Pila: Guatemalan Sinks

Here is a little insight into my everyday life / life of the vast majority of rural Guatemalans. Pilas. They are used in the place of sinks. 

The Pila can be found both outside and inside of the house and consists of three connected basins. The middle part has a spicket and get filled with water each morning. There are no hot and cold handles. One side has bumps on it for washing clothes and the other side is flat and is used for washing dishes.

This water basin serves numerous functions. Primarily water is scooped out of the basin instead of turning on the faucet and having the water run over whatever you are washing. I'm assuming that less water is used with this approach. Secondarily, water outages are fairly common (especially in the dry season) and a filled basin comes in handy.

My host family's house where I lived for over a year had a number of pilas. A small one was in their kitchen (there was no running water on the entire floor that my kitchen was on). Another much larger Pila was in a room that was open to the air on one side. I walk upstairs to do my dishes there.This is where I wash my hands, brush my teeth, etc. This is the only real source of water in my house (there were normal sinks in the bathrooms but still no hot water coming out of the taps).