Part One: Washing Machine
A year into my service, I’m accustomed to washing my clothes by hand and generally it’s not a chore I mind. However, you better believe that once I get home I’ll build a shrine around my washing machine.
Here’s how washing clothes goes in Botswana
1. My landlord likes me to wash my clothes outside rather than in the bathtub. That’s fine by me, since it gives me an excuse to be out in the sun, working on my tan. I get my water from one of the taps behind my house.
2. I have a big tub that I fill up with nice, soapy, bubbly water.
3. I put my clothes in and let them soak for 30 minutes. This makes it much easier to get the dirt out so I don’t have to scrub with my hands so much.
During training, the only day I could do my laundry was Sunday – we had training sessions 6 days per week. At this point in time, my hands were still very soft and certainly not used to such abuse. My knuckles bled for quite a few weeks until I built up calluses.
4. After scrubbing, I rinse my clothes in fresh, clean water in a smaller bucket.
5. Then I hang them up on the line!
Generally I have so many clothes I have to use my landlord’s clothesline as well.
6. I wash as many clothes as I can before noon. Now that it's winter and a bit colder, I make sure to hang my clothes for a few hours in the sun to dry. In the summertime, even my jeans will dry in 1-2 hours in the heat of the day.
If you know me (or, God forbid, were my roommate at any point in time), you also know that I tend to put off doing laundry for say, oh, months at a time. I thought this would change because I would have fewer clothes with me in Botswana
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