Locks and Laundry

So my apartment has a cleaning person, who allegedly comes five days a week. I say "allegedly" because I've never see her, but my bed is made whenever i come home, something I am def not used to. I write this person notes in the morning about what needs to be cleaned. And then I come home and it's clean. that's it.

pretty, luxurious yea? Well there are two caveats that prevent me from fully enjoying this Nairobi standard (and by standard, I mean, standard for rich people). The first is that they won't wash "undergarments." While every other item of laundry is totally cool, there is a big taboo in Kenya about washing other people's "delicates." The dry cleaners won't even do it. And on the list of things I need washed, I would have to say that boxers are number one (no pun). I mean, to paraphrase a rap line, "I got jeans I ain't even washed yet." But drawers is another thing entirely, and is pretty consistently in the "i need to wash this" category. So it's gonna be a lot of hand-washing in the tub, which will allow me to pretend that I don't have every other single amenity taken care of while i'm here.

The second caveat is that I see the room-service lifestyle as a trade-off with the security realities. I literally have to lock my door with a padlock, on a separate iron door, in addition to the deadbolt and the normal doorknob lock on the regular door. The lock to open the doorknob lock is actually hilarious; it's like a "Secret Garden"-looking key that some victorian woman would wear around her neck and give to her betrothed. So it takes me like twenty minutes to enter and exit my apartment. And similarly, we have a nice porch, but it is entirely fenced-in from top to bottom by this iron gate. And we're on the fifth floor! i guess it's just so the Kenyan SpiderMan doesn't get any ideas.

The other security deal is that I basically have to live like a reverse vampire here, i.e., off the streets when the sun sets. If u want to do "something" after 7 PM, u gotta call a taxi. that feels kinda limiting. but i only been here for a few days, so maybe i can get used to it. It's just that sitting in a taxi is so much less comfortable without clean underwear. jk.