Let me tell you a little something about hygiene...

Turns out its fairly easy to be clean here in Burkina.  My shower areas, both with my host family and at my future house in Siniena, are made of concrete and about the size 6'X6', with a hole at the bottom of one wall and a slight slant to the floor, one takes a bucket of water, a cup for pouring the water over ones self, and any desired cleaning products, soap and shampoo are cheap and easy to find, the price of everything can be haggled here.  For a shower, one simply pours water to wet oneself, applies soap and shampoo, and then rinses, I typically do this before breakfast and before dinner.  My shower is outside with my host family, taking a shower under the stars is pretty sweet, my shower is indoors at my future house in Siniena.  Im going to go ahead and say I prefer the bathroom method here to the toilets of the USA.  The squeemish of stomach might want to skip ahead past the next paragraph,


There is a plastic teakettle called a bouilloir I believe, filled with water, that one takes into the latrine, a concrete enclosure similar to the shower, but with a hole in the middle of the floor, I also opt to take my soap.  One simply squats over the hole, a naturally comfortable position, at least for my legs, and does one's business over the hole.  Ones toilet paper is ones hand :) when the business is complete, one simply rinses the hand and the other areas with water from the bouilloir and then, after the clothes are resituated, one can wash the hand with the soap.  When the technique is mastered, its actually cleaner to rinse with water than to spread all of the gunk around with toilet paper.  There, I said it.  Its also much easier on the muscles that control the bowels and is more effective at clearing your body out, we'll get through this together guys, and can actually reduce the risk of colon cancer.  Here it is a cultural norm, more predominate with muslims, to do everyting public with your right hand, shake hands, give money and objects, because the left hand is typically for wiping,


so the next time you are in a developing country, be sure to do everything with your right hand.