About Going, a flash series, part 2

 Another instance of “woke” bowels was when my husband and I visited Turkey on another “world” tour. Each of these trips stretching us further and further from our comfort zones. Turkey was AFTER I consumed bad water in Albania and had a terrible train ride to Greece, spending a good portion of that journey in the cramped, undersupplied and unhygienic bathroom. What I felt was akin to death. After disembarking at the Athens train station we still had to find our way to a hostel in the dark with the fact that I might suddenly urgently need to use a restroom.

But this memoir involves Turkey, the country after Greece on our itinerary. We visited Selçuk with the World Heritage site of the Ephesus Library ruins. After a few days there we booked an overnight bus to Göreme. In Turkey motor coach is the main form of public transportation. Truck stops function as desert oases, where out of complete darkness comes a pin prick of light, closer and closer through the square of window. Attendants rush out to gas up the bus while washers quickly squeegee the bus windows with long sticks. Here one can run in for drinks and toasted sandwiches cooked on the spot and other unfathomable snacks. The lavatory seemed gleaming and modern. YESSS, there were toilets with lids!

But no doors. No problem, I just wanted to use it and be done. I passed open stall after open stall where women crouched, their black robes hoisted above their hips for clearance, balanced with both feet on the commode.

So even when presented with a Western-style toilet they continued to use it the way they always did. Which is supposed to be the better way to go, as I’m learning. Nevertheless, I appreciated in that instance being able to do what came automatically to me. In his YA debut novel/memoir Daniel Nayeri, author of Everything Sad Is Untrue goes (pun intended) deep into this subject, the cultural divide of toilets vs bidets—with some unfortunate mistakes.

It’s a learning curve one never gets quite used to.