Laundry

It won't be long now & we'll be on plane bound for Senegal! Airline tickets have been purchased, passports are in hand & we've gotten all the necessary vaccines (I needed 6... ouch!)

For these first few pre-trip posts, I'll cut & paste info I've gleaned from various sources, including photos & excerpts from Aunt Ramona's blog, to give a better idea of how daily living in Senegal is quite different from what we're used to. Let's start by letting Aunt Ramona share about something as "mundane" as doing laundry....

I thought I would just give you a little glimpse of what it takes to "just live" in Africa. Some of the tasks for "just living" takes much more time and energy than it does in the States.

The mundane, like doing the laundry, is an example of what takes much of our time these days. It's great to have a washing machine but when the electricity goes off, a load can take a long time! Once it's washed and hung out to dry, the rains often come and it has to be taken in. On the low wall in the house or possibly on stair railings, we lay our clothes out, but in the humidity of this rainy season, it can take 12 hours to dry. Are we in the second day yet? Finally, most things need to be ironed to kill any mango worms in the clothes. Will the electricity stay on for the ironing? Will the load be finished the third day?

- Posted by Joyce