Get it!?!
Today was laundry day which was a long time coming. There have been water shortages for the past couple weeks, so getting enough water to do laundry required a concerted effort that I was not willing to make until I absolutely had to. Today the water pump was flowing vigorously, so I ran with it and decided to wash.
One of the unforeseen pleasures of moving here is that my wardrobe, which I now realize was far to large for one human being, was reduced to a much more appropriate level. I think at this point, I will never need to buy another piece of clothing. I will just slowly wear out all the clothes I have acquired up to this point, maybe replacing essential items like socks. If I need a tuxedo I can just rent it. For this reason, washing is now a pretty simple affair with only a few articles to be dealt with. On normal occasions, where I haven't worn everything I own, the hassle of doing everything by hand is not overwhelming.
I intend to make some sort of agitator like contraption to make my life even easier. In the meantime I have started using my feet. I just put a bunch of clothes in the tub add water and handwashing powder and sort of stomp on it. I try to make up for the lack of directed scrubbing by going at it for a while. It is somewhat effective and it cleans my feet at the same time, and there are no downsides at all so don't try and burst my bubble by telling me the downsides.
While the actual washing part I don't find particularly appealing, I do like the air drying. I find it satisfying to hang up wet clothes knowing that in a little time they will be nice and dry. It is not so much the drying part that is satisfying but the notion that I want something to be done and the way I make it happen is to leave it outside and then it gets done without me doing anything.
Additionally, there is something about wind and sun dried clothes that makes the clothes a little nicer, someone needs to spend a lifetime researching what that is and then put it in a bottle or teach it to a dryer. Billion dollar idea!
There is another bonus about hand (foot) washing clothes that I discovered just today. With washer/drying machines, my two loves of carrying chapstick and not checking my pockets before washing my clothes were incompatible without consequences. Many a time I have discovered oil splotches and empty chapstick tubes in the dryer. By doing the opposite of cleaning my clothes and wasting all my chapstick I would feel like a total failure. But that is no longer the case. I can leave chapstick in every single pair of pants I own indefinitely and no longer worry, everything will be just fine. Don't worry chapstick, the gentle breeze and beating sun, while very hot, won't melt you. At least I hope not that would be a bummer.
Side note: I just hope everyone is aware that school ended last week and that is why these last couple of posts have seemed somewhat trivial. I am not that great about the serious things and really thrive on the trivial but in time there will be more substance to what I write. But come on they can't all be about race relations and educational hardships!
Get it!?!