It's Sepia Saturday and I'm way off theme. I actually do have a snapshot of children with flowers that I could post, though they look a bit like characters from "Children of the Damned." Instead I'm going to continue with Donald G. Schnabel's trip to Bahrain. So if you're just catching this part of the Bahrain posts, you might want to click back to some previous entries to see more of Bahrain in 1957.
It's Saturday which means it's laundry day at my home. I'm happy to say I don't beat my clothes on rocks before hanging them to dry. However, because of the drought, it's not simply a matter of throwing everything in the washer and then hanging them out to dry; there is a step in-between. The water from the washer has to be removed from the tub to large buckets to use to water the plants around the house. So if there are two full washes that's eight large buckets of water that must be siphoned off and toted to the front and backyard. On a very hot day I'm usually worn out by the third bucket. Hopefully today will be a bit cooler. I joke that I'm living in Little House on the Prairie. But until the drought lessens I have to worry about my well, and every drop of water, where possible, needs to be reused. It gets tiresome, but at least I'm not beating my sheets on a rock.
These two photos are labeled "Native laundry Bahrain Feb 57." I actually have posted laundry photos in the past that can be found by clicking on "laundry" and "voyeur laundry" in the labels below. None of the previous posts were as exotic as these taken by Donald G. Schnabel, Betty Schnabel's father.
Click on images to see them larger.
Still more photos of Donald's trip to the Middle East to come. And did I hear someone yell, "What about the camels?" Be patient my friend, be patient.
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Amazing photos!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. Just read a book on the History of Housework (really); said that if you were born in early 1800s, you walked 7,000 miles in your lifetime just carrying water! Holy Smokes!
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine that. We are spoiled, no doubt about it. I dread the day my well runs dry.
DeleteJudging from these photos, especially the second, it would seem that doing laundry in Bahrain was man's work. That's something different!
ReplyDeleteI was struck by the same thing.
ReplyDeleteWashing clothes ain't what it used to be - at least here. And thank God! But in my post last week, a woman was complaining her 2012 dryer still didn't have a "fold" button. We're never satisfied!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like she wants to live in the world of the Jetsons. People are crazy.
DeleteJust a reminder, most people in dry, desert countries, get at least some of their drinking water from rain cisterns. Californians can reduce their use of well water with a barrel attached to the roof down spout. Something we can learn from a "backward" country like Bahrain.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. And a young boy locally has won a science fair with an invention of a fence that will collect and store rain water. The family has already taken out a patent and people are showing real interest in the product.
DeleteThese photos remind me of when Mum and I visited rural Egypt in 2008. We saw a town of ladies at the banks of a dirty canal all washing their clothes! The water didn't look like it would clean anything!
ReplyDeleteI have another one I haven't posted because it's quite blurred, but it shows some women washing clothes alongside a road in a small culvert. It baffles me how they got anything clean.
DeleteThis is a good reminder to us all to be grateful because no matter how bad things are, somebody else has it worse.
ReplyDeleteYes, it still might become the world of Mad Max where water is the most precious item in the world.
DeleteI guess we take rain water for granted in the UK - except it never rains when you have fertilised the lawn.
ReplyDeleteWashing in Bahrain really was hard work back then. Has it got easier in the last 50 years?
Look up modern Bahrain and you'll be stunned by the change from 1957.
DeleteFine photographs. And kudos to you for going an extra step for the conservation effort. Can Water Wars be far off? The idiot senator in my state still thinks its a hoax.
ReplyDeleteThe stupidity in Congress seems to reflect a part of the electorate that turns out at the polls. When one representative exclaims they would prefer only smart people vote, while at the same time making a point that those he thinks aren't smart are of a different race, I don't think serious problems will ever be solved. And that has me hitting my head against a wall.
DeleteI wonder if any of the local children stole the sheets to make tents with!
ReplyDeleteI would image kids are kids everywhere, but I'm also sure corporal punishment was readily doled out in that area thus making tent making a bit of a walk on the highwire.
DeleteLaundry is actually a pretty interesting subject. I have part of a series of old postcards, each card showing laundry being done in different countries throughout the world.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very cool set. I'm envious of your collection.
DeleteGlad I have an automatic washer and dryer.
ReplyDelete