This is how we do it....in the DR {Laundry}

So as of today, it was 7 months ago that we landed in the DR to start our ministry and new life.  It doesn't seem like that much time has gone by, but a LOT of things have happened.  A lot has changed.  It isn't wrong, it is just different.  And in some ways I think even better.  I will tell you a few of those things on Thursdays in "This is how we do it".  Today I want to talk about laundry.  Well, I have been blessed with a washer and dryer.  I do miss my front loading amazing washer and dryer back in GA (holla girls, I miss you!), but I do have a washer and a dryer (that is under the weather at the moment)!!  I am not even sure how laundry works here, but the woman next door is ALWAYS outside throwing her laundry into this machine.  I think she washes it in the sink then puts it into the machine to spin it then hangs it somewhere in the house.

If you don't have the machine, then you usually have an outside sink.  This family of  6 posted this video back in 2009 they lived here in the DR, so this is what it is like without that machine.  It is 4 minutes long, but you can just watch some of it and you will get the idea.  If you watch it to the end you will see the woman doing the laundry stopping and taking a breather and it is obvious that it is back breaking work!

Then you have the more remote villages without ANY water, so that would be even more challenging.  I saw a woman the other day with the extracting machine and she was washing it in a big bowl.  They usually hang their laundry on their fence right in front of their house....underwear, bras and all, for the world to see.  Knowing that in Haiti they sell donated clothing shipments to the DR so they have money to eat, the people here at least do have clothing.  I have seen some in villages where they turn their clothes inside out and/or backwards to get a few days out of a shirt.

So from now I will be grateful that I have laundry, because it means I have clothes and blessed that I don't have to do back breaking labor to get them clean.  I will happily hang them all around the house until I get my dryer fixed.

In His Grip,
Jodi