Scrubbing...A Little Too Hard

My bathroom is tile. Not just the floor, the walls too. In theory, I would love this, but the tile is well...gross? Therefore, after acquiring some much needed supplies I set to work scrubbing.



Things were going well until I was scrubbing the tile near the toilet. Before I go on, I must tell you toilets are considered a "western" amenity in Indonesia. Indonesians use what is sometimes referred to as a "squatty."Rather than using toilet paper, they use water and their left hand to clean themselves. Due to this, the left hand is considered dirty and never used to pass anything to someone else. Many bathrooms have a sprayer next to the toilet to assist in the cleaning process. Having not read extensively on the Indonesia toilets prior to coming, I walked into my apartment bathroom and wondered what in the world a kitchen sprayer was doing in the bathroom! Haha :)

So there I was putting some good elbow grease into my tile wall when I happen to hit the top of the sprayer pipe.

Water.

Water!

Water!!

The pipe busted right off the wall! Water was jetting out of the wall, out of the bathroom, and hitting the hallway wall. Quickly, I grabbed the broken part and tried to jam it against the wall to stop the stream. Thankfully, I was with a friend who ran to call for help. So here I was in a foreign country, jammed against the wall attempting to keep a jet stream of water from flooding my apartment!! After the intial shock, I found the situation somewhat entertaining at least until I thought some more. My apartment is quite a ways up in a high rise building. If it flooded, not only would I lose my stuff, but perhaps damage several other apartments and businesses in the building.  I started praying.

Where I spent at least 20 minutes of my life... like my yellow toilet seat? A replacement = $53 *sigh*

It didn't take long for the water to cover the floor. Thankfully, the bathroom floor sits about one inch lower than the rest of my apartment floor. When my friend got back from making the phone call she started scooping buckets of water into the shower. With me jamming against the wall and her scooping buckets of water, it seemed as if we could keep the water contained to the bathroom. However, I wasn't sure how long we would have to continue. Finally, after what seemed like hours, but probably only 20 minutes, the water got shut off.

The water trickling after it was finally shut off.

There were so many things to thank God for in this situation: my apartment not being damaged except for the pipe that busted off the wall, a repair man coming a few hours later so I could have running water again, and a friend who scooped bucket after bucket of water. SO many things. No matter how often I have to scrub the tile I am now thankful it goes from floor to ceiling. No matter how many times I trip over that one inch lip stepping out of the bathroom I am now thankful its there. No matter how many times I recall this story I will always laugh! God is good :)

Cleaning accident turned swimming!

All fixed with a new sprayer.