Laundry Day

     Today was laundry day. Seeing as I don’t have a washing machine, this means I get to do it by hand! It would be possible for me to pay someone to do it, but I figure I usually have time and I might as well just do it myself. This might change after a little while, but for now, it’s not too bad! The worst part is how dried out my hands get afterwards.

     So, for those not familiar with the process, you put your ‘load’ of clothes into a wash bucket with soap, let them soak for a little while, then scrub them together and dunk them in the rinse bucket, wring them out really well, then hang them on the line. That whole process generally takes two-ish hours depending on much there is. They don’t take long to dry these days because of how dry it is outside, but during the rainy season it will be much harder to get them to dry. Today I had a problem with ants climbing on my line. They are attracted to water during the dry season so proceeded to climb all over my clothes while they were drying. Had to be extra careful to shake them out so I wouldn’t end up with ants in my pants next time I wore them!

    Maybe tmi, but hand washing still reminds me of our trip to Ghana when we had to do laundry by hand while up in the north. Chip helped me since I hadn’t done it before, so he washed and I rinsed. We had combined the small amounts of laundry we both had to do, which happened to include some of my undies. I can’t help but think that someone who is willing to hand-wash your underwear is a keeper! :-P