The Poop Jar

Thursday, Oct. 25th
One lovely tenured volunteer greeted my group when we first landed in Namibia with a story of pooping her pants. I was not in the same van as her, so I did not get to hear the story until later, but it inspired the Group 39 Poop Jar. The concept of the jar is if you poop yourself then you have to put money in the jar and the last one to abstain receives all the money with the accompanying stories. As we have learned from some volunteers, pooping yourself is actually normal.  Most all cases it involves getting sick from some food or drink.

Well, that was not my situation. I feel like there is some name for it, but it is a runners' problem. I would bet all distance runners have soiled themselves in some way or at least come close. It seems like it happens to me once every few years. It usually happens to me when I have not been running consistently and ran at a different part of the day than normal. In the states, if I feel I cannot hold it there is usually a fast food restaurant, gas station or some building that I can use to relieve myself. Well, not here. So, you say why not just go in the bush? Well, I have done that once before already. This time was different. I was in the bush, but it had higher footing traffic. Anyways, enough details of that. Needless to say, I have joined the three other contributions in the jar this day.