Laundry

It's amazing sometimes how the simplest tasks can be so stress inducing when trying to do them in a different country.  Take laundry, for example.  

When I did laundry in the states it would maybe take me a few hours to finish it.  Eventually, you come to the point where you can successfully follow those steps without expending much, if any, brain power whatsoever.

We're not at that point here yet.  Also remember that I wasn't the only one working on this.  Here's how it went down:

1.  Realize we have a washing machine in our temporary apartment.  Much rejoicing.

2.  Determine which soap tablets go to the dishwasher and which ones go to the washing machine. 

3.  Come to the conclusion that the four tablets may not be enough for all our clothes.  Walk to the supermarket and try to find the laundry detergent aisle.  Finally find the detergent, but none of the brands are recognizable.  Using our sketchy Spanish, try to determine which detergent is most appropriate by reading the bottles and boxes.  After a thorough review, decide that the four tablets you have will work for now.  Leave store with a headache and walk back to apartment.

4.  A few days later, it becomes clear that laundry HAS to get done.

5.  Sort laundry.

6.  Crouch down beside washer (with a flashlight because the lighting isn't great in this part of the apartment).  Have a discussion about what the symbols on the buttons and knobs might mean, and make an educated guess on where the soap tablet goes.  Get on the Internet and do a Google search for a user manual - find nothing.  Continue discussion.

7.  Determine which clothes can be sacrificed to the first load, guess on the settings and press start.

8.  Watch and pray.

9.  So far everything looks ok...

10.  Walk away for a bit.  Breathe.

11.  Come back a few minutes later.  Everything still looks ok...

(repeat steps 8-11 until...)

12.  Cycle completes successfully!!  YES!!!  We just did a load of laundry in Spain!!!!!

13.  Remove clothes from washer.  Discuss whether the machine also doubles as a dryer based on a few buttons you see.

14.  Abandon that idea for the moment.  Peruse the apartment for places to hang clothes to dry (railings to the loft, chairs, vases, use your imagination).

15.  Let clothes dry overnight or until done, then gather them up from all over the apartment.

16.  Fold clothes and pack back into suitcases.

There you go.  I'm just really thankful that we all have a sense of humor.  Not all the time, because that would be unrealistic.  Things that are simple and automatic at home are unmapped mountains for us here, and it can be discouraging. But often enough so far, we can laugh and celebrate the small victories.  Ryan told us this morning to try and celebrate the failures as well, because at least we learned that route didn't work and it brings us closer to success next time.

Definitely learning about how much faith I don't have and how much we need the Lord to show up on a moment by moment basis.

Extremely thankful to have clean clothes again though!  Also for this team :).