Recalling my toilet experiences

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

My Paris trip last year made me realize that there are many ways that a woman cleans her privates.

When we arrived at the condominium from the airport I really wanted to pee (in the Philippines we refer to pee as ‘jingle) and on entering the bathroom I was surprised to see two toilet seats colored white.

While I sat at the first one, I examined the second toilet seat. Since it was clean and the bathroom smelled good I sat on it. There was a faucet near my back and it just dawned on me that it’s used to wash my butt and my “thing.” 

Photo taken from bidetsplus.com

I sat on it and tried to figure out how to use the faucet at the back and sure enough it worked. 

Looking back, I laughed and wondered,  how did I ever manage to use it?

I didn’t tell Karen, my travel companion, about how proud I was of my little discovery. 

With my discovery I mused about my own “toilet experiences” in the Philippines.

The 'kabo'
Back home in the Philippines, specifically in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental in Northern Mindanao,  I use a plastic “tabo”  (dipper or scooper) in taking a bath and in fetching water from a pail or basin of water whenever I pee or uhm, take a dump. 

Unless I bathe in the river (obviously I don’t pee or take a dump there) then I don’t need a “tabo.”  As I moved up in the world, there were changes I had to adjust to and that includes using a modern bathroom or toilet.

Photo taken from come2philippines.com.

The “tabo” as Tagalogs call it or “kabo” as the Visayans say it, is easy to use in the toilet where it’s placed either at the side or at the back of the homemade toilet seat. 

Don’t ask me what the toilet seat is made of…suffice it to say it’s adequate for my needs then.

The “kabo” or “tabo” I started out with is made from coconut shell which remains my favorite. It’s better than the milk cans I used as “kabo.” 

The “kabo” is also used in the kitchen but don’t get me wrong. One “kabo” stays in the kitchen while another one is designated at the toilet which in the Philippine countryside is separately located from the main house.

Hand-crank
Recalling my toilet experience in the Philippines led me to searching Google for the toilet practices and facilities in other countries.

There I learned that in France, toilet sanitation was augmented by the invention of the bidet in the 1710s. With the improvements to plumbing in the mid- to late 19th century, the bidet moved from the bedroom (where it was kept with the chamber pot) to the bathroom.

Stone toilets in Jerusalem. Taken from Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia, modern bidets use a stream of warm water to cleanse the genitals and anus. 

Before modern plumbing, bidets sometimes had a hand-crank to achieve the same effect. 

Wikipedia also states further that the bidet is commonplace in many European countries, especially in Spain (30 percent), Portugal (70 percent) and Italy (95 percent), and also in Japan where approximately half of all households have a form of bidet (often combined with the toilet in a single appliance). It is also very popular in the Middle East.

In India and the Indian subcontinent, over 95 percent of the population use water with or without soap for cleansing the anal area after defecation. 

Cleaning
In places where water is scarce or not closely available, a stone or similar hard material is used instead. The use of toilet paper like in the Western World is rare in these places and is seen only in some urban and Westernized societies. 

The cleaning of hands after this cleansing process is mandatory and is done using soap. If soap is unavailable, soil, ash or sand could be used to clean the used hand or both hands. Modern toilets use spray bidets. 

Taken from WikiHow.com

Older toilets may or may not have a running water source, but buckets, bails and mugs are used for storage and for cleaning. 

So my big discovery back in Paris which I hid from Karen, my travel companion, for fear of exposing my ignorance is the “bidet.” That’s it. 

In the course of my journalism career, I attended a lot of seminars which required me to stay overnight in hotels which had different toilet facilities. 

I remembered going on a study tour in Australia with 11 members of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club and it took me some time to learn how to use the bathroom especially how to use the bathtub and shower head. 

There were so many buttons and I was confused which one to use to clean my butt and which one had hot or cold water. It took me a day to learn how to use it. During that time, I missed using my old “kabo.”

Now that I live here in the US, I have to learn how to use the modern toilet otherwise I’d end up all smelly. On second thought, I realized that even if you shower every day, you still wind up sweaty at the end of the day.  If you have time, do visit my blogs and website listed below. See you there.

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who works as a nanny in North Carolina. This page will serve as a venue for news and discussion on Filipino communities in the Carolinas. See her website at www.susanpalmes-dennis.simplesite.com. Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis. 
You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/)https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

Removing that pesky facial hair

                                         Some advice from Trisha60 on her YouTube channel

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

I had no idea when the hair first appeared on my face. I am talking about hair all over my face and it's quite horrible. Imagine I had hair on my upper chin, hair above the brow and everywhere on my face.

One morning I had a sideburn already. Next thing I know, I was plucking out the hairs with my red tweezer and kept on plucking to no avail. I saw to my horror that the hairs already thickened on my upper chin.

It looked as if my eyebrow went down to my chin. I was scared that I may get a goatee one of these days. Here in the US, they describe this facial hair on the chin and cheeks as “whiskers." 

Taken from themetapicture.com

Whatever it's called it's unwanted hair to me. I was alarmed. Me with facial hair? 

I'm not a “he”, I am a she. No doubt about it, at my age I don’t doubt my femininity and I love being a woman.

Do you know there are people who would freak out if they see facial hair? 

I don’t blame them actually. I feel ugly seeing those facial hairs. This facial hair is becoming a problem to me.

