Grossness and a full moon

Since becoming a PCV I have a surprisingly large amount of conversations discussing bowel movements. Whether it is about my first squat experience where I stuck my hand in a mound of another person's poo or calling the doctors with other "issues." One thing that caught me off guard is how much the other PCV's discuss toilet situations. It's getting to the point where instead of saying how are you some people prefer to inquire about your bathroom schedule. A group of PCV's are even re-writing songs to be all about poo. It has been said that you're not a Peace Corps Volunteer until you go in your pants, so I guess this discussion should be expected.

I'm telling you all this to tie into a lovely conversation I had with my Russian, Almaz, the other day. You see I thought that bathroom discussion were taboo in the AzerCommunity. While Almaz was not actually discussing bowel movements...it sure was gross advice. We were sitting in her garden and her daughter, Diana, came out to play with me. Diana is named after Princess Di. No joke she didn't have a name for 2 months and one night in Almaz's dream Princess Di came out of a painting and told Almaz to give the baby girl her name. So whenever Diana doesn't want to work, we call her a bad princess. Anyways, as we were talking she noticed that Diana had a wart on her hand. Being a pharmacist I asked her if she was going to bring home some medicine for her. This is where the story gets interesting. Almaz informed me that there is medicine but it burns and you have to apply it five times for it to work. I figured this was normal, but when she was a young girl she and her sister recieved some better advice. This is the recipe for wart removal given by an awesome Russian grandma to a young Almaz:
1 - Wait for a full moon.
2 - Before you go to bed, go into the bathroom and pee on your hand.
3 - Come outside and let your hand air dry in the full moon's beam.
4 - Once it's dry, just head on in the house and fall asleep, you know with your hand smelling of urine.
5 - In the morning wash your hand and go about your day as if nothing has happened.
6 - 10 days later, they will all be gone.

Almaz swears this works. She even showed me that she had a wart and said that she herself is waiting for the next full moon because she's done it before. Diana looked like she was going to vomit if her mom didn't stop talking about peeing. So there you have it. No need to go to the hospital, just wait for the full moon.