Laundry is just something you take for granted in the States, where most everyone has a washer and dryer.  Originally, I thought “laundry – no problem.”  (Marie Gray, in _Retire in Belize on $350 a Month_ said you could get a woman to do it for you for peanuts.)  For us, it turned out to be a BIG problem.  If there is a Laundromat in Corozal we still haven’t found it.   The Maya Hotel does not advertise doing laundry but they will do it for 5 dollah per load.  You have to wait two days to get it back.  Nestor’s (a local bar and hotel) advertises laundry at 2.5 dollah per pound.  The laundry adjoins the bar and they hang the clothes in view of everyone. (Hey girls -- wouldn’t you just love to have your undies hanging out for every­one to see).  We looked futilely for a local lady to do our laundry. For the month of February we had our laundry done at the Maya Hotel, where we first learned the meaning of “Belizean time” – “it will be ready this afternoon” meant this afternoon, tomorrow afternoon or whenever it gets dry. 

  When we first arrived here we noticed that everyone we saw looked neat and clean (at least to start the day).  The children wear uniforms to school.  They all wear a white shirt, but pants and skirts are a different color for different schools. At least one school has totally white uniforms. The whites are not just clean, but dazzlingly white.  Somebody knows the secret, eh?   The problem, it seemed, was finding one of these families which was looking to take in laundry.

  While waiting for the trailer to arrive we chatted with others to find out how they got their laundry done. We heard lots of laundry stories.  John M. , a particularly independent bachelor, puts his clothes in a 5 gal bucket with soap and bleach and soaks it overnight.  Then he uses a “plumber’s friend” to agitate it vigorously, rinses it, and throws over the line.  No wringing out for him.  “It will drip dry,” says he.

  Olga, our landlady, had 10 children.  When they were little she did all her laundry on a scrub board.  Can you imagine how much of her day would be spent doing laundry?  At the time, she didn’t think much about it – everybody did it. Now that her family is grown she has a real washer and dryer, but she only uses the dryer in the rainy season.  She is now very affluent, and doesn’t do laundry for anyone else.

  Robin, our stonemason and general building wizard is Olga’s nephew.  He says his mother has a washer with a wringer  but she doesn’t use the wringer.  She also has a scrub tub which she swears works better than anything else.  Robin is always neat and clean.  I have never seen a stain on his shirts.  She must be doing something right.

  Every home has clotheslines. Since most of the women are short (usually shorter than me!!) they have devised a method to make it easy to hang clothes.  The lines all have a droop in them and after you are done pegging the clothes you prop up the line with a stick they call “the crutch.”  It’s a ten-foot pole with a fork at the end.  Works great.   They also have figured out places for hanging clothes during the rainy weather.  Under the carport, or under the house, if it’s up on stilts.  Of course, the humidity goes up when it’s raining, so they hang out for a long time. A dryer would cost a lot (for a Belizean family which may be getting along on 125 dollah a week) and the sun will come out eventually, so not to worry.

  We’ve been told that a lot of the local people still do laundry on a scrub board. Eeek!.  The next step up is a “Hoover”. (Yes, like the vacuum cleaner.)  You have to see it to believe it.  It’s a small unit that has a small flat agitator either in the bottom or on the side.  Bottom is better.  The agitator on the side chews on your clothes. Mary, our next door neighbor has a Hoover and she handed it over the fence for me to use.  (She’s big, but the Hoover, made mostly of plastic, doesn’t weigh very much.) For a washerwoman with an automated machine, I sure had to work hard.  First, I fill it with a hose. Then I put in soap, and set the timer for 10 or 15 minutes.  Then I put the drain hose out on the ground and drain out the soapy water.  Wring out the excess water by hand, refill the Hoover with rinse water, agitate for 10 minutes, drain it, wring out the rinse water by hand, refill the Hoover for the second rinse, agitate for 10 minutes, drain it again, wring everything out again.  The Hoover machine is about 28 inches high so you are bending over this thing to wring the clothes.  Oh my aching back!  I got Rick to help me to the final wring on the towels and other heavy stuff.  Then we hang everything on the line, push up the line with the crutch, and pray for sunshine, which in spring is plentiful.

  While the Hoover is agitating, I chat with Mary about the machine. It was broken, so she got it for free.  She got a new part for 10 dollah and fixed it.  To save on soap and water, she washes several loads in the same water.  Then she drains the machine and rinses everything.  She thinks an American style washer uses too much water and “current.” 

  After two wash days, and about 20 loads, I was more than ready to pay any price for an American washer, so we started looking.  The Hoover of course is the most popular. One model did have a water extractor but we are not sure how well it works.  We saw an old style wringer washer which to my way of thinking is a big step up.  An American machine costs well over 1000 dollah.  After asking many people we found a local that brings used washers from the states and fixes them up.  After two weeks I finally got a ten-year-old Lady Kenmore. It leaked!!  Rick fixed the leaks, but it still has a “hitch in its giddy-up”  -- it misses a step every now and then while it’s agitating.  Rick says it probably needs a new transmission, and I noticed that it still leaks a little but I don’t want to spoil his illusions. 

  After we bought the washer, and fixed it good enough that we can do our own laundry, we found a family to clean for us and they also do laundry.  She has a Hoover.  I’m not sure what her secret is but she can get white clothes cleaner than I can in the machine, so I let her do the whites.

  I hope when you visit this part of the world that you will appreciate the hard work that goes into clean clothes.  I for one never gave it much thought.  You just put it the washer then the dryer and you were done.  I even grumped about the time that took.   Now I realize what an adventure it can be.

Happy laundry!!

Charlotte

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