The Kaziranga Defender

In this photo a defender of Kaziranga is bathing before the start of a long day. My first impression of the man was not that he was bathing, I first thought that he was just washing off his feet to keep from tracking dirt into his house. When I realized that he was actually taking a bath, I also realized the poverty in other countries and how many Americans like myself take advantage of our wealth.

When I first started to really study the picture I notice a bar of soap in the man's left hand. If I am just washing off my feet to keep from tracking in dirt, I do not use soap. I just rinse my feet off with a water hose and shower inside my house later. His entire body is wet giving an obvious sign that this man is doing more in the photo than just rinsing his feet.

Most people that I know use a water hose at their house. This man has filled a bucket with water that he got from an old fashioned water pump and uses a cup to pour the water onto his body. Since the water is coming from an old water pump, I doubt that the water is heated. I tried to figure out if my thought on the temperature of the water was correct and scrolled down to the bottom of the picture to find out if there was any text below the picture. The caption below the photo said that the man was in fact using a bucket of cold well water. The water that I use to take a bath is not cold. Like most Americans, I have a hot water heater that gives me the luxury of soaking in hot water.

Shown by the way the man is bathing outside with cold water from a bucket, the Kaziranga defender obviously lives in a life of poverty. The caption below the photograph of this man says that he and other guards like him seldom complain about lack of conveniences. Americans are not the same way. We take advantage of every hot shower we take and do not even think about other people not able to take a nice shower. Analyzing this photo was a real eye opener for me on the poverty of others.