Week 35: Laundry Day Reflections
5.09.2009
So, I just finished my three and a half hour escapade of washing all of my clothes by hand which I'm accustomed to now. My arms and hands ache and are made at me and my hands feel like I've been in a pool for the past few days. Today was different and entertaining because it was the first time that I did my laundry with the new Foxfires. I really miss Cosmas and I's laundry time where he would whistle and sing Luo songs like he was having the time of his life while I labored away at an unforgiving task. Any way, today the Foxies started asking me about how I washed my clothes in the States. I told them I put my clothes in a washing machine, go do something else for half an hour, move the clothes from the washing machine to the drying machine, do something else for 45 minutes, take my clothes out and I'm done. They got a big kick out of this obviously. I decided to be honest with them and told them that a majority of people in the States find washing their clothes a big annoyance especially when they're younger. A majority of Kenyans go to boarding schools for high school, so when you're 14-15 years old you have to start washing your clothes by hand. I imagined me in high school and some of my youth group kiddos having to wash our clothes by hand and laughed out loud. We would think it was the end of the world. This is when Cosmas would always remind me of the women who wash their clothes, their husband's, and their one to eight kids' clothes every few days. This is an example of one of my perspectives that has been extremely transformed by my time in Kenya.
