Grounded

On Tuesday,  I headed out to the lake with the McCauleys – Larry, Linda and their daughter Miriam, who is visiting from Dordt College in the States. The Church of Central Africa - Presbyterian - CCAP owns several small rustic cabins, which are located along the south-eastern side of Lake Malawi, about 30 minutes from Salimo - which is two hours from Lilongwe. The cabins were originally built by some Dutch people, likely in the 50’s – based on the reading material which was collecting dust on some of the shelves!

We had a restful few days – eating, walking and reading. The McCauley’s swam – I abstained based on my reluctance to invite liver parasites into my life. However, I did take one long walk down the beach front, with my bare feet in the water, so I can only hope the general condition of my aromatic feet would scare off both friend and foe bacteria.

When we arrived, the groundskeeper, who lives in a small cottage on the compound, warned us that we would need to keep our shoes on, in order to keep grounded whenever we were using any of the water faucets. Those of you who know me well, may also know that my extensive list of fears includes death by electrocution – or really any kind of electrical shock.  I was traumatized early in life after seeing a picture of two bald men and one bald woman, in my father’s copy of The London News – the trio was going to be electrocuted for some crimes. I was mesmerized, horrified, terrified. I remember the photo to this day.

Shortly afterwards, I had a run-in with the metal plug on the iron I wasn’t supposed to be touching – and made the mistake of telling my sister, Karen, that I had received a shock. Since she was sworn to secrecy due to the illicit nature of my misdeed, she tormented me for years after, by telling me that I was sure to get cancer, due to the electrical shock.

Needless to say, the idea that every faucet in the cabin was capable of delivering an electric shock, was not welcome news. I also incorrectly believed that I was safe in the shower, as long as I was wearing my sandals. Unfortunately, in conjunction to the apparent short somewhere in the plumbing system, the drains didn’t work well either, so I ended up standing in about an inch or so of water, showering away contentedly, until the time came to adjust the cold water.

I finished the shower poised over the sink with a facecloth, terrified to touch any more faucets.

Luckily, Larry was able to explain the mechanics behind what had gone wrong, and for the rest of the trip, I would stand outside the shower wearing my dry shoes, lean in to adjust the water flow and temperature, kick off my shoes, shower off, avoiding contacting with anything metal, towel off on the shower rim, so as not to cause puddles to form near the shower entrance, re-shoe, and turn the water off.

I wore shoes for the whole time I was inside the cabin!