What is a Tabo? Pronounced tah-bow, a close translation to English would be a water dipper. They tend to vary from the standard plastic dish with a long handle to a small cup or other water holding container.
In a Filipino household a Tabo is often used in place of toilet paper, and for many non-Filipino visitors this may be an item of mystification. While toilet paper is usually available, you will typically find a Tabo next to large bucket or Timba (tim-bah) sitting within reach of the toilet. Don’t let this frighten you because now you will know what it is and shortly you will know how to use it! The Tabo is essentially a manual bidet.
To start off, go about and get your business taken care of. “Drop the kids off at the pool”, “Take the Browns to the Superbowl”, “Back the big brown motorhome out of the garage, “Free your chocolate hostages” or what ever term you use. Once you are done pumping a clump of dump out of your rump you are ready to use the Tabo.
Okay this might be a little intimidating or seem disgusting the first few times you do it, but to those who use the Tabo every day, using only toilet paper seems quite revolting and less than sanitary. From what I’ve heard, some people like to put a dab of soap on their hand to use during the cleansing, so you may notice some liquid soap dispenser near by. Take the Tabo in your hand and dip it in the Timba to get some water. Slowly dump the water from the Tabo just above the crack in your back while slightly leaning forward on the toilet. Using your other hand, reach around and give your backdoor a good quick up and down scrub. Repeat until you feel clean. When you are done, if you have a bit of tissue with you, pat dry and wash your hands well. It is not too bad at all, and after doing it a few times and realizing how clean and fresh you feel, you will not want to go back to using just toilet paper again. Before flushing the toilet it is common courtesy to wipe down the toilet seat of any water that you spilled on it when you were using the Tabo.
Now you have learned to use the
Tabo and do not have to worry about asking someone how to clean
yourself or where the toilet paper is the next time you visit a Filipino
house.