My friend told me a story once which I don’t think I’ll soon forget. She spent a while working in Zambia where she would hand wash and line dry her clothes. She noticed that many of the other women ironed their clothes after drying them, but wasn’t sure why. One day while showering she felt a bump on her back and when she squeezed it, a little grub came out. A doctor found two more bumps and smeared the air holes with Vaseline so the worms would suffocate and die, allowing them to be removed easily.
It turns out that Putzi flies sometimes lay their eggs on drying laundry. The women would iron their clothes to kill any eggs present before wearing them.
One day Stephen asked me why I hadn’t been ironing my clothes. He said there was someone who had been hired to iron the clothes and I should be giving mine to her. I told him most of my clothes were just t-shirts and jeans so they didn’t need to be ironed and I could iron everything else myself.
I didn’t see what the big deal was until I remembered that story. I started getting really worried. What if the clothes I was wearing had eggs on them?
I asked Barita why Stephen wanted me to iron my clothes and whether it was because of fly eggs.
She laughed, “No we don’t have those here. He saw you at the office with your crumpled shirt. He came home and asked why I hadn’t been ironing your clothes.”
Apparently I’m just a slob. At least I won’t have to worry about any worms growing in my back. That’s always a plus.