Fairing Lessives

After about a month in country languages start to mix in a trainees mind. Suddenly one finds themselves reaching in the back of their brain for that once oh so familiar english word only to come out with the equivalent french word. This has caused our training group to develop our own special style of communication where we insert french and local language words into our discussions. (It's a frenglish thing). We don't do laundry anymore here in Burkina, we faire our lessives, which is the anglophone version of the expression to wash one's clothing.

In case you hadn't thought about it, there aren't any washing machines, dryers, or laundry mats with those things in them here. People wash their cloths by hand, and as PC volunteers we do as the locals do, so we wash our cloths by hand out of a bucket. I thought I would devote an entire entry to this practice because it's become such a foreign idea to so many (okay almost all) Americans. It starts by asking my host sister if there is enough water that day to wash cloths (water runs short here during the dry season which is just ending and at my house if the water man doesn't show up when he's supposed to, which is most of the time, there is no fairing of the lessives). If she says yes, she will go to the well in our courtyard and draw water for me. Then I use a bar soap for washing cloths (about 50 cents a bar at the boutique by my house) and soap and wring everything twice before rinsing. Then everything gets put out on the clothesline in my courtyard. Why soap twice you ask? (I asked the same question) Because it is so dusty here that the water will still turn brown on the second soaping. Things just don't get clean if you don't do it.

This of course all takes place while your Burkinabe neighbors laugh at how you wash cloths. But then again, it is kind of funny to think of someone who has never washed cloths before, or that's how it seems anyway after a month here. Machines to do it for you? Why? Washing cloths is one of the best ways for me to socialize with the rest of my courtyard because it breaks the ice. Why have it any other way?