Stories: Hand Plunger

Stopped Up Toilet --James TD Bond

This story is retold by me in James’ words. James lived in a house full of girls. He had five host sisters, ranging in age from 5 to 18 years old. They had one bathroom in the house. James had his own room and everyone else slept in the living room. This is very common. Most PCVs temporarily displace parents or the kids from the room they usually sleep in. For the amount of money host families are paid, this is usually a minor infraction.

Most of us in our CBT site had been experiencing lots of indigestion and health problems. James and I topped the list with my ghiarrdia and his constipation and subsequently diaherria.

“So one morning I woke up with these major stomach cramps, like I HAD to use the bathroom and I needed to do it before the rest of the family woke up and starting going. So I slip in there and start going. I cleaned out my body. There was A LOT of poop. I start pouring water down the bit and it’s not draining. It’s just sitting there and filling up. I can hear the family starting to wake up. I panic cause they know it had to have been me. So I reach down there and start breaking up the poop. With my hand. And it’s not going down. It’s still not going down! So I wash off my hand with the soap in there and go out and find the dad. I tell him I have a problem and lead him back to the bathroom. He fills up an empty Coke bottle and starts going at it. Like a plunger. There is poo water going everywhere, and he is sloshing it around—all over his shoes, all over the sides of the walls, it’s crazy. And then, all of a sudden, the water starts going down. By this time the rest of the family is awake. I of course, wash my hands again and leave the soap on my one hand and stand outside for a good ten minutes, with my hand in the sun, drying the soap up.”

(not verbatim but close enough)