Jet Lag and Toilets

OK so the first night in Dushanbe I was so exhausted that, though not sleeping the whole time, I managed to stay in bed for like twelve hours. The next night however jet lag took over and from about 2 or 3 on sleep was impossible. What woke me up was random street noises and the sound of our toilet running. I tried to ignore them. I thought eventually it would all stop but no. So finally I got up and decided to stumble bleerily into the bathroom and fix the toilet. Jiggling the handle wasn't really an option as it has one of those top push buttons. I tried pushing that part way several times but that didn't help. so I took the lid off to look inside. Good idea in theory right? Well with the handle on the top instead of the side taking off the lid is a tad treacherous. the metal button thing fell off and I didn't see where it went. I managed to get the toilet to stop runnning but then was looking all over for the button and not finding it. I came to the disheartening conclusion that it must have fallen in the toilet. I took the brush to see if I could get it out but no. I realized that if I had infact lost the cap into the toilet that it would jam it and I would have to call our very nice but rather reserved Tajik male office administrator to discuss the toilet - not a conversation I was relishing. I briefly toyed with the idea that maybe no one would notice that you could no longer flush the toilet but... well even stupid from jet lag I knew that wasn't likely. Just as I was headed, defeated, back to bed to wait for a decent hour to call Iskandor I saw something shiny under the door - the button! YAY no embarassing call.

Of course half a day later the water to the toilet appears to have stopped working (completely unrelated but still frustrating) so a Toilet Conversation is appearently still in our rather uncomfortable future

-A. Monkey