Soap

Dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers do not exist in Zimbabwe. Every house has a clothesline and all of the washing is done outside in a basin either by an adult of the household, or by a maid (if you have one). I’m lucky because Stanford does all the washing for us on Fridays, but we still wash all of our dishes by hand. For our laundry and dishes, I have normal washing powder and dish soap; however, the locals use huge, foot-and-a-half, bars of soap for EVERYTHING.  Key Blue is the most common type, but these massive bars of soap also come in green, brown, red, and black varieties if those are more to your style.

Key Blue bars

They use this kind of soap to wash their clothes, their dishes, their bodies, basically anything that needs washing. To my western nose, key blue smells very pungent, and combined with the fact that due to water and electricity problems that are rampant in the country, very few Zimbabweans are able to bathe with extreme regularity, making busy public areas or small cramped settings (like the inside of a van transport) an interesting olfactory experience. This is a particular problem while traveling in "ET's" which are local transport vans. ET's are dirt cheap to take, but they are jam-packed with people, bags, and animals, and never have AC or even open windows.