Family Overseas Adventures: Cultural cues from the crapper

Bathrooms are fascinating. We all use them several times a day - but oh how they vary. What I find interesting about a trip to the pot is the cues it provides into its local culture.

Some things we can glean about Cambodia evidenced by the restroom:

1) Location Flexible

Peeing on the side of the road is pretty common.

(peeing man on left)

Even in the center of town, I saw several men whip it out along side a tree.

More surprising, however, was being told that the sewer for this town IS the river.

With these basic living conditions, I totally understand the logistics of this...

But didn't really want to hear it as we were paddling kayaks in said water. After learning this, Zoe cried each time a drop of "pee water" splashed her.

2) Hard work ethic: A 6 day work week and rice farming or sewing as primary occupation choices, the toilets foreshadow the hard work required of Cambodians

Stand up pots….

Manual, bucket-o-water flushing

(required some instruction to the kids)

The physical stamina & balance developed here are visible everywhere

3) Starting from the basics: The country was blown out by a very traumatic history - including almost 4 years of mass genocide in the 70s. Today it feels like a country starting over. Attitudes are optimistic and people seem determined to build it up to the grand place it deserves to be.

This fresh start is visible in the John with some very basic education

Meanwhile, visiting a village that had just received a well from a clean water NGO (http://www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org), our kids needed teaching on how to manually pump water