Richard Rieckenberg Biography

Sent on 18 October: Since my main past-time on this island is sweating, the handling of laundry is important. Originally, I lived up at the Hotel California which has a laundromat a hundred yards or so away. Most of the villagers of Malaelowa, where Hotel California is located, don't own washers or driers so the evenings at the laundromat are something of social events.

We are a new mix into this group. This adds both interest and some friction since, between the local Samoans and the Red Cross national staff, we are easily able to overwhelm the capacity of the laundromat. All in all, though, it has worked well.

I went to do my laundry last week. When it came time to dry I put it into one of the available driers. After my money was up I took it out and found out that it was still soaking wet. One of the Samoan women came up to me and said -- "That drier no good". Wondering why she hadn't bothered to mention that before, I asked her which ones were good. She pointed to two out of the dozen or so that were there. They were, of course, in use. "Only two out of this whole group?", I said. She pointed to the two driers again and walked away. I have found that the Samoan women are not fans of rhetorical questions and they don't appear to believe in wasting words.

Now that I have left Hotel California I drop off my laundry in town. I figure the increased social status of my new location makes this mandatory. The lady who works at the laundromat is a very earnest woman. I dropped off my laundry on Saturday morning with the agreement of a Sunday afternoon pickup. However, I had occasion to walk into the laundromat later that Saturday. When the laundry lady saw me she immediately scuttled around the counter pointing her finger at me, "I tell you, no laundry for you today!" She was such an unconscious imitation of Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" that I had to laugh.

The laundry lady thinks we are crazy but I think she likes us. We give her a $2 tip for $6 of laundry. She cannot imagine that anyone in their right mind would pay more money than was asked. But, when we give it to her she giggles like a little girl. That's why we tip her. It is fun to watch.

She seems to charge an arbitrary amount of money for the laundry. If she likes you, it is $6 -- not so much $8. Other criterion for charging also appear to exist. Yesterday my deputy, Steve, and the Partner Service Admin, Gary, walked in to get their laundry. Steve is her favorite and she charged him $6. She then hands Gary, who is not cursed by excessive lankiness, his laundry, wags her finger at him, and says, "$12 for you -- pants bigger!"

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