“Hanging Clothes on a Line”

My daughter, Hannah, has recently been accepted into Veterinary School at a large university in Sydney, Australia.  She starts her training soon, but moved to Australia two weeks early before classes start to allow herself time to adjust to this new place.  There is always an adjustment to any new place, so she has been settling in and adjusting.

In many parts of Australia, the rent is paid by the week, not by the month, and so a person could theoretically move around a lot if they chose to do so.  However, Hannah has settled with a wonderful woman, Jody, who is renting her a space in her home.  In that way, both can share expenses together.

Of course, the normal adjustments apply:  First, sleeping in a new bed, getting use to the rhythm of another household, timing your showers so as not to interfere.   One large adjustment is having to cook one’s own food.  With little refrigeration, it is a continual planning process to obtain something to eat, to discover the best local places to shop and so on.

Hannah contacted us the other night, or perhaps I contacted her, using the Whats App, which is a great way to talk long distance by using WIFI and the internet.  She was pleased to hear from us and our conversation went something like this:

“Dad, do you know how hot it is today in Sydney?”

“No, how hot is it?”

“It is ninety eight degrees!”

“And you know what else?  There is no air conditioning!  I just got out of the shower and I am still hot, and it’s only 11:00 o’clock in the morning.”

“Do you know it is hard to sleep without air conditioning?  I even sweat when I am asleep!  I’ve never done this before.  I go to bed and wake up soaking wet!”

“And do you know what else?  There is no dryer for the clothes!  Everyone over here hangs out their clothes on a clothes line!  You send it out and then pull it back in!  And they have no fabric softener!  Do you know how rough your clothes feel without fabric softener?”

I explained to my daughter when I was a child we also hung out our clothes on the clothes line.  We did not have fabric softener or air conditioning, either.   As my grandfather said, “Air conditioning makes people shiftless so they will not work out in the heat!”  And so, as long as he was alive we never had air conditioning in our home.  But, of course, I had it put in right after he died.

At this point Hannah remarked to me, “I never knew how many luxuries we have in America.  Even the things in the stores are different! There were so many things I took for granted. This is a hard adjustment for me.”

I told this story to our minister at church this morning and she said, “That’s why we send our youth on mission trips to other parts of the world.  That way they can really understand what they have been given and also at the same time help others who have so much less than they do.”

Then our minister remarked, “It seems Hannah is on her first missionary experience.”  I agreed.  I had tried to send her on several trips for this type of experience, but it never worked out.

Is there a moral to this story?  No.  I write this down just for me, to remember that my daughter is having to grow up.  We protect our children as best we can from the harsh realities of the world so they can have an enjoyable life.  Everyone, I suppose, wants their children to have a better life than we did ourselves.  But perhaps, we should let them see the realities of how others live more than we do.  It might help prepare them for the day when they launch out on their own journey.  Or perhaps it’s better just to delay it until they are ready to do it for themselves.  Or perhaps the first way is better.  I really don’t know.

I do know that in the last conversation Hannah had with her mother, she requested a recipe for biscuits, which she says she has not found yet in Australia, but which are ubiquitous throughout the southern United States.  She also requested an emergency shipment of grits, as she has not found these for sale either.  We have not yet decided if we need to ship a can of Crisco at the same time we send the grits, or if she will simply have to make biscuits out of cheap butter.  I hear tell is works just as good as Crisco for making biscuits, but I really don’t know.