Buckets

HOLY CRAP, BUCKETS ARE FANTASIC!  I never ever thought I would use a bucket for so many things before.  Let me list the ways I use them on an everyday basis:

• bucket baths
• 2 for my drinking water filter 
• storage for food (so critters and bugs don’t get in my food)
• for catching rain water off of my roof 
• carrying water
• a bucket full of water next to my squat toilet (so I can “flush” it)
• for cleaning (washing clothes, cleaning dishes, etc)
• store precious water
• trash
• a seat
• storing charcoal

Many people in Tanzania will carry everything for meals in buckets (dishes, containers with the food in it, tea), will take a bucket to market full of goods to sell, come back from market with their purchases…I can’t even count the ways that people here use buckets.  They’re incredibly useful and some other volunteers made the mistake of leaving some out over night.  They were gone the next morning.  Don’t worry, fancy $100 Chaco-brand shoes will still there, but the ~ $1.50 bucket will be gone.  Even when a bucket has kicked the bucket (pun most certainly intended), it will undoubtedly be turned into a toy in some way.

            So though I may look ridiculous returning from my banking town with a bucket almost every time I return to my village, I’m quite happy to have an arsenal of buckets, as their usefulness seems to be unparalleled here.