Water

I often see people washing their faces or brushing their teeth when I go for a walk early in the morning. When I have a close look, they hold a bowl with water in it with left hand and the right hand is moving. When they wash their faces they use only one hand to rub their face with a soap. As for brushing teeth, I often see some people brushing their teeth with index finger without using toothbrush. But there are a few of them. The vast majority of people use toothbrushes. There are a lot of white foam around their mouth for they use a lot of tooth paste. In Japan, very small amount of tooth paste like a grain of rice is used. So there is no foam.

Japanese people wash their face at basin. In doing so, they use both hands to take water from the tap and wash their face. The difference is that Japanese people wash their face splashing with water after taking it from tap with two hands full of water but Myanmar people take water stored in a drum with one hand, pour it into another and wash their face with small amount of water. Where does the difference come from? Water pipes were installed to houses in Mandalay about five years ago. But I don't think it was that long. Actually, the pipes come to just in front of the houses. Extending the pipes into the houses is on their own expense so they have to use water in front of their houses. The people from the houses which are inner part of the road have to tame bath and wash beside the houses facing the road.

They no longer have to fetch water from common wells since water pipes have been installed. That is a good sign but they always have to store water because there is water shortage very often. Therefore, that makes no difference because they have to use stored water as before.

Pit is very strange that there is no common kitchen in hostels. I am the only person who washes rice, vegetables and the dishes at the toilet basin. Myanmar people carry water in large buckets to their rooms and separate it as cooking water and washing water. I often see dirty water at the corridor which I can't say for sure the how many times it was used again and again. It is very difficult to wash the dishes because Myanmar cuisines contain a lot of oil. I wash the dishes with wet cloth without carrying water into my room. So, I have go out to the basin. There is a saying that "When in Rome do as the Romans do". But it is impossible for me to imitate that habit. It is not because the two customs are not alike but because it is not the same with the habit of me who was born in Tokyo. Using fetched water may be for economic reason. But I have no such kind of experiences. When I bought Ramen from vendors in post World War II period, I used my own dishes although the vendor had the dishes ready. I thought the dishes of vendor were not washed cleanly.

In Myanmar, the thing that surprises and frightens me is about above mentioned matter. It is all the same in university. At first, I was reluctant to eat at teashops and restaurants in downtown. When I think it over carefully, there are also a lot of that kind of shops in Japan.

There are many road-side-teashops that sell Ramen in front of stations at midnight. They are the sane as the shops here. To have such kind of thought, no matter it is a Developed country or undeveloped one, the development gap is 50 or 60 years, I realize that it is not a problem but the two are acting in the same scene in the world.