Hand washing vs. machine

I’m beginning to think hand washing our clothes would be a lot simpler. I thought buying a washing machine in Dar before arriving in Musoma was a good thing. We didn’t get a big one. I figured we would do lots of smaller loads. When talking with other moms it was pointed out to me that you don’t know what the water pressure will be like and if it isn’t good it will take a long time for the washer to fill.

There is this very small filter in the washer where the water hose connects to the machine. I have no idea if all machines have this. Having come from America where the water is clean, I wasn’t aware of this filter.

Our water comes from Lake Victoria and I have no idea if there is any filtering system it goes through before reaching our house. We have two filters the water goes through before entering the house so we thought that would be enough for the washer. Well it appears it is not. The tiny filter I mentioned earlier gets dirty very quickly and when it is dirty there is not much water that enters the washer. When this happens I bring in a bucket of water that has been filtered through our sand filter (I explain this more later) and dump it into the washer. If I don’t do this the wash cycle could take up to 3 hours to do or it will stop all together as the water coming into the washer stops because the filter is so dirty.

So until we come up with a solution which might be putting a filter on the water line coming into the washer I must clean this tiny filter before every wash and at times dump in water to fill the washer faster.

The sand filter I mentioned is what we run all the water through that we plan on using to drink or cook with. After the water goes through the sand filter we put the water through another filter to kill any remaining bacteria.

I’m not complaining, I just wanted to share a piece of my life right now. But yes I have started to think hand washing our clothes would be easier. I have done some hand washing and it really isn’t bad. I just have a hard time ringing the water out of the heavier items.