baths on the beach

Mukinge was built in between two hills to take advantage of the natural
springs here and ensure enough water in the dry season. We get a little
inundated during the rainy season, though, and the water pumps and
filters have trouble keeping up a little bit. When that happens, we get
some 'friends' in the bathwater, so that after I finish my bath, the
water looks like I came home from the beach and brought a load of black
sand with me. At least that's what I tell myself, because I hope that
I'm not carrying around that much dirt on myself before I get in the
bath. I have developed a pattern of filling it with extra hot water
(the hot water heater tends to collect the dirt) and letting the dirt
settle out and cool off a bit. You can't totally avoid the dirt, though
-- when we scrub for surgery and rinse off the soap, there's usually
some pieces of dirt stuck on our arms from the rinsewater. People seem
to do okay, though.