Thursday, March 31, 2011

Potty truck!

Stephanie at Where in the World Am I is hosting the State Department Blog Round-up this week and her ‘theme’ is international toilets. I can’t wait to hear the stories!

I don’t have any strange photos of toilets. Usually it’s the situation surrounding the whole toilet experience that gets me more than the actual plumbing fixture.

One photo that I do wish I had, was one that I could never take because I was always driving when I saw it. A truck load of toilets. I saw several of these trucks while commuting to work in Cairo, which was often quite the experience in of itself, but I’d look over, and there’d be this big old pick-up-type truck, piled impossibly high with dozens of gleaming, brand new, polished and shiny, ceramic toilets… glimmering in the morning sun… pepto bismol pink and baby blue… not a one in a box, they were just lashed crazily to the truck, one layer randomly atop another, with piles of thick palm fronds between each toilet as padding. It was fantastic! Sparkling ceramic, flapping palm leaves, beat up truck, lumbering by in crazy traffic. It was like mechanical performance art! (or something...) Of course, I’d exclaim aloud to my husband and/or passengers, “Look at that truck!” … and a bus would drive by, obscuring the view, and we’d be at some break-away point in the road and the potty truck would go one way, we’d be heading the other, and nobody would see it but me. This actually happened two more times. I’d catch sight of a fully loaded toilet truck, heading south (usually) as we commuted north, and try as I might to point it out, as soon as I opened my mouth, opposing traffic would converge on the truck, like protective guardians of some mythological being… nobody but I was allowed a glimpse of the blue and pink cargo… yes, my husband teased me about the imaginary potty trucks, but I swear, they were real!

Really!

I am NOT kidding…!

I googled “Egypt toilet truck” and found this image of a truck in Egypt with toilet rolls:

image

It’s close… but no pink potties… o well…

3 comments:

betty-NZ said...

I guess I will never be the 'decorating' kind that would need a blue or pink potty!

One of these days, another family member will catch a glimpse of your toilet trucks and validate your sightings!!

Stephanie said...

The Weekly State Department Blog Round-up is posted, and you're on it!
http://tiny.cc/1lr08

If I've made any errors, or you prefer not to be included, just let me know. Thank you!

Connie said...

I always wondered why they were blue and pink. I never saw others. I wonder if they were a delivery for a school, pink for girls and blue for boys. Cairo traffic, and the things you'd see on the roads, could be mind-boggling at times. I sometimes wished for a dash mounted camera, ready to record at all times!