On sweat, water quality and cleanliness

I have this vague recollection of reading in some trashy
magazine or other of some celebrity or actor or
something taking a bath in champagne... Quite a costly
exercise I would imagine. And a bit of a waste of champagne
too. Or perhaps it wasn't champagne, perhaps it was just
bottles of mineral water.
Well, whatever it was, I'm starting to have fantasies
myself of doing something similar here. Except we haven't
got any baths.
Right now, there are three options for states of
cleanliness. You can take a swim in the sea, in order to
cool you down and arrest the continuous layer of sweat
which permanently covers your body. At the moment the
sea temperature is about 29 degrees centigrade. Or about
the temperature of a nice bath at home. So it's not that
cooling. As I'm diving most days, I get at least one sea
dip.
As an option for keeping me clean it's not ideal, because
you are then left with a thin layer of salt, and possibly
sand on your skin. Then within ten minutes of being out
of the water, you're then covered in yet another thin
layer of sweat. Except that this time, the layer of sweat
covers a layer of sand and salt.
The second option is to take a shower. If you want to
take a shower out of the shower-head, (option 2a) this is
only feasible at two times of the day. Around 7am, which is
fine if you're not diving at that time (which I have been
every day this week) or at about 5 pm, which is fine
in some respects, but there's still at least another hour
or so of sun that's warm enough to create another few
layers of sweat to build up again. Option 2b is to take a
bucket shower - to use the nice little plastic scoop to
scoop up water from the buckets in the shower and pour
it over yourself. The advantage of this is that you can
do it at any time of the day (or night), so long as you've
remembered to fill up the bucket when the water has been
on.
The disadvantage of both 2a and 2b right now is in the
quality of the water that is delivered through the taps. 
Before Christmas, the water coming from our taps and shower
was pretty salty, so you never felt 100% clean. But at
least the water ran clear. 
The good news it that since the rains, it's no longer very
salty. Hoorah.
The bad news is that instead, it smells of pondwater and
possibly a bit of goat pee and is a sort of dirty brown
colour, or the colour of a very very strong tea with no
milk. This means that if you take the 2b option of
the bucket shower, you are throwing dark brown water
over yourself - which goes against all instincts when
it comes to cleanliness. At least when it's coming out
of the shower, the colour is less obvious because
the water is flowing quite finely. 
Either way, when you are finished washing you don't
feel particularly clean. Just less sweaty. For about
ten minutes.
The third option is to sweat, not wash and just stay
dirty. Some days, I prefer the third option. And on
the days when I plump for option 2a, I fantasise about
buying 20 bottles of purified water and washing
myself in that instead. That just seems decadent beyond
belief. But if I have to go through another six months
of washing in brown pondwater, it may become more and
more appealing. Then perhaps for a brief moment, I too
can feel like a celebrity. And possibly I can also
feel properly clean. Until I start sweating again. 
For any of you worrying about the drinking quality of
the water - I can assure you that we don't drink it.
Ever. Not even with the addition of a water purification
system. Instead, Coco Beach gets (clear!) water
delivered in big bidons. It still has to be filtered
or purified, but at least it doesn't have any sediment
in and is a nice, clear watery colour.  There's always
bottled water too - but of course the plastic is not a
good idea. 
So... What has happened this week? Quite a lot actually.
We had Al (one of BV's director's) back on site, along
with a very nice Swiss gentleman from the Rolex foundation
who has come to judge our suitability for an award. Things
were very hectic showing him the various projects. 
I got to go out on a 4x4 to see the salt-pans and we saw
a few flamingos out on them, which was really exciting.
We also went to see the Baobabs.
As we went at early evening, we got to see loads more
wading birds cos there are flooded areas of the desert
right now which are perfect for waders and other birds to
hang out in. :) it is pretty spectacular scenery really.
Al and Mr Rolex also arrived with Becks, our new medic.
She's  a pretty down to earth woman, quite forthright
and so far, is a lot more emphatic with us about how
to treat people's various ailments and about not diving
when not well.
Craig was much more about the individual making the
choice for themselves.
There was an overlap for about two days, and then Craig,
Tristan, Al and Rolex man all left site. The last supper
was quite an affair as both Craig and Tristan had made a
lot of friends in the village over their 9 months here
and so we had quite a few village dignitaries invited to
dinner (fish kebabs and chips. Mmm). They left on Wednesday
and it took about an hour to say all the good-byes and a
few tears were shed.
The Gods seemed to be displeased by their leaving and put
on quite a spectacular heavy shower and lightening storm,
which a few of our divers were out in. According to one of
them, lightening under water is like someone taking
photos with a really big flash. 
We managed to get one of our sites surveyed this week
(phew) and some more training of the volunteers. However,
things were also slightly complicated by our 60 engine
which is still stalling and occasionally breaking down.
This is a real pain it only just went to Tulear for a
service over Christmas. So, we took the boat out of
the water, and have sent the motor back to Tulear along
with Bic and the receipt for the service to see if they
can sort it out. So now we only have one boat.
Bic and the engine left with Pete and Judy - our American
researchers (doing research in the mangroves to see what
baby fish are hanging out there). 
We also said goodbye to Jeroen and Marco - two Dutch
volunteers who've been really amazing. They learnt
their stuff really quickly and have been helping out
with surveying and restaking dive sites, painting the
children's environmental club and just generally being
all-round decent blokes. They proved this once and
for all for buying us all 6 jars of peanut butter,
6 of nutella and 2 jams from the supermarket as
goodbye presents for us! 
Their last night here was also our party night this
week (after five days of diving). We played 'the name
game' and then went down to the volunteers' beach for a
"magical full-moon bonfire dance party". We had a pretty
good bonfire (did a bit of singing), and then on another
part of the beach, set up our 'disco'. Danced to
everything from drum & bass (Pendulum) to Lou Reed
(perfect day) with a great deal of variety in between...
And I managed to stay up til about 3 which is the latest
I've stayed up here! One of my best party nights so far.  
Also (I said it had been a busy week), Georgi came back
on site along with Justin - who had gone down to Tulear
when Nick was evacuated. Nick, it seems, has a bone
infection (rather than a break) and we hope he'll come
back on site before the expedition ends. 
Georgi brought 400 baby sea cucumbers back with her,
and Justin bought me a kettle and a thermos. The latter
two items are particularly exciting because it means
that I can have a HOT DRINK at ANY TIME OF THE DAY!
Not just a) at breakfast and lunch when they are
served to us by Coco Beach and Not just b)when the
electricity's on! This improvement to my quality of
life almost rivals the improvement experienced when
I got the hammock. Though not quite!
But as I have coffee, hot chocolate, and various herb
teas, it means that I can now up my fluid intake
without resorting to fizzy drinks or juices - trying
to drink 3.5 litres of water a day is just boring! 
Worryingly (though I suppose not hugely worrying in
the scale of things), I have had two occasions when
I've thought about eating meat.... I'm not sure if I'd
be able to follow these thoughts through ... But I
began to think – I already have compromised my "not
eating dead things" principles by eating fish. How much
difference is it between a fish and a zebu? Or
a fish and a goat? I've never particularly had a
distinction between the animals I don't eat. I just
don't eat any of them.
So... Why am I still sticking to the 'no meat, but I'll
eat fish' thing? (Tristan, if he were here, would have
a field day to hear that I'm even considering it). 
The goats are free range - (the complaints from the
volunteers about how they're wandering into and around
their huts all the time is testament to that), the
zebu are looked after really well (before being killed
of course) and the chickens probably don't have such
a great life in the first place. There isn't a
whole lot of meat on offer here in general, and the
smell of goat definitely makes me feel a bit sick, so
perhaps I won't be going the whole hog (as it were)
and becoming a full on carnivore. But it's certainly
got me thinking. I'll be glad to get back home where
I can be a proper vegetarian again.