If it was not apparent from the post title or the picture, this is about outhouses. I like to make jokes so expect poop humor.
When I fist arrived at site I had been fairly accustomed to outhouses. I used them along the AT and was reacquainted during training. It was a relief when I found out the toilet I would be using for the next two years was fairly close to my house and in good condition. I didn't realize how good I had it because about halfway through my service, the toilet reached maximum capacity and everything turned to shit (HA!).
My new toilet was considerably farther away in the neighboring field. The added distance completely disrupted my timing of when I should start making the trip outside. I have since learned to minimize my commute time by heading in a straight line through the barbed wire fence rather than go around it. My fence crossing skills have now become sufficient but if you had told me that someday I would damage clothing, suffer cuts and scrapes, and tread across a minefield of cow pies to get to the toilet, I would have called you a madman or madwomen or madpeople. Additionally this new toilet was just not very good. It is not ergonomic which besides being a place to get rid of and in this case store human waste, is of supreme importance. My legs don't quite reach the floor and I am probably the tallest person in the whole village perhaps the whole district so I don't understand why it was made so far from the ground. More frustrating though is the lack of overlap between the hole in the concrete and the hole in the toilet seat. I won't go into detail exactly why this is uncomfortable and unsanitary but hopefully my saying it is uncomfortable and unsanitary will clue you in.
I visited a waste processing plant in college and while it was probably the most vile and overwhelmingly malodorous place I have ever been, I sincerely resepect and marvel at it's function and efficiency, especially now. There is very little I appreciate about the lack of flush toilets. I do not enjoy the smell of a high volume outhouse on a hot day. I do not enjoy the journey outside on a cold rainy night to take care of imminent bodily evacuation. On a good visit, there will be nothing more dangerous than a goat or lizard hiding behind walls, which still manages to startle me almost every time (not a good time to be startled), but on almost all occasions expect to be assaulted by flies or other insects which call the pits below home. Sure there are such things as composting toilets but I assure you that these are not composting toilets. I have thought about it and the only real positive of the experience here is that it is almost never occupied when I need to use it. It is only a toilet, not a sink/shower/bath which means people do their business and get out. There is no dillydallying. This is a pretty pathetic silver lining though and can be easily be matched by having more than one bathroom. Good riddance to the longdrop I say, bring on the water closets!
