How to Shit Your Way Around the World

This is the oh-so-enticing title of the book I'm reading. It is interesting, disgusting, and at times repulsive. I can only hope that I don't encounter some of the toilets (if you could call them that) and parasites described within.

Here's something I would especially like to avoid:

"Cleansing oneself after defecation, throughout South Asia, involves...water...brought to the latrine site in a pottery, metal or plastic vessel, called a bodna that has a spout, much like the spout of a teapot, and holds two to three liters of water. The use of this vessel is restricted to this one purpose. The...cleaning of the anal region occurs immediately after defecation. Water is poured from the bodna into a cupped left hand and then swiftly carried to the anal region. This process involves some skill and is taught to small children at an early age. After [the left hand is] rubbed with soil...the individual pours water from the bodna onto the left hand for rinsing."

Dr. Bilqis Hoque, et al., Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1995)

No thank you!