Surprises in Infrastructure

If ever there was a time to be pleasantly surprised by the presence of a functioning septic system, it’s when you’re in regional Azerbaijan.  While in most villages, and even in many city homes, the typical lavatory features a squat toilet descending into a pit underground, it appears that my small apartment building has a working septic tank.

I know that this is not exactly appropriate conversation for polite company, but I was pleasantly surprised by this discovery when a truck came along yesterday to do its duty, emptying the tank.  That means that not only does my apartment building have the functioning septic system, but the city also provides the appropriate services for maintaining the system.  This is a development that was quite unexpected.  I guess I don’t really know what I thought was there before but, while here, my expectations have been lowered significantly.

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