Toilets around the world

I started work on a project I've had in mind for a long time that I just haven't had the time before to truly explore: Toilets around the world. This project was inspired by first hand experience and the shock and confusion I've experienced when traveling out of the United States. From informal survey's I've done in my classes, I don't think most of our students at CLC have much international travel experience. The majority of toilets around the world are not like the ones we might find here. So trying to just do your business outside of your comfort zone can be challenging and in many cases--shocking! So I thought this would be a fun project to make into a multi-media project to let students actually see before they go what they might see before they go! Today I found some pictures that I have temporarily added to a folder titled "toilets" on my faculty desktop. I also have put some information together in a word document titled "resources toilets around the world" also undere faculty1's documents.

I'll share just a few of the interesting facts I discovered today:
1) There is a large non-profit organization called The World Toilet Organziation whose focus is to "improve toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide".
2) From the WTO website I also learned that 40% of the world's population does not have access to personal sanitation (2.6 billion people)
3) Also from WTO I learned that November 19 is "World Toilet Day"
4) Great resource that is a fun and informative way to "discuss the undiscussable" is Winda Benedetti's "No. 1 problem with traveling can be going no. 2" at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/158118_goaway27.html
5) Although I was initially thinking of the more primitive types of toilets I also discovered the "ultra modern Japanese commode" which can only be described as futuristic by our US standards. I saw them mentioned a few times. One site that discussed them was www.darkcreek.com/toilets According to them, these multi-functional toilets come with a contral panel that allows one to play music, light up, play sound effects like harp music or wind chimes, and includes self closing anti-slam lids, automatic deodorizers and heated seats to name just a few of the functions.

So I hope you've learned a little about toilets around the world. Make sure to check out my published website next year to see my multi-media project about them.