An Undomesticated Woman

I should start by saying that I would make a terrible Tanzanian housewife!  I am not a domestic woman and loathe housework.  Even with all the American machines and luxuries like a washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, etc. I do not enjoy chores around the home nor am I good at them.  So try to picture my life in a rural African village. The first most basic necessity for household chores is water and even this is a struggle for me.  Water is a huge problem in our village and I must make a very short trip to a nearby stream to load my buckets of water needed for bathing, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, dishes, etc.  Unfortunately, even this everyday practice is a challenge for me.  Upper body strength has never been one of my admirable qualities and the women in Africa are ridiculously strong. I struggle carrying one bucket filled with water from the stream to my house.  It continuously baffles me how women manage to carry three buckets filled with water (one in each hand and another on the head) half way across the village.  Even young girls, and I am referring to seven or eight year olds seem to have more upper body strength than me.  But I am sure with time my bucket workout will pay off and I will develop arms of steel.

This is my house!  Well the right half is my house.  Eventually another teacher will live on the other half.

I live in a village where agriculture is the main source of income.

A picture from behind my house.  You can see the main road that goes from Mbeya to Dar

I am living at a boarding school and Sundays are apparently chore days for everyone.  Today I was feeling extra motivated by the pile of dirty clothes waiting for me and decided to begin my weekly task of clothes washing.  I have learned in my past three months of living in Africa, that washing clothes by hand is no joke.  It is time consuming and requires a surprising amount of arm strength.  In theory, washing clothes is easy.  All you need is soap, water, and a line to hang clothes on. Yet for some unknown reason, this simple task is a struggle for me.  I scrub and scrub my clothes, but they still seem dirty.  I squeeze out the soapy water and transfer to a bucket of clean water; I scrub, squeeze, then transfer to another bucket of clean water and repeat the same process.  I have not quite figured out why my clothes always seem dirtier after I wash them, or why there is that soapy residue after they dry.  The best part of the day was that after I spent hours cleaning my clothes in the freezing cold water, the wind blew them off of the clothes line and into a pile of dirt.   As you probably know, dirt sticks really well to wet clothing.  Needless to say the clothes washing process had to be started all over again. Believe me when I say teenage boys are better at washing clothes than I am.  Yes, TEENAGE BOYS!  I do not know how they get their clothes so clean. It’s a little embarrassing actually.  Washing clothes in Tanzania is considered a woman’s job (along with cleaning, cooking, carrying water, raising children, etc.) so my daily struggles with everyday tasks offers my students a constant source of amusement.  Rather than consider myself inept, I am trying to use my struggles as a lesson to my students on the absurdity gender roles.  Clearly gender roles are socially constructed and although I can bear children due to my biological parts, they certainly do not help me with domestic tasks!  And if anyone figures out how I can use my uterus to facilitate the clothes washing process, please let me know.  I have been trying to assimilate into this culture as much as possible, but do not be surprised if you read a future post about the amazing Tanzanian woman I hired to do my laundry.