This is the way we wash our clothes so early in the morning

1st step: 1.5 to 2 hours soaking, scrubbing, and rinsing in tub

Mary and Joe hanging laundry on clothes line

So, laundry is the hardest thing I (Kathleen) do here.  If there is any hope of getting anything dry by nightfall, I have to start pretty early in the morning.  The clothes soak for an hour in the tub, and then I have to hand-scrub each item.  Depending on how big of a load it is, that can take 20 to 40 minutes.  Then I rinse twice, and finally I wring the livin' daylights out of each piece.  By the time I am done, my hands are raw and red.  I have now developed calluses from doing the laundry.

I recruit the kids to help me hang the laundry.  The jeans and heavier stuff go on top of the bushes. 

Then it is a race to see if anything will dry before it rains!  Prosper, the caretaker, is a genius when it comes to being able to predict when it is going to rain and comes and gets me with five minutes to spare.  We all race outside to gather up the laundry.  When this happens (and it almost always does), we drape the laundry around the couches, chairs, drapery rods, and any other surface we can find.  It has taken up to three days to dry a single load.

I feel like I must apologize for complaining earlier this summer when I had to hang my

Jeans seem to dry best when draped on the bushes!

laundry for three whole weeks.  At least I had
a washing machine!  And I am also grateful that I at least have a tub and running water to help me with the process.  Every day I see women who are washing their clothing in a tub in the front yard or in a (dirty) river. 

Westerners are pretty blessed (spoiled?).