...And a Filthy One

Sometimes when we snap the two padlocks closed and lock our front door, we are lulled by the comforting illusion that we have left the third world behind us.

But don't be fooled: it's just an illusion.

We've been having a problem with the washroom on our balcony -- it seems to flush fine, but hours later the dirty water reappears. Absolutely lovely.

The source of our plumbing problem was revealed to us this week in a charming e-mail from the apartment's previous tenants:

About the problem with the toilet. We had Zacarias, the plumber, come out and investigate it. He said those bathrooms where never built properly. The refuse from the one next door flows into your toilet and comes through the pipes into the bowl.

We did not have much trouble since the people next door were gone most of the time we were there. We just flushed it down a couple of times each day when they were home. Also, when we were leaving for a trip, we poured some bleach into the bowl.

Thankfully, we have two washrooms, and the one that we use most frequently (always, in fact) doesn't have this problem.

Of course, last night we couldn't flush any toilets, or wash dishes, because the water was off. It was restored sometime overnight. That's just Africa.