On our 3rd night here we were dying for some familiar food. The food here is VERY different and it has taken us a while to figure out what to eat. We knew there was a Chili's at one of the local malls so we decided to brave the crazy traffic and headed out to find some food. We enjoyed a great meal that tasted ALMOST exactly like it does in the states and left the restaurant full for the first time in days and very happy. And then Addie and Makenna announced that they needed to use the restroom.
I took all 3 of the girls into the restroom with me and then I realized that all the toilets are "eastern toilets." Meaning... a hole in the ground. Here's a picture of the toilet in the mall bathroom:
The other interesting thing about the bathrooms here is that the locals do not use toilet paper at all. See that hose to the left of the hole? That is a squirter like you would find on your kitchen sink. The Saudis turn the water on and squirt themselves off after they go potty. Yeah. Consequently, the floors in the bathrooms are ALWAYS soaking wet and I find it so disgusting.
So there I am with the 3 girls, hole-in-the-floor toilets, nasty wet floors and no toilet paper. It was just more than my poor jet-lagged, culture shocked self could handle. So I turned around and marched us all out of the bathroom and told the girls to hold it until we got home. Allen was not amused and could not understand why I would not let them go potty. I tried to explain to him that I had no idea how I would get everyone's clothes off to squat over the hole and not get everything wet in the process. A few days later we were at IKEA and I took the girls to the bathroom again. There were western toilets but still with the squirters and wet floors and so we walked out with very wet clothing. After that he began to understand my dilemma of taking the girls to the bathroom.
After a few weeks here we now know to use the restroom before we leave home every single time. I've also learned to always carry my own toilet paper and hand sanitizer. And I've also learned where the western toilets are in most public places. We have yet to use an eastern toilet! Just one of many crazy experiences we have had in the last 5 weeks!
11 comments:
Eeek! When I was in Korea I got to like the squat toilets better when dealing with public restrooms because you don't have to actually touch anything. But they don't have the squirters. I don't know what I would do with those.
This was a crazy story when you told it to me last week, even crazier reading it and seeing the picture! Live and learn, I suppose! At least now you venture out well prepared.
eewwwww. I feel your pain. Adam wrote a whole blog posts about squatters while we were in Taiwan. I will have to find the link because maybe it will shed a little humor on the subject. We had a chilis next door to our apt bldg. in Taiwan. it was amazing as you can imagine. Hope all else is well.
all i can say is gross. just gross. i can't imagine the hands touching the squirter thing...and what ends up on the bottom of the shoes....ugh. i'm gagging -- need to stop thinking about it.
So gross!! The squatting isn't so bad, but the sprayer is nasty! ewww!
Oh my goodness! That is all I can say.
Wow. That's really gross. I can see how boys would hardly think twice about it. Although, I have to wonder if the boy bathrooms there are better or worse than at gas stations on a cross country roadtrip in the US. Greg tells me how horrible they are...maybe absence of a real fixture is helpful. :)
Something like using old time outhouses. I never could bring myself to sit down in those things.
Mom
This toilet is very similar to our toilets here in most public places. However we usually have toilet paper so I can see why that would be quite the dilemma. Sounds like you came up with a good plan. It took us awhile before we would use the Eastern toilet, but now we are pretty used to it +toilet paper.
I had the same problem on my mission in Japan. Love hearing your families adventures.
We also found those toilets to be difficult when we were on our mission in Asia. Imagine trying to squat in the first place at our age....lol I always made sure I had tissues in my purse...
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