Coal irons are easily available to purchase here and are still used in many homes today. My coal iron (pictured here on it's special stand - just visible) is made in India.You're probably going to do a double-take when you read this but yes, we do still use coal irons here in Tanzania - and yes, I know that the year is 2009 !
The truth is that many people here still live without electricity. Especially in the remote villages. (Many live without running water, too - but that's another story). The Tanzanian people are a very proud people and are always impeccably turned out. You will rarely - if ever - find a person wearing dirty, wrinkled clothes here. I'm amazed, actually, at how they manage when many Europeans here (who have all the mod cons including washing machines, tumble driers and electric irons) don't. Laziness I suppose. Or perhaps a lack of pride in their appearance. But anyway, I'm going off track here ........
As all villages have cooking fires and access to charcoal as a result, you will still find coal irons in use all over the country. If you want neatly pressed, wrinkle-free clothes and have no electricity - it's the only way !
We also use a coal iron in our house from time to time. We don't have electricity on the farm, well it is not supplied to us - we generate our own and run the house off a bank of car batteries, charged up by a generator. (I have written all about this in an old post over here if you're interested to see how we do it.)
We cannot run an electric iron off batteries (it drains them too quickly) and if, for some reason, we cannot switch the generator on (due to repairs being carried out on it, or perhaps a shortage of diesel to run it with until our next delivery) - then we haul the old coal iron out. (You can buy them easily in most of the shops here).
Justin, who has become so used to using an electric iron now, is not too happy when he has to use the coal iron and I don't blame him ! It's very heavy to handle, and you have to get the charcoal at just the right temperature (not too hot, not too cold), and keep it filled so that it does the job properly. Justin had never seen an electric iron until he came to work for us as a teenager many years ago.
Coal irons are reliable, they never break, they cost much less than an electric iron to run and I've never known one to burn a hole in clothing or linen at all - sometimes older is better, and I love the fact that in the year 2009 I still have access to things as quaint - and useful - as an old coal iron !
(If you'd like to see where Justin does his ironing, just click here - I reckon he has one of the best ironing spots in the world !)
