Here We Go Waswas

For the uninitiated, waswas is Tok Pisin for bathing. Now, you may be wondering why a whole blog post is dedicated to waswas…well, for starters, there is no electricity in the village; therefore there is no pump and no shower. There is, however, running water—in the truest sense of the word—a river. Every day we gather our things and go down to the river to waswas. So, for your reading pleasure, here are 30 steps to a successful waswas experience!

1. Get dressed—yes, you read that right. Since we bathe in an open area, you don’t just strip down and jump in! A meri dres (a loose fitting dress that goes down to the knees or so) works all right, but I prefer a laplap (a large rectangular piece of fabric), wrapped around the body like a towel, but tied behind the neck. It’s very modest and surprisingly easy to do.
2. Gather shampoo, soap, rag, towel; I kept everything in a small bilum (string bag) so it was easier to carry and harder to forget things.
3. Gather soap and laundry to be washed and put in laundry bucket (optional, but nice to do all at once, since you’ll be down at the river anyways—more to come on this process later).
4. When you’re sure you have everything, head down to the river.
5. Pass at least 5 people, who all comment on the fact that you are going waswas.
6. Smile and say, “Yes, I’m going to go waswas.”
7. Make your way (carefully!) down the muddy hill to the river.
8. Cross the river (up to the ankles here).
9. Greet anyone who is there washing dishes.
10. Smile and say, “Yes, I’m going to go waswas,” when someone comments that you are going waswas.
11. Walk along the dry riverbed (it’s dry season, so the water is quite low).
12. Set your towel on the log, so it won’t get wet or muddy.
13. Smile and say, “Yes, I’m going waswas,” when someone comments that you are going waswas.
14. Do laundry, if you brought it.
15. Begin the process of getting wet; depending on whether it has rained recently and what time of the day it is, this can take quite a while!
16. Get hair wet; this also is harder than it sounds. I’m pretty sure that there was some salt in the water because it was extremely buoyant.
17. Get out of the water to shampoo and soap up.
18. If there are any newcomers that have commented on the fact that you are going waswas, smile and say, “Yes, I’m going waswas.”
19. Get back in the water and rinse off, including hair.
20. Get out of the water.
21. Wring out hair.
22. Wrap hair in a towel so you don’t start sweating and get hot as you return to the house.
23. Gather everything you brought down to the river—if you leave anything, it will walk away.
24. Walk back up the muddy hill even more carefully than you went down; if you fall, go back to step 8 and start over.
25. Walk along the path through the village and smile and confirm to anyone that asks that yes, you just went waswas.
26. Hang up wet clothes, if you have them. (If you get dressed first, you will be sweating profusely, hereby defeating the purpose of going waswas in the first place.)
27. Take muddy, wet flip flops off before going in the house.
28. Dry off, get dressed, and comb hair.
29. Hang up wet laplap, towel, and washcloth.
30. Sit down, enjoy being clean, and try not to sweat.

Our area for bathing and washing clothes and dishes

The hill we had to climb up and down to get to
the river; they used tree roots, so there were
actually "steps"

The bathing costume...aka a laplap

The shower shelf...aka...a log :)