Thread: Kleenex Shortage, or a cultural thing???

After living and working in Panama for a month, I've made one very painful discovery. Either Panama has a serious lack of facial tissue, or it is acceptable here to suck the snot (very loudly) out of one's nose. GROSS!!!

I work in a call center, so I'm surrounded by hundreds of people all day long. I get to hear someone perform that nauseating process every 5 minutes or so.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it just acceptable here and I have to get over it? My wife and kids will be coming here in a month, and I know it will drive my wife absolutely crazy!

My girlfriend and business partner both do it. It really is a bad habit to just suck it up, LOL.

With "suck the snot (very loudly) out of one's nose", do you mean, they suck it back into the body (and maybe swallow it), or suck it out of the nose and let it fall wherever it might?

Either way that's extremely gross.

It's a cultural thing and some people (no matter in which country) just lack refinement in that department. In Panama it's not as gross as in other less developed countries like the Dominican Republic, where I've seen someone on the street literally close one side of their nose with one hand and blowing out their "stuff" on the street. EEEK! And I was eating when I saw it. Now that's extremely gross.

I have walked around the city and watched well-dressed men and women stick their fingers so far in their nose they can scratch their brain. Even better when they want to shake hands afterward, lol. I always carry hand-wipes with me everywhere I go.

It's always funny to read things like this, it seems normal but then you remember that there are those that it isn't normal too. I know when I was in Japan people shot snot out of the side of their noses and that disgusted me beyond belief.

I usually just wrap some paper up myself in my purse and take it with me. Its just one of those things that you learn to live with.

I did the paper in my purse thing while I was living in Spain, but that was because I could never find a public restroom with any toilet paper.