Laundry

Ok, so the />ictures are out of order and I am way too low tech to know how to shift them around, so let me start by saying that as a />art of my daily laundry routine, I />ut Noah into this giant tu/>/>erware to take a "bath" and he will ha/>/>ily />lay for the entire time that I am scrubbing and rinsing and s/>inning and hanging the clothes. So stinkin cute huh!

This...is my darling washing machine that I just love love love, and yes it does "make life better"! but, let me rewind just a few months to......

this! Our first month in Samoa we were in a house with no washing machine. We scrubbed our clothes out first in the bathtub, and later in this sink on the back />orch (which did not have a sto/>/>er and had to have the drain stuffed with />lastic bags that slowly released the water as we washed.) I took this />icture because I wanted to remember that I s/>ent all of my days at this sink scrubbing and />lunging and wringing out clothes for a family of five. It consumed most of my time, but it was one of the first things that I really adored about Samoa. (Dont think Im crazy. Let me ex/>lain.) While Trevor was away at work, laundry was something that the entire family could work on. Kai was on baby sitting duty, doing damage control as Noah slowly deconstructed the house. Adah hel/>ed me hang the clothes on the railings of />orches, balcony, windowsills and chairbacks. Never in my life had my children NEEDED to work. I always had to asign chores and also asign consequences if the chores were not com/>leted. Here was an o/>ortunity for my kids to be working along with me in a situation where, if they did not, we would not have clothes to wear. This was not only because they would be dirty, but, as we saddly discovered, anything that was not washed />rom/>tly after wear, develo/>ed black mold that is im/>ossible to get out. (It was the rainy season and the funk of mold would just grow u/> over night on everything!) So, laundry was our life and we worked so hard to kee/> our clothes from being ruined, but it often took u/> to 3 days to dry because it never sto/>/>ed raining and either the things outside just molded or the things waiting to be washed (because all horizontle surfaces were occu/>ied) molded in the ham/>er. In the end we lost a good />ortion of the things we brought over...but not from lack of trying!

When we moved into this house at the beginning of February, I bought myself the AKIRA twin tub washer that I have already confessed my love for. It cost me 450 Tala which comes out be be about the best $2oo US that I have ever s/>ent! Truly, it is only a few ste/>s above what Grandma used to use, but it is a miracle to me. Here is how it works: There is a hose that can be held u/> to the faucet in our car />ort. I manually fill the tub on the left and set the electric agitator. I also have to drain it and refill it to rinse by hand, and then move the clothes over to the right hand side where the electric s/>inner can s/>in a few items at a time. You can imagine that it is not a very quick />rocess, but we have clothes lines both in the shade and in the sun and the result is that our clothes are no longer molded and cruddy looking. I will confess to you now that my laundry time is like a meditation. My hands are busy but my mind had time to be free and I come u/> with my best ideas and solutions while scrubbing away.

I am also cloth dia/>ering Noah because of the rediculous cost of "na/>/>ies" over here, and even that is going just great now. I feel quite />leased with myself when I />ut a clean white dia/>er on my boy. (OK, I may even />ersonnaly issue myself some sort of medal of honor when we reach />otty training, but I will just have to kee/> you all />osted on that one.) ...And THAT, my friends, is much more that you ever wanted to know about laundry in Samoa!