Modern Day Port a Potty... or just 'pee at your own risk!'

Okay, when you gotta go, you just gotta go... :-( I kept calling these 'holes in the ground' which essentially they are... Jazzy corrected me and told me they were actually called 'pit latrines'... My first experience with these was in mwanza.  I was on a site visit at a local HIV/AIDS care and treatment clinic and really had to go... nobody warned me... nobody... I ran out as soon as I saw the hole in the ground... the smell probably had something to do with it too... I didn't have my camera (which is always with me), but I was just ready to go when I saw that hole... I asked my coworkers what I just saw and after they finished laughing they explained... Tanzanians don't use toilet paper in rural places or villages so the bucket of water is for 'clean up'... Rule of thumb is to really not shake hands here... but people always wanna shake your hand.. :-( But they 'clean up' and pick noses (which is not taboo in public) with their left hands... so generally, if you shake the right hand you should be good... I'm actually grossed out talking about this, but I had to share...:-) check out the pit latrine (aka hole in the ground)... this was the second time that I saw it and I was over my initial reaction... This was at the Dar es salaam zoo... this 'pit' at least had a way to flush... there was a chain at the top... Yeah, I really had to go.. talk about super duper squatting... LOL.. talk to you later! or baadaye (later)!!!