Shower breaks help students survive intense heat

Here, a nice shower consists of buckets of cold water dumped over the kids' heads between classes. Or it can mean ducking under a faucet for a quick scrub in shorts.

At 3:30 p.m., like clockwork, class 5A1 made their way to the school's bathroom for the shower. The students, with clothes and towels in hand, lined up at the water hose located 300 meters from their classroom. They were divided into two separate areas for boys and girls.

After 10 minutes, following the teachers' instructions, the students returned to their classroom, preparing for the next class. The clothes that the students had taken off, soaked with sweat, were then be washed and dried by the teachers.

A teacher at Tan Lap Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities in Hang Lia Commune, Dien Bien Dong District, Dien Bien Province, dumps buckets of cold water over his students, April 22, 2024. Photo provided by the school

Luong Van Khoi, 46, the class's homeroom teacher, said showering during afternoon recess has been a regular activity at Tan Lap Primary and Secondary Ethnic Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities in Hang Lia Commune, Dien Bien Dong District for the last 4-5 years. He said the school performs the ritual anytime the outdoor temperature reaches 37-38 degrees Celsius.

The classroom walls and roofs are mostly made of corrugated metal, and inside can at times feel like an oven.

Students constantly cool down with wet towels during the day but the heat is still too intense. Hence, teachers started the initiative of having cold showers between classes.

"A few quick buckets of water are enough to offer students some relief from the heat, priming them for the next class," said Khoi.

Khoi said that before 2023, when there was no inbuilt water system available, every afternoon, the teachers had to take turns carrying water from a stream more than 500 meters from the school. Using 20-liter buckets, each person had to make three to four rounds.

This year, a borehole water line has been piped in from Hang Lia Commune center to the school, relieving teachers of the tough work. Teachers now only need to arrange the schedule and gather their students.

"The school assigns fourth and fifth grade students to the dormitory area, and the rest shower in areas with faucets. Students who are shy often wait until after school to wash up," said Khoi.

Teacher Giang A Su directing his students to take showers at Tan Lap Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, Hang Lia Commune, Dien Bien Dong District, Dien Bien Province, April 22, 2024. Photo provided by the school

Giang A Su, a primary school teacher, said he had to ask parents' permission before starting the initiative. Some students did not like the idea at first. They cried and asked to go home, and the teachers had a hard time comforting them. All the students are from Hmong ethnic group, with nearly 70% coming from poor families. Su paid for shower gel and washing powder out of his own pocket.

After years of the initiative, students at the school now voluntarily line up to take a shower every day during the hottest parts of the year.

"I feel like a mother learning to take better care of the children, from showering, to doing laundry, to making sure they have enough clothes to wear and food to eat," Su said.

According to principal Bui Quang An, the school currently has 15 classrooms, of which only 10 were properly built. The remaining 5 are either made of stitched-together pieces of wood or corrugated iron. In the scorching summer, fans in these classrooms only intensify the heat by blowing warm air.

A temporary classroom made of corrugated iron at Tan Lap Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, Hang Lia Commune, Dien Bien Dong District, Dien Bien Province, April 2024. Photo by Pham Doan

Giang Thi Lau, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Hang Lia Commune, said that the showering schedule at Tan Lap school has proven practical, temporarily solving the annual heat problem from April to March.

"That being said, the school's borehole water source is limited. The teachers and students' biggest wish is to have enough water for daily use, without having to endure the heat in classrooms covered with corrugated iron," she said.