Do you feel trapped? Locked up? Stuck at home? Well, it is the year 2020 and you're not alone. Once upon a time, before 2020, in a land far away, I also found myself trapped, stuck in a tiny space and desperate to escape. Oh...
The expat dramas I've survived!
Expat adventures aren't all about breaking a leg in the jungle or almost ending up in an African jail. Sometimes all you have to do is go to the little girls' room and bingo: adventure. And I don't even mean the type of facility that offers you a hole-in-the-ground affair so you can exercise your thigh muscles.
No, just a nice clean ladies' room can become the scene of a crisis. The story below took place when my mate and I lived in Accra, the capital of Ghana, West Africa, a place of many adventures. So follow me there:
Toilet Trauma
A new restaurant has opened in town and my man and I are going to try it out for lunch. (Clearly you know this is not 2020.) It's in a new building and more construction is going on in the neighborhood.
We arrive and find only one other couple there. Apparently the epicurean masses have yet to discover this new eatery. The decor is modern and pleasing, and the tables charm us with real table cloths, proper cloth napkins and fresh flowers, you know, elegant-like. Okay. On with it:
We order food, we receive food, we eat food, and we like the food: the way it is supposed to go. Then, the way it is supposed to go, I must visit the facilities before returning home. Now home is not far away, but there is always the possibility of getting stuck in Accra's chaotic traffic and that would not be good if my physical plumbing needed attention. My toilet philosophy is this:
If there is one, use it
So off I go, knowing I will find decent sanitary fixtures in this nice new building. And I do.
Small problem, no problem
I enter one of the stalls, and try to close the door. I fail. The door does not quite fit in the opening in which it is meant to fit. It's made of wood and the wood has warped. But no worries. With a sexy hip swing I give the door a good shove and this does the trick. I lock the door.
After having made use of the nice white toilet, I flush like I was brought up to do and unlock the door. Unlocking works fine, opening the door does not. I pull, I yank, I pull, I yank. I sigh. My hip has done an excellent job of shoving the door closed. Closed to the point of jammed.
Big problem
So I bang on the door. "Hello!" I yell. Now, I'm not a banging-and-yelling type of gal, so it takes me a bit of effort to do this with conviction and energy, but I'm a fast learner. When nothing happens, I give it my all. I bang that door with all my might and yell at the top of my voice. "Hello! Hello! Hello!" It sounds rather hollow in the large, empty bowels of the building. I can hear my words echoing back at me. Okay, that's a lie. Still, all is very quiet down here. I pound some more and yell some more.
Certainly someone will hear me. Certainly someone else will come just to use the restroom. Wouldn't you think? After all, there are waiters and waitresses and cooks and dishwashers and cleaners and other people in the restaurant and they all have bladders. One hopes.
Nobody needs to pee
Ten minutes later, still nobody needs to pee.
I bang some more. I yell some more. I feel like a crazy woman alone in the dungeons. This is not good for my self esteem, so I give up.
I close the toilet lid (no one has broken or stolen it yet) and sit down to contemplate my navel the situation. A small window high up on the wall smirks down at me. I cannot reach it. There is no escape without outside help and the outside help does not need to pee.
I am trapped
Not having a reputation for spending much time sitting on toilets (I eat lots of fiber), I expect that my husband will soon come looking for me. Unless he's engrossed in his newspaper, seduced by the trials and tribulations of the world, oblivious of my absence.
I take deep, restorative breaths
To pass the time I study my surroundings more carefully. The shiny white room has not been finished off with great finesse: no straight lines, no true corners, sloppy putty and sealants, sloppy painting. Well, so it goes. In Ghana these are mere details. From outside I hear the noises of the construction going on at the building next door. Jack hammering, pounding, sawing, music, yelling, and so forth.
Fifteen days minutes later and wouldn't you think by now the husband would start wondering about his wife's whereabouts? Yes, you would think that.
But apparently this is not the case
I consider the word bathroom, a euphemistic word Americans often use for a place like this. I think of all the different names I know: washroom, powder room, toilet, twalet, WC, the john, the loo, ladies room, lavatory, restroom. I have visited many types of facilities in my expat life. Even places like this one:
And then it happens!
I hear footsteps on the stairs. I jump up, start pounding the door again and yelling, forgetting about my dignity, or what's left of it.
Someone shoves open the door for me. A waitress. She's been sent to investigate by my husband. After twenty minutes. TWENTY MINUTES!!!
"The door was stuck," I say, superfluously. She's all spic and span in a white uniform and might actually be a nurse ready to take me to the insane asylum. She gives a little shrug.
"Yes, madame," says she, "sometimes it be like that."
__________
Afterword: They tell me no one realized it was me banging on the door and screaming my head off; they thought they were just hearing the construction noises next door. (I sound like a screeching chainsaw?) However, it is now a marital ritual that when I go off into the wild yonder to enjoy whatever facilities are present, I give my mate a long, meaningful look and he will nod and say: "Five minutes."
Have you experienced any toilet traumas, foreign or domestic? Surely you must. Do share and make my day!
