The Facilities

The Musholla.
When I first came to Indonesia, I thought the bahasa word for the bathroom was ‘musholla’ because every place had signs that pointed to the musholla. In actuality the correct word is ‘toilet’; Musholla means the Muslim prayer room. Luckily I didn’t leave a Mr. Hanky in the musholla, I wouldn’t have been very popular.

Bob the Bathroom Lizard.
I noticed two days ago that there was a small lizard on the wall of the bathroom. While I have nothing against lizards, I don’t particularly like this lizard. I named him Bob. Bob likes to hang out in bathrooms, this fact creeps me out. When ever I go into the bathroom, the first thing I do is try to find Bob. I want to make sure Bob is far away from where I am sitting. This is Bob.


The Hardware.
The local standard latrine is a porcelain bowl roughly the size of a toilet. However, unlike the western porcelain god, this bowl is sunken into the ground and on the outside rim of the bowl there are grooved areas to put your feet. These lovely bowls don’t flush either. There is usually a large bucket of water with a smaller bucket inside. The idea is to pour water into the bowl until everything goes down the drain. It works surprisingly well. There is the problem of the bucket of water running low so most public restrooms have a tap continuously flowing into the bucket. When the bucket overflows the water pours out onto the floor and eventually makes it into a drain in the floor. As you might imagine the floors are always tile and are always wet. Before going into the bathroom it’s a good idea to roll up your pants.

Showering.
Some houses have showers, but the local method involves a bathroom that is completely tiled, a floor drain and another small bucket. Rather than fill the bathtub completely and jump in, you fill the bathtub about a third of the way full and then scoop up water and pour it over your head as you stand in the middle of the bathroom. I have great difficulty bathing. First, I am impatient and rarely let the bathtub fill enough. Usually I’ve got soap in my eyes, holding the bucket under the tap wishing it would fill faster. Secondly, there is the problem of rinsing. As you might imagine, water from a small bucket doesn’t get the same coverage as a nice shower and water obeys the laws of gravity. I have great trouble rinsing my areas of perpetual shade.