I almost forgot I was in Africa until I had to do laundry

Last night I had the wonderful experience of washing everything I own in my bathtub. After I determined that letting the hotel do a load of my laundry would cost about $36, and that laundry facilities are basically non-existent in Nairobi, I purchased a $0.35 bar of laundry soap (who would’ve thought laundry soap could be found in bar form—I guess I’m just sheltered) and decided to do it myself. I tried to remember how a real washing machine works. I think it goes something like this:

1. fill up with water
2. dump soap in
3. it swishes around for a while
4. water empties
5. new water pours in
6. more swishing
7. water empties
8. clothes spin really fast
9. done

So I did my best to mimic a real washing machine. I filled the bathtub up with water, applied bar soap to each item, swished it all around, emptied out the tub, put new water in and swished some more, then I added one final rinse.

The hard part is the final spin to get out the excess water. I obviously can’t create that kind of movement in an empty bathtub, and I didn’t want to twist my clothes too much because they’d stretch and I’d look awkward at work. So I just gave each item a quick squeeze. Now every available hanging space in my apartment has shirts/pants/socks hanging from it, with a cup/bowl/pot underneath to catch the dripping water (this second part wasn’t part of the original plan—I just realized what a huge mess I was making). The entire process took about three hours. Luckily I have no internet in my apartment to distract me, and I only get about 7 channels of hip-hop videos, televangelism, and mid-90’s Nickelodeon shows like “The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo” (actually that show’s pretty good).

In other news, this past weekend I tried nyama choma, Kenya’s unofficial national dish, which is basically just a barbequed goat leg. It was actually pretty good, but every bite took about 10 minutes to chew, seriously, which made dinner last forever. I also went to the Nairobi Java House three times this weekend—best coffee I’ve ever tasted, and delicious cinnamon ice cream too. Unfortunately I can’t go during the week after work because like 6 different people have told me that walking to/from City Center after dark = certain death. I’ll take their word for it, and taxis are too expensive. Ok, time to go do a safe activity in my apartment, like read a book or watch my clothes dry. L8r!