Boys must be taught how to bathe

Boys must be taught how to bathe. We think many of them know how to bathe naye they don’t. And now there’s another category of boys that hate bathing. They hate water. They can forge all kinds of allergies just to escape an evening of showering.

Let me tell you this story that maybe your boys that came for the bootcamp last year never told you. It was day 03 of the Boot Camp and it surely rained cats and dogs. Started raining from about 2pm til 6pm. In those few minutes, the Dean instructor sounded the bell for the evening jog just to get the boys sweaty so they can shower well.At around 07pm, we returned back to camp from jogging and it was shower time. Guess what!! A group of senior boys went into the bathroom, put some little water into the basin and washed their legs, the face and the ears. They ignored the other parts of their bodies. Since we’re always busy in the evenings during the camp, we didn’t bother supervising the seniors thinking they’ll lead themselves.

Now it was dinner time. As I was standing there…I see the senior boys coming first on the line. I wondered how quickly they all bathed in that little time not forgetting that we have few showers for every wing.

My heart said ‘no’. Not possible. Told the welfare instructor not to serve any of them food. Told them that to get food you need to prove beyond doubt that you have bathed. One by one, come forward, I check you. They thought I was bluffing till they realised I was serious. This is how I was checking. You come close, I put my hand under your shirt to measure the body temperature, the smell and smoothness of the skin. Remember they had done jogging before. So imagine the body odour from the sweat. Jesus!!

Through this random excercise, 38 senior boys had dodged bathing. I dragged them back to the dormitory to show me their washed undies and alteast a semi wet towel. Everything was negative. No sign of water. Then I figured that we had to toughen up. That night, I told everyone to pick a basin, draw water from the tank. You know how tank water can be damn cold. Off we went in to the play ground. Take off your clothes as we hold the torch for them. I had to teach each of them the 5 steps of bathing.

They started with step one, applying water on the sponge with soap,

Step two, scrubbing the body. Scrubbing is of two ways. Side ways and up& down. They took a lot of time on this step because I had to make sure all parts are worked on. Imagine some boys had black patches “ekko” on some parts of their bodies. At that moment we had to apply a scrubbing brush to remove that “kko”.

Then they went for step three, pouring water on the body to remove soap,

We went for step four to clean the ears and under parts and washing under wear.

I made them bathe in the open space since they couldn’t be trusted to shower well in closed shower room. Imagine a senior boy in form 3 not knowing how to bathe himself!!!.

From that evening on wards I made it a policy in the camp. You bathe under our supervision until you prove that you don’t need it anymore. You have to prove that you are responsible enough to value your body and bathe it well.I heard what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but this story, those 38 senior boys will never tell you. I hope they’ll bathe when they are husbands to some people’s daughters.

GK