In Cape Verde we spent six to eight hours a week washing our clothes by hand. In Benin we’ve decided to hire a local woman. She speaks no French and doesn’t understand our poor local-language skills. Another neighbor has to call her to ask her to come and then discuss price for us. We pay her about 1000 CFA ($2.00) to come once per week to do our laundry. Agricultural day laborers earn about the same for a day’s work in the fields.
