I have the curious good fortune to have both Turkish and Western style toilets in my otherwise modest apartment. Of course I call the Turkish one a “squatty potty.”

Well, the Turkish toilet has been neglected since I moved in last November. I would occasionally open the door to its little room to look at it with some regret and then go back to my old Western ways. Squatting as a practice is not something one just picks up suddenly at age 60. Mind you, I have certainly used squat toilets before, but it’s not easy to do so for old ladies from the US.

A few weeks ago, a sewer stink began to emanate from the Western toilet, and it got clogged. I had the plumber look at it, and he unclogged it and replaced the PVC outflow tube. No more clog, but the stink continued.

Early this week the stink reached epic proportions. It wafted into the bedrooms like the breath of the Babadook. Ramadan is about to begin and one wants one’s home clean. In desperation, I contacted the plumber again but he said he couldn’t come till next week.

A thought occurred to me: how about using the Turkish toilet as a backup plan in the meantime? I opened the door and gave it another look. The drain was completely dry, which I didn’t remember being the case when I first moved in. I poured some water into it just to get things moving again.

And then, another thought, SubhanAllah: what if you are supposed to keep some water in a Turkish toilet drain at all times? And pour some new water into it at least once a day? Could that be the root cause of the stench?

I texted the plumber and landlady, both of whom are Moroccan and far more familiar with ceramic squatty potties than I am. Yes, one is supposed to keep standing water in a Turkish toilet, with frequent additions of new water. And yes, that is probably the way to solve the stink problem.

(If you wonder why they didn’t tell me this earlier, it’s not all that easy to anticipate the many gaps in a Westerner’s knowledge.)

So Allah Ta’ala has given me a new, easy maintenance task. And I may start using the toilet for its actual purpose. Good way to improve the hip flexibility.