Fun in the sun cleaning clothes by hand

Today (June 18) I washed clothes in the local manner with my children friends from the hostel. I was having my quiet time when I heard a knock on the door of my room. It was Martha, the most beguiling of the group of girls who follows me around. “You with Rani walking?” She asked with the irresistible cock of the head that people here use so often. While waiting my answer she wore her characteristic look of gentle bewilderment. What she meant was, “Would you like to go on a walk with Rani and me?” But it came across as, “What are you doing in here reading? I thought you were going to take a walk with us!” When I tried to explain that I was reading the Bible, even pronouncing Bible in the Urdu way, she continued to stare at me with the same look of confusion until I sighed, put the book down and took her hand, signaling that she could lead me wherever she wanted.

It turned out that it was actually Shanti, Rani’s little sister, who wanted to walk with me. She wanted to go up onto the roof of the hostel to watch Martha and Rani washing clothes. But I was so intrigued by their chore that I insisted on going down to watch more closely. I maneuvered Shanti over to the pavilion where Rani was enthusiastically pumping water from an iron spout into a blue plastic tub. I watched as Rani squatted, submerged five or six pieces of clothing in the water, pulled one out, slapped it on the hot concrete and started vigorously scrubbing the cloth with a yellow bar of soap. After a few minutes of lathering, Rani threw the soap aside and commenced scrubbing the cloth with a stiff brush. After brushing, Rani kneaded the cloth like bread dough and then began to thwack it with a wooden club. After five or six hefty blows, she pushed the cloth aside and pulled out another item of clothing.

At this point, I squatted down beside her in the blazing sun and pulled out a sopping pair of pants to work on myself. “You want to wash the cloth?” She asked, incredulous. When I nodded and began furiously lathering, Shanti gave up on our walk and pushed a brick over for me to sit on while squatting. It was hot work and I was glad that water was involved. I found that Rani made the process look much easier than it really was. The soap slipped out of my grasp, the cloth bunched in the wrong places, and my thwacks with the club didn’t make the same juicy resonant sound that Rani’s did. Pretty soon I was stiffly shifting my position and trying to ease my aching arms.

After cleaning all the clothes, we had a pile of sudsy laundry. We dumped it back in the plastic tub and hauled it over to the pump. There I pumped while Rani rinsed, squeezed out excess water, and handed the item to Shanti to put on the clothes line. After all the clothes had been rinsed, Rani and Shanti took turns rinsing themselves off under the water. While they were doing this, I turned to help Martha who had just begun her family’s load without the help of sisters. Sopping wet, Rani and Shanti joined me and the four of us made short work of Martha’s laundry.

With the work done, the girls were all free to play and together we went up onto the roof to enjoy the breeze while the clothing dried in the sun.