The Downy bear lies

While living at the orphanage, I learned that the Downy bear lies. Clothes dried outside on the line do not end up smelling fresh and feeling fluffy soft like depitced in the advertisments. They actually dry to about the texture of cardbord and pick up the smell of whatever is near by. It also takes alot longer, requiring you to check the weather before hand and plan out when you will wear what. The worst part, however, has to be the birds. For some reason clean clothes left out side seem to be the perfect target for bird droppings. Finding what would seems to be pigeon diarrhea down the leg of your favorite pajama pants is, possibly, one of the most depressing experiences.

Alternatively, having your clothes washed, dried and folded for $1.60 per load is perhaps my favorite thing about Argentina, better then dulce de leche or the ice cream. After dong someones's laundry as part of my last paying job, it is so nice to pay someone else to be doing mine. Quite a respectable profession I assure you. The women who works at what i consider my lavaderia are quite friendly. However, the other day when we went to pick up laundry my friends had had done, the woman told me that this load had taken a long time to dry, multiple cycles in fact. I apologized and promised to divide the towels up more next time. She then looked up and down my 6 ft 4 friend, and says, " And the really big t-shirts too."

For wealthier Argentines who can afford washing machines and a maid or two to do the work, the drying of the clothes still remains a luxury. I'm not exactly sure why. I don't think it's a matter of the drying machine being so much more expensive then the washer. But, many people still prefer to leave to thier clothes to dry by the grace of mother nature. The only major advantage i see to this is the saving of energy, which, I am pretty sure they never took into account as a positive. But I can't help but think, if Americans were more willing to dry their clothers outside, would it help slove global warming?