A few days after the failed attempts to plunge, two more workers came with a wrench and a long metal thing that looked something like a jumbo metal nail file. I watched as they unscrewed the toilet from the floor and ran as quickly as I could to get some old towels as they lifted the toilet up and all the water poured out the bottom. As they tipped the entire toilet on its side, I anxiously dreaded to see what was stuck in the base of the toilet. Turns out it was three q-tips that had grid-locked themselves together. One of the workers started to inform me in Chinese that these 'things' cannot be flushed... VERY BAD... VERY BAD, he tells me. Of course, I couldn't let him think I didn't know that..
The next day, I had to do a quick teaching lesson to our aiye, Jen. (Ok, secret's out.. we have a lady who comes and cleans the floors, toilets, plates - hopefully not in that order with the same cloth - - we've gone over that one already!! She was seeking work and it's almost expected that as an expat you'll hire an aiye.) Apparently, Jen was wanting to save on trash bags and rather than emptying the bathroom trash, decided it would be more cost and time efficient to flush all the contents of the trash down the toilet. Ah! I'm glad there wasn't anything more substantial than a few q-tips in the trash that day!
