I studied abroad in Kampala, Uganda. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and each new experience of culture shock was essential to my growth on the trip. By the end, I fell in love with Uganda and the things that used to bother me, I grew to accept and even enjoy.
Because of COVID-19, we couldn’t stay with host families like we normally would on this program. So, we moved around to different apartments. One apartment that we lived in for a month or so did not have hot water. The program staff told us to take bucket showers so that we could have hot water. This means boiling a pot of water and pouring it into a bucket to take to the bathroom. You then use a cup to pour the warm water on you in the shower. For them, not having hot water was not a big deal and a bucket shower was an easy solution.
For me, I initially could not believe we did not have warm water. The water from the faucet was freezing. And I will be honest, I almost cried when I took that first freezing shower. I just hate the cold. I was a little frustrated at first that the staff didn’t seem concerned. For a while, I took freezing showers because I could not imagine taking a shower by pouring a cup of water on my head, but when I took my first bucket shower, it wasn’t bad at all! It was actually kind of fun. It was so relaxing and almost meditative to take such a slow shower. It also made me so conscious of how much water I normally use (and waste) in the shower. Some days were still annoying because I had to make time and remember to boil water before showering, but my showers were shorter anyway.
I think someone from Uganda would definitely laugh at my experience. Again, it’s not really a big deal to many people. There’s also people in Uganda who don’t have access to any kind of clean water. The experience made me aware of that privilege to even be complaining about how cold the water is.
I also think someone from Uganda would be surprised that a muzungu (white person) is taking a bucket shower. They often made comments when I was walking places that a muzungu should not foot. Or when I ate local food, they were always surprised.
Experiences like these have prepared me to deal with future cultural misunderstandings/conflicts because I have learned to let the little things go and now have a greater sense of how other people live. Even in the U.S., when I am interacting with people from different countries, and perhaps they say or do something that I may find unusual or even offensive, I might consider how their culture influences their behavior. What they are doing may be totally normal in their own country. I may even be the weird one!