Toilets

[Dee]

http://travel.msn.com//Guides/MSNTravel ... &GT1=41000

[Gloria]

In Brazil, there is a wastebasket next to the toilet for the toilet paper. They don't want you to throw it in the toilet. I was never sure what to do when I had a BM. The airport required you to get the toilet paper you'd need from an attendant before you went into the stall. Thank goodness I didn't have MC when I visited!

Gloria

[Dee]

Gloria!!
I wouldn't find throwing toilet paper in a wastebasket very sanitary....
And do they ration their toilet paper since you have to ask an attendant for it???

Dee~~~~

[Courtney]

I went to Brazil on an exchange in high school. My understanding of the toilet situation there is that in many parts of Brazil, the plumbing system cannot handle anything being flushed down it. The public restrooms I used usually had toilet paper, but I don't recall using the restroom at the airport, so that sounds like it's different. I was fortunate enough to spend part of my time with a host family that had a better plumbing system than most, and I got to flush the toilet paper there! I, too, am glad I didn't have MC at the time!!

Love,

Courtney

[Gloria]

The first public restroom I used had the wastebasket. I was bewildered when I saw it. My daughter was in the stall next to me and we both wondered out loud about the containers. I think, as Courtney said, it was to eliminate the stress the paper put on the sewer system.

The mother of one of my students that year was from Brazil. When I related the toilet paper story, the student said that he'd been there and had never encountered the wastebasket. I think it must be a regional thing, but I saw it everywhere I went. Most of the public restrooms had low grade toilet paper in the stalls, but in a few, you had to get the paper before you entered the stall.

Gloria