lavaring ropa

7-17-11

So here in Namacha the weekends are for lavaring ropa (washing clothes) and I didn’t do any last weekend so I had a lot to do today!   This is the real deal people, washing your clothes in cold, semi dirty water, in a bacia (small plastic tub) with dry detergent.   You use three bacias, the first has soap and the last two are for rinsing.   The whites go first, in case the color bleed, and all the clothes are turned inside out so if the wind blows them off the line when they are drying only the outside will get dirty.     You wash the clothes with the outside of your fists, on your knuckles, and because I did a load yesterday and today my fingers were bleeding a little bit lol.   After the washing process you ring out each item and hang it on the line.  If the clothes are not dry by night time, I put them in my bacia and hang them back up in the morning.  I use the same bacia for bathing and washing clothes. 

Yesterday we didn’t have enough water so me and my little sister, who is my keeper when my mom isn’t home, went down the hill to the water hole and waited our turn to fill up our water pails.   While we were waiting a woman took my bucket from me and filled it up for me.  I had never met her before and Im not sure why she did that, probably because Im obviously a foreigner and she was being polite and partially because she thought I didn’t know how to fill up the bucket myself.    After both of our buckets were filled my sister used a rag, which we clean the floors with, as padding to carry her bucket on her head back up the hill.  The girl who helped me asked if I was going to carry the 5 gallon bucket on my head too!  I laughed, said no and carried it back up the hill, switching hands every now and then.     I really feel like I got my workout for the day after lavaring ropa lol

Elysea