Laundry: the hard way

Laundry Nicaragua style: a how-to guide.

When the city shuts off the water for an indeterminate length of time--you get to learn some new skills. Like how to do laundry the hard way.

Like all domestic tasks here, the first step is boil some water. It doesn't matter if you're cooking, doing dishes, cleaning the bathroom....step one is always heat up some water. Thankfully, here at the mission we usually get to skip everyone else's step one, which is go get some water. Even this week with the tap water misbehaving--we didn't have to haul it very far. (although we did have to haul it up stairs)

Once the water is hot, you will need some soap. One thing I notice about the supermarket here compared to in the States, is that when they have an item--they have one option. Flour? yes. This one. Cereal? yes. This one. That is not true with soap, however. There are so many fascinating soaps!  Call me weird--but I am interested by all the different textures, shapes and types of soap they've got around here.  

lava lava, y nunca se acaba!

OK, now for those of you who didn't grow up in the 1800's the next step is to hold the dirty laundry in your hand, rub this soap on it, scrub it on this rub board sink, dunk it in the water reservoir and repeat until clean. Yes, seriously.

You do a whole bucket of soaping up the clothes, then you dump out that water--go get fresh water, and rinse all the clothes. 

Next, you'll need a partner for the wringing out stage. 

Thankfully-we were able to use the electric dryer once we got things washed, as drying on the clothes line in the rainy season is not very effective.  

I just don't have the words to describe what it feels like to lean over this concrete sink all day scrubbing towels and sheets. Mostly, because I only did it a little bit. These are the ladies who get the job done.

Xiomara, Angelita, & Estella

But, I can tell you this: I am grateful to do laundry in the washing machine. Imagine! Only a short time ago, I thought I had done work when I washed clothes in the machine. NOW I know about work.