UN is different and so are our toilettes ;)

This topic is a bit out of range of my specialization, but it has been resonating in my head for so long that I simply could not resist writing. Ever since I remember, my life has been here connected to toilettes. Well, that is somehow …. natural :). But also in another ways. I have been through many occasions at hotels or other facilities, where I had to repair a toilette or it was doing something else that it was supposed to. I guess one of the first notions of a rest room in my texts was my experience from Malta, where the rest room was so small that I had to use it with the door open. To complete the picture I must say that it was at a hostel with 20 other guys around. Since then I somehow pay more attention to toilettes as such. While working for UNDP I traveled through several offices and seen quite a few rest rooms.

Recently the rest rooms in our office were renovated. Nice tiles, large mirrors and all the nice things that a modern toilette must have. There was also something unusual there for an office toilette A nice ceramic plate. Pretty decent piece of art. Something that you see in luxurious hotel toilettes with rose leafs or a nice smelling colored wood. Wow, I did not expect that. I was proud about our rest rooms, but only for less than 24 hours. The very next day the plate was filled with condoms. Just like a kid expecting super toy under the Christmas tree and finding a pair of red socks at the bottom of the box. It was that day, when I started realizing it is not just our office. Rest rooms across offices (at least those, which I have seen) are indeed very similar. So what makes our toilettes so special? Where others have rose leafs, we have condoms. But not just condoms, we also have woman condoms. I must admit that I have never seen anything like that and I guess I don’t even want. But that is not all. Where others have nice smell or towels, we have hand sanitizers. Just like if it wanted to indicate something. Some toilettes also have nice and funny adds, which make your short stay there a bit more pleasant, but not those in UN. We have guides on how to wash your hands properly. Currently we have nice educational poster, which explains me, in my intimate moment, how many people live with HIV and that not talking about it is a bad thing. I admit that these facts are important (no jokes about that), but with my pants down I have different staff to do. I wonder if I should count this to my 5% of learning time.

And how to conclude this ? I think I will leave this topic just as it is. The more I would write, the worse it would get. May be just a disclaimer: All of this was for fun and not to offend anyone. I do appreciate the work of our colleagues and their effort to our well being. I just could not resist pointing out that we simply are different ;)