And Ode to Laundry and other little joys of life

A day in the life of Susan: Well, to be honest, lately it has been a day every two weeks in the life of Susan. At home I pretty much hated doing laundry. I mean, it was so much work to haul my basket full of laundry down to my car and drive to my parents house (‘cause there was no way I was gonna spend 5 bucks to do two loads of laundry), and then put it into two piles, load the first pile in and hang out for an hour. Then move it to the dryer and add the second load. Wait some more, visit with my parents, then fold the clothes and add the second load to the dryer and hang out with my family some more. I mean seriously, such a monotonous task, right? haha oh if only!

When the team came here from home last month, one of the women innocently asked me what the bucket in the bathroom was for. Me and the interns chuckled ‘cause really, it is used for EVERYTHING. That bucket is a necessary household item here. Let me describe how I do laundry in India. Like I mentioned, I sometimes just forget to do it for 2 weeks, until I am absolutely out of clean clothes and the not-clean clothes are beyond wearable. So… You fill the bucket up with water, add a load of laundry to it with some detergent. Swoosh it around and get all your clothes clean (or as clean as a 20 year old with a short attention span gets anything clean by hand). Rinse each item. Wring each item out. Take it up on the roof to hang it to dry. Wait for it to dry. Take it all down and supposedly iron said clothes.

As much as I sometimes find it a hassle—cause as I mentioned, I tend to forget about it until I have no wearable clothes left—I take much more joy out of my clean clothes. When you have to work for it, it’s actually more valued. I know this is such a basic concept and it’s kinda sad that this foundational life principle is hitting home most for me through doing my laundry. But I also enjoy doing laundry now. Although it is time consuming, it is so wonderful to have some physical labor! Its hard work! I’m quite in awe of the women who wash sheets and saris (I haven’t become brave enough to try those yet) because even washing the small items is quite vigorous, let alone 3 meters of material! Another reason I love doing laundry is having an excuse to walk around on the roof at night. Architecture in India is wonderful if simply for the roofs. To be above the busyness of the city, or the busyness of campus is so peaceful during the day, and at night to be a bit closer to the stars. I go up just to hang up laundry and end up stopping and being in awe of the one who made such beautiful, peaceful nights. Roofs are also quite wonderful for oatmeal breakfast picnics with friends :)

Eating. Who ever would have realized that eating with your hands is harder than eating with a fork? We’ve been told numerous times that we’re like little children when we eat. After years of being scolded to not play with your food and to not eat with your hands, I’m having to relearn it! It just makes sense! I might still be messy, but it is now easier for me to eat Indian food with my hands than with a fork. I’ll often just pick up a fork out of habit just to abandon it 5 minutes into the meal out of frustration!

Another random wonderful thing about India is that the cars play songs when they are backing up. And every car has its own little song. Not quite the annoying beeping huge trucks play when they back up at home!

And the head bobble. You never really know if the person is saying “yes,” “no,” “I hear you,” “you’re crazy,” or “I have no idea what this crazy fast-talking American is saying to me, I wish she would just stop babbling.” And when I ask a yes or no question and get the response of ‘no problem’ or ‘its ok.’ After 2+ months, I also don’t know what that means. The more I am here and the better I’m getting at communicating (I have acquired the ability to actually talk slower and to annunciate more! For those of you at home, you should realize that this is a giant improvement for me), the more I’m wondering how and if anyone actually understood me in the beginning.

Other things that make me happy:
Tiger ‘biscuits” (really, they are similar to shortbread cookies)
weekly (or bi-weekly) dinner dates with Elise

Internet is working

Being called ‘teacher’ by every child under the age of 15

I have two tailor friends who are going to help me have clothes that actually fit me!
getting chatty emails from people back home
one of the girls on campus who makes the most amazing crow sound (long story)
and...

Parasite Pals (… a children’s toy much like Polly Pocket) with characters such as ‘Holly Hostess,’ ‘Dig Dig the Head Louse,’ ‘Blinky the Eylash Mite,’ Zzeezz the bed bug’ and my personal favorite ‘Tickles the Tapework.’—I think I seriously laughed for 15 minutes when I first saw it)

The caption reads: “Here is the girl with small friends of life present for always. Some irritation she finds with them, but much fun and love is to be shared.”

Trust me there are a whole lot of more serious things that make me love India and make me joyful. But for lightheartedness’ sake I’m going to leave it at that!