The toilets!

I know you are dying to know.

So, as many of you know, toilet paper is not a custom in India.

Instead you will find in every bathroom a spigot with a bucket and a little pour cup in the bucket.

As obnoxious americans, my new found friends and I feel obligated to talk about teh toilet customs at every opportunity.

Here is how we figure it works. You dip the cup in the bucket of water and then use your hand (once presumably?) to splash yourself. This is of course your left hand. Then you let your underwear dry you off. For #2 this seems a little more difficult - we presume that if necessary you can pour teh cup of water over your bum. The idea of this brings such vivid images of us walking out of a bathroom with our pants soaked in water that we cannot help but have laughing fits when considering it. (yes, as i said we are obnoxious americans).
So, we avoid it all together and fortunatly tp is not hard to buy here. I carry with me faithfully and hope for a toilet when i need one. Toilets are particularly hard to find, many restaurants, etc do not have them. This fear of needing a toilet when one is not available is really not good for our states of hydration but we are quickly adjusting.

The toilet of the institute gives two choices: one is a regular toilet and one is a pit toilet. Of course you are more interested in the pit toilet. The pit toilet is a hole in the floor which you squat over. But this is not the good part. The good part is that there is a flip down seat attached to the wall. But it gets even better - the flip down toilet seat is very high up! So using the seat (even for a tall american) would entail hoisting yourself up there. I am not kidding. This would require at least a small jump and some arm strength. and a little hop down. For some reason the idea of peeing from up there gives me great joy. It is like being on the highdive.

One more complicating factor in this image is that the floor is wet. I try really hard to never question that this is just water. And of course shoes are not allowed inside of the building so you are barefoot. You are then able to wash your feet with a spigot in the bathroom area.

As some of you know, my favorite nightmares have to do with bathrooms. So now i have great additional material to fuel these reoccuring dreams! And being the prissy american that i fully own up to being, I am planning to never have to use the bathroom. So far this has affected my yoga practice only slightly. I cringe for the day when I come out of an inversion and just have to do it. I am sure it will be perfectly pleasant and i will realize what a shmuck I am for being such a toilet snob.

Well what do you know. Before I was even able to post this blog entry i was forced to christen the toilet at the institute. It was unavoidable. It was okay, but not enjoyable and really i think it's best if i try not to harp on the different definitions of "clean" that we have in the US and the definition that they have here.