A choo is an outhouse. I do not have my own choo, so I share one with the headmaster, boys housemama, deputy headmaster, and the headmasters’ housegirls (it is common for middle class Kenyans to have housegirls who will clean, take care of young ones, etc.) The choo is at the other end of the school campus from my house.
The door on the left is the choo and the blue door on the right is the washroom for the headmaster/deputy headmaster/boys housemama/etc) (lucky I have a room in my house that I can use as a washroom).
Where you squat down and do your business in a hole. Our choo is usually clean most of the time (except when we have visitors) since the kids are responsible for cleaning the choos on a daily basis. No one can ever aim into the hole…..just sayin’. On bad days, there will be flies that fly up and hit your behind….so glad that doesn’t happen often though. There are geckos that live in there, they scurry away whenever I open the door. So far I haven’t seen any snakes but I do have to keep that in mind and do a quick snake check before I enter.
Our school is wonderful about cleanliness…the kids even bath twice a day. We also have washing stations like this one outside of the choo. During the dry season we keep the water that ends up in the basin and it’s either put back in the blue container to be used again (if it’s soapy enough) or used to mop classroom floors.
The dreaded bucket. This is what I have to use if I have to use the restroom in the middle of the night. Nothing more awkward than having to carry a used bucket across the school campus to be emptied. I’ll spare you the details……
One tip if you ever visit Kenya…always, always, always carry toilet paper with you. They’re not provided in choos and most public restrooms do not provide them either….
Life Is About Creating Yourself 