The Way We Do Our Business

At the request of Brenda Weibelzahl, I have finally managed to get some pics together of our washrooms. Not all the washrooms out here are exactly like this, but most of them will be a pretty close variation.

This here, is a picture of the washrooms at our base in Jabi. The two at each end are just for showers, and the two in the middle are for showering and toileting.

This is what the shower looks like from the inside. And on the right is me demonstrating how we take a shower. Of course, we don't do it with our clothes on. :) It's actually not that bad. You fill up the ladel with water from the Mandie (the square tub of water) and dump it on yourself. The water is never warm, but actually, that's what's nice about it. Showering is always very refreshing with the cool water. There are hooks in the two end showers to hang up your towel & clothes. So it works really well.

Here is the squatty potty, aka, the toilet. This mandie is connected to the one you saw in the shower. Once you do your business, you just scoop water from the mandie into the toilet to flush down the stuff. You keep throwing water down until the water in the toilet is clear. Pretty simple, eh?

Here is a close-up shot. :)

And this is me demonstrating. I'm sure you could have imagined how to use it without my demonstration, but I thought it'd be funnier if you didn't have to imagine. Well, you still have to use some imagination because once again, you have to be unclothed to do this... partly, anyway.

You will notice that there is toilet paper on the side - a luxury that we expats cannot do without. But there's no toilet paper allowed down the toilet, so there's a garbage can in the corner that we toss it all into for the burn-bin. What fun! By the way... the locals use their hands.

So there you have it, Brenda! The way we do our business!

Here's a picture of us I thought I'd throw in just for kicks. By the way, you may notice that we look somewhat tanned. Unfortunately, the tan abruptly ends at our elbows, ankles & necks. Pretty scary stuff!