Adventures in bathroom-cleaning

Our second and third days in Costa Rica proved even more interesting than the first. And if we thought the the toilet seat being too small was the most interesting thing about the bathroom, we were certainly mistaken. Now I guess it's possible that we may have mistakenly thrown a tiny bit of toilet paper in the toilet (gasp!) but I'm gonna blame this one on the former tennants. The flushing process has been a little rough since we got here, but last night it was just too much. Literally. Water (and without going into too many details, let me just say that it wasn't all that clean) flowed from the toilet, flooding the bathroom, and the better part of the hall and the bedroom. We haven't quite made it to the store to find cleaning supplies as of yet, and we also discovered that we had no plunger. The shower curtain is made of thin fabric, and is lacking the plastic lining, so Allie had used her beach towel the day before to mop up after our showers. Once I got the toilet to stop flooding, we used mine to mop up the bedroom and the hallway, and once we went downstairs and begged a plunger from the night guard, Porfirio, we "fixed" the toilet (not a quick OR pleasant job) and were left with nothing but our bath towels and an inch of (dirty) water in the bathroom. Being the self-sacrificing individual that I am, I volunteered my towel on the condition that Allie would let me share hers. But I wasn't really convinced that the towel would do the job. There was a lot of water in there. We resourcefully found a plastic bag and used the toilet brush to sweep water in, and then dumped it out into the shower. I am pleased to report that it worked quite well, and my towel was sufficient to absorb the remaining water and dry off the floor again (with the clean part) once we washed it (with a bit of laundry detergent). Our bathroom is now sparkling. But that left us with three very wet, very dirty towels. Fortunately, we have a washing machine. Unfortunately, we had no idea how to use it. We put in the towels and soap, and turned it on, but noticed that no water was flowing into it. Allie grabbed another plastic bag and started filling it with water and dumping it into the machine bucket-brigade style. But without the buckets. Or the brigade. Though I did help, while I wasn't taking pictures, so that's sort of like a brigade. Once the waching machine was half-full of water, we noticed a tube that connects the sink (outside the window) to the machine. Feeling a little sheepish, we connected it, and quickly filled it up the rest of the way. After one cycle, we weren't sure how clean the towels were, and we really wanted to wash them in hot water. We thought of boiling water, but then realized that the kitchen sink has hot water... we would not be fooled again! We used the two pots we have to bring hot water to the towels (this time the bucket-brigade image is a little closer to the truth). Once the machine was half-full of hot water, we noticed another spiget in the outside sink. We turned it on, and sure enough, out came hot water. Feeling a lot sheepish, we connected the tube and filled it up the rest of the way. After that cycle, and another rinse cycle, we felt like there was still too much water and soap in the towels to move them over to the other side of the machine that does the spin cycle. So again, I sacrificed myself, and stomped the towels, wine-maker style. The spin cycle afterwards worked surprisingly well, and we hung the towels on the line out the window. We were pretty proud of ourselves, but, by this time, exhausted. Things have gone a little more smoothly today, but we did wake up to smokey towels...darn downstairs neighbors. Maybe if we take up smoking ourselves, the smell won't bother us so much. Then again, the consequences just might outweigh the benefits. You will be happy to know, however, that there was no loud American last night or this morning. Thanks for the ideas of dealing with her though...I'll let you know if she returns.

On another note, today we finished teaching the workshop, and had 15 graduates. It was an amazing experience to see the light in their eyes as they came to understand their worth, and that they can achieve their goals. We also found out that Panama is in our employment manager's area, so there's a good chance we'll get another stamp in our passports.
Hasta la próxima,

Sarah