Let’s Shower Together

Lately, Jesus has been teaching me that everyday is filled with opportunities to say yes to things that sound crazy and live a life full of whimsy and adventure. One of our latest adventures started with overhearing that some of the older girls at the children’s home we live at were going to bathe one of my teammates. “No way did I hear that right,” I thought. But sure enough, they invited us all to go and take showers with them.

You see, myself and a few of my teammates have found out over the past couple weeks that we have lice, and the older girls have been so kindly picking through our hair and looking out for us as we try to contain this problem that feels pretty hopeless. We’ve also come to discover that in Thai culture, it is extremely important that you shower and wash your hair every day, and they’re convinced that we don’t shower enough and that’s why we all have lice (they’ve been keeping a tally on how often we all shower and apparently every other day is NOT enough). They keep telling us if we wash our hair more, that we’d get rid of the lice, and they often bring up the showers and hint that we should go shower (I promise we aren’t THAT gross).

So on Thursday night, they brought up who showers the most and who showers the least on our team, and insisted on bathing my friend who apparently showers the least. She has lice and they’re certain it’ll go away if she would just let them wash her hair. This then turned into a mass invitation to all of us, especially those of us with lice, and as crazy as it sounded, I figured, what the heck, why not?

So me and three of my teammates grabbed our towels and headed straight into the unknown. When we arrived at their bathroom, we found two massive barrels in the center of the room filling with water, and lots of smiling faces. We discovered that they have a big room that they all bucket shower in, lined with sinks and mirrors on one wall, little rooms with squatty potties on the opposite wall, and two massive barrels in the middle to bucket shower with. The girls were in shower dresses, which are basically knee length, flowery pillow cases with elastic around the top, and they handed us each one to change into. We laughed our way through changing into our dresses and the seemingly strange situation that was about to ensue.

Once we were all changed, the girls had us stand by the barrels and started washing our hair. They gave us the full spa treatment, washing and conditioning each of our hair multiple times, and we were all pretty surprised at how fun it was. Never did we expect to be standing in a big communal bathroom chatting with and getting our hair washed by these sweet teenage girls. Once our hair was nice and clean, they handed us soapy loofahs and we all scrubbed away the dirt and grime from a long day of working outside. Once we were done, they offered to brush and blow dry our hair, and they showed us their cute, bunk-bed filled room where they all hang out and sleep. It was a whole new level of bonding, and felt like a massive slumber party that apparently goes on every night here at the children’s home.

My teammates and I were so overcome with a sense of community that came from such a simple thing like showering, not to mention how much fun it made an ordinary, everyday activity. We were taken aback by their joyful, selfless hearts as they took the time to wash our hair so carefully in an attempt to get rid of the pesky lice. We were reminded of the early church and the way they did everything together, serving and sharing everything with one another, and the reminder of what authentic, Christian community should look like. The girls showed us that night that this looks like taking the simple, everyday activities and bringing life, laughter, and joy to them as we help and serve each other selflessly.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded,having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” – Philippians 2:1-4