Laundry on My Mission Field

What does it take to keep up with laundry on the mission field?  A close eye on the sun!  Yes, I have done the mad dash scramble of jerking the clothes off the line trying to keep those huge raindrops from undoing my day's work!

Every mission field is different, and a lot depends on how remote you are.  In New Guinea, my mom washed clothes in a bucket for many months.  Then later, she had a wringer washing machine with a very loud lawnmower motor.  I can still remember the sound that thing made as it beat our clothes to death! 

I am so thankful for my wise mother.  Even after we had the wringer washer, she still took the time to teach my sister and I how to wash our clothes by hand.  She told us, “You may end up on a mission field someday, and you need to know how to do this.”  She was right. 

My first three months in Kenya, I washed our clothes by hand in the kitchen sink while we saved up money to buy a washing machine.  As I scrubbed Seth’s muddy play pants, my mind recalled those days my sister and I tumbled and rolled around in the thick, clay mud of Wembu village.  I remember watching my dear mother loving and patiently scrub out our dirty clothes over and over again.  I knew if she could do it, then so could I! 

But today, I am spoiled . . . well, no, blessed!  I have a washing machine that has never given me a single problem, and I even have a propane dryer for rainy days.

I rarely use the dryer.  It gets used occasionally during the rainy season when I don’t get the clothes out early enough in the morning.  My washer is electric, so when the power goes off in the middle of a load . . . I just have to wait patiently until it comes back on, and try not to think about the dark clouds rolling in on the horizon!

The sun dries our clothes most days.  It usually does its job within a couple of hours, and it is free!  During the dry season, when we have no rain, I don’t have to be in a hurry to get them out on the line.  However, during the rainy season, in order to get them dry, I have to hang them out pretty early in the morning before the afternoon rains roll in.  It does not do to leave wet or even damp clothes in a basket overnight.  Things mold and mildew in a hurry in the tropics.  If they must come in before they are dry, it then becomes necessary to drape them all around the house to dry overnight.  Or if they are still really wet, I use my dryer!

And now I'll share a tip that I learned since coming to Kenya.  The sun is very hard on clothes.  One problem is that the sun bleaches the colors after some time.  So I’ve learned from Kenyans to turn the clothes inside out before hanging them on the line.  This way, the sun does not fade our clothes as quickly. 

Lunch:  homemade corndogs
Supper:  Fish and "chips"