Regarding the bum washing thing Lecia, I know a couple of people who really do that, and when I visited India, it was commonplace! In most "high class" places though, they have bidets attached to every single toilet - actually almost every "Western" toilet I saw there had a bidet attached. I think people there are just more comfortable with using water over toilet paper. My gramps had the same problem & granny was telling me how important it is to wash with water (yes, they use water and their hand to clean themselves, and eew, it does seem sort of disgusting!) rather than toilet paper/even wipes. It's not thaat horrifying compared to everything we've been through. You simply put clean, warm water in a glass small clean pail/container and pour it on your behind while using your other hand to clean yourself. She was saying it's the most gentle way to clean yourself. It would take me a while to get used to, that's for sure, but I can also imagine its usefulness. As long as you have a nice antibacterial soap to use afterwards ! haha
It's funny how they have bidets AND ground toilets (if that's what they're called) in the East. Perhaps we are too advanced (or too backwards) in the West :rendeer: hehe. Actually a lot of the ground toilets in India manually flush, you usually only have to wash the 'fecal matter' down in poorer areas (from my experience).