In my day to day work with refugee friends I often wonder where the line is drawn between the differences that the world describes as cultural, social or religious. For example, a few weeks ago I was visiting my friend, we will call her Kiva. She’s a young mom of two -a five year old and a three year old. Kiva had just finished bathing her children when I arrived. The children got out of the tub and ran towards me yelling my name. They were so happy to see me and didn’t care that they were still naked and dripping wet. I didn’t care either. I smiled at Kiva then bent down, opened my arms wide and caught her sweet giggling babies with a warm hug. After my greeting, I watched as Kiva threw t-shirts and pants on the children. I realized they had not been towel dried and they were still soaked from head to toe!

This was about the third or fourth time I had visited a refugee and caught them finishing their shower. It seems that many of them do not towel dry themselves before putting on clothes. It has caused me to wonder about their bathing habits in their countries and in the refugee camps they once lived in. It is possible many did not have towels, have never been shown to use them or maybe they had bathed in rivers and had become accustom to putting clothes on their wet bodies outdoors and then letting the sunshine and warm air dry them.

I’ve given this a lot of thought. Should I teach my refugee friends to towel dry themselves? If I teach them, then they will all request and need towels. Will they think I am silly? We are trying to teach them personal hygiene and healthy habits of washing their hands with soap more often, brushing their teeth, wearing deodorant and such. But should I teach them to towel dry themselves after bathing? Does it matter? I suppose in the colder weather they could catch a cold, but I bet their clothes will dry them in the house before they head outside.

My American friend mentioned to me that the soaking wet children that came to school that we were collecting ponchos and umbrella’s for may be children arriving soaking wet after their bath and not so much the rain! That made me laugh.

All this makes me think. Where is the line? I don’t know if towel drying after a bath is cultural or not, but it seems that way. Does it matter if we are all towel dried?