Pioneer Woman I am Not!

Alright, so I've lived down here in the jungle for a little over 4 months now and I have learned to adapt to live without some of the conveniences of home in exchange for some darn beautiful beaches and spectacular waterfalls. I do, however, believe I was getting a bit cocky in my abilities to quickly whip up meals with the few available ingredients at the market while still having time to tutor at the prep school, go to yoga, go on as well as setup trips around the island, and make it to weekly Bible studies and meetings. With my ego and my ambitions high I decided it would be a great idea to do our own laundry. It would be a good way to save money too. Plus, our new place has a tub (great for washing clothes) and a big balcony (great to get an ocean breeze to dry things) which would make this a simple task. So I thought...
I couldn't have been more wrong! I slaved an entire day bent over the tub trying to manually produce the same motions a machine would produce...swishing and swashing around and around. I must have done 30 pairs of underwear, 8 shirts, 10 pairs of socks, a few bras, and some small hand towels. After I did the "washing machine waltz" it came time to wring out as much water as I could from each article of clothing. I had blisters on my hands by the time I was done! Then I had to lay all the pieces out so they could dry as quickly as possible. I had Kyle's britches hung on clothes pins on the balcony (he appreciated that) and the rest of the stuff was placed neatly on top of 2 large towels on the floor in our bedroom so the air conditioner would dry them. When you live in high humidity, like 93%, it's still going to take DAYS to dry. Three days later, the items seemed to be dry...finally! One small problem...they smelled like pond water and were crispier than a piece of bacon put into a microwave for 15 minutes! Is it normal for a sock to stay horizontal when you pick it up? I didn't think so.
Bottom line, we called a laundry lady! She picks up at 8 am and drops of at 8pm. She charges 12 EC per load, which is a large grocery bag stuffed to the brim and beyond, and they come back smelling like fields of fresh daisies. I think she is my new best friend! My hand washing days are over!