Change Your Tampon Before You Leave Home
Sanitation was never my strong point. I mean of course I wash my hands after I go to the bathroom and sometimes even before, but I was never one of those moms who carried baby wipes in my bag and who bathed my children every day. I believe a little 'shmootz' is a good thing; it builds a healthy immune system. Still there are some places even I will not go.
After a long day rushing around, I found myself in the supermarket late at night in desperate need of a change of tampon. A woman knows these things, not by the time on her mobile phone, but rather by the intuitive knowledge that if she does not get to a bathroom soon, even the most lax sanitary boundaries will have been crossed, and so it was that I found myself searching for the toilets in the ludicrously cheap King supermarket in the Arab Village of Urm El Farhem. A friend had told me about her husband's shopping experiences in the town and I was keen to find an alternative to the local Zichron supermarkets, the cheapest of which are expensive, so when two local Israeli friends told me they were going to check it out, I grabbed my courage, dropped my prejudices and keenly went along.
The supermarket turned out to be significantly cheaper than any other I had been to and well worth the extra time to get there. It was well stocked and across the board and noticeably cheaper on almost all products. I threw a few items into the trolley, and left the boys, oblivious to my growing sense of urgency, to do their shopping while I went to find a box of tampons. Scanning the shelves with my expert shopping scanner eyes, I was surprised to find a variety of brands of pads but only one choice of tampons: that old and familiar brand Tampax, with its little yellow plastic applicators that remind me of disposable needles and thrush. Since there was no alternative I decided to pay the twenty eight shekels and bought the brand I would never otherwise have bought.
I left my friends to finish packing and paying for the shopping, grabbed a tampon from the box, shoved it into my bag and went off to find the toilets. It takes a new orlim many months and a solid grade at Ulpan Aleph to learn that even though the Hebrew word for 'women' ends in the traditional male ending, 'Anashim', the toilet with the picture of the chic in a skirt is indeed the one allocated for the female species. The difference in sanitary upkeep between the men and women's toilets is negligible in this country, so it's important to know. It took me six months to get it in Hebrew, with pictures, so what were my chances in Arabic? I walked down the hallway attached to the supermarket, following the directions of the well travelled girl at the cash out counter, who put her hands to her mouth, shook her pretty head in disbelief and asked an exacerbated WHY? as do all Israeli's when they discover I had come to live in Israel from Sydney, Australia.
Needless to say, when I finally came to the place where one 'washes one's feet' there was nothing to clearly differentiate the mens from the womens toilets, unless of course you understand Arabic which I don't. There were no toilet seat on either(Israeli women don't need toilet seats, it's a statement of our independence from colonialism), no locks on either doors (neither of which closed completely) and no running water. After careful consideration, the one I finally deduced to be the women's toilet was the one with damp toilet paper spread unevenly around the bowl as if to suggest it had once been used by someone who cared about their sanitation (which I took to mean a woman). The other had no paper at all, so the choice was easy.
Still with no running water after a big day out and a long night shopping I knew this was not an act that could be performed without running water...and that's when it struck me, suddenly it was clear and I came to fully understand why it was that the only brand of tampons available at this supermarket were the ones that come with an applicator.
Back in Zichron I roam the supermarket winging at the prices, almost double on many basic items and wonder if it's worth paying twice the price for rice and toilet paper just for the luxury of being able to wash ones hands when one goes to the toilet. Probably not I conclude, as long as you change your tampon before you leave home.
After a long day rushing around, I found myself in the supermarket late at night in desperate need of a change of tampon. A woman knows these things, not by the time on her mobile phone, but rather by the intuitive knowledge that if she does not get to a bathroom soon, even the most lax sanitary boundaries will have been crossed, and so it was that I found myself searching for the toilets in the ludicrously cheap King supermarket in the Arab Village of Urm El Farhem. A friend had told me about her husband's shopping experiences in the town and I was keen to find an alternative to the local Zichron supermarkets, the cheapest of which are expensive, so when two local Israeli friends told me they were going to check it out, I grabbed my courage, dropped my prejudices and keenly went along.
The supermarket turned out to be significantly cheaper than any other I had been to and well worth the extra time to get there. It was well stocked and across the board and noticeably cheaper on almost all products. I threw a few items into the trolley, and left the boys, oblivious to my growing sense of urgency, to do their shopping while I went to find a box of tampons. Scanning the shelves with my expert shopping scanner eyes, I was surprised to find a variety of brands of pads but only one choice of tampons: that old and familiar brand Tampax, with its little yellow plastic applicators that remind me of disposable needles and thrush. Since there was no alternative I decided to pay the twenty eight shekels and bought the brand I would never otherwise have bought.
I left my friends to finish packing and paying for the shopping, grabbed a tampon from the box, shoved it into my bag and went off to find the toilets. It takes a new orlim many months and a solid grade at Ulpan Aleph to learn that even though the Hebrew word for 'women' ends in the traditional male ending, 'Anashim', the toilet with the picture of the chic in a skirt is indeed the one allocated for the female species. The difference in sanitary upkeep between the men and women's toilets is negligible in this country, so it's important to know. It took me six months to get it in Hebrew, with pictures, so what were my chances in Arabic? I walked down the hallway attached to the supermarket, following the directions of the well travelled girl at the cash out counter, who put her hands to her mouth, shook her pretty head in disbelief and asked an exacerbated WHY? as do all Israeli's when they discover I had come to live in Israel from Sydney, Australia.
Needless to say, when I finally came to the place where one 'washes one's feet' there was nothing to clearly differentiate the mens from the womens toilets, unless of course you understand Arabic which I don't. There were no toilet seat on either(Israeli women don't need toilet seats, it's a statement of our independence from colonialism), no locks on either doors (neither of which closed completely) and no running water. After careful consideration, the one I finally deduced to be the women's toilet was the one with damp toilet paper spread unevenly around the bowl as if to suggest it had once been used by someone who cared about their sanitation (which I took to mean a woman). The other had no paper at all, so the choice was easy.
Still with no running water after a big day out and a long night shopping I knew this was not an act that could be performed without running water...and that's when it struck me, suddenly it was clear and I came to fully understand why it was that the only brand of tampons available at this supermarket were the ones that come with an applicator.
Back in Zichron I roam the supermarket winging at the prices, almost double on many basic items and wonder if it's worth paying twice the price for rice and toilet paper just for the luxury of being able to wash ones hands when one goes to the toilet. Probably not I conclude, as long as you change your tampon before you leave home.
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