What is a VIP unit?

As an eco lodge, we have no running water.  This sounds a whole lot scarier than it is.

We do not have plumbed, running water. We do have big bowsers of beautiful, fresh, clean borehole water which we bring in every day, and is available all the time.

(We use this water for drinking, showering, flushing the loo, washing cars, cooking, washing up - everything.)

Our toilets are amazing. 
They are called VIP units - Ventilation Improved Pits.
They are lovely porcelain toilets, with wooden seats. 
The only way you know they're not like your toilet at home is that there is no s-bend and you "flush" with a jug of water instead of a chain.
So it's a "long drop" with a chimney built into the toilet, which keeps the air flowing and makes it odour free and fly free.
It works like a charm.

But there is one restriction:

We were all sitting down at the big dining room table and enjoying lunch.
One of the guests said, "So, you know your, um, VIP toilet?"

I replied in the affirmative.

"So, is there any way of getting something out if you've, um, dropped something down there?"

I replied in the negative.

Turns out he had been looking down the toilet with his torch (no, I do not know why, or what on earth he expected to see), and his sunglasses had fallen off the top of his head. He got such a fright when they fell down the toilet, that he dropped his torch in after them.

It continued to shine for 6 hours.