A Liklik Haus Story

It's said that missionaries have a relentless thing about bathroom stories. That and weird foods. And it's probably because bathroom stories are the most traumatic stories of all.  

But this is a bathroom story.

And it has to do with things that would lead someone to need to use the facilities.

As hilarious as this story is, if you don't want to read about that, by all means! Skip this article!

Just please don't be offended if this article mentions some things that aren't the most ladylike to be discussing in a public setting. I'm a missionary now and missionaries have a slew of bathroom stories.

This was our second overnight stay with our local wasfamili*. We had gone to bed about an hour before and I woke needing to use the liklik haus (the outhouse). But tired, and not particularly eager to get out of bed, I decided to ignore this feeling as long as I could. 

Well, not much time had passed when James woke up screaming and wouldn't settle back down. It's always hard to get him to nurse in such a new setting so I figured I had better try again. But first the restroom. So I had Jacob go to grab the screaming baby as I went out to the liklik haus. But the front door was locked.

Now as a safety precaution, locks here need a key on both sides. Too often screenwire is a main building material of a door or the window/wall right next to it, making it too easy for someone to cut through the screen and turn the lock from the inside.

But the door was locked. And apparently our wasfamili had gone visiting.

The baby is screaming. Jacob is exasperated, both by the baby and his inability to solve this problem. And my bladder is about to explode.

So I do the only think I can think to do. I take the small peanut butter jar we had reused to bring them milk powder for our evening tea, pour the rest of the powder into a milk powder jar she already had. And left Jacob and James in the living room while I returned to the bedroom.

Guys, the jar was nearly too small.

The second I had capped that lid and thrown the whole jar into the wetbag we brought for dirty diapers, our wasfamili walked up the stairs and unlocked the door.

Jacob gave James to me to nurse and went out to use the liklik haus.

We threw the whole jar in the liklik haus later. I deemed it unclean and would not want to reuse it again.

When we lay in bed, with the baby finally asleep and all bladders empty, Jacob let out a sigh. 

"What's wrong?"

"This is rough."

"Why?"

"Because the baby's crying! And you had to urinate in a jar!"

I laughed. "But it's over now! James is asleep. The deed is done. There's no reason to continue to be upset about what's done. It's probably never going to happen again."

I think we have a choice in this life. We can harp on things done and past and let them ruin our moods and our next moments or we can accept that not every moment in this life isn't perfect and move on. Focus on the good things instead and that will come out in your attitude and life. **

"... whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Phil 4:8 NIV  

*a wasfamili, literally "watch family", is the non-biological family who looks out for us. In the village, all interactions are done with a strong emphasis on "how are you related to me?" Consequently, throwing people who are related to no one is very perplexing for the village. To overcome this, we'll be "adopted" into a family. During our time at POC, we had a wasfamili who we "practiced interacting with". In our POC village living, we'll have another wasfamili who will take care of us for that month. When we allocate to the village we will be working long-term, we will likewise have a wasfamili there.

**This is not to shame Jacob as his true source of anxiety was that I was upset (or he thought I was). He's such a good husband to be bothered that I'm bothered and try to empathize with me if he can't fix it.