I Did My Laundry!!

I wouldn't normally consider the above to be anywhere near exciting, but Um Mazen and Abu Mazen cheered this morning when I returned from the roof where I had hung my clothes to dry. The water is only strong enough to wash clothes in the morning, and until recently I have had class until 1 or 2pm, so Um Mazen has been doing my laundry. Last night I asked her to show me how their machine works: there are no instructions in any language on it, and the numbers on the dial have long worn off. She replied, oh, just put your clothes here and I'll do them in the morning. I convinced her that I wanted to wash my own clothes since I had time, so she said in the morning she would show me how to do work the machine and then I could hang them on the line. Oh goody!

I don't know exactly why, but Um Mazen and Abu Mazen seem to think I am amazingly incompetant at all things. They know that I've been living on my own for some years now: clearly I managed to keep myself alive, somehow. Searching for a laugh sometimes, Um Mazen sometimes asks me to repeat the short list of things I can cook. Most of these items are met with "That's not really cooking!" but the largest laugh comes with "toast".

I also am assumed to be fragile. When Um Mazen suggested I switch the table in my room for a bigger one, she told me to wait until Abu Mazen was done bathing so he could take it up for me. I carried it up myself and 30 minutes later was called downstairs. "Where's the table!"
"It's in my room."
"Did you take it up yourself?"
"Yes"
"Bravo!"
I don't know why it is assumed that I would need the help of a 70-year-old man, but it is.

Um Mazen and I put my clothes in the laundry machine this morning, and she turned the dial. "So, there's no numbers, but there's this kind of red spot here." The second cycle is marked by a kind of bigger red spot. I was climbing the ladder to get to the roof with my basket of clothes but Um Mazen insisted that she hold the clothes then pass them to me once I was up. "Don't do this when someone isn't around to pass it to you." I appreciate the concern, but she gets her 65-year-old self up this ladder every other day with a basket of clothes, I don't understand why my early-20s self wouldn't be able to.

I came down from hanging to cheers. "Shatura!" Um Mazen looked at the roof and told me I did a good job hanging. "You learn quick!" I told her this was no where near the first time I have done laundry in my life, but this was ignored

"We're going to teach you everything," said Abu Mazen.