Not All Who Wander Are Lost: Toilets and Tap Water

I know this may surprise some of you, but Turkey is not exactly like the USA! Shocking I know. Of course some of those differences have led to some awkward, but I’ll admit funny situations. Here are a couple of those “situations”.

Story #1 Bathroom Humor

One day last week we were at the mall to get some school supplies. The malls in Turkey are some of the only public places that have public bathrooms, so naturally we all needed to use them. So when it was my turn, I went into the stall and did what most people do in a bathroom stall. After I was finished, I went to flush the toilet. There was a slight problem though; I couldn’t locate the knob to flush the toilet. I panicked for a minute looking everywhere by the toilet seat cover dispenser, feeling the top of the toilet, everywhere. Then relief! I saw a little blue knob by the bottom of the toilet. I had found the flush handle! I quickly turned it. As I did, a powerful Jet stream of water from the toilet started spraying my leg and the floor around me with an intense stream of water. Yep toilets in Turkey have a bidet like “option” on them. Now I was really panicked. I quickly turned off the water, unrolled half the toilet paper roll, and started mopping up the floor. What was worse is I still couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet. I heard a light knock on the stall door. I thought, Oh no, someone thinks I am a rude American hogging the stall and then they will really think I am rude and dirty when I leave a dirty stall and have my pant leg drenched in “wetness”. But from the far reaches of my panic I heard an angelic voice call my name “Charissa?” It was my roommate! “Hannah, I can’t figure out how to flush the toilet!” “It’s that big box like thing above the toilet” (The thing I thought dispensed toilet seat covers!) I quickly cleaned up the water, flushed the toilet, and emerged from the stall with yes a wet toilet water pant leg, but I had survived!

Story #2 Ordering Water Ankara Style

Here in the great desert of Ankara people do not drink the water out of the tap. It isn’t because of bacteria or anything; it is because the pipes are so rusty that sediment is in the water. Drinking sediment = kidney stones= excruciating pain. No thank you. So like everyone else here, we order big five gallon water jugs that get delivered right to your door by a nice Turkish gentleman right after you call the company (Well anytime between 20 minutes to 5 ish hours after you call the company). The first time we ordered water it went like this.

Day one

Boss and other teachers at the school tell us it is really easy to order water. You just call, and say “bir su istiyorom” which means “I want one water” and then hang up. Most companies’ phones tell them what address you are calling from. Easy, right? Wrong!

First Call: My brave roommate calls the number on the sticker on our old empty five gallon jug and says the phrase. Man on the other line says something and hangs up. We soon realize we had called a residence and said “I want one water”? Water did not come.

Day Two:

Second Call: Try another number on the jug. This time we were prepared. We had our address out, we had the phrase written down, we had practiced saying it; we would not be conquered by the water! Called an actual water company this time, but after about 15 minutes of us trying to tell them our address in our “super fluent” Turkish and them trying to use their very limited English while we were all laughing hysterically. They hung up on us. We waited. Water did not come.

Day Three:

Third Call: Called the same number again. Said we wanted water and gave them our address. They immediately hung up. We waited. Water did not come.

Three hours later: We wrote everything down in Turkish on a 3 x 5 card. Hannah, my roommate, walked the card down to a different water place about two apartments away and handed it to the man there. Two hours later…. A nice Turkish man showed up with a 5 gallon jug of water!!!!! It was Christmas Day and my birthday all wrapped in to one!

Awe, Turkey you are so full of surprises! The pictures below have nothing to do with the stories (no I did not take a picture of the toilet!). They are just some pictures of Ankara- Enjoy!