My Take on Toilets

Anyone who has travelled to what is considered to be a developing/under-developed/undeveloped country probably has a story to tell about the toilets.  It is a dirty subject that most people do not want to talk about unless they have used a toilet that took them totally out of their cultural comfort zone.  In China I have used two kinds of toilets – the classic Western-style toilet and …(drum roll)…the Squatter.

I am squatting like a champ now but it took me a while to develop technique.  The squatter is all about technique and of course “mind over matter.”  The squatter can be found both in private homes and in public places.  So far in my experience in China, the squatter is much more than a hole in the ground.  There are stalls with doors that lock and sometimes a hook to hang your purse.  The walls of the stall do not always reach the ceiling making it is possible to see your neighbor from the chest or shoulders up.  If your neighbor is squatting then they are totally concealed.   Once at the university I got all discombobulated because I was squatting and two of my classmates walked in and I was freaked out they would see me.  Then I was shocked thinking what if I can see them!  It took about two seconds for me to realize that everyone in the bathroom is minding their own business.

There is no toilet paper in the public bathrooms – not even in some fancy restaurants.  Everyone is responsible for carrying their own toilet paper.  In convenient stores to chain stores there are cute little personal packets of tissue that can be tucked away until the time is right.  Sometimes they are scented and sometimes the packaging displays cartoonish figures with odd slogans and themes.  Large family-size packages of tissue are also sold for use at home.

The biggest toilet tissue issue is remembering to throw it in the garbage can.  Toilet paper doesn’t get flushed here too often.  Some households flush paper of course but not all or even most.  At the first hotel we stayed in – which was really nice- we were asked to not flush the toilet paper.  This creates a big odiferous problem in public restrooms.  Even in the nicest venue the restroom can smell…it’s indescribable really, but let me jus say “foul”.  It is all a matter of degree.  At one university there is an open air food court and the restrooms there are unbearable.  I don’t want to touch anything!  When I am squatting I bury my nose into my shirt trying to breath in perfume or laundry detergent like my life depended on it.  Maybe I have saved my own life ten times in the past two months.  Coming out of the stall I kick the flush button, nudge the door of the stall open and fly out of there as quickly as possible.  It only takes a second to decide not to rinse my hands under questionable water, wash with laundry detergent used for other cleaning purposes, or go back to my seat and use the skincare wipes I stow next to my toilet paper.  It’s an event.

Peace Corps trainees have to teach English for two weeks to Chinese students. It is our mini teacher training for Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL).  In the building where I taught the squatters were on a whole other level.  I stood in the door way thinking, “Oh my god, how am I ever going to do this?”  Before I could even finish that thought I jumped in fright at the sound of rushing water.  It sounded like a tidal wave flowing from the ceiling.  The sound repeats itself every five minutes.  It is like an automatic flush.  Water just runs through the squatter of all squatters every few minutes to clear everything out of one long aquaduct.  The aquaduct connects three non-stalls with no doors.  You’ve got to step into the non- stall and on top of a raised platform.  Below you is a mini canal and that is where the business lands and is washed away by the flood of water every few minutes.  It all washes into a hole in the last stall.  I do not know where that hole leads. I kept thinking if I need to go to the bathroom I have to do it before my students arrive!  They can NOT see their teacher like ….this!! 

Some people find the toilet situation horrifying.  They will always wait to find a western toilet, but that’s risky.  Some people find it physically challenging to kick the flush button and the acrobatics of handling clothing and squatting with perfect aim.  I personally think that when it comes to public toilets the western toilet needs to be reconsidered.

On the twenty-hour train ride to Lanzhou I was bummed to see the squatter.  We couldn’t use it when the train was in the station.  No dumping in the station.  I knew no one was going to clean that squatter for the next twenty hours.  I had to psyche myself up to use it each time and place my tissue in strategic places so I would not need to touch anything.  Then on the train to Zhangye I was directed to the toilet and was dismayed to find it was a western-style.  Think of all the asses that come into contact with that one seat.  It is disturbing to think about.  That is when I determined that western-style toilets were not made for public use.  Or meant for exclusive use by the wealthy and privileged classes.  Or they were made to be used in conjunction with an elaborate sanitation system.  It is too bad that sanitation systems are one of the last institutions to develop in many countries – even in the U.S.

I think squatters are much more pragmatic in public venues. On the other hand a western style toilet is the kind of toilet you need in the middle of the night on a bathroom run.  So much more relaxing and supportive.

As a result of all of this, volunteers at our training site talk very freely about toilet related subjects. We make jokes about tesuo (toilet) and la duzi (diarrhea) at any time during our language classes, on the way to classes, and on the bus going downtown or wherever!  What’s more is that these jokes never fail to break us down into fits of laughter.  On the other hand, if one of us has la duzi we nod solemnly in solidarity and check-in with them a few days later to see if all symptoms have cleared.  In American culture these are topics that are supposed to be embarrassing.  We are expected to be discreet or even secretive about them.  I like to think that in our dirty doody talk we are reclaiming some of our much-needed childhood foolishness and reminding ourselves that we are all human.