The art of a bucket shower

Water where we are staying is a commodity. All our water comes from a large tank outside the house that we must share with the preschool. We have been trying to conserve water as much as possible and this can be quite a challenge. We have a bathing room (different from the toilet which is an outhouse about 20m from the creche) in it we heat water in a large barrel with a gas stove where we then stand in an old semi rusted bathtub and pouring hot water out of a one gallon bucket with a cup and washcloth to wash ourselves. I was skeptical at first but surprisingly I am able to get clean using just one gallon of water! The hard part is facing the cold when you are done. Yes it gets very cold at night and there is no indoor heating making it difficult to heat up but we are finding ways to manage. We bought a small indoor electric heater but it doesn't do too much. The locals heat their houses by bringing in hot coals but our place is not really accomodating to this. It is supposed to start to get warmer in a few weeks so I am looking forward to that.