Water here is like gold. Each week when we get low on water, we have to call a water truck to drive to the house and fill our cistern. The water they bring is not safe for drinking unless it is boiled or filtered first. A full water truck is 3,000 gallons and costs around $50 USD. However, some water truck drivers are not honest and bring partially full trucks. So, we sometimes get short changed. With the amount of children and laundry that we have, we usually need to have our cistern filled once or twice a week. Water is a big expense for us. When it is rainy season, a pipe on the roof drains rain water into the cistern. So,we always thank God when it rains because we are getting free water!
Although we have a washing machine, lately we have only been using it to wash the cloth diapers. All the rest of the laundry is done by hand...and believe me, we have a HUGE amount of laundry each day. It is a lot of extra work washing by hand, but it saves hundreds of gallons of water each day. Also, we save lots of money on diesel fuel by not running our generator.
Anytime I am doing laundry, our kids are attracted to the water like a magnet. I guess I am partially to blame for that since I sprayed them with the hose one day while I was washing my clothes. Ever since then, the kids get all excited when they see me carrying my dirty laundry out back to our wash area. I recruited Rosa and Claudine to help me wash my clothes. I knew they would enjoy getting wet, and I enjoyed their company. I think for five year olds, they do a good job of scrubbing clothes. They especially thought it was funny when they came across a pair of my underwear (all kids are alike I guess)!
Johnny eventually joined in the work (as much as a three year old can anyway). Not surprisingly they started splashing each other and me. After we finished washing the clothes, I told them they could play in my kivet of rinse water. It only took a matter of seconds until they were down to their skivvies and happily splashing in the water.
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| three peas in a pod (Johnny, Claudine, Rosa) |
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| Rosa |
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| Johnny |
This is precious! I remember loving to play in buckets as a kid. I guess childhood fascination with water is cross-cultural!
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