All About Dirt

I remember when I had been working for my org for only a few weeks and I went with two of my colleagues to help clean the wheelchair assembly factory that had just been remodeled. We arrived at the factory and I expected to be given an assortment of chemicals, mops, brooms, etc. Between the three of us we had one bucket of water, two old torn up t-shirts, and a stick. I believe the stick may have been a broom or mop handle at one point in time. My first impression was, "Hell, I think Dawn uses more chemicals and equiment to clean her fingernails...” But afterwards - at the end of the day - the place looked clean, and it was no more difficult a task than if we had been using industry level tools and chemicals.

In our apartment in Aktobe the story is similar. We have only some basic chemicals and basic supplies. Yet the apartment stays clean. I think back to our house in the States.. we had an entire kitchen cabinet stocked with cleaning supplies. I remember sprinkling chemical powder on the carpet – just so we can vacuum it up two minutes later. Hehe. I made my carpet dirtier so that I could make it cleaner. Oh but that powder was mainly for the scent right? No – we had special “put in the vacuum bag” beads for that.

So where am I going with this? I'm really not taking a fanatical view on this, just asking the question - how much stuff do we really need to clean a room? How many impractical chemicals do we buy, use, and throw away? How much MORE healthy might we live if we switched to more natural agents... or even eliminated some altogether. Not preaching, just wondering.

The Dirty Truth of it All

Ok, I've talked about cleanliness - now I want to talk about being dirty. I had a funny discussion with Dawn the other day. The Back story: we don't have a washing machine (or dryer for that matter). So we wash our clothes by hand - which isn't all that uncommon here. Its also not that strange to own a washing machine. Many people in the city have washing machines. It's safe to say that in the villages the opposite is true. Anyway - every so often into the bathtub goes the clothes. Then add soap. Swish-Swish-Swish by hand. Rinse. Wring. Hang up. The first time that I washed my clothes by hand I had the following conversation with Dawn:

"hey Dawn!"

"yea?"

"I'm pretty sure they add some kind of chemical into the detergent to make the water brown."

"What? huh?"

"I mean -- look at this water -- I don't think my clothes are actually that dirty. C’mon - its good marketing sense, right? Put a chemical into the soap and then it turns the water a little darker when activated, and it looks like your clothes are really dirty and it feels SOOO good to clean them. Totally makes sense."

"I don't think so... I don't think that they do that. Actually, I think your clothes are just that dirty."

"huh..."

So. Of course, many of you will appreciate that I had to do a test. Dawn left for summer camps and I took the opportunity of free time to get busy with my clothing. Well don't let the suspense kill you - my clothes are just that dirty. They don't add anything to the detergent. Its friggin gross. Really gross. Some of my socks I had to wash and rinse several times, because we play frisbee out in the dirt and .. well its just gross. There are dust clouds everywhere. Even in my bathroom now.

America - Appreciate the fact that you don't have to face your own dirt.

This is one area where I was happy to throw chemicals at the problem. And the Kazakhstan distributors of Tide will be happy to know that I'm sure I will be keeping them in business, because i probably added way too much detergent to my clothes after I figured out that the brown water was actually dirt and not some chemical additive.

This article always makes me feel better about my clothes and worse about my computer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7377002.stm

With Love and Dirt,
Aaron