Taken from WikiHow

How would you describe yourself when you wake up one morning and seeing yourself covered with facial hair? 

Is it an overnight hair overgrowth? Spare me a minute as I tell you how I discovered my facial hair growth.

Due to the fast pace of life in the US, I sometimes didn't have enough time to attend to my personal appearance other than the customary brushing of teeth, washing of the face and applying light makeup.

Light make up consists of matte lipstick in the morning and SPF. That’s it. One day last year when I was readying myself for exams in my paralegal class, I went to the bathroom to see if I was presentable.

I thought I saw a woman with a mustache when I entered the rest room. I thought she looked familiar. A closer look at the mirror, though, showed that the woman was me. Oh God, it was me.

Taken from www.wax-strips.com.

But I'm a woman, not a man. I looked horrible. It was shocking to see me with that facial hair. 

What happened to me yesterday that I became a he and sported a cute beard.

Believe you me I ended up covering my upper lip and mouth throughout the night and I couldn't wait to go home and start plucking or shaving the facial hair. 

The problem was, the faster and harder I plucked, the tougher the facial hair got.

I thought of shaving it off, but I remembered what happened to my legs; years ago hair on my legs were just normal and when I started shaving the hair fought back and I had to work on it overtime. Tsk tsk.

So with the option of shaving out of the way, I tried to use commercial wax but the wax glued my upper lip to my nose, exposing my teeth. Really it did.

So here I am having to deal with my pesky facial hair and dreaming up ways on how to remove it, if not once and for all, at least down to a barest minimum. Any ideas out there?

                    
                                          Some tips from Tia Shorts on her YouTube channel

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who works as a nanny in North Carolina. This page will serve as a venue for news and discussion on Filipino communities in the Carolinas. Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis. 

You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/)https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

About vaginal health

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

It's awkward for the general populace to mention the word “vagina.” The mere mention startles those within hearing distance unlike “penis” which most of us don't have a problem with.

"I mean, you can say 'penis” without effect. The word vagina is not openly talked about much less shown to other people. 

Is vagina still a forbidden word even here in the US? Don’t get me wrong I'm not talking about the vagina per se. I'm talking about the doctor’s visit. 

I don’t know with the others but for me even in my age it's still a tall order to visit the obstetrician. I was reminded about my difficulty after reading a Facebook post from a friend mentioning her visit at the doctor's office and exposing herself to the doctor for examination.

Reading between the lines I can tell she doesn't love doing it but she has no choice.  I don't want to talk about the sexual aspects because I don't want to be in trouble.

Remember the movie The Back-up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez and Alex O’Loughlin, where the doctor played by Robert Klein examining her vagina in the presence of the husband” 

The doctor mentioned about her husband being uncomfortable about hearing the word vagina and to make him feel at ease, he repeatedly mentioned vagina.

Believe me even at my age I am still shy when I visit my doctor to undergo examination. Call it vagina-shy.

From Wikipedia

As you can see at the doctor’s office I am given a white gown and told to remove the underwear. 

Even if it is a female doctor’s assistant it is still uncomfortable to undress and undergo examination. The cool air isn't a comfort either.

The waiting is also an agony if the doctor came late and you are undressed already.

Then when the doctor arrives and the preliminaries are dispensed with, you are asked to lay down and he or she is facing your vagina. Again, I don’t know with the others but for me I wanted the checkup done immediately.

So many reasons I can think of why I am conscious with the visit: the smell, the face, texture, hair, and all.

Do you know that as we grow older the vagina changes appearance in its size and especially its width. I can tell because now I have to look at the diameter of the  underwear which is also wide. 
Of course the smell is always there so I want to check myself right after I cleaned myself. As the body changes I guess the vagina also changes.

In the Philippines at least my last obstetrician is a friend, Dr. Caroline Orimaco,  and we just laugh about it and I don’t care if she has seen it. 

You see it isn't easy to be a woman. It would be easy to see that doctors don’t mind seeing vaginas anymore because in their life time they have seen so many vaginas and they don’t remember a specific vagina for one patient. 

Excuse me I think they still do.

Taken from centerforvaginalhealth.com

Last month was women’s month so there were many concerns raised about being a woman but among the most timely and personal issues is the health of a woman's vagina.

Since health is very important, a lot of us women have to expose ourselves to the “prying eyes” of the doctor which I call that vagina-probe. 

Pardon me, I'm just speaking out my crazy mind.

But there comes a time when one forgets about being shy and sensitive because one's health is important. When I came here in the US five years ago the first month was spent undergoing medical examinations for pneumonia, polio, tetanus, HIV, flu and yes, the vagina.

Undergoing a vagina examination made me conscious. But there was a time when I felt something was wrong with me and I had to undergo a vagina examination and any thoughts of embarassment flew out of the window because I am concerned about my health.

We women undergo pap smear, pregnancy tests, before and after delivery and all kinds of examinations on our vaginas. Rather than be embarrassed, we should be proud of our vaginas. 

By the way, I recommend reading 'The Vagina Wears Diamonds' on the Open website. Also, 'Siddharth's Inner Voice', though it isn't available online.

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who works as a teacher assistant  in North Carolina. This page will serve as a venue for news and discussion on Filipino communities in the Carolinas. Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis. You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/)https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)