Laundry from a Suitcase

Good news. Our laptop cord has been fixed so we are back on the worldwideweb. When I went to ITS (extension #666) they told me to go see Allal because "he fixes things." Allal works in the copy center. "Allal...making copies...at the copy machine..." (Rob Schneider from SNL for those of you who are confused). Anyways, I gave Allal my cord yesterday. Today I returned and it is fixed. He only wanted 50 dirhams for his services. All I had was a 100 so I said keep the change and told him what a genius he is. If Allal wasn't an electronic miracle worker I would be unplugged for at least a month until I could get a shipment of cheap AC adapters from Hong Kong. All this to say that Allal is another working class hero, and because of him I can blog about the laundry lady.

We don't have a washing machine at our apartment so every thursday I take all our laundry in a suitcase and do it in between classes. I have gotten to know the laundry lady pretty well, but for the life of me I can't remember her name. From here on out we will call her Lulu. Lulu probably doesn't know my name either so don't get upset. She has met Katie and Zetta and thinks that they are both extremely beautiful. Laundry Lady always reminds me of how blessed I am. After meeting Zetta, she is very generous with me and helps me fold my clothes.

One time in between loads we sat down and got to talking. She has two 13 yr. old boys, and a 7 yr. old daughter. I met her daughter whom is very cute. Lulu has a difficult time because her husband is off in Spain trying to find work. We got to talking about the world economy and how it is difficult for a lot of people to find work. She asked about America and insisted that surely this crisis hadn't gone that far. It was hard for Lulu to believe that even Americans have fallen on tough times because a lot of people here think America is the promised land. I told her how I had lost my job as a banay (bricklayer) because the housing market in America was so bad. When I told her I had been a bricklayer she felt my bicep and looked at my hands. Then she laughed and said there was no way I could have been a banay. Apparently my biceps are too scrawny and my hands aren't big enough. I laughed a bit but insisted I had done it for two years. Finally she turned over my hands and noticed all my callouses. Lulu was surprised and started nodding her head saying, "Mizzyan, mizzyan." (Very good, very good.)

Today (Friday) I had to do laundry too because we had a little extra this week. So after I had finsihed paying Allal for his services I went to the laundry room where I was pleasantly surprised because my friend Abdu was fixing a busted dryer. You all know Abdu by now (see: A New Hobby, Cous Cous, When I Was Your Age I Walked...). Anyways Abdu started messing with Lulu telling her in English I was trying to get a load of laundry dried for free. She responded, "I no speaking English." All three of us had a good laugh and then Abdu told her that I was his friend. Lulu opened her eyes big and said, "Your friend!" And with this she handed my laundry tickets back to me and let my clothes dry for free. I didn't think of it until now but maybe what goes around actually does come around.