The nightmare of a drainless floor

By Rasha Almaqaleh

Last summer, I attended a seminar in Wetzlar, a town in western central Germany. One of my observations on that trip was a drain in the bathroom floor which was attached to the room where I stayed during my visit. That really struck me because I’d never seen before a floor drain in a bathroom in Europe. So, when I wrote a blog about my visit to Wetzlar, I made sure to include the drain note in my post.

When one of my relatives read that blog, she was puzzled by that piece of information and couldn’t imagine how a bathroom lacks a drain on its floor. Her puzzlement was actually understandable because in Yemen, where I grew up, all bathrooms and kitchens have floor drains and the floors are usually sloped to the drain.

 That being the case, I myself expected when I first moved here that this was the deal in every bathroom and kitchen around the globe! But I was alarmed when I found out that bathrooms here don’t have floor drains. After all, doesn’t it make perfect sense for these two rooms in the house to have a floor drain? Bathrooms and kitchens have water sources and one gets a little splashy in there. And what happens exactly if there is, for some reason, an overflow in the bathroom? Without a drain on the floor, the water will simply flow out of the bathroom door ruining everything in its way.

I didn’t know how unpleasant this situation could be until I had myself a flooded bathroom at our place. With the absence of a drain, it took me forever to dry out the floor with the mop and all the available cleaning cloths and towels. If this happens in Yemen, I would simply slide a squeegee on the floor and collect the water into the drain.

But regardless of the water sources and the possibility of having an overflow accident, bathrooms in the Western countries are not expected to be wet places. They are designed with some adjustments to make them as dry as a bone. The shower for example is normally separated from the rest of the bathroom: it has a curb and a sealed cabin which prevents water from splashing onto the floor.

Besides, westerners don’t usually use bidet sprays after using the toilet, instead they use toilet paper to wipe down. In Yemen, we usually have bidet showers near the toilet as water is essential in the cleaning process. In some old-fashioned households, there is usually a faucet right next to the toilet and people put a bucket with a mug for rinsing.  

Another big difference between bathrooms in Yemen and in Europe is the bathroom slippers. While Westerners usually go to the bathroom barefoot, people in Yemen use slippers; these are plastic shoes placed at every bathroom door in the house so people could put them on when entering the bathroom and take them off when leaving. 

It is very common in Yemen, especially in modern residential buildings, to have two types of toilets in one bathroom: squat and sitting toilets.  However, squat toilets can be sometimes seen in Western countries but that would only be in public restrooms. During my stay in Europe I saw squat toilets two times, one in the migration office in Karlsruhe, a city in southwestern Germany and the other in the main train station in an Italian city at the Italian-Swiss border.

Squat toilet in Karlsruhe, Germany

Squat toilet in Varese, Italy

All in all, moving between different cultures makes the smallest details more striking than the big ones. This small detail could be anything, including a non-significant hole on a bathroom floor. You come then to realize that what you have taken for granted for so long, some people on other parts of the world can’t imagine it exists! 

The lantern festival !

By Anis Albasha

I go with my lantern
and my lantern goes with me

There above, the stars shine
and we shine here below…

This is a translated part of the popular German song 'Ich geh mit meiner Laterne' which my son and his classmates along with parents and teachers sang in one of November's cold evenings to celebrate a popular German festival called St. Martin's Day. With the kids carrying their handmade lanterns, we strolled the street and chanted joyfully.  

St. Martin’s day, also  known as the 'Lantern Festival’ takes place on November 11. It is officially a Catholic occasion. However, the celebration of this occasion has become a widespread tradition in the whole Germany including the Protestant areas.

This religious celebration dedicated to St. Martin of Tours (336- 397 AD) who was known as ‘friend of the children and patron of the poor’. According to Wikipedia, “Saint Martin was a Roman soldier who was baptized as an adult and became a monk. Conscripted as a soldier into the Roman army, he found the duty incompatible with the Christian faith he had adopted and became an early conscientious objector. The most famous legend concerning this person was that he had once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the latter from the cold. This celebration originated in France and then spread to the Low Countries, the British Isles, Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.” Though St. Martin's Day is so popular in Europe, celebrating this occasion is not common in the United States of America. 

One of the most favorite activities for children in this occasion is the lantern run ‘Laternelaufen’. In order to participate in this run, children have to make their  own lanterns in the run-up to November. On the evening of St. Martin’s Day, children bring their lanterns and take part in the lantern procession which also includes adults. In some areas, people who participate in those parades might be lead by an actor impersonating the Saint, usually dressed up as a Roman soldier riding on a horse. In addition, many Germans celebrate St. Martin's Day with a festive meal where roasted goose or duck ‘Martinsgans’ is traditionally served as the main course. The goose became a symbol of St. Martin because of a legend which says that, when trying to avoid being ordained bishop, St. Martin had to hide in a goose pen where he was betrayed by the cackling of the geese.

So, early in November we were notified by our son’s school about the celebration of St. Martin’s Day and we were also invited to take part in it. Parents were asked to help voluntarily in building up the lanterns children would carry during the evening parade. We were also told that those who would come to celebrate might bring a homemade food so we all could have an open buffet at the school after the lantern procession. Since St. Martin's Day is not a public holiday in Germany, children went to school in the morning. Later at 5:30 pm, we went to the school and we took with us some food. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy when we left, so I wished that the rain would stop when the parade starts.

At the school, children were very excited about the celebration. Every child was keen to get his/her own lantern while the parents were busy arranging the dishes they brought on a large table. The class teacher had put all the lanterns, which have been made earlier with the help of some parents, on the floor. The names of the children were written on the lanterns so each child could look for his/her own lantern. At 6 pm, we all gathered in the school yard where children made a circular ring. All the candles inside the lanterns were lit. Under the guidance of the class teacher, children and parents started to sing some famous lantern songs. Then we all headed out of the school and continued singing while strolling around the neighborhood. The weather was cold but luckily there was no rain. However, the children didn’t pay much attention to the cold weather as they strode happily, laughing excitedly and chanting loudly.

All the songs that children and parents sang were so beautiful and I liked them all. One of the songs I liked the most is called “Kommt, wirwollen Laterne laufen” which can be translated as “come, we are going to make a lantern parade”.

When we finished circling the neighborhood, we returned to the school where all parents and children started eating together in one of the classrooms. The children finished their food quickly and then went to another classroom to play. The fact that the school and the classrooms were open that night only for fun was so delightful to the kids. As a result, they were running, playing and shouting in a passionate and crazy way. At about 7:30 pm, we left the school and went back home. Of course, we didn’t forget to take our son’s lantern with us. 

Though most religious occasions have become more commercialized recently, it is still interesting to be engaged in some of these occasions, especially those which involve parents and children. We all enjoyed the gathering, the strolling and the singing of that evening. My son was so happy about his lantern and he still keeps it. Before I took part in the lantern festival at my son’s school, I knew nothing about St. Martin's Day. I’ve read later that the essence of this occasion is to celebrate modesty and altruism. We  desperately need these values in our life to make it 'shine' even with the help of some paper lanterns.