Washing Day

29.12.06

I have just finished washing bucket loads of clothes- literally! Washing for a family of four in one bucket is not really much fun, and so we are planning to purchase a small washing machine, or else find a person to help us out. I went up on the roof to hang out the clothes and discovered that a young family lives there in one small room in a corner of the terrace: The driver whose boss owns these premises, his young wife Hema and two girls, one aged 2 and the other baby only 50 days old. After giving birth in India, a new mother spends the first 40 days with the new baby at her parents house, where she gets well looked after by her family so she can recover from the birth and regain her strength. So I gather that this young wife has just returned from her family home as she was not here when we first arrived. She is very sweet and shy, and does not speak English. I held her baby for a while and she fell asleep. Hema managed to explain to me that her daughter found a 20 rupee note in Caspar’s shirt pockets on the line, and just wanted to let me know that is was still there. I wanted to give it to her, saying “finders keepers”, which of course she did not understand, and she very reluctantly finally agreed to take it. I also gave her some sweets, and nice soap and a toy for her 3 year old – She had so kindly taken her washing off the line, so I could hang what I suddenly felt must have seemed to her a ridiculously large amount of brand new clothes. But I guess 2 weeks worth of clothing for a family of 4 is quite a lot of stuff – at least where we come from…