East meets West in India

Meal time at the Bishop's house is generally pretty quiet. People come, eat, and get ready to go back to business. Of course, I tend to liven things up a bit with my questions and observations about India.
Last week a priest was here from America on vacation to see his family and friends. He brought with him an American fellow priest who has a nearby parish in Minnesota where they both live. Eventually we got around to discussing our first impressions of both countries.
As I already explained, water is in short supply here in India and I do not have a tub or shower. I was given two plastic buckets and two small pails but no further instructions. Since I know how to take a sponge bath, it didn't seem like that big of a deal, just a little inconvenience and I respectfully took care not to get water splashed all around. Then I realized that the drain in the bathroom floor was there so that I didn't have to worry about splashing. In fact, I could just use the little pails to pour water over my head and let it just drain out. This seemed to work really well and made bathing easier.
Then Fr. Marareddy told us about his first attempt at figuring out American bathrooms. He was horrified to discover that the very first bathroom he was assigned had carpet on the floor. He was completely mystified about how he was to bathe when there was no drain in the floor and no buckets. Fortunately someone was kind enough to explain the finer points of American plumbing so he didn't have to stay dirty with all that water just waiting for someone to use it.

Since they are from Minnesota, we eventually got around to explaining ice fishing. Now I have previously tried to explain ice fishing to honest-to-goodness-Cowboys in Texas and they thought I was nuts. Ralph once asked a ski instructor in Montreal if he ever goes ice fishing and he was told, "No way. It's too cold". This, from a guy who makes his living outside, every day, in all conditions! So you try to explain ice fishing and see how far you get. It does sound kind of crazy when you try to explain it. No wonder they think Americans are armed and dangerous.