While I was driving the other day, I heard an interesting conversation on the Radio. The discussion was about the Pope’s visit to the Philippines and the different preparations that were being made to accommodate the massive crowds. Venues, traffic and crowd control, food vendors etc. There is a great deal of planning and organizing involved in an undertaking such as this.
A small but vital issue has come to the attention of the authorities in charge of the events. Where are the people going to ‘relieve’ themselves so to speak? After checking with a number of suppliers, they found that there are not enough Port-a-Potties available in all of the Philippines for the expected gathering of people.
Wow, how many do you think they will need? Contemplating just gathering 25 or 30 port-a-potties in one place seems daunting. How much space per potty is needed? After some research, 16 square feet is the suggested amount for ONE. Multiply that by 10 and that’s 1600 square feet for just 10! Holy $hit, that’s the size of a House! What is the suggested solution you ask? Well, that DEPENDS.
Yup, you’ve guessed it. All of the policemen and women are being ORDERED to wear depends (Adult Diapers) while they are are on duty during the entirety of the Pope’s visit. Other public employees are included in this ‘demand’. OMG can you imagine it? The authorities are also ‘suggesting’ anyone attending the many events should also wear these depends/adult diapers. Bear in mind that they do not need to wear the SAME Diaper for the entire time. Thank goodness. Picture Adult diaper rash. Have the authorities stocked up on Destine or other rash creams? There will be a run on that as well as the Adult Diapers.
The disposal of all of these used items is mind blowing to say the least. It is bad enough when you change a baby’s or toddler’s diaper but Oh, Heaven help me, the mess. Do they make adult wipes as well? Let’s stock up on those too.
Another thought, where exactly will the many participants be able to ‘change’ their garment when needed? I mean they will be milling around for hours waiting for the Pope. I don’t know about you but I think I would be VERY uncomfortable after a number of hours in one of those things. Let alone the odor that one might encounter. Others are going to be in the same situation and it is not going to be pretty believe me. Maybe having a can of Fabreeze or something on hand is a good idea. Hey, wait a minute, a ‘De-Odor’ area where you can get ‘spritzed’ or ‘freshened up’ might make a lot of money. A dollar for each spritz adds up you know. And you’d be doing the other people a favor making it smell better!
This brought to mind the nutty astronaut, Lisa Nowak, who drove 900 miles from Texas to Orlando supposedly wearing ‘space diapers’ so that she wouldn’t need to stop. I looked up the difference between ‘space diapers’ and ‘adult diapers’. The space ones have a ‘maximum’ absorbency developed by NASA. The greater absorbency makes it necessary to only change the ‘garment’ 3 times a day. ONLY 3 times a day. Good to know but . . .Way to much information!!!
Woodstock also ran through my thoughts. Now that was a LONG time ago and none of these garments were around then. Not enough facilities were available for this event either. The pond on the property was used for bathing as well as other activities. Originally no more than 50,000 people were expected to attend. In fact, 400,000 people were in attendance at one point. Off and it rained, and massive traffic jams along with muddy roads made it difficult to get to the farm. The nearby Air Force Base airlifted the performers and some attendees needing medical attention.
Keeping all this in mind, I don’t know about you but, in the future, I’m going to check out what ‘facilities’ are available before I go to any outdoor event. That will certainly be a deciding factor of my attendance.
What about you?