One of My Worst Nightmares. . . .

I remember that when I was little I used to have a nightmare that I was sleeping in my bed and there were train tracks around my bed and the trains were on the tracks going very fast and would not let me get out of the bed.  I know that this sounds like a very strange dream but I was also very small.  As I grew up my nightmares became more realistic.

When I moved to Ghana and I saw the public latrines I began to have nightmares about them when I was overtired. Let’s just say that they were not the cleanest or safest things that you have ever seen. The nightmares would be varied but would usually involve me being stuck in one being unable to get out.  Then last year I saw an article that a public latrine collapsed in a tro-tro (bus) station with someone in it and the man died.  The nightmare returned.

Last weekend in my town in South Sudan we had a lot of rain; I was beginning to think that I was going to need a boat to get out of my hotel.  I had a reason to worry.  On Monday morning I went to drop some things off at my new house (no I have not moved in yet) and to pick up some shirts and the guard at the house showed me the outside latrine.  All at once my stomach dropped.  The concrete on the outside of the latrine was falling off (think stucco) and then I looked closer and there was a large hole next to the wall that went down about 3 feet.  At first I thought that well this can’t be too bad it can be filled in, and then the guard showed me the inside of the latrine & bathhouse.  Well let’s just say that I am glad that I was not in it at the time.  The entire floor had collapsed and was sitting at a 35degree angle towards the back and I am not sure how the walls were still standing.

I notified the landlord the next day and he is sending out the engineer who built the house to try to fix the latrine.  I am glad that I am not the one who has to use it but it does need to be fixed hopefully before I move in next week.

When I told some of the people at work I said that when I first saw the problem I thought it was my nightmare come to life and once I realized that I was not stuck in the latrine that it would be a good story to add to my future book on living in Africa.