One of the great things about traveling to developing countries, is that it always is a good reminder to me, of the many advantages and blessings of our everyday life which we tend to take for granted. Nice homes and clothes are just the beginning. Toilets that flush with reliability, garbage collection services, clean water from our taps, and hot water are just a few basics that we don't generally give a second thought to.
Feeling grumpy about laundry and other household chores??? This picture is taken from our lovely apartment over looking the water at the house next door. Also a fairly nice place overlooking the water, this is a young mother doing her laundry. She is scrubbing her clothes, with bar soap, on a washboard which is fitted into a concrete work surface. She is rinsing them in a tub of water and hanging on the lawn to dry. If she is lucky, the sun will dry her clothes soon, but at this very moment, it is showering on the laundry she put out to dry earlier today.
Even the non-developing countries lack what I would consider basic parts of living. You're right, every trip makes me go home to the USA with a new sense of I-like-solid-toilet-seats, I-like-drying-some-of-my-clothes-by-machine, and I-like-having-insulation-in-the-walls.
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