Just Add Water - A Laundry Adventure

Today I flooded the electronics business on the first floor with a water hose that flipped out of the washing machine (full blast) when I walked away.

I already did this once last week by hanging the hose on its allotted screw on the wall, but the seal in the spigot was worn out and the valve, which appeared deceptively off, continued seeping water until it  gained momentum and rose up out of the upturned hose and down the wall and into the room below. For quite some time. But at a dribble. But a substantial dribble.

Let's discuss what we call a "washing machine" in Belize. It is a plastic surround with two chambers. One - the wash chamber - about 10 gallons, and one - the spin chamber - about 5 gallons. Use the short hose on the wall to fill the Wash chamber with water, toss in soap (Not Too Much, Fabio always says), and drop in your clothes. Then you turn off the water, remove the hose and (with wet hands and possibly feet - safe, I know) plug it in. It will rotate the clothes in the soapy water. After sufficient agitation, you transfer (yes, you, by hand) drenched clothes from chamber Wash into chamber Spin and press them down with your fist to compact them for the best balance in the centrifugal spin.

There is no way in the process not to also wash whatever you are wearing. You will get wet. 

This is the nature of laundry in Belize: Wash in chamber 1, Spin in chamber 2, Rinse in chamber 1, Spin in chamber 2. That's if you are Fabio. If you are me, you go for one wash, two rinses.

However, there is the matter of the short hose with a mind of its own. The short hose that caused flooding.

I don't like patience. Which is a whole level worse than not having patience. It means that I don't like even trying to have patience, and it is a terrible flaw. So it is beyond me to stand at chamber Wash with my eyes glassing over until the short hose fills it to the H-for-high mark with water. I put the hose in chamber Wash, turn it to Gush, and go in the kitchen to do something incidental and hopefully remember that I have started to do laundry and go back out in 3 minutes.

Today I went back out in 2.75 minutes and the hose gone amok was like a giant drinking fountain, lofting an arc of water into the air. Into the air and onto the porch floor. The wooden floor with planks that don't quite meet and bear unknown ceiling material underneath for Mr. Greg's electronics shop. Ay yi yi.

I shrieked and threw the next load of laundry onto the swell in a vain attempt to sop it up. I swished towels every which way on the floor but deep in my inner being I knew I was too late. The boards were soaked, the water had run half the length of the porch to the kitchen door already and my Next Load was now filthier than it started.

How could so much water come from such a short hose in just 2.75 minutes? Maybe it was more like 4 minutes, and I did have the hose on Gush after all.

So, I see a future of standing and watching chamber Wash fill with water from now on. And maybe a batch of Sweet Rolls are in order for Mr. Greg, who spent more than an hour sopping up water from the floor in his office downstairs and insisted he did not need help or rags or towels or...dogs to lap it up.

At this juncture I won't go into problems with immigration that made me cry this morning, or the woman in the Chinese store (= corner market) yelling at me for returning bottles to her which I had not Bought from her. (I don't know if she meant to yell or if that is her voice.) And I Had bought them from her store but could not understand her English so I paused blankly when she asked, which led her to believe I Had Not. And the dogs and I all walked away sad for being misunderstood.

But overall, in spite of these tales, it was actually a banner day. We didn't get attacked by local dogs as we went on a mile walk today. (We never get attacked, but their tough dog goal is that we Wonder if we will.) I won Mr. Ben Swiss in a backgammon challenge. I found fresh leaf lettuce at the market (not always available) AND a papaya (ripe tomorrow) and Soursop juice. A near addiction.

I also drank two bags of coconut water because the best news of all today is that my brother lived after he was rushed to the hospital on the brink of death with his heart fibrillating and his kidneys shut down. All from apparent potassium deficiency. ?! Who knew that was possible. So I talked to him , and he is doing well, and I drank coconut water in his honor, which is rife with potassium and an all-around anti-cancer tonic. And in spite of tripping over difficulties today, I'm grateful because the blessings outweighed the disappointments. (Which they always do, if you are counting honestly.)

Signing off for some sleep amid a downpour of rain upon rain on my clothes on the line. That's rinse #3.

Susanna