Hand Washing Horrors

SO I know you are all eager in anticipation wondering what I am doing, and trust me I am right there with you. Just kidding, a little bit. Training has been a whirlwind and we have all been super busy yet when we sit down and wonder what we’ve been doing we can’t come up with much. I attribute a lot of this with the notion of “African” or “Namibian” time. Some of this is cultural, some of this is logistical. Culturally, things just don’t really start, end, pick up, or drop off on time. Its just how it goes and I’m sure I will have pleanty of words for everyone when a trip which should take 2-3 hours actually takes 7 because of working on “Namibian” time. Logistically, let me explain. I am going to steal this from a fellow Peace Corps Trainee’s Facebook. I want each and everyone of you to stop what you are doing right now and put a little TLC into your household appliances that turn hour long potentially bloody battles into a simple task of 5 minutes or so.

First and foremost being the ever so sacred washing machine. Like seriously hug it. Hand washing is currently one of the most miserable experiences in my life. And I am only saying currently and one of the most because I know that there will be more horrors in my life over the next two years however right now I am considering making a socks and underwear fund just so I never have to wash them again.

To begin with there is an ever distinct noise that is made when hand washing laundry. I can’t describe it, something between a squeegee and a squirt but made with your hands and fabric. Regardless you are only doing it right if you have to noise down. I’m just going to say that I do not. Second, depending on where you are and how much you have you may be bending over at the waist for upwards of an hour or more or kneeling on god knows what (including but not limited to tile, granite, grass, dirt, sand, or gravel) scrubbing. Then actually scrubbing to try to recreate this noise that every Namibian woman can make with ease. Works up a fricken sweat let me tell you. THEN, oh yes there is more, because you have been putting off doing your wash and now have more than you should your hands are submerged in soapy dirty, scummy water for that hour or more that you are also bent over. Because your socks and underwear need the most cleaning they are conveniently the smallest articles of clothing resulting in not being able to really rub the fabric together but rather rubbing your knuckles raw. I have the battle wounds and eventual scars to prove it (right next to my scar from taking a slight tumble off the roof of a noteworthy ice arena on MSUs campus while holding Taco Bell mind you). After the pain of rubbing your skin raw in soapy water you now get to utilize a whole new group of muscles and wring the clothes out. Sure you could do it lazily but if you are trying to conserve water then you are trying to squeeze out every drop of skanky water from those stupid high school sweat pants and Science Olympiad hoodie you just HAD to bring to Africa. Rinse and wring again. Hang on clothesline outside. God forbid though if you happen to drop something on the ground, there is no grass here to cushion any unfortunate article of clothing. You have to re-rinse the item and rewet the sores that are trying to heal, then wring out the water again. If you know me, you know that I get really lazy with things like this. Hence why after almost an entire load I just kinda swirled some of my t-shirts around in the water and called them clean. Just took a bar of soap directly to the armpits and decided no one would ever know. That is until I decided to post it in a blog for the world to read….its all good though because my rinsing techniques must not be very good considering when I went to get all my clean clothes they were all stiff and smelled of nothing but purple detergent. Job accomplished in my book.

The motivation to share with you all the joys of living without a washing machine comes from the fact that this was clearly a challenging experience for me yet people all over the world everyday live like this and that is all they have known. It is also motivated by the fact that I have an increasingly large pile of clothes that I will need to attend to this weekend while reliving my experience and hopefully perfecting my technique.