SIDE TRIP 31: Of Ebs and Flows

The toilet bowl in the room was squat-type. Darn. I didn't know they still manufactured models like that. Guess I am so used to sitting like a king when I have to move my ebs that my senses revolt at the idea of now having to squat on the toilet floor to do it. Welcome to Indonesia folks! We're actually having a workshop in Jakarta, the capital city, but the venue is a government training center and facilities are rather spartan. But the squatting-while-making-ebak stunt struck me as particularly hilarious and brought back a flood of memories.

When I was a little boy, we lived in a small island sorrounded by mangroves. While we had a flush-type toilet at home, it was more fun to drop our bombs while perched on piyapi trees sa katunggan at low tide. Boys will be boys, heheh. Of course the nanays gathering clams and shells were not amused at all.

When I was doing field work in the Cordillera, it was normal to have only dug pits as toilets. Basically, you dig a hole in the ground and cover it with wooden planks with a hole in the center. Around it for a little privacy is a waist-high covering made of used fertilizer sacks. When it is time for you to make ebak na, you look around a bit to see if there are people watching, drop your pants quickly and do your thing fast, otherwise large flies will start buzzing on your butt. Ew.

But it was really enlightening when we were doing community consultations in Camotes Islands in Cebu to establish baseline information. We had focused group discussions with children and when asked "Asa mo galibang?", the children chorused:

"Sa sagbutan!!!"

Right! :)