I hate to be cold. People know this about me because I
believe that it is important to make a big deal out of things that bother you.
That way people aren’t surprised when they offer you a banana and you tell them
you can’t eat it because bananas are disgusting in every way, shape, or
form---they are ugly, they smell bad, they squish like rotting hard-boiled eggs
(something else I hate, rotting or otherwise, because they look and taste like eyeballs and they smell
like a fart). So naturally, because I
hate to be cold, I make a big deal out of it, wear all the clothes that I own
at the same time, and call the head of the guest house where I am going to stay
to make sure I get in a room with hot water. Otherwise, I would not be taking a
shower for a week. Once I arrived at the
guest house and was not put in a room with hot water, I texted and called him
until the guard showed up at my door holding a water immersion heating device
which you can see in the following photo:
Yes, this device can melt plastic and yet it is inserted
into a plastic bucket of water and plugged into an electrical outlet in the
wall. I wonder if a hair-dryer would have the same capabilities if you took off
that tag telling you not to turn it on in the bathtub---it’s pretty much the
same concept. The important thing is
that it makes the water warm, although I find that my body is conditioned to
expect a mandi (bucket bath to the
non-Indo folks) to be cold. So I still brace myself before I throw a bucket of
water over my head.
Here are some tips for those of you who may someday be in
the position to use a ‘water immersion heating device’:
1.
You must hang it over the bucket by something—a
stick, a pole. I used one of the metal curtain rods from the extra bed in my
room where the mosquito nets hang. If
you don’t hang it, the metal will rest on the plastic bucket and burn a hole
through it. Then, as you may know, the water will all leak out and you cannot
heat a shower stream with this device.
2.
Don’t expect the device to heat the whole bucket
all the way through. It only heats the water immediately surrounding it. So make
sure to let that water get as hot as possible, and then mix the rest of the
water with the gayung (smaller dipper
bucket for the poor people who have never had the great privilege of learning
the Indonesian language).
3.
I don’t know this from experience, but I assume
that one shouldn’t stick one’s hand into the bucket of water while the device
is still on. This may be somewhat akin
to trying to blow-dry your hair while you are still in the bathtub. Fortunately, the majority of electrical
sockets in India can be turned on or off by a switch. I think this is genius
because I can leave cords plugged in wherever I want and just switch off the
power without having to unplug everything. It especially helps because
sometimes the sockets aren’t screwed in so well and they come in and out if you
pull on the plugs too vigorously. But
just to be safe, I don’t put my hand in a bucket of water if the water heating
device is in the water, even if the outlet is turned off. Because you never
know if the switch really works to completely turn off the electricity…
You may have noticed that I shortened “water immersion
heating device” to “device.” I know that’s vague and leads one to imagine a
more sophisticated piece of technology, but I tried to find another name for
the device, even asking the head of the guest house (who showed up minutes
after the guard bringing me another device in case I needed two—I guess I made
a big enough deal about the issue that it convinced them to make an extra
effort for me.). Still, no one seemed to
know. I had a brief moment of excitement when I looked on the box and saw the
word “heating elephant” in bold capital letters. It gave me pause as I tried to
think of reasons why the device should be named after a pachyderm. I thought, “It’s long and coiled and that
looks like an elephant’s trunk?” But that would mean that a slinky or a bedspring
resembles an elephant. As far as I know, elephants do not have any sort of
water-heating power aside from an ability to mix large amount of their own
fluids with whatever body of water they happen to be sitting in. Then I
realized that the name written on the box is indeed “water heating immersion
device.” My guess: “heating elephant” = “heating element.” But it is possible
that ‘elephant’ is some kind of technical name for some kind of electric thingy
that I would have no idea about anyway…
