I read with sadness, the news about a Lagos lady who met an untimely death from a faulty water heater in her home. She was electrocuted while trying to take a bath. As a result we have been advised to switch off the heater before turning on the taps.
Now I recently got a heater installed in my bathroom which has no water storage facility. The water is heated as it passes through the heater. This means that the only way I can have a warm shower or bath is to have the heater on while I'm having the bath or shower.
You see my predicament?
A friend suggested that I revert to the 'bucket and bowl' method. Mix the water in the bucket, then turn off the heater and use warm water out of the bucket.
Its been quite a few years since I've had to do that. Not to sound like a snob, but I think I've outgrown that method.
Its what I did out of necessity back in the day in secondary school where it was sometimes just bowl, as that was all the water you had anyway.
Its what I did growing up when very few houses had showers. It just wasn't the norm.
Its what I did back when we were a young married couple and lived in an area where we rarely had running water or if we did there was not enough pressure to make it run in our upstairs flat.
Incidentally, I have since moved to a 'much better' neighborhood where there is zero government running water. At least it ran occasionally in the former neighborhood!
Yet I have gone to great pains (and no small expense) to ensure that I can take a shower, a warm shower in my bathroom in my current neighborhood.
So picture this, I somehow constantly ensure that I have water, that it is at least safe for household use, that it can flow through the taps in the house, that it can flow through my 'rain' shower upstairs, and finally that it can flow at the temperature at which I require it to- lukewarm...and now I can't have a shower?
I can't have a shower because I am in a nation filled with mostly fraudulent workmen and tradesmen who charge you for the original product and supply you with the counterfeit.
I can't have a shower because I am in a nation filled with fraudulent- again, mostly- builders who know what the real deal looks and smells like but would rather fill the house with cheap fittings that give out under the first sign of strain. You buy a fully finished house at the cost of a fully finished house and you have to strip all the electrical fittings and plumbing before its livable.
I can't have a shower because despite how hard it is for an individual to ship in even personal effects into this country, merchants are shipping in container loads and shiploads of defective merchandise from all over the world everyday.
Now while I'm busy weighing my options- the daily possibility of electrocution or the imminent fall back to the bucket-and-bowl class, I read a comment on Facebook.
Someone again shared the unfortunate story of the lady who got electrocuted, and as we are wont to, several people gave their comments, informed and otherwise.
One uninformed gentleman dared to rub salt into my wounds by commenting that 'this is a classic example of the saying that hard work does not kill, but too much affectation does'.
His exact comment below:
This is what Yoruba says as Ise kin Pa'yon ayo lo pa yon" why do we need hot water heater in Nigeria. A little cold shower is good for all of us. But Feel sorry for the poor woman. May her soul rest in peace.
Now I do not personally know this gentleman. We just share a mutual Facebook friend, so I resisted the strong temptation to comment.
By the way, I now fully understand how all those Twitter and FB wars are started. Its by someone making a d***khead comment about something they know little or nothing about, and some other person being unable to resist the urge to set them straight.
People take warm baths or showers for various reasons:
For people, usually very young or very old, who are unable to properly regulate their body temperatures. The body is at a higher temperature fresh from sleep, so turning a cold shower on those people could well kill them!
A hot or warm bath to relax at the end of a stressful day
Some people, like me, have a condition where they itch like a leper (not sure lepers actually itch, but you get my drift) for the next couple of hours if they bath in water of a temperature significantly lower than their body temperature
Or how about some people just prefer the feel of warm water!
Whatever the reason, I say to each their own.
It is almost uncouth to make a statement like the one this gentleman has made simply because you have a different preference!
No, a little cold water is NOT good for ALL of us.
If this viewpoint were correct why should anybody wear green, when you could wear red or orange?
Why would anybody live in Ikeja, when we could all be living in Surulere or Ikoyi?
Why travel, when you can stay in your own little corner of the world and never experience anything different?
Dear Mr. Facebook commenter, its different strokes for different folks. Learn a little more about the world before you make such sweeping statements.
And no, I refuse to be relegated back to the bucket-and-bowl class. I shall each day step into my shower with my heart in my throat and a prayer on my lips
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