washing

Yesterday a fellow pilgrim gave us a washing machine. Actually, I think we will miss washing our laundry by hand. Each of us has our own technique. I wash mine in the shower with me, efficient and fast, and hang it up overnight. This way I can get by with two outfits. My husband enjoys the bucket method and uses the time to write books in his head, which he then puts on paper. The kids like the whole water world bit, stomping and splashing. Thankfully, in our Middle Eastern bathroom there is a sensible drain in the floor, so floods don't matter. Some kids have to go to water parks to have this much fun! But now we have this machine. It's quite amazing, really. It's from another era. It has three doors that have to be closed and locked. Since my husband knows how to fix almost anything, the handles that were broken have now been repaired with old cupboard doorknobs. Perhaps there is no washing machine quite like it, anywhere, now. Once you load it, it takes off. The boys in the family are thrilled that we now have an airplane in the bathroom, at least in simulation. My husband had to spend his morning lifting floor boards in the hallway and drying them out after the drainage hose from the new machine took it into it's head to lift and spray the entire bathroom with dirty water. The deluge being too much for the drainage hole in the floor, the hallway took on the river. Well, now the boards in the hall are clean, above and below.

It is amazing that we have this machine at all. One refugee finally received acceptance as a person. The powers that be agreed on paper that he exists, and that - heaven be praised - he is allowed to actually stay. This took some time and convincing. In his land war has waged on so long that we've forgotten they even exist. But, finally, at the age of forty, he can stay, and finally, he could get married. For wedding gifts people gave what they could.  Thus the couple ended up with two washing machines. They sweetly gave us one of these.

Getting it here was fun too. A friend loaned his vehicle and time. After removing a door and hauling the amazingly heavy gift up and down several stairs, it lay sagging on newspaper, sideways on the backseat. I sat behind it and held it in place around corners. Then we had to get it up four flights of stairs. Needless to say, we don't pay for exercise around here.

But this evening I hung out the wash. The airplane groaned to a halt. The floor dried up nice and clean. And the garments are nicely wrung out. The sun was setting and the first stars were out. Once we get the method down, this gift could be a time saver, especially for seven people. But I may still sneak and wash some things by hand. It's just too much fun.