Laundry

Mosquitos killed: steady at 24

Snakes encountered: don't be ridiculous...0 (KNOCK ON WOOD!)

I did my laundry for the first time since I got here, perhaps a dangerous precedent to set but somethings need to be done. That doesn’t mean I brought 4 weeks of clothes but rather my family had handled it up till now. My laundry story began after the first couple days when, to my pleasant surprise, Annie did my laundry for me (youngest sibling, 10 yrs for those of you who aren’t regular readers). She, to my bewilderment, seemed to catch a lot of flak for this. Someone asked why she was doin it and she said because I was her brother. Flatterin and adorable. Unfortunately, it was hilarious to the rest of the family and I was a bit miffed/confused as to why…but I let it go. Since then it’s been all nanay and lola (mom and grandma). Most of the PCT’s I believe are doin their laundry, especially the females…I think there’s a bit of a stigma that women wash clothes here, don’t really know. More on that later. So I joined the crowd late.

After mentionin I’d like to do it for a week solid, and not really bein allowed to, I finally just took laundry out there sat down and made them show me. And by makin them show me I mean they showed me where the water was and left me to my devices. Kind of a sink or swim. I kinda sank haha. My host family and anyone around more or less laughed their heads off. Every passing male asked me why I was doin laundry, lending to my hunch about the gender stigma, and all the women just thought my efforts were the funniest thing since the fat kid sang numa numa. Feelin a bit like an idiot I just kinda floundered for a couple minutes. Then they brought me soap and a scrubber thing and I got to work. Givin no advice or suggestions I kinda just developed a system of workin up and down a piece of clothin until I’d gotten the front and back. At which point I was ready to drop it in the rinse pile.

Wrong.

“You must clean inside”. thanks nanay. So I developed a system of workin top-down on one side, flippin it doin top down again, turnin inside out, top down, flip top down. Eventually this worked out pretty well. Even nanay said I already knew how to do it, against my assurances that I really had no idea and was improvisin. Eventually Annie came out to help me. I felt a bit ridiculous. There’s nothin more ridiculous feelin than gettin help on a household chore from a 10 yr old…except refusin help from a 10 yr old so I took it with a smile. I dutifully scrubbed away and she’d help me rinse out to save some time. Anyways, the process took forever. I didn’t have the courage to do a pair of jeans in my first load...good choice. Once more prudence is proven to be the better part of valor. I shudder to think of doin jeans. My day will come.

It started pourin when I came to the last 3 or so articles of clothin. Pourin rain, washin clothes, and a full bladder. However I was now in a contest of wills. I was not leavin this laundry load till I was done, bladder be damned. You may call me an idiot for not just goin to pee, and I’d have to agree with you. Self-inflicted stubbornness is an uncommon occurrence, and completely idiotic. Anyways, I finished eventually despite the drivin rain storm. It was quite an experience.

Honestly, I don't think I coulda made it without my ipod. It may seem like an unnecessary risk to run havin an ipod in my pocket while washin clothes in splashin soapy water durin a drivin rainstorm but otherwise I'd have gone insane with boredom. Washin by hand is a bit like runnin long distance...there aint much to think about.

Laundry wasn’t the only first occurrence today. My jeepney driver on the way home had a Colorado Rockies cap on, btw it didn’t escape my notice that they’ve won 10 straight and are chargin towards that wildcard spot. Maybe even division title. Also, I got my first fantasy football win. A dominating 68-23 win. I got vegetables with lunch (cucumbers) instead of just fried meat and rice…a good sign for the future I think. Also, I tried Jollibee’s spaghetti and ‘yum’ burger. Typical fast food really.

Tomorrow I might be goin to a cock fight, if I do I promise lots of pictures and prolly a helluva story to tell. Not sure if I really wanna see cocks with blades attached to them go at each other until one’s dead but I’ll at least go experience it once.

Hasta sa dason! (until next time!)

Oh, and as a post script pic (I love rhymin) I'm gonna give you a picture from Lambunao (the farm) showin just how steep and jungley (yeah I just invented that new word) that slope we went up was. Courtesy of Sean: