I had one of the experience of is this really happening to me. It happened on the last day we were in Arriajan. Every time my team leaves a place, we are faced with the dilema to try and find a laundry mat. I personally do not like to travel with smelly clothes and so I make sure that this happens.
I had decided that the day to clean clothes would be on Monday. I told the team and asked them to have their clothes ready to go to the laundry mat in the morning. Lindsey was going to go with me, but had to babysit Mateo at the last minute. Mateo´s brother was sick and had to go to the doctor. The parents did not want to take young Mateo with them. I told her that I would head to the laundry mat and she could join me when Mateo had left.
I headed out for the laundry mat at 9:00am. The laundrey mat was only a 10 minute walk away and I knew I could handle walking that far with laundry for 6 people. I had Colleen´s large laundry bag with most of the laundry in it, Lindsey´s shopping bags, my bag of laudry, the soap, and my backpack. I carried Colleen´s bag on my back like Santa Claus and had both hands full with the rest of the laundry. I made it to the laundry mat with only a few stares.
Upon arriving at the laundry mat, I had a dilema. The washers were all full and I wasn´t sure if the dryer would work. It was unplugged at the time. I decided to wait anyways to at least wash the clothes. I would figure out the drying when the time came. I was waiting and all of a sudden one of the ladies pointed to me and pointed to the washer to tell me that it was free for me to use. She was making sure that we got to do our laudry in the order that we arrived. I got my three loads of laundry started. I then started to contemplate how I would dry the clothes. Should I plug in the dryer or go to another place?
My questions about the dryer were eventually answered. All of a sudden, a repair truck pulled up and two men appeared. The owner appeared and one of the repairmen was getting mad at him from what I could tell. The whole conversation was in Spanish, but there were plenty of gestures to help me understand what was going on. It was interesting to see everyone in the laudry mat watch this discussion.
The men were there to repair the dryer. I was so excited because my clothes were almost done in the washer. I had to remove my clothes when they were done because of the line. I first filled up my bag because it was a water proof one, then Lindsey´s shopping bags. I was then unsure of what to do. Colleen´s laudry bag is mesh and I couldn´t put the clothes in it. All of a sudden someone in broken English asked if I wanted her gigantic garbage bag to put my clothes in. God was definitely looking out for me because all of the rest of the clothes fit in the bag. I removed all of the clothes from the washers and sat waiting. The repairmen spoke English and they told me that they were unsure if they could fix the dryer. The only reason I was staying at this point was for the hope of a fixed dryer. I was able to watch an entire dryer be taken apart and put back together. The is something everyone should see at least once in their life.
Finally, I got frustrated and left. I figured that the dryer was never going to get fixed. I was told by the lady who gave me the garbage bag to call a taxi. I thought I could handle the walk home. I put the garbage bag on my back Santa Claus style. I was holding the grocery sacks, which broke immediately from the weight of the wet clothing. I had the laundrey soap and my laundry in my hands. I got more stares than before. I even got a honk from every person that drove by me on the way home. I had to stop every 100 yards because the laundry was so very heavy. I looked like a lunitic and I wish I had a picture of this expedition of mine. It surely would look funny because it is not everyday that you see a white lady walk down a street with a bag of laundry in a black garbage bag on her back in a Latin America country. I eventually got home. The last 100 yards were the worst for me. It was straight downhill and the weight of the laundry made the momentum of going down hill very hard. I kept falling forward. The whole time I was carrying the laundry, I was laughing at myself and thinking, ´I must look crazy and I would never do this at home´.
When I got back, I found out that Mateo was still there. I told Lindsey that it was a crazy experience and we needed to ask for a ride to another laundry mat when Mateo´s parents showed up. I then got a break of 30 minutes.
Lindsey and I were dropped off at a laundry mat. This one had one dryer. Some countries think that one dryer to thirteen washers is a very good deal. It makes the laundry experience even harder, especially when the dryer is not working.
The second laundry mat had an arcade. It was loud and I was thinking where am I at. I eventually had to get change to finish drying and the guy tried to tell me something in Spanish. I just ran back to the dryer and sat by it.
It was a crazy day of getting laundry done. I did get all of the clothes washed and dryed. I will have to say it may be a long time before I have that kind of experience in washing again.
