Water in the Bathroom

Just as I was thinking I did not have a good cultural story from this past week I used a public toilet. In public restrooms in Indonesia there is usually water and if you are lucky toilet paper. Most of the restrooms I have been to have western style toilets and plenty of toilet paper, but I’ve learned to have tissue in my purse or to grab hand tissue on my way in. Only once have I had to use a Muslim style toilet where squatting skills come in handy. That was a rest stop. So, as I was saying your options for cleaning up after using the toilet are either water or sometimes toilet paper. Well, nicer toilets have a knob on them to shoot water out at you rather than having a bucket of water in the stall, others have handy moving water spouts. On Saturday I went to a church gathering, TGP, for the first time. Right before the service I used the restroom and I could not find the flusher, so I turned the funny-looking knob on the toilet. Ah!! Water came squirting out. The entire front of my pants was soaked. Hahaha. It was a great way to meet a lot of new people. Needless to say, I did not stand up when they asked me to introduce myself. I learned my lesson and had a good laugh. Now I know how to use the water at toilets here. I think I’ll stick with toilet paper.