Lessons Learned:-)

There are days in Cambodia when the lessons my mother tried to teach me my whole life finally sink in.  Today was one of those days. 

Lesson #74: Never leave all your laundry until the last minute.

            Well, today I left all my laundry until the last minute.   As in, if I did not do laundry today, I would have no clean underwear.  Putting off laundry in America is definitely different that putting off laundry in Cambodia.  In college, I would just stay up late and throw all my stuff in one load, most likely forget about it, and then pick it up in the morning/afternoon when I finally remembered that my clothes are in the dryer. 

            Today sung a very different tune.  I was advised that doing laundry in the morning is most effective since you have to hang out all of your clothes to dry in the sun.  I’ll have you all know that it WAS sunny this morning.  So I got up at about 5:45, took all my dirty clothes and washed them to the best of my abilities in a tub full of water and powder detergent.  I later realized that I actually suck at doing my laundry because I wasn’t even able to rub out the deodorant marks on my black shirt.  This presents a problem. 

            However, I was still optimistic that at least my clothes wouldn’t smell like sweat anymore.  So I skipped off to language class at 7:30, anxiously waiting for lunch break, when I would have fresh, clean clothes. 

And then it rained.  And rained again. 

Needless to say, my clothes were not dry at lunch.  So I left them on the line for lunch and my nap, hoping to pick them up before I headed off to technical training.  About an hour later, I woke up from my nap to this incredible wind outside my window.  In my groggy state (haha yes, I am always groggy) I thought, “wow, it’s usually only this windy when it rains.”  Sure enough, it was raining.  HARD. 

I went outside after the rain subsided to find all my underwear scattered about the yard, in various muddy puddles.  Awesome. 

So mother, I finally took your valuable lesson to heart.  I will no longer leave all my laundry until the last minute in Cambodia.  Here’s to hoping I have clean underwear tomorrow!