One of my responsibilities around our compound is maintaining the missionary housing. Joan, one of our teammates has been having trouble with her toilet off and on for the past few months. Unfortunately it tends to get worse on the days when it is important for it to work correctly. But whenever I come to check on it, the toilet suddenly decides to work correctly. So finally, we had both reached our limit and decided that it was time to fully dive in & dig out the system. All of the pipes leading from the bathroom to the septic tank were uncovered & inspected. The septic tank cover was dug out of the ground and the tank inspected. After a thorough inspection, we were still dumbfounded when no problems were found. Next we moved into the bathroom and began investigating. As we took the toilet apart, we finally found the issue. The issue is that Joan likes trees too much. You see, of all the people on our compound, Joan is the most vocal and demanding protector of the amazing trees (which is important and helps keep the rest of us in line). But perhaps the trees feel too comfortable around Joan because one tree had sent a root into her bathroom through a crack in the concrete. That root then found its way through the top of the waste pipe. Fortunately, Joan agreed that it would be ok to cut this tree root :). The amount of root fiber that we pulled out of the pipe was astounding. I was grateful that the root did not break through the sidewall of the pipe. Joan is just glad to have a fully functioning toilet again and that no trees were significantly harmed in the process.
