Getting used to the communal life here

I am a person who needs personal space. I mean privacy. However, since the day I stepped onto this land of the Dragons, I came to realise that when it comes to building toilets, the people here can save a large sum of money by not fixing up the toilet doors.

I really felt so awkward peeing in front of a long queue. Although, yes, we all are the same species and there is nothing special about each other's body parts. However, being quite a conservative person, I cannot release myself under the many pairs of eyes.

Ok ok, I know it’s not an appropriate photo to show, however, I feel the impact of my point across will be greater if the photo is there. Hehe, good way to score sympathy points!

Well, I then realised the more you try to shun and look suspicious, the more these aunties will stare that you. And I mean really stare at you when you squat above the hole. So, I tried my best to behave perfectly normal, and take off my pants as casually as possible.I think, the more you think people will look at you, the more they WILL.. As time goes by, I have been getting used to peeing without a proper door, with everyone peeing together, side by side with each other. Nothing uncommon and nothing in wonder.

In fact, many times when I visited the touristy area where toilets have doors, I have actually forgotten that there is a door and didn’t close it!

All I can say is the toilets in the rural areas were really stimulating to my sight and smell...I wonder if its something to do with their diet, because the wastes were splattered all over the place, and I wonder why they can't aim properly into the shit-hole? I could see maggots oozing out from the pile of waste below me. There were some faster ones, which have consumed more wastes, and blessed with more energy were already up on the walls!!

Being my size, I have to move in and out of these toilets in an extra slow and careful manner. Every turn I made in the toilet is done with precision and exact degree, so as not to scrape the wall. I pictured myself as an elephant dancing ballet in a tiny room meant for elegant swans.

And obviously, the smell from these items is so stimulating to my olfactory system that I cannot smell any other smells for the next 20 secs after I come out from the toilet. A lot of times, I would rather do it out in the wild, just behind a bush or something. I have learnt to close my eyes and hold my breath...

Somehow, after talking to farmers, I also realised that what seems as 'wastes' to us is actually 'gold' to them. They need these wastes for their vegetations and plantations, which directly affect their livelihood. I gave myself even better reasons to do my business in the wild so as to save the trouble for the farmers to bring out my wastes to the plants. I can help by directly fertilizing the plants, hot and fresh! So once again, I have learned to look at things in different perspectives, as in, some things which seem to be useless to you, can be very useful to somebody else.

My dear friend, Nana, told me that Jim Eillot once said this -" He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose" She came across this statement in a show, "End of the Spear". I find this meaningful too.