So in general I'm not the most domestic of women... and I push off doing laundry for as long as a can, sometimes up to a month! I've always admired a Brazilian woman's ability to cook, clean, and well, be domestic. It is right up there with their ability to be sexy. Hahah. It doesn't matter what age, or what profession, they all can do it! I don't mean this in a sexist way at all, nor am I implying that Brazilian men aren't domestic, I am solely comparing myself to other women here.
So that being sad, when I arrived and discovered that my house here in Salvador doesn't have a washing machine, I started to count my underwear to figure out if I could last two months! Well, I can't. I asked the lady who cleans our house where I would be able to wash my clothes and she pointed to the sink outside. I smiled. Umm...
So I had to teach myself how to wash my clothing by hand. My first experience was pretty rough. I ended up taking a bath in the soap suds and failing to remove any of the dirt from my white abadás. Then, I hung them to dry only to find them still soaking the next morning because it had rained all night.
I tried again, this time washing a larger amount of clothing that had accumulated from my first two weeks in Brasil. This time I took three buckets, poured soap into each of them and filled them with water. Then I separated: whites, colors, capoeira stuff. I let the clothing soak, and mixed them around like you do with cake batter. I came back in 20 minutes, and took each piece of clothing by hand and rinsed them individually. I ringed whatever water I could out of them, and hung them to dry. My second attempt was a bit better, but it still left my clothes smelling moldy and moist. I live about 50 feet from the ocean, so the air is damp and salty.
So on my third attempt, which was yesterday, I decided to try a totally new technique. This time I took each piece by hand, soaping it individually with coconut-flavored soap. After completely drenching the article of clothing in soap suds, I took a rock and this grated metal-thing (not sure what they call it here), and scrubbed the stains out of my white capoeira clothing. Then I ringed it to dry, and hung it in a spot with direct sunlight. It was the greatest arm workout of my life! Who needs Capoeira.... :p
The second trick is hanging to dry in a strategic way such that they don't have unnecessary wrinkles (I'm without iron and ironing board), and/or dirt from the outdoor clothing lines. Shirts should always be hung from the shoulders, and it is best to use plastic clothes pins, and overlap items for best space management. Do not dry colored clothing next to white clothing in the chance that the colors bleed while drying. Do not hang clothing above items you don't want to get wet (like chairs with cotton seat pads)! Oh, I'm getting so good at this.
I can't figure out which is worse: walking up and down 5 flights of stairs with my laundry in NYC so that a machine can wash it for me, or spending two hours scrubbing my clothing by hand in Brazil!
I head to Argentina on Tuesday!!!
Beijos,
Fadinha
