Bathrooms in Mali
	Bathrooms are a very different experience in Mali.  They are referred to as 'nyugens'. Several other Peace Corps volunteers and I guess that a similar system has been in use for a few thousand years. For a fuller appreciation of that statement, and the description to follow, you may (or may not) want to look at the bathroom pictures at my photos website: click here So the answer to my daughter's question is 'No, there is no toilet paper in Mali'.  With few exceptions in the more well to do hotels and homes, people do not use toilet paper. When you can find it in stores, it is very expensive. Ok, so what is the process?  The nyugen is a hole in the ground. Period. It usually has a wall around it, and no roof.  The patron squats over the whole, with perfect aim (or not), and completes his or her business.  Upon conclusion, the patron takes a tea kettle type pot filled with water, called a 'salidaga', in his/her RIGHT hand.  (When I first arrived in Mali, I wondered why so many people liked tea while going the the bathroom.) The right hand is culturally very important, as you will see.. With the left hand, the patron removes any remaining waste (that would be removed by toilet paper in the USA), then rinses the left hand off with the water from the salidaga.  So there. But the story does not end there.  Malians do not generally believe in using soap, or in germs for that matter. So no-one uses soap to wash their hands.  So it is culturally imperative to always do 2 things with your RIGHT hand: - shake hands - eat (most Maliens eat with their hands, but that is another story) OK, all those ready for a nice meal line-up to the right. (There really are nice meals here.)