Laundry Day

Yes, I realize I am writing this post in the second week of November, but I promise you (MOM) this is not the first time I have done my laundry in East Timor!

I’ll admit I was a little nervous about doing my laundry the first time. Not knowing what to expect, I had brought enough clothes to last me 2 full weeks before needing to wash anything. The first two weeks here flew by and I finally caved in, bit the bullet, and headed to the laundry area of the convent. I wasn’t really sure what to do, but I didn’t think it could be that hard. Surely I could figure it out. Unfortunately I hit a snag right off the bat-I couldn’t find any soap or detergent to wash my clothes. I was grateful Sister Alex happened to be walking by and she gladly showed me where it was stored. I figured that was all she would do, but she very nicely stayed and helped me to wash my clothes. I told her I could manage, but she insisted on helping. She said she liked helping me! She is so sweet!

Here at the school there are 10 large stone sinks with built in stone washboards that all 120 girls and 8 sisters use to do their laundry. The 10 sinks are all cemented together. The morning I decided to do my laundry all of the students were in class, so it wasn’t crowded. Sister placed a smaller bucket in 4 sinks and filled them with water. The bucket in the first sink contained just water, the second sink was filled with detergent, the third sink was filled with just water for rinsing the detergent off of the clothes, and the fourth sink was also filled with just water to give the clothes a second rinse. After passing through all 4 buckets, clothes are placed in a basket and carried over to the laundry line to air dry.

Sister nicely showed me how to soak, wash, scrub (with a brush and also by using the built in washboards), and rinse out my clothes. She was there to help and guide me every step of the way. I washed my unmentionables myself, but still felt a little awkward washing those with sister. We headed over to the line to hang up the clothes. Sister Alex was very efficient at hanging them up-I was clumsy, but started to get the hang of it near the end. The clothes were dripping wet, so I wrung them out before hanging them up. Sister just put them on the line as they were. When I took them off the line later that day ALL the clothes were dry, so I guess it doesn’t really matter if you wring them out before hanging them up or not. As I was leaving the laundry line area, I bumped my head on a low pole that is used to support the laundry lines. Because I am taller than most of the people here, I guess other people don’t have to watch their heads when exiting the area.

My first laundry experience (with Sr. Alex) wasn’t that bad after all-the whole process took us less than 20 minutes, and I felt like my clothes actually DID get clean. The second time I did laundry all by myself. The process was much less efficient. When I began doing my laundry the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue, but when I finished it was dark gray and had cooled off considerably. I hung my clothes up on the line and within 10 minutes it started raining! I saw other girls run out to pull their clothes off the line, so I took mine off the line, too, even though they were already soaked from washing. Because of the cool and rainy weather we experienced that week, it took 3 days for my clothes to completely dry! 1^st lesson learned: in the rainy season you need to do laundry every several days so you always have something to wear while some of your clothes are in the laundry. I learned that the hard way! Lesson #2: Don’t wear anything (seen or unseen) that you wouldn’t mind hanging out to dry on the line for all the sisters and students to see!