In his last year as Peace Corps volunteer, James had set up computer labs across multiple schools in the Morogoro regions. One of the schools is run by missionaries: fathers from Kerala, India. We spent some time with the fathers at their retreat outside of Dar, where seven brothers from Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya come together for an intensive year of praying as part of their preparation for priesthood. In the spirit of self-sufficiency, they keep cows and ducks, have fruit orchards and a vegetable garden.

Father John* shows us around and we get to admire the curry leave tree and all sorts of other trees which produce leaves and fruits that are used in South Indian cooking. The green fruit hanging from the tree is custard apple, and the yellow round one in the hand is a passion fruit.

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Behind the house, we notice some flowers that are left out in the sun to dry.

These are hibiscus flowers and when dried are added to shampoo to die gray hair black. I was surprised to see such indulgence in vanity at a missionary retreat. Father John and the others giggle about Father Paul* and his habit, but don't seem to interfere and leave him his grooming treatment. He hand picks the flowers and leaves them to sun dry.

It seems that pampering themselves is one of the things the fathers don't abstain from. Staying in their dorms, we are given a towel and soap, and are surprised of their choice: Ayu soap, exclusive fragrance soap, with natural lotus oil. “with a special conditioner made for delicate skin keeps your skin soft and moisturized.”

What can be unpacked about this choice of soaps?

One possible explanation might be the following: since they've all decided to live a celibate life, their grooming of course isn't for courtship. But there seems to be a strong connection between maintaining one's appearance as well as displaying cleanliness and spiritual purity. Another aspect: while these vegetarian-raised South Indian fathers have given up many things in their lives for joining the seminary, they seem to have gained something else:eating meat and carving out the luxury to groom themselves.

Or maybe, Ayu is just the cheapest soap out there - the fathers are good at managing a tight budget.

*names as always changed to protect people's privacy

Wynter is from America and lives in Istanbul with her Kurdish boyfriend Akin to research religions in Turkey. For interviewing an Islamic leader of a Muslim community, Akin introduced her to the local imam of his hometown in east Turkey. Before Wynter headed to the mosque, Akin urges her to listen to him for some very important advice. At this point, she's expecting to hear the usual about covering her hair etc but this time it was something new. Akin said, “Whatever happens, just don't fart!”

The passing of gas is perceived as pollutant of spiritual clean spaces, hence disrespectful. This has nothing to do with physical cleanliness, in the same way as the ritual washings are not required to be thorough washings. That's what the hamam, the Turkish bathhouse, is for.

Here is another story:

When Akin was a student in the US, together with a group of fellow students, he would take a bus to a mosque for Friday prayers. Before the group would get on the bus, everyone would carry out the ritual washings of feet, hands and face. One time, a guy had been out the night before drinking beer, which caused a havoc on the bus. Interestingly enough, his fellow moslems weren't outraged about the consumption of alcohol at all since most of them liked to drink. That wasn't the problem. What caused everyone's anger at him were the consequences: his beer farts. Him passing gas on the bus defiled everyone else's spiritual cleanliness, so they all had to do the ritual washings again.