Just when I though I'd seen it all...

Yesterday morning, just after snoozing my alarm for the third time, while stretching and trying to convince myself to get up and at 'em, I was called into reality by the very loud and familiar voice of my next door neighbor, Doña Mayra. 

“Kristel, (it’s a much more common name here than my unheard of variation, so a few people have never gotten used to saying, Krista) no salgas al patio jajajajaja!” Translation: Kristel, don’t go out into your backyard hahahahaha!”

I amusedly yelled back from my bed, “Ideay!! Porque no?!” Translation: “Eediay!! (an invaluable sound here used for expressing surprise, horror, impatience, dismay, or pretty much anything depending on the tone) Why not?!”

Turns out the night before, the cow she had tied up just behind the barbed wire that separates our yards got spooked, ran towards my yard, somehow crossed the barbed wire, and in the process of all that, completely took out my latrine.  I mean literally tore it to the ground. (Benefits of sleeping with a fan: relief from the terrible heat, AND from the noises of the night, aka barking dogs, crowing roosters, and demolition cows??) The only part left standing was the “throne.”

As I slowly opened my back door, there it was. A giant cow butt blocking my exit. So I looked through the wooden planks that make up the walls around my washing area and saw my latrine completely toppled. I really couldn't help but laugh!

I didn't have a second option. Unlike some fancier homes here that actually do have indoor toilets, mine does not. So, I wandered over to Doña Mayra's house with my toilet paper and made myself at home in her latrine. It was just as comfortable really. I could still see the outside world through the gaps between the wooden plank walls, could still hear the neighbors' kids getting ready for school, the birds chirping, and of course the roosters, which crow all day and all night here. The seat they have is made of wood, which provided a different texture than my cold metal variation, and unlike my curtain that blows in the wind, there I had an actual door! Hahaha, goooood timessssss.

That same day, they fixed up my latrine, and they've politely decided to tie up their cows a bit farther from my house now. So, all in all, no harm done! (Luckily I wasn't in there when that cow got spooked!)