Glimpse into our life - Laundry

Here in the Dominican Republic, doing laundry requires a delicate balance of several factors over which I have little to no control.

In order to wash clothes, I need electricity and running water.  Since we do not have a dryer, in order to dry the clothes, it needs to not be raining and the clothes need to be on the line well before 6 pm.  (Eddy put clotheslines up in our "backyard" and also on our porch.)

So there we go; laundry needs to be done in the morning or early afternoon when there is running water, electricity, and it's not raining. Easy, right?  Nope, not here in the DR.

Here's the problem with the electricity.  We lose our electricity every day.  The amount of times that the electricity goes out and the duration that it goes out varies and is in no way a dependable schedule.  On a good day it will go out two or three times for an hour or two.  Most week days, however, it goes out sometime in the morning, and doesn't come back on until late afternoon or early evening.  On bad days, it doesn't come back on until late at night.

Here's the problem with running water.  We lose our street water several times per week.  This is more on a schedule.  For example, we know that every Wednesday and Saturday sometime during the morning, the water will go out.  Plus it will go out random other times as well with no warning.

Here's the problem with rain.  When it's rainy season, or there is a storm nearby, it rains pretty much every day.  It usually doesn't rain all day long.  It rains in short bursts, separated by sunshine.  When it stops raining and the sun comes out, there is no guarantee that it won't start raining again in a half an hour.  Sometime it's raining and sunny at the same time.  Seriously.

Here's the problem with doing laundry in the morning or early afternoon.  I work at a school.

Because of all of these factors, I had not been able to do laundry in almost two weeks.  But a couple days ago, the stars aligned, and it was sunny with running water and electricity ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  I got so much laundry done.  It was great.

I love my little automatic washing machine.  Most Dominican washing machines require the use of a bucket and hose.

Drying in the sun in our "backyard".

Drying on our porch.