My brother Peter, my sister Cindy, and I (along with our cousin Martina)
just spent two weeks together in Africa–just the four of us–and we spent nearly
every moment with each other during that time.
We didn’t just go the World
Cup games and the
Safari together (click on the links for those stories and pictures). We
shared hotel rooms.
Peter and I hadn’t shared a room since 1977. But there was one big
difference back in 1977 (other than the fact that I was 14 and he 7 back then).
In 1977 we had bunk beds. In Africa, our “double room,” which we believed meant
two beds, actually meant one (very small) “double bed.” Two grown men in their
40s with expanding waistlines sharing a bed that my kids wouldn’t share because
it wasn’t big enough.
Needless to say, it was a little cramped. And have I mentioned that both of
us snore? Good times. I think neither of us had a good night sleep the entire
time there.
My sister Cindy and my cousin Martina were going through the same thing in
their room, but somehow the double bed situation didn’t bother them as much.
They did, however, share our discomfort with something even more awkward.
Let me tell you about an interesting little feature of our African hotel
room bathroom: See-through doors.
That’s right, see-through doors. As in, you can see right in just by looking
at the door.
And the toilet is the first thing you see.
And the bathroom door is the first thing you see when you open the hotel
room door.
Let me run a quick scenario by you, just in case your brain hasn’t already
gone there…
Knock, knock. “Housekeeping.”
“No, don’t come in, I’m…”
“Oh, hello sir. I see you sitting there. I’ll come back. How much time do
you need?”
I’m still stumped trying to figure out what they were thinking when they
designed those doors. I know they probably envisioned a couple sharing this
room (instead of two aging brothers), but even if you’re young lovers on your
honeymoon, do you really want to see your significant other sitting on the
john?
We did manage to have some fun with this weirdness. Peter and I instituted
what we called “The Privacy Zone.” When one of us had to go in the bathroom for
whatever reason (and by the way, have I mentioned that it was also a
see-through shower door?), we erected an invisible “Privacy Shield” that could
not be penetrated by mortal man. The non-bathroom attendee had to stay around
the corner, with no visual contact of the see-through door.
Peter even took this one step further. He discovered that the Hyatt next
door to our hotel had plush public bathrooms with non-see-through doors, and he
started going there. It became a running joke. The phrase “I have to go to the
Hyatt” will always make me laugh.
But if you think about it, we were actually lucky.
Who could have handled this odd privacy situation better than siblings? We
grew up in the same house, raised by the same parents. We knew each other’s
quirks intimately, and had already been forced to accept them. In our case, we
had even traveled around the world with each other many times before (my father
worked for the Department of Defense), and experienced the inevitable cultural
oddities together. After you’ve tackled a Romanian bathroom, which we did in
the 70s when Romania didn’t have running water, this see-through African one
was like the Taj Mahal.
And here’s probably the best thing about the whole trip. We got along just
fine. No fights. No arguments. No bickering.
Our parents would have killed for that in 1977.
***
A few more pieces about South Africa/Soccer...
What Soccer Means to MeAlso, as a bonus, during the Cubs season I've always got some Cubs stories that happened this week in history. Here are a few if you're interested...
June 30, 1880—Birthdate of Kangaroo Davy Jones, wacky Cub
July 1, 1919—Prohibition begins in Chicago. How did the Cubs handle that?
July 6, 1932—Billy Jurges shot:
