The next agenda was going to the toilet. In the compound, I had not seen a latrine anywhere and I wondered where they went to the toilet. I hated to ask, but I needed to go. The Help took me down the same long corridor with doors on both sides. I thought she misunderstood my question, that is why she was taking me deep inside the house instead of taking me outside where I could find a latrine for my stinky. Before I could protest, she opened a door and told me, “there is the toilet”. I peeked inside and I did not see a hole in the ground. Instead I saw a seat, a white shiny porcelain “chair” What was I supposed to do in there? I wondered.
I quickly stepped out and followed her down the hall. I told her I needed to use a toilet. For the first time in our brief interaction, she laughed out loud and asked if I had ever used a flush away toilet. I sheepishly answered no. This House Help must have experienced my sisters’ sophistication and assumed her entire family was like that. She was dead wrong, and I guess with the toilet incident, she realized this 11 year old needed more orientation than she first thought. Like a loving mother, aunt, or big sister, she took me in there and showed me exactly where to sit, reminded me to use toilet paper, to flush after I was finished and to spray the Air freshener.
This was all so embarrassing as it was intimidating. Sitting on the toilet bowl made me feel like I was going to fall into the water below, but I soldiered on. I really needed to go. However, I was so conscience of the toilet being inside the house with the Help walking up and down the hallway right outside the bathroom door. I needed to blast out the OlKalou air from my bloated stomach, but I was afraid that would send the stinky all over the house. I wanted to be a good guest, so I spent most of my time there struggling to stifle the gas, letting it out in small installments so the Help did not hear me from outside. I flushed like I was shown and I looked in amazement as the water did its magic. That was quite an experience.
The best part of the toilet experience was the Air freshener. I sprayed like I was shown and let me tell you, that Glade spray was like nothing I had smelt before. It was like a perfume and it freshened up the toilet you would not know the damage I had done there just minutes ago. I even sprayed some Glade on myself. For the month I was there, it was my secret perfume spray. If they noticed it, nobody said anything. Not to me at least.
The toilet became my favorite room in the house. It was the smallest room in the house making it very private. It had no smell like the latrines I used back in OlKalou, and whatever smells I manufactured there, they were magically cleared by the Glade Air freshener.
I sat on that toilet for long periods of time even when I did not need to go. Sitting there made me feel like a queen sitting on her porcelain throne. What was not to like?
