Ah, clean clothes.
In a war zone, and with limited baggage, clean clothes begin to seem like a luxury very quickly.
So I was pretty excited to get my first load of laundry back the other day.
It’s a pretty simple process. Basically, you put your laundry in a mesh bag with your name and the number of the chalet where you are staying. You bring the bag to the laundry room and drop it in one of the big “dirty laundry” boxes labeled with the same chalet number as yours (along with everybody else on the base - there’s a lot of laundry going through there every day!). A day or two later, you go back and dig through the “clean laundry” box labeled with the same number to find your bag of fresh, clean clothes.
The first time I did this, I found mine rather quickly but couldn’t seem to find Michel’s. Despite a steep language barrier (the laundry guys are all local and tend not to speak much English), the guys very kindly helped me paw through all the bags… but we still came up empty handed. (As it turned out, Michel already had it.)
So I guess they know me at the laundry place now… since this afternoon, when I went to pick up my second load, the guy saw me coming, motioned me over to his table, and handed me my bag, which was conveniently segregated from the others.
That was sweet of him.
I think.
You tell me - is it good or bad when the laundry guy sees you coming and hands your bag to you (with everything neatly folded, unlike the first time I got my clothes back?)? Am I being unnecessarily suspicious and ungrateful? Or is it strange when a man separates a woman’s laundry for her?
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on Apr 4th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I’ve often found that in countries I’ve traveled to (including Guatemala, Thailand, Indonesia and others) men operate the laundry services, and therefore have a hand in folding and washing your clothes. I also felt a bit odd about finding my female underthings properly pressed and folded by a man (who in some cases, normally doesn’t even see a woman’s shoulders or ankles!)…I’m with you on the awkward-skeptical note…but I think it might all be in a days’ work…?
on Apr 5th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hmm, you should ask the female military personnel if they get the same ’special treatment’ from the laundry guys. If not, expect a marriage proposal the next time you pick up your mesh bag
Actually, when I began reading this entry, I expected a nightmare story on how you almost lost your laundry because you failed to mark you bag. Happened to me in Camp Hadrian, the smaller of the two bases. I learned the hard way to mark your bag. As I didn’t, I spent hours searching a container with hundreds (or so it seemed) of bags….