Cold Water, Really???

Okay, those of you who know me...yep, I always have a bottle of this in my purse, pocket, up my sleeve, whatever...

Well, now I barely carry a purse, unless we are going really far, then I do have this and a roll of toilet paper with me, you know, just in case we go somewhere the facilities are less than pleasant.

I really do not like germs.  Some people have accused me of being germaphobic.  Not very nice.  But I have some overcoming to do here in Belize.  Some releasing of worries.   Some getting a little more laid back.

My first month in Belize, every time I did the dishes, I turned this on...

maybe even three times, depending on how many dishes we had at the meal, because there is no hot water in the sinks.  Well, I do a lot of dishes during the day here.  Sometimes it seems that is all I do all day.  Making things from scratch requires a lot of dishes, eating at home for three meals a day with three, now four kids, requires a lot of dishes...

I began to notice none of my friends had hot water either.  Then we moved into a very nice home...yep, no hot water in the kitchen...or laundry room.  We do have hot showers, thankfully, but not for cleaning things.  Don't they know how many germs we are going to get?  Then I started thinking, well, wherever I eat, they are not using hot water to wash dishes there either.  Soooo, and you know this is hard for me to admit, I have switched over.  I now wash dishes, with um, cold water, and this...

and is has made my life just a little bit easier and a little bit cooler:)

And I wash my clothes with this...

yep, in cold water, even though I always did warm in the states.  These things are a huge adjustment for me.  And hanging the clothes to dry.  No dryer.  No more soft towels...although I hear it is great for our skin.  No more smooth clothes.  A lot of them are wrinkly, but they get wrinkly once you sweat in them anyway.

Oh, and no more antibacterial soaps for our hands.  We use this, blueberry scented, mmm...

So life is different in many ways, even the way we clean. 

Becoming a little more Belizean each day:)