Laundry Day in the Villages

Most wells we visit have a two tub concrete wash stand near the end of the concrete well runoff.  Many women take their wash with them to the well. Sometimes there is a line, so the women chat and catch up on the latest as they wait their turn to do laundry.  After the water is pumped, the clothing is dumped into the shallow well of the wash stand, then water is poured over them.  For those who can afford it, laundry detergent is a large, dark green bar of very strong soap.  The clothing is rubbed with soap then pounded on the concrete. The second basin of the wash stand is for rinsing. Water is poured over the clothes then wrung out and piled into a tub to be carried home to dry. 

Some women are fortunate enough to have a tap or a well near their homes.  Water collected is carried home, then, in their yards, they stoop waist down to the ground and wash clothes in large plastic tubs and hang them on branches to dry.  

Recently, I looked over a small bridge we were crossing and saw a woman washing her clothes in the rocky river and spreading them on large boulders along the shore to dry in the sun.   I wondered how far she had to walk to do this chore. When her last piece of clothing has been pounded on a rock, she will pile the still-wet clothes into the tub, raise it to her head, and walk home. There, she will spread them on rocks, tree branches, and shrubs near her home and wait for sunshine. 

There is a very cold mountain stream that runs through our neighborhood. This is where many neighborhood women do their laundry and bathe. The stream  runs swiftly enough over the rocks to form small rapids, but in places it is shallow enough that children can play among the rocks as their mothers do laundry. 

We often see women bathing their children here, and from time to time we see women taking the opportunity to have a bath as well.   As we wound our way up the mountain road that crosses this stream a few days ago, I saw a woman stripped from the waist up, wet, and fully lathered. I thought of the risk that woman took in order to feel clean.