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| What better place to ponder things and pose like this than inside the bathroom? "The Thinker". photo by Gina Matchinsky, Nelson Atkins Museum of Arts, Missouri. |
The ones we have at home is usually called a bathroom or in Tagalog banyo which came from the Spanish word baño. It is a room in the house with a shower and/or bath tub, a toilet and a sink.
But what if it is just a toilet and a sink like the ones that come with restaurants and malls?
In Tagalog, it is called kubeta from the Spanish word cubeta which means latrine. Not very pleasant to the ear for most so it is usually called a comfort room or CR for short and that acronym led to the slang term conference room which is all the same, a toilet.
But when I asked for directions to the comfort room or CR in restaurants in the United States the waiters didn't know what I meant. I had to say toilet for them to understand. Here in the U.S., they are more conveniently called restroom and for British a water closet. I don't understand the logic though. You don't go to a toilet to rest or just get water. It is more of a place to get comforted and being English speaking people, they ought to know.
So how do you call a toilet that is not integrated in the house or an establishment?
In the Philippines, we call it palikuran from the root word likod which means back in this case located in the back of the house as where they usually are. In English, it is called an outhouse.
But palikurans are not necessarily what Americans call a portable toilet, port-a-potties or port-a-john. Not also the British porta loos. If it is not a permanent structure at the back of the house, they are not palikurans, Filipinos just call them portalet or a more general term would still be CR.
It is important for Filipinos to go when they need to go. Thus the need for a chamber pot we call arinola. So we don't use arinola as a name for a person in the Philippines.
In houses where a lot of people just share one bathroom, this is especially important. In homes where the toilets are an outhouse, this is useful especially at night or during foul weather. Two-storey houses with no bathroom on the second floor also use this for the safety of the kids.
In another light, another use for arinola in the Philippines not associated with being comforted in the having to go direction is using it as a storage for money by vendors in small stores or retailers. It is easier to get a change there for customers and it is considered lucky to put money there to encourage more money or business to come in, not to mention an inconspicuous place to keep money. That is probably the last place a thief would likely look into unless they know. Probably another of the Chinese influence in the country or can be associated with the Filipino belief that when you dream of poop or fecal stuff, the more it is, the more money you are going to get.
So the next time you go to a small Filipino sari-sari store (a small store that sells an assortment of things) or a baratillo (bargain sale) or a tiangge (flea market) and see an arinola there, it is not serving its true purpose, but then still comfort in a different sense - the comfort being able to sell more and the hope of getting more money from it. So still all in the name of getting comfort when it is needed.
So what is the difference between a restroom (in the U.S.) and a comfort room (in the Philippines)?
Apart from there having more people in a comfort room that you oftentimes need to get in line even when there were several cubicles already in a mall or a department store - one big difference is the bathroom tissue. In a usual comfort room in the Philippines, there is usually no available roll of bathroom tissue. You have to bring your own. That was why when I first came to the U.S., I often brought with me bathroom tissue wherever I went only to realize that in every restroom be it an Interstate facility, supermarket owned, a school or church rest area, and even department store restrooms - they all have bathroom tissues. Only comfort rooms in hotels and some hospitals provide bathroom tissue in the Philippines.
But then a bathroom tissue is not a major concern in a Filipino comfort room. Unlike in the United States restroom, most Filipino's primary concern is if there is water, soap and a tabo or dipper (especially the tabo) to wash things with. That is something American restrooms do not have.
I met a Filipina in a Speedie Mart in Nevada. She approached me because she instantly learned that I am a Filipina by the way I look. She said the payong or umbrella I was carrying when it was summer and there was no rain was a dead give-away. She expressed the same concern, too. The first thing she looked for when she moved to Las Vegas was where to buy the good old tabo. I improvised mine and used a 500 ml. plastic measuring cup for the purpose. She went all the way to Seafood City just so she can buy one and showed me where it was so that started our friendship.
The question that came to mind is if people around here are not using tabo, and most of the houses do not have a bidet, how do they make that area clean after a major bowel moving? Isn't it supposed to be first, you wipe it with a tissue and then you wash that area with soap and then dry them with tissue again? At least that's how my mother taught me.
Of course there are a lot of bathroom issues that are worse than concerns about whether to use tabo or just plain bathroom tissue and I am happy to not be one of those who have such major problems. People who often get indigestion and have thrice as much trips to the bathroom than the regular visiting people is one example. Finding it hard to move bowel is another major cause of concern, too. It was during those times when a magazine or any reading material inside the bathroom or an I-pad like what we use is most useful.
Another issue but not a bathroom one, but more of a lack of it is the way some Filipino men just pass water where ever they feel like doing so -- be it on a tree or somebody else's fence or wall. That is the reason why in some areas in the Philippines, you will read a sign printed on the walls of houses or establishments that says: "Bawal umihi dito" which means passing water in that area is strictly prohibited. In some Filipino men's desire to go as soon as they need to, they defy certain conventions. No such sign here in the United States, and definitely not a Filipino woman thing to do also - not without water, soap and the good old tabo, at least.
So be it a comfort room or a restroom issue, a tabo or a bathroom tissue issue, a diarrhea or a constipation issue, a bathroom ought to be a place of comfort. Nothing beats that good light feeling and relief after a good bowel movement or urination. Sometimes it is even when you're sitting in your small throne there that you even get to contemplate on a lot of things. It was how I thought about this piece after looking at the new set of bathroom tissue rolls inside the bathroom and the issues I had once with it. But issues or without, a bathroom ought to be a comfort zone and I intend that ours will be just that.
