Household chores are a whole other beast in Guatemala. I may have mentioned them in passing before, but today I'd like to elaborate. Because today was a day when I actually enjoyed my chores. In fact, the sun made an appearance here the last few days so I have been using chores as an excuse to linger on my new patio in the sun with my puppy dog, at the same time contributing to barefoot-friendly floors and dust and dirt free clothes, rugs, linens and so on. This morning was another such morning and I opted to do some cleaning.
The fact that I chose to wash clothes, do dishes, sweep and scrub the floors in itself is strange, but I think the combination of sunshine and new surroundings, and a desire to make these new surroundings into a homier sort of place, have motivated me to do the improbable.
In Guatemala, there is a lack of indoor plumbing. Instead everyone has an outdoor all-purpose water tank called a pila (photo to follow) with two shallow cement trays with drains used to wash dishes, clothes, and whatever else. I started this morning by washing dishes from last night, since I am determined not to let dishes accumulate in the sink. Lately, any kind of activity at the sink, which involves immersing your hands in the cold, cold pila water (outside temperatures) gets old real fast but today it was sunny and nice so I proceeded to wash my clothes. By hand. ! This involves soaking all my clothes in soapy water and swirling it around to simulate washer machine agitation (ha!), then individually scrubbing each article of clothing and rinsing it out by scooping water out of said pila and pouring it over. Repeat several times, then wring out and hang to dry. This week has been sunny (I know I've mentioned it already but its just SO EXCITING. California Girl + weeks w/o sunshine=overreaction to even mildly sunny morning) so my clothes will probably dry today, but recently what with the cold and damp has been taking 3-4 days to dry! I even lost my favorite american eagle hoody to mold a couple weeks ago. ugh.
I'm not bragging about my ability to handwash my clothes, per se. I just want all of you to take a moment to appreciate the magic that goes on inside your laundry machines. It's the little things.
Speaking of little things, I got a package yesterday from my mom and dad which I practically ran home with to rip into like a little kid on Christmas morning. New Swimsuit! Chocolate Covered Pretzels! Fancy Mixed Nuts from Trader Joe's! Its kinda mean, now that I reflect, for my mom to send me a new bikini with which to show off recent weight loss in the same package with chocolate covered pretzels and other high fat goodies...... I'm trying Really Hard not to eat all the pretzels in one sitting. So I can be Beach Ready in three weeks (but who's counting).
These are the little things that make my days go by. Tomorrow I am judging another competition of some sort for the other middle school in town-a dance competition I believe. What makes me qualified to do this? Saber. I'll try to take video/pictures so you guys can appreciate a little taste of the culture and festivity here in Sija.
Ciao
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