Iron Your Socks and Underwear

Ok, I was kinda vampired-off when I found out about this, cuz one of the first things I did when I got here was ask the girls at Flat 007 if Nigeria has botflies.  We had them in Zambia, and I don't think there was anything I was more afraid of.  Ok, well maybe the black mambas.  They had no idea what I was talking about.  "You know, those flies that lay eggs on your clothes and then if your clothes aren't super dry when you wear them, the eggs burrow into your skin and hatch in you and then the little larvae try to come out of the big boil on you."   They said there was no such thing here. 

So here I am, not ironing anything that doesn't actually need ironing, and then I find out - there are botflies here!  A girl from Pakistan told us this weekend about a friend of hers who got one from a bra she took out of the cupboard!  In Zambia, we just let our clothes dry for three days and then we could wear them.   The climate wasn't as humid as it was here, so things left out for three days generally dried pretty well, killing any botfly eggs in the process.

Well, here we have to iron.  Luckily, I have electricity and an electric iron.  Every morning, and every evening after bathing, it's time to get out that iron and iron away.  Have you ever tried to iron a push-up bra with an underwire?  It's not easy!  That certainly wasn't a problem in Zambia.  We didn't iron all our clothes in the village.  It wasn't practical; charcoal was expensive.  I saved my ironing for really important things, like sewing.  Besides, I was about 35lbs heavier, and a good chunk of it was in my chest.  Oh well!  Back to the iron.