Chila told us about the washing machine from the old days. “My mother used to wash and iron clothes for passengers of the Venezuelan cruise ships. She was from Venezuela herself. She came to Curaçao at a young age and fell in love with my father, a local man.”

“To wash clothes my mother used the washi (a washboard) and a bucket. It was hard work: she used blue brick soap, would wring out the clothes and rinse them twice. My brothers, my sisters and I had to wash our underwear ourselves! We used the washi until washing machines became more affordable, in the 1960s.”

This particular washi is more than 100 years old. They are usually made of glass or zinc.