In this perilous time when medications is equivalent to a gold mine as a result of prices of commodities skyrocketing. We humans are surrounded by various contaminated items and substances, there is barely any food item that has not gone through the process of fermentation reducing its natural nutrition that is meant to provide humans nourishment, strengthening the immune system and increasing our chances against disease. It makes you wonder what are the chances of living a healthy lifestyle but then it all comes down to each individual effort to ensure we stay healthy at all times.
The fact is, maintaining hygienic lifestyle is an attitude or habit that is cultivated by a human regardless of how much resources we have access to. It is just like kindness, does being rich means a person would be more generous? That is why it is mostly considered as personal hygiene because it is indeed personal. Is a person's level of cleanliness dependent on how much they earn? The answer is no. Truthfully wealth does play a part in it since a person would be able to afford things that assist him/her in maintaining a clean environment but this is only possible because the person is willing to do so, let me give you another example.
During my days in boarding school, we were taught about a lot of survival tips to ensure our own safety. It is kind of necessary because most times we are always by ourselves without the guidance of our parents and despite the effort of the hostel masters it is just never enough. So instead of worrying endlessly about our well being they decided to nurture us in ways that will enable us to be able to care for ourselves at all times.
We perform a lot of activities in the boarding school but the most common one is maintaining an hygienic environment at all times which begins from each student taking care of their rooms before leaving the hostel for school. It involves cleaning of our room and laying of our beds with a clean bedsheets. Failure to do so will attract punishment and public embarrassment, I mean if you think being flogged publicly in the dining hall is not enough embarrassment, wait till everyone starts talking about it. The funny aspect of it was that this gossip can last for weeks.
As if that isn't enough, every Saturday the hostel masters comes around to inspect our cloths to see how clean they were. This usually happens on Saturday evening after we are done watching all our valuable items in the morning. The strict policy of ensuring a clean environment can be overwhelming sometimes but during those days we never knew they were doing us a favour. There are times we curse them behind there back because of the pain of being flogged. I would not say I was exempted from the punishment but mine was never about my cloths or room but something entirely different.
We were not allowed to make use of our hands while eating, especially when eating local dishes such as eba, Amala e.t.c we were always asked to make use of cutleries which might seem kind of unusual because it is kind of a popular thing to use our hands to consume these meals, the thing is that our hostel masters do not trust our capabilities of washing our hands clean enough before eating. You know there are times when a child can just hurriedly start using their hands without washing it properly just because he/she is hungry.
So whenever we are in the dining hall, our hostel masters comes around to check us out one by one, table by table in no specific order. Sometimes they can appear from behind without us noticing them. Normally their main focus is to check out cutleries and see who is not using them but along the line there were other things they notice such as our finger nails, Well that is when I always get in trouble. I'm known for keeping long finger nails which most people do till this day but is it really hygienic? I mean the chances of germs getting stuck in our fingers nails is very high. To make matters worst, you could easily use your hands to consume your meal without noticing anything in your finger nails but that doesn't mean it is clean.
I was reprimand a lot for my finger nails eventually I learnt to oblige, I never really liked the fact I was forced to cut my nails. There were times I try to hide it but our hostel masters develop the habit of checking me out first before moving to other students. I never appreciated all their efforts till eventually I realised that by maintaining an hygienic environment, we the students barely fall sick or have any sort of infectious diseases.
The point in this is that, we were able to maintain an hygienic environment and personal hygiene despite scarce resources. My boarding school was not a private school but the management treated it like one. You know how low government investment can be in government owned schools, the school was managed with the resources it generated, would you say it is because the school was wealthy, that is the reason why they were strict about hygiene? We had very little resources in some areas and we still ensured cleanliness despite that.
How much influence does money have in how hygienic a person can be? It depends on how the person thinks, how he/she decides to make use of his/her wealth. If the person is not the kind that fancy hygiene, it doesn't really matter how much the person have. Though I have seen some rich people employ maids to assist them in keeping their surroundings clean, in such a case, it will be a little difficult to know if the employers themselves are hygiene oriented but in a way, I believe they will be, even if it is a little. It is only when you care about hygiene that you will be willing to employ people to assist you in keeping your environment clean even if you can't do it yourself.
Wealth can make people appear cool in public but have you been to their homes? Have you seen their wardrobe? Fancy clothes cover a lot of things. Wealth is just an enhancer for a person with an hygienic personality. I have seen poor people practice hygiene, looking good in public by putting on the little they have and I have seen the wealthy look messy both in public and at home, it will make you wonder what their wealth is for.
After years of leaving boarding school, I still continue to cultivate the same hygienic habit because it works. I mean it is better for me to maintain an hygienic environment than being subjected to medications. I wouldn't consider myself a wealthy person but here I'm still practicing what I have learnt years ago. There are things money can't buy, it includes an an hygienic mentality or personality, it is learnt not purchased.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Money begets hygiene in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
Image 1 - Source
Image 2 - Source
Image 3 - Source
