Its Wash Day

 

This is our washing machine.  It is tucked away in an outside closet. At first glance it looks like a normal Samsung front-load washer Then...

I realize it is all in Dutch.  The only thing I can understand is the "Wol" cycle because it has an icon for sheep 🐑 beside it. The only other English words on the washer are above the panel. It reads:  *(Hold 3 sec).  Hold what for 3 seconds?

The previous house owners were kind enough to leave us the operations manual for the washer.  It, too, is in Dutch and was no help at all.

I used my translator App on my phone and typed in all the Dutch words.  Much to my amazement, once you know what the words are in English you can kind-of figure them out. Beddengoeden is bedding, Dagelijke Was is everyday wash, Centrefugeren is the spin cycle, and Synthetisch is the cycle to use for synthetic materials.

And then there are the symbols on the right side.  I can understand the "how much water symbol",  "spin cycle", and "temperature".  However there is a forefinger symbol with a + sign that makes no sense to me at all. Next to it looks like a lightbulb that is floating in a bucket.  Still don't know what that means. There is an iron icon that I guess must mean permanent press. 

This takes me back to my childhood. My mother always liked to hang cloths outside because she thought they smelled better.  Well, here I am again hanging up wash.  

There are not very many dryers on Bonaire.  They take too much electricity to use and they create heat which none of us need.   

Drying cloths on the line take less than 20 minutes. The washing machine takes 1 hour and 43 minutes to do a load of wash. And it is counted down on the panel on the washer. It's a good thing I have a lot of time.