Earlier this year, I had the amazing privilege of traveling to the Middle East!! My time there was really wonderful. I taught. I learned. I experienced. I encouraged and I was encouraged. And I ate!! The scale was not my friend when I got home. The greatest difficulty was being on opposite schedules than the States. My day was just ending when life on the East Coast was just beginning. As my friends and family were crawling into bed for the night, I was finishing up my second or third cup of coffee and was off to the races.

However, not once did I feel afraid. Not once was I concerned about my safety. As I settled into a routine, life was becoming normal, almost. Now don’t get me wrong, this wasn't Kansas if you know what I mean.

For example, the last full day I was in country, I washed a load of clothes and it made me so appreciate my "automatic" washing machine at home! Here is what it took for me to wash a load of clothes.

Wait for the municipal electricity to come back on. (We were blessed in our neighborhood to be on a 3 hours on/3 hours off rolling blackout. Many parts of the city only have electricity for an hour or so a day. Most communities had a shared generator that residents subscribe to use. Forget about swim and tennis communities, how many amps does your generator produce?)
Remove cover and place hose in drain (see photo.)
Turn hot and cold water on to the desired temperature and begin filling tub.
Turn Cycle dial from Drain to Wash/Rinse. (Forgot to do this and stood there wondering why the tub was not filling.)
Turn Wash/Rinse dial to 15 minutes.
Turn power on at both switch and outlet. (Also, forgot this and stood there wondering why the tub was not agitating.)
Go and fix breakfast but be sure to turn the water off so that the tub does not overflow. (Did do this but remember there is a drain hole in the room so even if I didn’t "no problem!")
After 15 minutes, turn Cycle dial from Wash/Rinse to Drain to drain tub.
When finished draining, turn Cycle dial back to Wash/Rinse.
Turn hot and cold water on to the desired temperature and begin filling tub for the rinse cycle.
Turn Wash/Rinse dial to 15 minutes.
When completed, turn Cycle dial back to Drain to empty the tub.
Wring out each item and place in second tub for the “Turbo Air Dry” cycle.
Turn the Spin Dial to 5 minutes.
While the clothes are spinning, clean out the lint filter in the agitation tub and wipe down the inside.
Remove hose and return cover to keep the rats out. (Ok, that gave me chills just thinking about it!!)
Remove clothes and move them on to the drying center (see photo.)
Go find the yellow pages and look up Laundry Services!