Visiting a Village

As Michael and I celebrated our four years of marriage, we had the opportunity to spend our first night in a village. It made quite a memorable anniversary.

It all started when I suggested that we offer to take a friend to his village in order for him to take care of some paperwork. Michael was shocked because I actually had a spontaneous idea:) I guess after four years, he's rubbing off on me a little!
Anyway, he accepted  and  invited us to stay with his family.

On the way out we stopped at a market and bought some fresh fish. Michael and our friend began preparing it to cook when we arrived at his home. While waiting on dinner, his mom asked if we were going to bathe. When we responded negatively, we read by her body language and facial expression,  that she was appalled, and quickly corrected ourselves with the appropriate response.

For those of you who do not know about the village bathrooms, they are usually outside, have a "spatty potty", and a barrel of water for scooping water out to flush the potty, wash your hands, and take a dip bath. If you're not familiar with the term "spatty potty", see the picture on the side of the blog. The ones in the village usually aren't porcelain, though:)

This was not my first time for a dip bath, but it was the first one outside. Their particular bathroom was an enclosed cement square area outside. It was actually quite nice, with a porcelain spatty potty. It was rather chilly in that village since it is a little further in the mountains than where we live, which added an extra challenge. Surprisingly, it was a nice experience. When else do you get a chance to bathe under the starry night?

After bathing and dinner, we sang a couple songs. Then for bed time, our hosts brought down our bedding from upstairs. We had two comfy mats, blankets, pillows, and a mosquito net. We slept very comfortably and got great rest. Michael did, however, wake up with a cold because like I mentioned before, it was considerably colder in this village than in our city.