Using the Facilities

Ok, so how often do you find yourself contemplating going to the bathroom? Maybe only when you're stuck at the end of a long line at the ladies room and you really have to. Or, it could happen when you're on a long drive, stuck in the middle of nowhere and you have 4 year old in the back seat that just doesn't fully understand holding it for just a little bit longer. Let's face it, though, this is not typically something we think about - basically, we have to go, we go, and we get back to whatever we were doing.

I, however, thought a lot about these functions of our body while in TZ and have continued to think about how using the facilities now that I'm back in the States.

First, I cannot tell you how much using a bathroom changed while living in TZ. It became a chore, like boiling water, or washing clothes. It was almost dreaded and when the need arose it was almost like "damn it, I have to go to the bathroom!" Why the struggle? Well, squatting over a hole, while not the worst thing in the world, was just not a comfortable experience. At home, it can be relaxing - shut the door, block out the rest of your house, grab a book (or a newspaper) and sit down for a few minutes. Not in TZ. It was more like make sure your clothes & feet are properly out of the way, get in a squat position that will allow you to balance w/o having to touch the walls, make sure there are no critters in the hole, and try to not stand up when cockroaches run out of the hole while you are mid-stream. Like I said - it was a chore.

Now that I've been home for quite awhile, I've come to appreciate the easiness of going to a bathroom. Not only is it no longer a chore, or just something I do as a natural part of the day, but using the facilities can also be an excuse to get up and walk around, waste a few minutes, relieve boredom as well as bladder, and a change of scenery. At work, if it's a slow day and I need something to do for a few minutes, well, hey - why not go to the bathroom (whether I needed to or not is irrelevant). Been sitting too long? Take a walk, stretch your legs, head to the bathroom.

See, it's a great thing to have facilities like we do. It's a great thing to have a normal function like that be so normal that we don't think about it at all. I, for one, will be forever appreciative that I can go sit on my toilet, take a book if I want, and not have to squat w/ cockroaches again... well, at least not on a daily basis!