Bathrooms

Can you believe it? Two in one day! It's Friday, so I thought I would catch up on some posting. I love Fridays in Damascus, really LOVE them. They are my favorite part of living in the Middle East so far. Everything is closed so you are really forced to relax. It is truly fantastic. What’s that you say? Talk about the bathrooms? Well, ok.

Bathrooms in Syria are a funny thing. Ignoring the obvious debate between squat or throne toilet, what fascinates me is how space is prioritized in wash facilities. I have yet to see a toilet with more than ten inches of space between the front of the bowl and the nearest wall or door. With so little clearance to work with, I find that I have to flatten myself against the front wall so that my pants don’t get caught on the toilet seat as I drop them. Also, because there is hardly room to stand, let alone lower oneself onto the seat gently, sitting down becomes a leap of faith, whereby one must sort of plop, and trust that the seat is down and that the bowl will not crack. This is to day nothing of the five feet of head space that most bathrooms are allotted. Having said all of this, I must acknowledge that cramped living conditions might necessitate such space-saving efforts. But here is the kicker: The showers are freaking huge.

For whatever reason, Syrians have decided that doing one’s business requires six square feet at most, but showering, well, showering requires at least the area of a small bedroom. The shower room in my house, which, from what I have seen, is about average, is roughly four feet wide and well over ten feet long. The single shower head is located in the middle of one of the longer walls, so a bather has at least four feet of space of latitude in either direction, and enough room to the rear to perform a back flip. The water runs into a drain by the shower’s foyer (the name I have given to the several feet of the shower room nearest the door), but one needs a squeegee to dry the water that escapes gravity and pools by the rear shower wall. I actually find squeegeeing my own dirty water quite fun and satisfying. Regardless, though, I do not understand why some of the space allotted for showering can’t be redistributed to WC facilities. The Syrian government seems to love to redistribute, so I have taken the matter up with them in the form of a letter to the President, Bashar Al-Asad.

As a fun side note, I have just discovered that I share my love of Metallica with the proprietor of the internet cafe where I do my blog posting, and since it is Friday and the place is empty, we are currently rocking out to "The Unforgiven" at full volume.

Rock on,

Eric