Laundry on an Island

I think it’s about time to make a post about laundry, since I just looked in my closet and confirmed that I do indeed need to do laundry before next weekend or I will run out of certain things to wear. Not good.

So how does one go about doing laundry on a Caribbean island? Well before you start getting too crazy, I will tell you that students do have washing machines for laundry. We do not have to hang our unmentionables outside for all of campus to see in order to have dry clothes, and we don’t have whip out a washboard to clean them. However, I have no doubt that a large percentage of the island actually does do laundry that way. Why is that? Well for starters, when we went on our hike/tour, we passed many homes that had laundry hanging out to dry. The other reason is because there is a lot of poverty on the island and I imagine that something like a washing machine/dryer would be a luxury. I would think that it would be very expensive to import the machines, expensive to make a house to fit them, expensive to use lots of water, and expensive to use the electricity. After all, 90% of the island was destroyed building-wise 6 years ago when a bad hurricane hit the island.

Anyway, back to being an SGU student with dirty clothes.  So how does laundry work? Well my favorite two parts are that there are machines on each floor and they are free to use. Don’t go getting jealous of our free laundry and lack of having to trudge up and down stairs too quickly though. Here are the laundry policies:

1.      There are two laundry rooms on each floor and each contains one washer and one dryer

2.      There are 8 total of each in the building but you are only supposed to use the ones on your floor

3.      Do not be an idiot and overstuff the washer. If you do that, it will fill up and overflow making a large mess and potentially require service thus ending the use of one laundry room on your floor (59 people will not be very happy with you, and 100+ people will not be happy when the 59 people meander onto their floors to wash clothes)

4.      You had best stay on top of the time because people are chomping at the bit to wash their clothes and do not want to wait since you forgot

5.      (This one is the best) the laundry room will be open each weekday evening until 7am and on Friday evenings through Monday at 7am.

Now you are wondering why the time constrictions? Well it has been theorized that this is to prevent campus workers from bringing their own things to campus and using the facilities. Why is that such a big deal? Who really cares if a housekeeper or security guard throws a load in here or there? Well, it’s a water issue. SGU has its own desalination plant where campus water is purified for use every day. Unfortunately, the plant is unable to produce enough water to meet campus needs every day, therefore, we often have water shortages. With 7 dorms on campus, the best way to cut back on water usage is to cut back on laundry doing. This means making sure that only students paying to live on campus do laundry. It also means that when water supplies get low, cutting off laundry washing capabilities all together (including during scheduled hours). They will call security, and security will walk around to each dorm and lock the laundry room door. Additionally, the RAs are notified so that they can let the residents know that the laundry facilities are closed.

All in all, not really a big deal, but we didn’t have any laundry facilities Thursday, Friday, or most of Saturday, and then they closed early tonight. Hopefully I will get to snag a couple hours one night this week and we won’t be in shortage mode the whole week again. I am not holding my breath, after less than 2 weeks, I have adapted to Grenadian life and this 3^rd world country quite well. Just like using creativity to cook, I am betting on having to creatively figure out how to wash a few clothing items. I should be able to work something out (my classmates can let out a sigh of relief, I will not re-wear dirty nasty clothes!). 

Anyhow, the best way to live happily is to remember that a washing machine is conveniently located only a few feet from my door in either direction (no more four flights of stairs or 5 minutes down the road!) and that no quarters, bills or cards are required! Simply load up and press start! :)