The Toilet Edition (Last time for everything)

Dear Home Team,

It’s a good pain, I guess. But these days everything we do has a tinge of “this might be (or is-for-sure) the last time …”

  • Filling the motorbikes with petrol.

  • Haircuts

  • Buying bananas from Thương down the street

  • Drinking coffee at Happy Hung’s

  • Hosting a final English Club, board games night, etc.

Actually writing those 5 things into a list uncorked for me how vast the number of things there are that we’re doing the last of these days. And it’s hard.

Today was a last (hopefully) of a less pleasant sort.

What do you see in this picture?


This is a terrifying bathroom photo, and I'll explain more in a minute.  First, though, let me reassure you that MOST bathrooms here are very pleasant.  

Here's a quaint and cute one in a Hoi An coffee shop:


the video of the beautiful little WC is 5 seconds 
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ht8K_ZKsIZk?feature=share

In the Hoi An coffeeshop bathroom, they've artistically arranged for some rolls of paper to be available on branches attached to the wall.  Cute!  That TP is for your bum, yes, but it's intended to be used on pretty clean bums.  Then you're to put the pretty clean TP into the brown trash can, as it's a no-no to flush TP in many toilets.  


Video that also shows a common sign about how to use the toilet properly.


Above is a super-typical bathroom stall.  Nice tilework, everything is pretty maintained.  There's a floor-drain in every bathroom for easy cleaning.  And there's the ubiquitous bum-gun.  In-house water temperature here is generally pleasant for spraying down your dirty parts after using the toilet, and then you can pat dry with some paper goods and deposit the paper into the trash can.  Easy peasy.




So.  What made me shudder when I saw this toilet today?  Not the dubious privacy--I can assure you that I had to go bad enough that privacy wasn't my concern.  

Allow me to zoom in.


There's a scoop in the red bucket.  The white hose can be turned on to refill the red bucket.

This is terrifying.  It means ... there is no functioning flush mechanism.  You have to use a scoop of water to flush.  

That part isn't terrifying.  

The pertinent point is that there's no operational bum-gun if there's no operational water in the bathroom.  With no bum-gun and no paper, and an urgent need, what's going to happen here?  (Scooping water onto your backside doesn't have NEARLY the same effect as spraying with a bum-gun.)

So I hope that's my last time at a bum-gun-less toilet.  Ever.  But at least for this time in Vietnam.

Love,

Tim/Janet


PS.  Today we met up with an old friend to visit his house and eat banh xeo wraps together (maybe the last banh xeo this time?).


He is yet another person who spontaneously started talking about how his exposure to the people of Vision English Cafe 11 years ago taught him about forgiveness and gave him the ability to express gratitude and apology.  In his family of origin these were not valued and modeled.  He says that the host, who was like a Korean grandfather to all the young Vietnamese employees and students, showed his love to them all and changed all their lives.  What an incredible impact.