I couldn't find the energy to fold clothes after the dryer stopped turning ... and often our family was forced to trudge into the laundry room in the early mornings to find underwear and socks for their day.
If I DID get a load folded, it often stayed put in the laundry basket ... in our living room.
MAYBE once a week (ok ... in all honesty, maybe once a month) those laundry baskets made it upstairs and into their designated drawers.
Imagine my glee when I discovered that we would employ a dhobi (someone to do our laundry) while we lived in Delhi.
THAT makes me HAPPY!
* * *
Fast forward to the other day ...
Mia's preschool teacher - whom I absolutely adore - said "Naomi, I have a HUGE favor to ask you."
I braced myself, gritted my teeth and practiced saying "no" in my head. I'm an over-achiever and love to help out in any way I can, which often finds me doing too much for too many things at ONE time.
Through clenched lips, I said "You know I'd do ANYTHING for you." (while thinking in my head, PLEASE let this be easy!)
She smiled and said "I really hate to ask you this, because I'm not sure what your dhobi's schedule is, but ... could you have her wash our towels from today's classes, and bring them back in the morning?"
Shoooooot ... I can DO that!
I smiled and said "OF COURSE! That's no problem! My dhobi is not working the rest of this week, but I can easily do a LOAD OF LAUNDRY!!!"
* * *
I arrived home, took the bag of towels downstairs and stared at my washing machine for 10 minutes.
I have NO idea where Shakuntella keeps the laundry detergent.
I have NO idea how to turn the dryer on.
I have not done a load of laundry in almost SIX months. S-I-X months!
* * *
Now, before you all respond with comments like "oh, what I wouldn't give to not have to do laundry for even one week, let alone six months" (or something along those lines) ... let me just tell you that there ARE downsides to not doing the laundry yourself ::
1. I put on my favorite dress this morning, only to find a BIG hole in it. Sighed. Put on my favorite dress (take 2) ... only to find ANOTHER big hole in it. Third time was a charm. Until I got to school and found a hole in that one as well. Is it that the water here EATS your clothes (or the detergent? Not sure which). Or is it some other peculiar mystery?
2. I can NEVER find anything I need ... there is apparently a fun game that Sushila plays (bless her heart) called "Let's put Ma'am's pants in a COMPLETELY different place today" or "I think that Ma'am's dresses should be folded today instead of hung"
3. Todd and Terran often yell furiously from the bathroom "I've got HIS underwear again!"
I know ... little things to complain about when the alternative is not having to do laundry in the first place ...
The end of the story is that I did figure out where the detergent was, and the dryer works just like any other dryer, it's just that I couldn't figure out which outlet worked and where to plug it in. The towels are currently tossing and turning their way to "dry"!
