Even though I had been to three years of college and lived away from home all that time, my mission was where I learned leaps and bounds about real life and how to problem solve. Case in point--clogged toilets.
First, let me give you a crash course in Bolivian plumbing (or lack thereof). I just did a google search and in the 1999 census, just over 70 percent of Bolvians had indoor running water, though in rural areas about 2/3 of the homes have no plumbing whatsover. In fact, we were once visiting members in a rural area (about a 30 minute bus ride up the mountain) and I asked if I could use their bathroom. They showed me to the hill on the side of their subdivision that overlooked the city. It was covered in human poop and that was where I was to pee. In case you are wondering, I really had to go, so I did as the cholitas do and squatted with my skirt keeping me covered! I know, TMI. Anyway, that was a one time experience, but we were often in homes where the toilet was outside--shared with other tenants and with no water running to it. (Side note--toilet paper was often newsprint cut into squares.) Toilet seats in situations like these were rare--it was just a bowl--even without a tank (because if you don't have running water, you don't need a tank.) So to flush, you would take a bucket and fill it with water from a giant barrel next to it and then pour directly into the toilet to flush.
Which leads me to this handy tip I learned through countless manual flushes on my mission--a great way to unclog a toilet is to pour a bucket of water quickly down the pipes. This is my favorite way to unclog a toilet. Use a bathroom wastebasket in a pinch if you don't have a bucket. Fill it with water from the bathtub--you need as much as you can get. And then pour it as fast as you can down the offending drain. The force will usually do the trick on the first go round. Repeat until you can tell the clog is gone. If water is refusing to go down at all--then abort the mission as soon as it looks like things are about to overflow. I've never had that happen, but I suppose it's possible. Just be bold--try to dump it all at once.
There you go...next time you are in a bind, think of me and also be grateful you have pipes at all.
