Laundry heaven

We have recently bought a LG Fully Automatic Washing Machine and it’s a beauty! I am totally in love with it! Doing laundry has become a great joy in my life, gathering, sorting and loading the clothing, choosing a washing program and then a gentle, almost caressing push on that wonderful, precious start button! It scrubs, rinses and perfumes our laundry with the greatest ease and I cannot remember being so utterly and profoundly grateful each time I empty the drum to hang out the tumbled dried laundry.

Maybe you’re thinking I’ve gone a little bonkers by now but after endless hand washes at which I am absolutely useless, irremovable dirt marks and waiting days on end for it all to dry I have died and gone to laundry heaven!

Here in the Valley of Ourika a washing machine is for many locals an unimaginable luxury. Most houses in the douars don’t have running water and the villagers often depend on communal water taps or well’s. In general the laundry is done in the river but during the rains in the winter the water runs too fiercely.

In spring and summer small groups of women and children often spend their mornings scrubbing the laundry in the river below our house. Even though I realise that it is hard work, the Berber woman make it seem like a cheerful and social event. Sometimes their singing and conversations faintly reaches my ears and when they spread their laundry out to dry on the large rocks at the river-bed it is a colourful contrast to the green colours of the valley.

Below a borrowed image of women doing laundry.