Halloween Post: AZ Toilets! Scary enough for you?

For Halloween I think the scariest thing I could come up with was explaining the bathroom situation here. Plus, some people were asking about it, so here you go!

But first, folks have been wondering what a typical day for me looks like. To be honest, it feels a little bit like being at school, minus a strong social scene. here it is if you're interested. if not, go ahead and skip it. If you don't want to read about toilets, I suggest you just skip this entire post!

-Sean's Schedule as a Peace Corps Trainee-

8am: Wake up and have breakfast. Usually 1 hard boiled egg, some bread, and some tea. Afterwards I start my 5 to 10 minute walk to school.

9am-1pm: Language Lessons. 4 hours strait with one 15 minute break. This takes place in a small class room in a school where students from 1st grade to high school age currently attend. Everyday I hear "Hallo!" and "Vhat is your name!" countless times from the kids.

1:30pm: I walk back home for a quick lunch; usually some bread, more tea, and some kind of potato and oil concoction. I'm not complaining though, it's usually quite tasty.

2pm - 5pm: Technical Lessons. At 2, half of us YD's hop on a marshka (a small bus/van). This ride usually last about 5 minutes until we meet up with the rest of the Youth Development folks for our technical lessons. Now, these session have been rather tedious and boring. It's generally pretty basic and obvious information that is given to us, and almost everything that we are taught is given to us in written hand out form as well (almost word for word), which in my opinion leads to a lot of unnecessary paper usage. This of course is just an example and reminder that our trainers are also learning and growing in their roles as well. Besides, the technical lessons are a good opportunity to hang out with the other trainees for a while, so I actually tend to look forward to them.

5pm-6:30pm: Try to Relax. Until Dinner or when the sun goes down, some of us either go hang out at someone's host house for a bit. It's been great playing Futball and dodge ball with some of the local youth during this time too.

6:30pm: Dinner. Again, some bread, some kind of potato and oil thing, usually a meat (either cow, chicken our goat usually) and some fresh cut veggies.

7pm-8:30pm: Hang with the Fam. Spend time watching TV, drinking tea, eating candy & fruit, and talking with my host mom and brother.

8:30pm-10:30pm-Study, Home Work and Read. If I'm done doing language practice and my technical lesson home work (Or if I'm just ready to forget about those things for the night) I do some reading. I've been reading a couple things: Three Cups of Tea and and a comedy book.

10:30pm: Good Night. Generally will hit the lights and fall asleep listening to my iPod; either a podcast that was downloaded when I was in the States or some music.

Saturdays: Language lessons for 4 hours, and then the rest of the day is off. Usually I take a 20 minute bus ride (the cost is around 20 cents) into Sumgiyat where I meet up with other trainees for a beer or some food. Usually I head to the Internet cafe as well where I can use Skype, blog, and email.

Sundays:Free Day: Sundays look a lot like Saturday afternoons.

Now....Toilets...

When I first got here, I was very curious about what the bathroom situation was going to be like. Everything I had researched was very ambiguous, and now I see why. There is a bunch of different toilets here my friends. Whenever you reach for the door to enter a bathroom, you never really know what you're going to get. Maybe a porcelain squatter, where you need to role up your pants and squat like you're acting like a frog about to leap away. Or in some cases you'll find a western toilet. However, I have yet to see an actually toilet seat on any of these. One thing is always the same though.....toilet paper is a no no for the plumbing.

So, what do you do? There are two options:

1) Supply your own TP, and suffer the consequences: Since you can't flush, some PC volunteers suggested bringing a small baggy with you; kind of a portable trash can. This way you have your usual TP experience, expect the problem is that you are now going to be in possession of a baggy of used toilet paper until you can get rid of it. There really aren't trash cans around the house like you have in the USA, so putting that poop bag in the small trash bag hanging in the kitchen is a bad call. You carry around that baggy until you can find a place to get rid of it.

2) When in Rome: Do as the Romans do. With your right hand you use something that looks just like a gardening water jug, poor it down the small of your back, and use your left hand to do the dirty work. Of course you wash your hands afterwards, bu this is why you really don't use your left hand to physically touch people. It's not a major sin or anything if you do, just don't use your left hand to do something if you can use or right hand. Kind of the cultural rule of thumb.

Personally, I am discussed by the idea of holding onto a poop bag for however long it takes to get rid of it. It just seems like an extra step (and a nasty one), that can easily be avoided if you just suck it up and "Go Native."

Whelp...Happy Halloween everyone! Be safe! We're getting together at some one's house for a costume party to watch movies and hopefully carve some pumpkins. We all finished our Site Placement and Mid-Training Language Tests, so now we're ready to just mellow out.

I should know my permanent site by November 10th!

----------Comments From Last Time-----------

Breea: It is true. I will have to leave the host family on December 10th. Training ends on December 9, and on December 10th is when I start my 2 years at a permanent community! They're pretty bad-a, and I'll be happy if my next host family is anything like them.

Steve: Hey Brotha! I hope all is well. Thanks for the support; it is much appreciated. How's everything? Did you start that new job with Dustin?

Nate: YES! He too, is a YD. I think he kicked like 8 games or something. He did the NFL and NFL Europe. I will give you his name via an email or facebook message.