Ladies Room

I've never travelled anywhere without wondering about the quality of toilet facilties that may await. Encountering strange food and changes in water, mean that little things like comfortable restrooms with abundant tissue can matter, a lot. I remember being trapped once in a tiny toilet cubicle at a Florence market. I had entered under emergency conditions before I spotted the urinal right outside the cubicle door, or noticed the lack of tissue. It took the better part of 15 minutes before men finally stopped peeing and I felt I could exit somewhat gracefully, trying to telegraph confidence that, of course I'd entered that particular toilet by careful choice, not by accident. So my first restroom foray at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) where I teach made me wonder whether I might be having deja vu all over again...entering through the same door that a man was simultaneously trying to exit. I remember thinking "...oh dear, this could be embarrassing, I sure hope he's not one of my students..."

But it wasn't really interesting at all.

At SIM, restrooms are arrayed off of subsidiary hallways, much like our offices in the Department of Sociology at UB. There is a smaller hallway off of the main one, and separate restrooms for men, women, and a unisex handicapped toilet radiate off of its small foyer (if foyer is the right term for an anteroom for a toilet). Aside from that spatial similarity of main hallway, sub hallway and rooms off it that, there is nothing similar about restrooms on North Campus and restrooms at SIM. That's because the restrooms at SIM are ALWAYS clean, they ALWAYS have toilet tissue and paper towels. They always have soap. Not once this semester have I had to tape a sign to the mirror that says "Please scrub this sink before we all die" "Please may we have some toilet tissue" or "Please clean this restroom before I have to call your supervisor".
Singapore cleaners really clean, they don't just empty the odd trash bin and swab gray dingy water that smells like damp stinky socks around the center of the floor. They mop in the corners. They wipe off the counters and faucets. Not only do the SIM restrooms look clean, they SMELL clean, an accomplishment in a large, well-used public building. I suppose this high standard of restroom hygiene isn't surprising, though, given Singapore's penchant for tidy orderliness.

And as if clean isn't good enough, Singapore restrooms can also entertain.

Several years ago Singapore was the epicenter of the SARS epidemic. In the aftermath, the government plans carefully how to "guard the spread"--to stave off as many threats of communicable disease as possible. Standard restroom equipment is a poster showing the seven steps of how to wash hands to properly to minimize the risk of spreading H1N1 (although I'm intrigued by the posters, I'm actually much more worrried about dengue fever than the flu) and how to properly afix one's face mask (many people wear them here).

Other signs remind people not to rudely drip water on the floor after washing hands. I noticed there were even posters instructing women how to use the toilet. Singapore may have a reputation as bossy and rules oriented, but that seemed a bit over the top even to me.

That is, until the day of the SIM commencement ceremony last week, when the building (and the restrooms) were unusually busy. I'd never been in a ladies room with more than another person or two, but that day, the restroom was standing room only! In fact, the only available stall was deep in the bowels (I could not resist that cliche) at the far end of the restroom. I nudged the door open and was stopped in my tracks. I had encountered a toiletless, paperless toilet facility with a hose instead for post use cleaning. Hence the poster. If someone attempted to use a stall with a toilet in the same way you'd have to use a stall without one, there really could be BIG trouble.

And vice versa, I'm sure, though I decided to forgo that particular adventure in experiential learning. I just crossed my legs, and waited for a seat.