We are two weeks deep in to training and I finally realized it was about time to tackle my laundry. During one of my daily talks with my host grandmother, who I always say hello to before going up to my room which is on the third floor. Most of the time the conversation consists of the greetings, one story from the day in which I prove that I can't really talk in past tense, and then a lot of staring at the table. But today I had an agenda, I was going to get her to teach me how to wash clothes by hand. She laughs with a her full toothless smile and leads me upstairs to the sink. With the bar of soap she shows me how to individually scrub each piece of clothing, easy enough. I smile an nod at our successful charades conversation and she goes back to cooking her classic chicken noodle soup downstairs. 

     Alright I can do this, just a bit of scrubbing here and there. I get all my clothes all soaped up when I realize the conversation did not cover the rinsing part of the directions. None the less my vocab is not adequate to go down and ask her so I improve this part, it later becomes apparent that my improving was weak as the following week I fell as though I am constantly wearing a good layer of soap, but thats besides the point!

    After they are semi-rinsed I walk up the stairs to the roofs. Roofs in Peru have several purposes:

1) To dry clothes

2) To keep you dogs

3) To keep extra building supplies

4) To keep your open fire cooking set up just in case. 

I have two small dogs on my roof who love to put up a good whine when I go up there as well as jump on my legs. At this time I found them good company and kind of cute. However two days later when I return to take down my laundry in the dark they are simply a tripping hazard, and then as I am grabbing my last smartwool sock off the line it drops to the ground. One of the dogs is hot to trot on it, snaps it up and runs off to a very dark corner, and I yap after it. All I hear is some moving of word, some digging, and then the dogs back with no sock in sight. I promptly take my laundry down to my room and come back equipped with a headlight. I walk back to the dark corner and find that this is not only where the dog hides its treasures but also where it poops and pees. I have no interest in digging through that pile of wood to find the sock, it was just going to be 1 point for the dog none for me.

     It is not until several days later that I go to put on my favorite pair of Yala leggings that I look down and see holes all around the ankles of the leggings, clearly the dog had had a grand old time playing with the hanging leggings. 2 points for the dog 0 for me. Fortunately two years back when I was a corps member at City Year Comcast gave us all travel sewing kits made just for situations like this! I wip it up and stitch up the leggings all the while thinking of ways to get revenge on those dogs as well as how to ask my grandma about the proper way of rinsing clothes!

    Dogs here are interrupting many parts of my life including my confident stride down streets, my ability to run or exercise, and my genuine like of dogs.  However they also provide some good entertainment particularly the infamous peruvian hairless dog, which are a thing, and yes are hairless. Today we walked behind a whole family who had just gotten new leashes for their dogs, and they were attempting to take their 5 small dogs out for a walk, the dogs were going crazy, needless to say it was a lot of dragging the dog on the leash than walking!