Wash Day

You just KNOW what this story is going to be all about. You look at the title and the pictures and you know what is next - it's APPRECIATION! While at the Home of Hope Orphanage in Mchinji District, Malawi, Africa, I had a first hand look at just how hard it is to live in rural, sub-Saharan Africa.

Let's take for example washing clothes. First, you have to go to the water tap and if it is running that day, fill a bucket with water....and these are LARGE buckets ladies! You fill the container, hoist it to your head, and you walk, gracefully I might add, back to your house which may not be that close to the tap. You put some of the water in a couple other buckets, add soap powder, slosh it around, and begin work on a shirt. The shirt has been well worn by a little boy who plays hard in the dirt so you have to scrub it. What do you use? You use a board. Not a wash board like we see in antique stores with those grooved lines, but a plank carved from a stump. The work is back breaking and even more so if you are carrying one of the babies in your care on your back in a sling. Once clean, the clothes are rinsed and hung on a line to dry. Clothes lines are strung behind houses and across porches and in hallways and about anywhere where the clothes may dry, especially in the rainy season when your "almost dry" clothes can get soaked several times a day. Sometimes they are wet for a week.

The Mothers at the Home of Hope Orphanage are primarily widows from the surrounding villages who have no way to support themselves or their children. They are hired as "Mothers" for room, board and a small stipend. The Mothers care not only for their own children, but for five or six more infant and toddler orphans. In this arrangement, the Mothers can support themselves and their children and the very young orphans can be raised in a more traditional family setting.

Where do these women find the time and the energy to raise so many children? APPRECIATION. The Mothers at the orphanage appreciate their jobs, appreciate knowing they and their children will eat each day. The Mothers care for their own children and their orphaned children day in and day out and as all mothers know, laundry is only a very small part of raising a family! The Mothers were kind to me and patient with me during my visit and I saw the care they give to their children and to the orphans in their charge.

I did my wash today and for the first time in a long time, didn't complain about having to walk down a hall and (gasp) having to insert quarters into a washer and dryer to get my clothes clean! The Mothers have taught me APPRECIATION. If you would like to support the Mothers and their efforts, please donate to Raising Malawi at http://www.raisingmalawi.org/ and designate the Home of Hope Orphanage as the recipient.