I Love Clean Sheet Day

The feeling of crawling into bed after you put on clean sheets is almost unbeatable I'd argue. The tightness over the mattress, the coolness of the sheets, aaahhhhhhh. I have always enjoyed this (as I believe many people do), clean sheet day here in Tanzania has taken on a new meaning. After waking up early on a Saturday morning and spending two hours doing laundry, having clean clothes and clean sheets is quite an accomplishment. While I still walk away with battle wounds (raw knuckles and dry hands), knowing that I washed all of my clothes in buckets by hand leaves me with a feeling of pride. I washed my sheets yesterday morning and let them hang out in thet hot sun to dry. I went to check on them later and saw that only one of my two sets made it through the entire process unscathed, a bird pooped on one of my sheets so those had to be rewashed. Washing sheets and clothes used to be as simple as pouring some soap into a machine and turning some knobs. I now walk away sunburned and sore.

Things in my life here may not be as easy, fast or simple as they once were, but once they are finished I feel as if I have completed a great task. Sometimes when it is my turn to cook dinner I think about how nice it would be to open a box of rice and pour it into the water and wait a few minutes and then its done! Or rinsing vegetables under the tap water and then being able to eat them. Here, a simple meal of rice and veggies can take over an hour to prepare. Sorting the rice to take out the rocks, straw, dirt and bugs is a tedious job, having to heat the vegetables is also somewhat tedious, however the alternative of typhoid forces us to continue to do this. Beans have to be cleaned and soaked, no opening a ajr of beans and heating them up on the stove for us, it takes about two hours to cook beans. When we run out of water in our makeshift "running water tank" bucket showers suffice.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a complaining post. I started to think about these things when I realized how much work goes into everything here. The quick way that I was used to donig things at home does not exist here. These are actually the moments when I have the most fun, friends coming to help cook, practicing swahili over sorting rice, having dinner by candlelight when the power goes out. COming back to my original point, coming from a place where I can use a beater to mix ingredients in a cake, pop oatmeal in a microwave and have it be ready in 30 seconds, or high speed internet - having to spend 2-3 hours cooking a simple meal makes me feel like I have accomplished something great but it also makes me very appreciative of the hard work of the Tanzanians here. Everything takes a long time to do. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, washing, everything. To do all of these things on top of raising a family, finding a job or going to work, living with the realities of life here (which I am slowly seeing more and more of and as I see it life here is not fair), is more difficult than I can imagine.

We went to a friends house for dinner two nights ago. They don't have electricity so as it got dark the room became pitch black. They brought out an oil lamp and we ate dinner by that light. Our friend spent literally all day preparing this meal for us, as it takes a long time to cook over hot coals. This is not an exaggeration, he cooked pilau (spiced rice), meat and vegetables and I have no doubt that when he said he cooked all day, he literally cooked all day. Having someone do this for us shows me how much our friendship means to them. It is a sacrifice to spend all of these hours doing something like preparing a meal for other people. It is a sign of love and the "karibu" hospitality found here. People will go out of their way to make sure you are feeling welcome, and if its a good friend you can bet that they will pour themselves into doing something for you.

As I go to sleep on my new clean sheets, I feel accomplished on my own small tasks of washing my sheets and cooking a meal, how also extremely humbled by these experiences. I get a glimpse into what the hard work must be like for people here, but it is only a glimpse. Our friend who cooked us dinner knows about the sacrifices that have to be made, the time that has to be spent on every day chores. The Mamas who carry their children on their back as they sell chapate and mandazi in the morning know the hard work of every day life, the children washing their clothes in the dirty river know the unfairness and the harshness of life. My small experiences elevate the respect I have for the hard workers here to a new level. I thought I knew what hard work was, but after having seen how some of our friends live here my previous thoughts about hard work have been reshaped. I only get to experience the small accomplishments I mentioned before, however, I don't think I can go to sleep on clean sheets again without being grateful for the blessings God has placed in my life and the priviledge of being and knowing life here in Africa.

Thank you for clean sheet day.