…but I miss the Speed Queen. The Speed Queen is the washer/dryer that was installed at 3405 Prospect street circa 1960 and has remained there to this day. I had the fine privilege of using it for my senior year. Laundry day with the SQ was a process. About 2 weeks out, you would have to start hoarding quarters. When you finally foraged the requisite two-dozen you could start doing your wash in small loads; one wash cycle and two dry cycles for every bunch. In the end your laundry would kind of be clean. Letters and phone calls of protestation had no effect on our landlord. The Speed Queen was there to stay, I would kill for a Speed Queen in Africa. Laundry day in Guinea is also a process. It starts by walking to the market and buying little sachets of soap. Then you collect buckets and basins from around the house. You head with you buckets, soap, wash board and laundry to the well. You have to pull up 5 to 6 buckets just to get started. Then you begin abusing each piece of clothing on the board until you deem it clean. You wring it out, dip it in a bucket of clean water, wring it out and go hang it on the line. If you are having trouble picturing this, I do wash the same way that the mom in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does it or like any 1800’s pioneer woman. Unfortunately, laundry day is also a prime time Fote show. It’s not the Superbowl (that’s Fotes dancing and playing drums) but it is Eagles v. Giant. All the neighbors come to watch me and wonder out loud why I do not know how to do laundry. They each take a turn to grab clothes out of my hand and show me how to do it properly. I then mimic them exactly and they say its no good. My brother shouts mauvais! (bad) with each stroke of the clothes against the washboard. I’ll say, “I’m doing it exactly the same, what is different?” Their response, “C’est pas bon”. What nuance I am missing is beyond me. After a few hours of embarrassing labor, my clothes are somewhat clean, my hands are red, and my wrists are bruised. At least the neighbors are having a good time. Another fun note about laundry is that you have to bring it inside before the sun goes down. If you leave it out after dark, Tuba flies will come lay eggs in the seams of your clothes. Then when you wear your clothes, the larvae burrow into your skin. They leech your blood until they are grown into maggots and then and only then can you squeeze them out of your body being careful to keep the worm intact while you do it.
Technology here is a funny thing. Washing machines are a long way off here. There is no running water anywhere and electricity comes and goes. They do have cell phones and MP3 players, but stereo systems look like they came from 1980 and are only played on full volume. I showed my brother my Kindle today and he could not fathom that it contained 1,000 books. He has never seen 100 books in a library so to hold 1,000 in my hand was beyond his comprehension. The good news is that I have plenty of time here to get good at doing my laundry, the bad news is that I am apparently so bad at it that my brother thinks it will take my 10 years to master. In the mean time, I can try to help educate people on the technology that they have access to and hope that by the end of my service things like the internet and microwaves will be more ubiquitous and who knows- the town may even get a Laundromat.
No comments:
Post a Comment