Tips on washing clothes in Haiti found on Ehow.com
Accurate, stereotypic, or waaaaaay off?
http://www.ehow.com/how_2281705_wash-clothing-live-haiti.html
Washing your clothing in Haiti is a more involved process than in the USA but is necessary to know if you are planning to go over there to help out with the famine. The act of washing clothes is a great female bonding time for communication and friendship among the women.
Things You’ll Need:
- Laundry soap
- A river
- Plastic storage containers or bins that can hold water
- A clothesline
- Clothesline pins
- A washboard (optional)
- Laundry baskets
- The sun
- Patience
Step1 - The first way to wash your clothing is to go with the women to the river. River is pronounced RYE-VER by Haitians just so you know.
Step2- Take your clothing and wet them in the river one by one. Then put a little laundry soap on the wet clothing and either scrub the clothing on a washboard or just swirl the clothing in the water to agitate the clothing in the water. This moves the soap around so that the clothing’s stains and oils can come through.
Step3 - Rinse the clothing so that no traces of soap remain.
Step4 - Hang the clothing up on a clothesline that is right by the river bed.
Step5 - Go home and come back later in the day when your clothing is dry. Or, stay there at riverside talking and chatting with the other women who came to do their laundry that day also.
Step6 - Go back after a few hours and fold your dry laundry into baskets.
Step7 - Take your laundry baskets home.
Step8 - Put your clothing away at home and you are done.
Step9 - The other way to wash your clothing in Haiti is by using plastic containers. What you do is you go outside and put a half a load of clothing into a plastic container and put the water and the laundry soap in there.
Step10 - Now you want to move the containers around so that you can put the maximum amount of containers outside in the sun and leave them out there all day long.
Step11 - Wait for the sun to boil the water and the laundry soap together and super clean the clothing.
Step12 - After the sun has set, go outside and take two containers of clothes, water and soap and put both of them into the washing machine. Set the wash cycle to what the material and temperature demands and wash normally. The clothing should be very clean.
Tips & Warnings
- The second method works best if you are washing all white clothing as the sun has bleaching qualities as well.
- If you are in an area that has high levels of mosquitoes you may want to think twice about using the second method.
Di sa’w vle. Leave your comments below.
