine red dust gets everywhere. This was ridiculous it made no sense it wasn’t helping anyone.
On reflection next time I travel to an area similar to this I think I will take wipes based from natural materials that will either decompose or burn on the fire not releasing any nasty chemicals. It feels very wasteful and throwaway but it also feels like a more suitable use of the minimal amounts of water that are available to the communities that we were privileged enough to be staying with.
