Rationing toilet paper

Here in the U.S. many of us have been blessed with an amazing number of choices. Consider the toilet paper aisle in the grocery store, for example. It has more than a dozen options. Ply, quilted or non-quilted, four-roll or bulk, lotion or non-lotion, and so forth… Well, I brought a roll of TP with me to Africa. Had been informed it was a good thing to have along for stops along the road, etc. As it turns out, I never actually had to use it for its intended purpose – yet, use every square, I did. And every time I ripped one or two squares off the roll, I thought of my dad.

You see my dad was a saver – a fairly extensive saver. Not like those shows on TV where people are almost buried in their stuff, but he had difficulty throwing things away. And he told us that it was due to growing up in Africa, where “you never knew when you might have a need for something.” He and his parents invented recycling, I think. And he was faithful to remind us that they couldn’t simply go to the store and buy things like we do here.

I always thought he had a pretty good excuse for hanging onto things, even though I never admitted that to him. A few times I wanted to remind him (and probably did, although it would have been a disrespectful thing to do) that he lived in America now, and had since he was eight years old.

When I found myself in Africa this year, treasuring each square of TP, for amazing numerous uses, such as: ant killings, small nose wipes, edge of sink cleanings, erasing make-up smudges, coasters, etc. – I knew my dad was having a good laugh from the heights. I could hear him lovingly say, “Now do you get it? Do you see why various odd items seemed so precious to me?”

And I smiled with each square I tore off...seldom more than one square at a time, because I didn’t know how many I would need before the trip was up. This silly thing made me remember and miss my dad. It made me appreciate what daily life out of one’s comfort zone can look like. And how joy can be found in realizing on the last day of a two-week trip that - you still have three squares of TP left!

(For the record, I did see toilet paper for sale at the market... One per package, one brand…)