Using a Washing Machine

Sometime last year, my kid brother Symo, who lives in the British island of Bermuda, had the property he owned before he emigrated to Bermuda brought to our home here in Kiserian. Among the things that were brought were a refrigerator, a microwave, a gas cooker, an electric kettle and a washing machine.

Those appliances have been of immense help to my parents and I. They have raised our standards of living. For today, let me talk about the washing machine.

When the washing machine was brought home, I was eager to learn how it is operated. At first, I thought using the machine was as easy as running a microwave. I just needed to plug it to electricity and it would do the washing.

But alas! My sister-in-law Alice surprised me when she informed us on one Sunday evening that in addition to plugging it to electricity, the washing machine needed to be connected to water pipes by a trained plumber.

A few weeks later, my older brothers hired a plumber to connect the washing machine to water pipes. The plumber did a fine job. About the only thing he didn't do was fix an electrical socket for the washing machine. We had to use his own extension wire to test if the machine was working as it should.

That night the plumber tested the washing machine while teaching me how it is operated, I felt joyful at the prospect of learning something new. I asked him a battery of questions with a niggling fear that I could irritate him with my never-ending inquiries.

Well, the washing machine gave us a bit of trouble. First, water was not flowing into it. And when water finally began flowing, the sweater we had put into the chamber of the machine was not spinning as it should. That got me praying, of course silently.

My prayers helped because a moment later, the sweater started spinning. As the washing machine spun the sweater, I couldn't help thinking, like an African villager would, that the white man must be a witch for him to have invented such a sophisticated machine.

Since the plumber was in a hurry to go, he didn't teach much. And he himself didn't seem well acquainted with how the washing machine works. Besides telling me which buttons to press, the little he taught me about the machine was that detergents are sprinkled inside the chamber where clothes are put.

Late last month, Dad hired some electricians to fix an electrical socket for the washing machine. After the socket was in place, I picked my sweater and bedsheets for washing with the machine. Worrying that the machine would give me trouble as it had that night the plumber tried to teach me how it operates, I prayed for supernatural guidance on how to use it.

I put my sweater and bedsheets into the washing machine. And wow! Water easily flowed into the machine when I turned on both the socket and the water tap. Sooner than later, the sweater and the bedsheets began spinning. The only action the machine didn't do was get rid of the dirty water in its chamber. I had to use a plastic container and a towel to remove the water.

The following day, I washed Mum's clothes using the machine. And the task seemed even simpler to carry out than I had anticipated. Actually, operating the washing machine is not rocket science.

It turns out there are special detergents made for use in washing machines. And in the case of our washing machine, there is a slot in it for putting the special detergents. The plumber had misled me by informing me that detergents are sprinkled into the chamber in the machine where clothes are put.

What's more, the washing machine has a method of draining water from its chamber. So there was no need for me to use a plastic cup and a towel to remove water from the chamber.

Learning to use the washing machine has civilized me, much in the same way learning how to play the piano refined me when I was growing up in the '90s. Or in the same way learning to create computer programs brightened me during my late teenage years.

The washing machine has also eased my life. No longer will I be struggling to wash my sweaters and bedsheets with my bare hands. I will just be inserting them into the machine, rotate its knob, press a few buttons and bingo! The sweaters and bedsheets will be cleaned better that I could with my bare hands. How civilized!

**********************
RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on me using a washing machine, you might also enjoy another one on "How I Learnt to Play the Piano" which I wrote several years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.