Pondering Poo

"Where does Guinnea pee?" our ayi asked me, rather randomly, the other day.

"Um, outside, in the garden," I replied. (Although I must sheepishly admit she has also peed on the stairs leading up to our building... twice... and Bei Bei made a mad dash, both times, for a bucket of fresh water to purge the situation.)

"How about poo?" she asked.

I learned the Chinese vernacular for toileting words when I enrolled Bei Bei in a Chinese Kindie. I had an inkling that I would need to learn these words when my language teacher helped me fill out the multi-page kindergarten entry form, which was entirely in Chinese, and which devoted many questions to food requests and toileting needs.

What is your child's favorite food?

What foods will your child not eat?

How often does your child use the bathroom each day?

How often does she poo?

These were questions I wasn't sure I would always know the answer to. So, even though she would only spend three mornings a week there, I learned the toileting words.

There were two squat toilets in the bathroom of her three-year-old classroom. Bei Bei quickly learned how to use them.

And I learned that at a Chinese Kindie a normal answer to "How did she do today at school?" might be, "Her poo is a little dry."

"Yeah," would reply, without missing a beat, pleased as punch that I understood a response that was not a normal contextual response in my culture, "She eats different things at home than the Chinese kids."

I once bought my brother-in-law five kitsch knick knack figurines of Chinese boys. The were called, "The Five Things Boys Do" which were:

Chi/He/Shui/Niao/La (Eat/Drink/Sleep/Pee/Poo)

Each cheap figurine was posed doing one of the five things, traditional split crotch pants rounded out his outfit to accommodated for the last two of the "Five Things."

There is a certain practicality to Chinese culture, life and speech. Especially about the stuff of daily life. Until very recently, it was more common to see a baby without a diaper than with one. Baby poo or pee in Chinese culture is as common and acceptable to discuss as a gassy or colicky baby in my home culture.

"She poos in the the garden, usually in the back corner," I responded to ayi.

And then, a little worried, I asked why she wanted to know. (The dog had been on her watch for the two weeks before the girls and I arrived back in QD this summer.... Had the dog been doing "The Five Things Dogs Do" somewhere other than the garden?)

"Did you have a problem with her when we weren't here?" I asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"No." she said. "I just never her saw go the the bathroom, so I wondered where she did it."

And just like that the conversation ended. Matter-of-fact. Not a big deal. The practicality of daily life addressed. And the pondering of poo passed.

EHJ & her friends with Guinnea