Wash

This morning I dropped off my clothes to be washed and dried by a nearby woman. It took all of 5 minutes, and will cost me 16 quetzales, or $2 (less than my cost for the washer and dryer at home!). However little this may seem to us, this is a luxury that few people have. I was told that I could only bring clothes, not sheets or towels, but could try another day for those things if I wanted. So I set out to washing my towel like everyone else here—-by hand. After setting it to soak in cold water with (American) detergent, I asked if I could boil some water, in order to have hot water to wash it in. I got a quizzical look. Gas is expensive here, why would you waste it on a towel? I explained that I wanted to be able to kill bacteria. In the end, after using the cold water, boiling more water, washing in hot water, scrubbing on the washboard, wringing it dry, and hanging it, the whole process took 30 minutes. In the rainy season, it won’t be dry until tomorrow, if I’m lucky, possibly another day or two. Imagine doing that for all your laundry…