footsteps in peru

The Bare Necessities, the Simple Bare Necessities

Usually the first question that pops into my mind when I travel to a new place is: What are the bathroom facilities like? Not that I am a picky person, but I like to be prepared, especially because in my experience most other countries do not have restrooms available to the public everywhere. (While this is a topic for another time, it baffles me when you go to a store and ask to use the restroom and they respond with, “Oh, we don’t have one.” Oh, come on you work somewhere between an 8 and 10 hour shift and you don’t pee the entire time? Anyways, moving on.) My latrine, I feel, is a particularly special one. It was built by the Red Cross approximately 15 years ago, has three walls of blue, corrugated tin, a black, cracked ventilation pipe, no roof and a grey blanket which operates as the door/curtain. The standard latrine is completely sealed except for the toilet/hole and a possible ventilation pipe, which means that usually it just appears to be a black abyss below that the occasional Boy Scout ventures to shine a flashlight into and have a laugh or common “Oooh gross” with his friends. My latrine has an opening on the left side that illuminates the pit below, a particularly special feature.

Now using my latrine would be entirely insignificant if I lived in a lush forested area, but as it were I live in the desert where the only trees are the mango and fig trees off in the distance in the chakra (farm fields). The three features that make my latrine special are the skylight, the curtain and the extra ventilation. The skylight is pleasant during the morning and great at night when one can enjoy the stars while tending to life’s necessities, but during the middle of the day in the summer time the cement toilet seat is boiling lava hot and while sitting there in the sun one slowly roasts. In combination with the skylight the curtain adds to the ambiance. First it smells to high heaven and secondly it is only attached at the top so it can freely blow in the breeze. This curtain is a thick wool-like material and is attached at the corners of the frame so it dips in the middle. This dip just so happens to be the perfect height for people around my height to view the rest of the world while standing and pulling your pants up. During the afternoon in Ocucaje a breeze picks up from the west southwest and blows directly at the latrine which is only an annoyance when using it. While sitting on the toilet in the afternoon the curtain essentially suffocates you and if anyone is observing you then they see a mold of what you are doing, sort of like Han Solo when frozen in carbonate. If for some reason the wind is oblique to the latrine then of course the curtain blows to the side exposing whoever is in it to the world.

I mentioned before that my latrine has extra ventilation beyond the pipe. When walking towards the latrine from the house there is a hole at the base of it on the right side. My first reaction to the illumination of the contents below was, “Oh, how special” but I will say that it has been somewhat helpful. I have learned that I am the only person in my family that uses the latrine. How you might ask have I come to this conclusion? Well if you use the restroom several times a day and live somewhere for long enough it is easy to notice that you are the only one causing the contents below to change. While this observation would normally be tucked away in the memory bank, it is useful to me as a water and sanitation volunteer. Understanding people’s bathroom habits is valuable information because it raises the questions, where do people go if not in the latrine and why do they not use the latrines? Thus the work of a Wat/San volunteer continues.