Counselor Stall

Warning: The following is slightly graphic and gross. Only read if you promise not to judge.

Part of being a counselor at Oakcrest is taking the girls on the weekly overnighter. This is where we strap our sleeping bags to our backpacks, hike up the mountain, and sleep under the stars. However, you are on the mountain for about a 24 hour time period, with no running water. So, we build glorious things called "Latrines". Feel free to take a look.

Mango checkin' out the latrine

It is a hole that we dig each week in a different spot. We make it at least a foot deep and put it right up near a tree so that the girls have something to hold on while squatting at 90 degrees. We then use twine and put a roll of toilet paper on the tree as well as a garbage bag since the T.P. can't go in the hole, it would fill up too fast. Then we wrap the tarp around three trees and ta-duh, you've got a glamorous bathroom stall in the mountains. Much better than letting 100 girls wander around the camp area each week and take a dump in random spots, that's just asking for nasty messes and whiny campers.

However, towards the end of the night and in the morning before we bury them, there is quite a stench and A LOT of flies. The girls continue to use them until we are down the mountain, but the counselors have this fabulous thing called, "The Counselor Stall". I'ma let ya'll in on a little secret, if you are a camper reading this, then keep it hush hush, there's not a counselor stall. You just go find a good tree or a rock on the edge of a cliff, and take care of business. So much better than the smelly latrines.

Sooooo...why am I telling you this you may ask? Because at 2 o'clock in the morning, (just one hour ago) I needed to use the restroom. Buuuut...bad news. The toilet wasn't working. It didn't flood luckily, that would be awful at two in the morning, but something else that is awful is not being able to use the toilet at that hour. So. Dilemma. EVERYTHING within 2 miles of my apartment shuts down at midnight at the latest. Campus, gas stations, everything. No where, would I find a bathroom. I stepped outside to see if there were lights on in another apartment, nothing. I had to go. So, I just want to say, that at that moment in time, I would have given anything for a latrine. Or at least for a buddy to go counselor stall it with, even thought it is 17 degrees outside.