I guess I’ll head back into Beijing tomorrow afternoon. After all, there are things I should be doing, and I can’t stay up here forever.
Anyway, it dawned on me this morning that I was getting a bit on the smelly side. Actually, I think I might have noticed that yesterday afternoon, but I can’t be sure. The countryside is rich with smells in the summer time, especially when you share a courtyard with 20-odd sheep. Most of the smells, obvious exceptions aside, are not unpleasant. What is less than pleasant is the lack of the kind of bathroom facilities common in middle-class urban areas. The only running water is from one single tap in the courtyard. In the summer, although it never gets as hot up here as it does down in Beijing, it does get warm during the day. Fortunately, there is one of those black polythene bag camp shower type thingies set on a small platform over the northeast corner of the courtyard, with a small curtain giving a very small measure of privacy. Not enough privacy. Taking a shower means stripping off in full view of anyone or anything in the courtyard. I wouldn’t mind if we were way out in the forest and there was nobody around, but this place is not so much a village as a conglomeration of villages that have grown together. There’s stacks and stacks of people, and nobody knocks on doors or courtyard gates. So it’s not the most comfortable way to shower. Still, the only other option is the township bathhouse. Sure, they have private rooms for 10 kuai all you can bathe (10 kuai and no time or water limits, in other words), but last time I went there the air was kinda nasty, and I left clean but feeling sick.
Anyways, I thought I’d better do something about my smelliness before I headed back to Beijing. I’m sure nobody I shared a bus or miandi with on the way in to the county town would mind, as they’d probably all be in just as smelly a state as me. But once I arrive at the county town bus station, I’ll be dealing with a whole lot of city folks again, so perhaps it’s best to minimise the potential for conflicts or other nastiness. Speaking of which, I must buy some toothpaste….. And I thought that I’d take advantage of the xiuxi/siesta period in the middle of the day, when my parents in law would be asleep on the kang (as they are now) and the only people out and about would be the truckers and tourists racing down the highway. I doubt any of them would even notice our village as they roar on through, unless they were in urgent need of food or had to do some running repairs on their vehicles. They way they drive, you’d think they thought they were on an F1 race track desperately trying to beat Alonso for the championship. Especially the truckers. The only time you see them drive sensibly is when they are forced to stop and fix something.
Anyway, so the whole world will be glad to know I just took a shower. I don’t smell anymore. In fact, I’m quite fragrant right now. It’s not the most comfortable way to take a shower, standing out in the open with a fine view of the whole courtyard, able to hear the traffic roar past and the neighbours chat as they clear up the lunch dishes and settle down for their midday nap. I was never much of an exhibitionist. But that’s about as much privacy as you’re ever going to get up here. Oh, and the fact that the platform that camp shower thing is set on is at a height appropriate for your average Chinese person doesn’t help. I’m not especially tall, only about average height for a Kiwi, but still I’m tall enough that showering up here involves squatting and twisting myself into all kinds of weird shapes in an effort to keep the water at a high enough pressure to wash the dirt and soap off me.
Oh well, never mind, I’m clean again.
