Clean Clothes

Today we did laundry, and it was fun.  We have no washer or dryer here, so I had to fill up two tubs with water from my shower. Uh-oh! The shower ran out of water halfway through filling the first tub, so I had to get water from the big barrel of water that is kept in the house for just this type of thing!  

I set myself up on the edge of the porch with our box of dirty clothes, a tub of soapy water for washing, and a tub of clean water for rinsing.  This soon attracted the notice of our littlest campers, Annalee, Isaac, Abigail, and Aili.  Ahh, helpers!  Soon I had little hands helping me dump dirty clothes in the water, swishing them around, ringing out the soapy water and putting them in the clean water, more swishing, more ringing, and finally shaking out excess water and finding places for them to dry.  To them it was helping and water play on a hot day rolled into one.  They had such a great time splashing in the water and brought playfulness and laughter to an otherwise tedious chore!  

I’ve been thinking about my attitude concerning little setbacks, like starting to do your laundry by hand and finding out that you haven’‘t any running water, or starting to cook dinner for your family at the end of a long day just to find out that the stove isn’t working.    Initially, these problems can be so irritating.  We come from a country where we don’t deal with problems like this.  There would be public outcry in a community where water wasn’t readily available at all times.  When our stoves don’t work, we have them repaired or buy new ones.  However, after my initial frustration my problem solving side steps up, after all, the kids still need to eat and we still need clean clothes. Once I get to the problem solving stage, we always figure things out and there are no worries.  As I reflect on these things, I am deciding to start skipping the initial frustration phase of this cycle.  It’s pretty unpleasant and unproductive, and furthermore, experience has taught me that these things are inconveniences, minor irritations, but not real problems.   To prove my point, this morning turned out to be a lot of fun with my little friends, and Maddie, Michal and I now have enough clean clothes to last the rest of MK Camp!