This is an email that I sent out to some family members and friends, thought I would share it with you all. Actually my mom said I should share it. Listen to your Mama.So this past Friday, I decided to do some laundry. We had let it pile up a little too much so there was alot to do. And as you know I do it all by hand. So I packed up all the clothes in two buckets, one small and one big. And decide to head down to the pump, which is about 3/4 of a mile down a cliff from our village, mind you it is 100F outside too. So I put the big bucket on my head and the small buck i carried in my hands and I start a' hikin' . At one point the bucket falls off my head and the clothes tumble everywhere, which was okay cause I needed a break anyway. But I finally made it to the pump and was ready to start washing.
I find a place under a shade tree (really it was a bush) and I sort out all the clothes, colors, whites, malian fabric (these tend to bleed really bad), and so on..... I then go to the pump to get water, meanwhile the cows, goats and chickens are getting in my way. So there are a few kids around so they start batting away all the animals so I can get water. I get my buckets full of water and head back to my shade tree, but as I am leaving the pump area a cow sticks his head in my bucket and starts drinking. I had to whack him away. Next I am under my shade tree washing, and every 3 minutes the goats come up and try and drink my soapy washing water, I am having to yell at them and chase them with a stick, meanwhile the rooster is crowing in my ear and wont stop. Each time i would have to change my dirty wash water, I would have to keep running back and forth from the pump bc the animals would start drinking my water. And then when I was done and hanging the clothes to dry the cows started eating my bar of soap. I had to hang the clothes on thorn bushes because there is no where else to put the clothes because everything is sand, so I got a few pricks and scratches too.
So there I am sitting in the hot sun, my clothes spread everywhere, cows and goats bugging me and all i could do was laugh. I guess what doesnt hurt me only makes me stronger.
I think I am really going to enjoy my wash machine when I get home.