The Rant About Toilets
So I told you it was coming and now that I'm ready to rant about it, the problem seems somewhat less anoying, as you'll discover presently. Today I'll tell you about the toilets. The mystery of the toilets began in our first night in Tunis in the Maison D'Orée Hotel. The bathroom was enormous with tiles covering the floors and walls. A huge bathtub a well designed sink a toilet and two (at the time) totally unidentifiable pieces of equipment, one that looked like a hose with a cold water valve and the other some kind of bidet with a plug, hot and cold water control but with water that pooled in the bottom of the thing. The former is for adding extra water and pressure to the toilet for big flushings and the latter is for washing feet, hands and limbs before meals and prayer. Now it's only the toilets that remain a mystery.To begin with, we couldn't understand how we were supposed to flush the toilets, and it took us a good 10 minutes to realize that the odd round cap at the top of the toilet had to be pulled up and held up for a moment in order for the toilet to flush. Since then we have discovered that all toilets either have a pull flush or a push flush and that it's always located on the top of the tank.
Since being in the hotel I have discovered some unpleasant characteristics of toilets here. The first is that they are perpetually dirty. I mean really dirty. I don't know if people just don't wash them or wipe them or anything. They are mostly stained, chipped and sticky (try not to sit on or touch them if at all possible). The second is that they almost never have toilet paper. Now one or the other I might be able to handle, but the two together makes for a total nightmare of an experience. I would like to add that these characteristics apply to the toilets at work too! I do not go anywhere without a small package of tissues in every bag, pocket and purse that I own.
At this point I have it down to a system. Rip a tissue in two. Wet one half with water from the sink. Wipe the toilet seat. Try not to sit while going to the bathroom. Wipe with the other half and flush. If it won't go down use the little hose thing and try again.
I hate the toilets here.
Want to hear something funny? Sometimes the washrooms have everything exept the toilets. The toilets might be in another room altogether and you have to hunt and peek in all the corners of the place to find it. I was at an ENDA conference in one of the branches and I happened to walk into the wrong room. I didn't realize it wouldn't have a toilet. As I closed the doors, by some fluke, the water in all the appliances started going off. The bathtub and the shower, the prayer bowl, the sink, the hose thing, all of them spraying water. I yanked the door open as hard as I could, thinking that the door had something to do with the disaster before me. It wouldn't stop. Two men ran past me and turned off all the taps and appologised profusely for not having turned them off before turning on the water. Then they adamantly stated that I could wash my hands now. (It's a big deal to wash your hands after a meal, though not before.) So I was stuck there in the watery room, desperate to go pee and with no idea where to find a toilet. I washed my hands and left meekly. My friend Wifak almost burst laughing and when she recoverd, pointed me in the right direction.
Thank god for friends in foreign places. And damn tunisian toilets.
posted by tiaraletourneau @ 2:22 p.m.
4 Comments:
Toilets all over the world are incredibly different. In Japan, a country that loves gadgets, like no other place I have ever been, you almost need an engineering degreee to use the toilets properly. Some of the toilets have anywhere from four to six buttons on them. Buttons that control the flush, as well as the temperature and pressure for a front bottom wash, back bottom wash and who knows what all else. The dials are never in English and so everytime you use the toilet you just have to guess and hope you don't get soaked. The one really good part about Japanese toilets is that the Western toilets as described above, have very clean and soft, heated toilet seats, so when you sit down, it is warm and comfortable. If you are in someone's home or a hotel the toilets are western and there is toilet paper. Public bathrooms, however, do not have toilet paper unless you bring your own. Japanese women carry a small decorative fabric bag in their purse. They always have kleenex in it and a cotton cloth. THey use the cotton cloth to dry their hands after washing. The public toilets only have cold water for washing hands and no paper towels. Often the toilets in those locations are just a hole in the floor over a large drain pipe.
Eventually you just get used to what you have to deal with, but the dirtiness would really bother me too!
Love Mom
Tunisia sounds like a very interesting place!
I am simply posting on this toilet `issue'because I find it very funny and I had an experience also:
One year I went to visit my family in Scotland and I
needed to use the bathroom and change my femine hygine
product so I asked one of the boys where the toilet was.He said that there were no bathrooms in the house,so he took me outside and dug me a hole and pointed to it.When I told his mother she got very angry
and showed me where the proper bathroom was!
Hey guys,
we're at library now,(Rita,me)we say hi!
Rita says that the toilets are really bad
in Holland also.
Love Merida and Rita
Wonderful post! We are linking to this particularly great post on our website. Keep up the great writing.
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