THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES?

Yesterday Alona hand washed my clothes. The first problem encountered was that we had no way to dry them. Many people in the building across from us use their terrace with some kind of clothes line or rack on which to hang items outside to dry. Some also hang then inside just in front of the main windows on the back wall of their place. Whichever way we were going to go, we didn't have the line or rack needed to do it. We also didn't have hangers on which to hang anything. Thus, which she washed, I was sent to Ayala to get these things.

I don't like to go to Ayala and go shopping alone, unless I'm, uh... shopping for something besides items in the stores. You see, when I am with Alona, she can do all the talking. The people working in the stores seem to respond to her better and they can speak their own language. If I am alone, the people wrking in the store, though they can speak English, are likely a bit more shy to do so, thus they often avoid making eye contact with me perhaps in the hopes that I won't ask a question.

I looked all over the Metro Gaisano section of Ayala, covering five floors and couldnn't find a simple rack on which to hang clothes. For that matter, I couldn't find hangers either. Both items did exist, though, they just weren't where one might expect. Unlike the Metro Gaisano in Colon downtown, this one didn't really have a complete home department. Things were scattered about in different places. I found a small area that had some home items and they had, next to a ladder for whatever reason, one clothes rack. This was the only clothes rack they had and it was 689 peso, which to me seemed expensive for a couple of bars. Granted, that's only about $15.00 US, but the more you start to think in peso, the more things start to seem overpriced. I am sure there must have been a simpler rack for 200 peso somewhere, probably in Metro Colon.

I wanted to ask if there were any others, but it took some time to get anyone to help me. If Alone was there, she would make one these weird hissing sounds she makes that gets one's attention and someone would come ask if she needs anything. I can't bring myself to try that because it seems a bit aggressive, but I have noticed that's the norm in both stores and restaurants. I finally asked a guy working in a nearby section about the rack and was told this was the only one. I also asked about hangers and he said they were on the fourth floor, a floor I had already scoured and found nothing.



I went to the fourth floor again and this time just asked the counter girls where the hangers were. They pointed to the plastics section where items like Tupperware might be found. Sure enough, hangers were in there. At first i thought these were too expensive too. 3 hangers rubber banded together for something like 149 peso. I remember in Metro Colon hangers were 99 peso per kilo. That probably would have gotten me 10 hangers. Eventually, as I kept looking, I found many more types of hangers, one with a bunch of 8 for 109 peso. I got two of those and I got this item called a Dream Hanger, which is like a hanger with a circular clothes line on it full of clips for hanging smaller items. I went back to the second floor, then, and, no longer caring about the price because I just wanted to go home, picked up the one rack they had, payed for my items and left.

When I returned home, Alona was still washing. I put the rack together and she started hanging clothes outside to dry. She then asked me to cook because she was hungry. After we ate and she finished washing everything, it was all done, and all was nicely hanging on the rack outside on the terrace. That was yesterday, a dark and cloudy day.

Today they are still not dry, though getting close. The sun is out, which is cool, but I need to go do things and I have no clothes. I am running low on cel phone load and wouldn't mind getting some more fruits for breakfast tomorrow. Hopefully, with the sun out, they will be dry before the day ends. Makes me realize why, on other people's terrace, I see only a few items, different items, out each day or so. Wash a little at a time and dry a little at a time. Putting everything you have out to dry at once can make getting around a little difficult.