What 40 bucks can do in India

the view of the plumber out our bathroom window breaking the pipe. the view from below.......just bamboo and ropes folks!!!!
the workers taking down the ropes.

we had a clogged toilet. it started with our western toilet and then moved over to our squattie. it was gross, smelly, and inconvenient. so i called my friend avishek and he helped us get a plumber. the first day they came to check out the "jam". ( i want to note here that we didn't go look for a plumber until 5:00 on Wednesday. the workers are not allowed to start a new project involving toilets or phoo after 12:00 in the afternoon due to superstitions...interesting)

at one point this dude reached his hand in and down the toilet to see if he could feel what was jamming the toilet. he couldn't find so they had to take the toilet off....literally off the floor and uncement it. it was then they found that there was a jam where the two bathroom pipes joined. bad news. they have to do that work from the outside....we live on the 5th floor.

but never fail.......they have bamboo here.

the next day we arranged to rent bamboo poles. and they proceeded to build a structure on the back side of our flat.....5 stories up...its an amazing process.

i asked the men if they got scared. they replied, "this is our work. we are experts".

there is no no no way i would ever be able to do what they do. i have the utmost respect for them.

so they built this big bamboo thing. cracked open the pipe with hammers and took all the "jam" and put it into plastic bags. you can imagine the smell.

they found out the pipe was jammed with sticks from a broom and some plastic. where all that stuff came from....i don't know.

but as we speak the final touches on taking down the impressive bamboo structure is happening. we can use the squattie toilet freely. tomorrow the western one will be ready.

yippee for working toilets. yipee that they can build 5 story structure for 40 dollars!!!

i love that i have had the same orange with every meal for the past three days but have failed to eat it because i have been eating my christmas chocolate instead. i love that i am taking a dance class here and learned some sweet hip-hop moves. i loved that nobody laughed at me in dance class. i love this passive, community centered, crazy, non-fixed price, bamboo using country i live in. i love that without avishek's help thsi would of never happened.