I just read a most excellent post about our trips to the gas station in Mexico. Click Here to read it.
Funny he didn't mention that you throw the toilet paper into a trash receptacle . . NEVER NEVER into the toilet.
So being so close to the boarder I have seen the DIRE consequences of this little cultural difference on both sides of the boarder.
On one side the visiter is backing up toilets and causing a whole butt load (pun intended) of problems for septic tanks everywhere . . .
On the other side visitors - at a loss of what to do with the toilet paper (looking round, looking round) if female will use the feminine hygiene disposal receptacle until that little bitty thing is overflowing and then just start throwing it down on the ground.
Because any self-respecting person KNOWS you DO NOT through toilet paper in the toilet!!!! The lesser of two evils is to place it on the ground. In consideration to the USA-ers, not wanting to back up their systems.
This is really bad news if it is a public toilet in a park. And the poor thing doesn't have a feminine hygiene disposal receptacle to stanch the flow of used toilet paper to the ground . . .
eww
eww
eww!
Then the native USA-ers come in and *tsk*tsk* at those messy others . . . .
It really does look bad - doesn't it?
8 comments:
great post michelle!!! so true!
Haha this post brings back memories from trips to Mexico years ago. At church camp the trash cans would be overflowing by the last day and the smell was almost unbearable. Then when back in the States it seems weird to be flushing t.p. instead of putting in the trash can.
Thank you for posting this! Explains some of the mess I see in public restrooms around here, being not far from Mexican border.
I was thinking about you earlier this week. I had an assignment for my Spanish class to write an essay (in Spanish) comparing families in the US and families in Spanish speaking countries. That was so difficult!
In China they don't flush the paper either. There's a bucket on the side... of the hole. Yeah, no toilet. :(
Heh heh ... I KNEW I would forget something! :) I had to think very carefully before I wrote that post, because so much of it has become "normal" that I don't think anymore about what would be strange.
Yes - we've living in confusion in more than one country with that toilet paper thing... if only we could stop crossing borders! :)
hello, Michelle! here in the Philippines the same is so true. in public restrooms there are signs that say "PLEASE DO NOT THROW TISSUE PAPER IN THE TOILET BOWL". but this city girl grew up throwing tissue in the toilet bowl! i think used tissue piling up in waste receptacles is horrible! but i just follow the rules in public restrooms. except when i do "number 2" (which is not peeing-which is number 1).
Good point, though sometimes it's hard to arrive to definite conclusions
oh yes. know all about this :). my parents were missionaries in S.A.
...and IF you were really lucky, and had a restroom emergency while out in the public (city) world, you may or may not have been able to purchase a 4 inch by 4 inch piece of "sandpaper" to use and then discard somewhere on the ground. if out in the country, well, just forget about any of that! laughing...
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