Washing clothes takes a while. Especially when you are washing 40 bed sheets. By hand.
Working at Camp Joshua Christian School for the past week has been wonderful. On Friday, we asked the headmaster what we could do to help today. He asked if we would be willing to wash some clothes, “Sure!” was our response. We were told Isaac, a 12 year old boy, would help us begin.
The first step was to draw water out of the 50 foot well with a bucket and rope. It was exhausting to say the least considering we had to make probably six or seven rounds of drawing the water. When we finished getting water, Isaac had brought the detergent. He proceeded to take a handful of the powder and put it in the bucket. And then another handful. And then another. And then he just dumped the rest of the box’s contents into the already sudsy water. I just looked at my teammates, knowing this was the soapiest water to ever be used. Isaac took his hand and mixed the water. Soap bubbles were flowing over the sides of the bucket. So we began to wash. One sheet at a time. The bright pink sheets are difficult to wash, not only because of their size, but because when they get wet it is very difficult to tell where the spots were to get them out, so you just kind of have to guess. Two of us were washing and two of us were rinsing. We realized that rinsing in the one bucket of clean water was not going to cut it considering the sheets were still slimy from the soap. So we proceeded to rinse again. And again. And again. After rinsing these 40 bedsheets (plus other clothes) four times we gave up. We decided to just hang them up on the line to dry, they were going to be starchy and stiff anyways.
So after washing for over two hours, we finished the laundry the headmaster had asked us to do. Jacob, one of our local friends, asked us why in the world they allowed us mzungus (white people) to wash clothes, considering all we do is “play with them” and not actually wash them. But, we did it. Forty bedsheets, numerous clothes, way too much soap, and four rinsings later, we finished. Welcome to laundry in Tanzania.
