Almost fainted in the floating toilet (Indonesia 81-day series 5)

by wssfivy9 on 2010-04-17 22:45:15

Almost fainted in the floating toilet

After getting up in the morning, I took a walk around the house and found that the house we lived in was supported by more than 20 square timbers of about 15cm. It was about 1.5 meters above the ground. The house was only about 30 meters away from the riverbank. The river surface was about 100 meters wide. The river water was very turbid and fast, carrying some debris. After inquiry, I learned that the river water was about 8-9 meters deep, and ships of 4,000 to 5,000 tons often passed through.

The river water was more than one meter deep near the riverbank; there were three sets of small houses on the river surface near the bank, each with three to four rooms, all made of wood, floating on the river surface supported by several two-layer round logs of 70-80 cm thick; several thick ropes, one end tied to the round logs, the other end tied to the big trees on the shore; a plank of five or six meters long connected the water and the land. I am a person with limited knowledge, so I thought it was a bit interesting to see.

When I wanted to go to the toilet, I was told that it was floating on the river. So I carefully stepped on the narrow plank according to their instructions, down to a separate wooden raft of about four or five square meters on the river surface. There was a small wooden house surrounded by wooden boards on it. After opening the door and going inside, I turned around to close the door properly, then I almost fainted when I saw it clearly: the excrement was directly flushed into the water! The buoyancy of the wooden raft was not good, if another person got on the raft, the water would flood to the ankles; if a ship passed on the river surface, the waves would splash onto the buttocks without mercy.

Since I had already been introduced, the water we used for bathing was directly pumped from the river and sedimented in several large oil drums before use, so I couldn't describe how I felt. Of course, the water for drinking and brushing teeth was entirely 1.5-liter bottled purified water.

Later, I learned that there was even more exciting news! Fish are the voluntary cleaners! (Please see the next article)

Today, I checked the general situation of the mining area and the equipment. The mining area is very large, with more than 1,500 hectares of purchased land. The ore is exposed, and the vegetation is also acceptable. Some places are shrubs, while others have tall trees with diameters of 30-40 centimeters. Workers first set a few fires in the areas to be cleared, burning wherever they could, which was really heartbreaking! After the fire was over, excavators and bulldozers piled the remaining things into ridges. The quality of the ore is very high, as if the whole mountain was a pile of iron slag and iron powder. Under the sun's exposure, foot roasting, and smoke irritation, the temperature was probably around 30°C. In the afternoon, we discussed plans, drew sketches, made material budgets, and will purchase materials tomorrow.

I was not accustomed to the breakfast. It was like overcooked noodles mixed with cabbage, wow, I couldn't stand it and ate very little. At noon, there were fried eggs, fish, and meat, but the smell was strange, and I almost vomited after taking a bite. For dinner, there were peeled cucumber chunks, the skin was yellow and full of seeds, and stir-fried cabbage with carrots, which were still acceptable. We had three meals of rice a day.

Below is a picture of the toilet used at that time, one of the few real original photos. Picture address: http://hi.baidu.com/lyg908/album/item/44083db141cd1c660823028c.html