Water and Life- 3

{children playing in the water}

So to finish up the water theme i want to tell you about bathing and washing dishes and laundry in the river...

i am speaking from the female perspective here. to bathe you first gather your laplap (an all-pupose peice of material), clean clothes, dirty laudry, soap (if you are lucky enough to have some-most PNGers don't), dirty dishes and pots, your children and usually a few friends and head down to the water. women and children usually bathe in the "clos tu wara". the hard part about bathing as a woman is that you must remain covered (at least from the waist down) at all times. you stratigically remove your clothing and wrap yourself in the laplap, then you wash all around and under the laplap and try not to lose the soap in the current (which we did on several occasions)- all the while you are chatting with friends and the children are playing in the river. our "waswas" place was right beside a main thouroughfare so you may chat with passersby too. it's very much a social activity.

{our waswas place}

dish washing is, of course, also a social affair. the women take great pride in the cleanliness of their pots. your pots must shine. i mean on the outside, like mirrors. when cooking is done over an open campfire this is not an easy feat. sand is used as an abrasive and a certain leaf that works better than steel wool or anything else is used instead of soap.

laundry is done with a type of bar soap (when available). it is soaped up in a basin and then scrubbed by hand with a brush. it is always double rinsed and wrung out then carried home and hanged to dry.

{our clothesline}

interesting info on the Spirit of the water from matt next...