Washing Day

There’s no doubt about it clothes washing is certainly different for us in Stung Treng, the method we us here is the normal way for Cambodians and Volunteers we know.

We don’t have access to a washing machine or mains hot water. We have a large circular aluminium bowl that we take outside with our dirty clothes to the washing area for the house we stay at. This has water pipes that contain cold water that comes from where, we do not know, it could be the rain that is collected off the house roof and which is stored in big concrete tanks at the back of the house.

Angela just starting the wash( note Dog in picture it chews everything!!)

Anyway the water is not heated and is luke warm from the ambient temperature.

Bowl on the ground under the tap, you squat down and put in the powder and fill with water. You then squeeze, pull, pound, rub with a brush, let soak, the clothes and hope they are coming clean. Then pour all that water onto the concrete (including your hopefully bare feet) and the water runs into a drain of sorts. Fill the bowl up to rinse then pour out and fill again with fabric conditioner.



Chris doing his bit sitting on very small stool



Let soak for 5 mins then pour out again and hand ring the clothes.

The washing is best done early morning when it is cooler, there are fewer flies about and the large ants don’t run as fast.

Chris scrubbing clothes with a brush on a board.

We then take the wet washing and put it on a wheeled frame to dry in the sun.

Good drying days are guaranteed you just need to watch for the Monsoon rains later in the afternoon.

Then next day your clothes are ready to wear again we don’t iron as it’s not really possible with no board and a tiny travel iron and it doesn’t seem necessary-have our standards dropped or does the Cambodian sun contain anti creasing rays?.The last excuse is that we are poor VSO Volunteers with more important things on our minds!!

Bend that stiff back Chris!!

The landlady has a local women who comes a couple of times a week to wash their clothes in much the same way we do but they would think far more efficiently. The funny thing is they have an electric washing machine outside which looks quite new but we have never seen it used.

For me, Chris, it is a fairly painful experience washing clothes. You have to get so close to the ground and the stool you sit on has legs 6inches./152mm/15cm long. The only way I can stand from this lowly position is to grasp the full bowl and jerk myself up. If the bowl is empty i.e. not heavy, I have to crawl onto my knees to stand- it’s all because I am not supple. Also I need to be wearing my shorts as I get wet with the water slopping about. Also the ants are waiting for me to assume this position and they race onto my legs to enjoy the experience of being lifted up high hanging on with their teeth.

Angela washing, Chris up a Mango tree taking picture

VSO Volunteer tips for clothes washing: do some every day so they don’t pile up, don’t ring out clothes too much the soaking ones dry in the sun it is so hot.