Bathrooms Around the World

I’m in the Nehemiah Center kiosko (gazebo) chatting with a North American woman who has spent several years on a farm in a jungle. I tell her that my strongest impression of a jungle comes from The Poisonwood Bible.

A fellow book-lover, she lights up. “And my strongest memory of that book is of the African husband who is soooooo glad to leave the U.S. after a few years because he HATES indoor bathrooms. He knows that inside a house is NOT a proper place to do your ‘business.’”

And with that, our conversation becomes a runaway freight train.

I remember the Nigerian who asked Marlo at a European conference if it would be appropriate for him to “make water” among the trees in the adjacent yard. Marlo replied that he didn’t think so.

She tells me that people from countries which have only hole-in-the-floor squat toilets are horrified by the idea of sitting on a toilet previously occupied by someone else.

I remember the British traveler grossed out by  the bathtub and the toilet in our hotel being in the same room. 

And I remember my friend Rose Daining telling me that Nigerians greet others only with one hand (I think the left) because the other hand is used for toilet duties.

We laugh together, but not in judgment.

The laugh is on all of us—What fools we mortals be!

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P.S. Last year’s bathroom blog [ http://nicaraguajourney.blogspot.com/2011/02/to-flush-or-not-to-flush.html] set a Nicaragua Journey blog record for hits. I’ll be curious to see if this year’s blog readers have the same impeccable tastes.