I can’t write a blog about our adventures in Indonesia without including a gratuitous post about squat toilets. If you have never seen or heard about squat toilets, they are probably exactly what you are picturing in your mind’s eye – a hole in the ground that requires the user to squat, rather than sit. Squat toilets are common in Asia and Europe. They can range from crudely dug-out holes in the bare ground to porcelain basins with tanks (and then everything in-between).
Jobsite has equipped most of its homes and public restrooms with Western-style toilets, but that doesn’t stop some people from squatting. It’s not uncommon to see muddy shoe/boot prints on the toilet seats. In all fairness to them, medical studies have provided a long list of health benefits associated with the use of squat toilets (including the prevention of digestive disorders, gynecological issues, and heart attacks). King George II should have thought twice about installing a squatty potty in his bathroom.
Our house is equipped with one squat toilet, and, thankfully, it’s not in the master bathroom. The squat toilet is one of the first things that the girls looked at when we arrived at the house, but it took them about three weeks before they got the courage to try it.
This is the squat toilet in the maid’s quarters. In most cases, the hose is used as a replacement for toilet paper. All toilets at jobsite (including the other three toilets in our house) are equipped with hoses. Squat toilets and hoses are not for everyone – including me! By the way, the porcelain is slightly stained (there is nothing in the toilet, but water).
7693 Miles from Home 
Hi Kriste and Family.
This article on the squat toilets and the photograph appealed to Dad as being most interesting and standing at 6 feet 4 inches, the aquat toilet appealed to me as being useless. How is a tall man able to squat so low to use the toilet. For me, just don’t think it would work.
It is starting to warm up here and all the snow we received is now beginning to melt. Maybe, in a few more days, I may be able to cut my lawn, ha, ha.
This has been a tough winter this year, so much snow and so many bad roads. Usually, we will get a Chinook and all the snow will melt, before it snows again. The average winter here will no longer permit outdoor skating rinks, as normally, the ice will not freeze. This winster, all there is is frozen ice on the sidewalks and on the roads. You are fortunate that you are living in a hot climate.
Tomorrow, January 14, 2014, the temperature is slated to be 46 degrees F. There should be considerable more melting of ice.
How does Chris like the job?
How are the girls doing in school classes?
And how is Kriste enjoying living in her temporary home and not her real Arizona home?
We love the four of you and we miss visiting with you this early 2014.
Love, Dad