The Panties

My cheeks were burning and it was not because of the hot sun beating down on me. It was washday and now it was time to hang up my semi hand washed clothes. There were a group of men in front of me, family but still men. My host dad, grandpa, brothers, and cousins were sitting lazily about the patio enjoying watermelon and talking. I froze.  It was time to hang up my underwear. In a few moments my panties would be flapping in front of their faces. The dainty ones, the sexy ones, the grandma draws, the holey forever stained ones would be drawn up in the air like flags for all the world to see. I grimaced as I tried to develop a strategy to hide them. Dresses in the front draws on the line behind. Only it didn’t matter, a whole group of people would have a good view wherever they stood. Also no one else shared my embarrassment. If you walk around my community on any given day there are lots of panties hanging. People don’t try to find a discreet place to dry them either. You find them on the spears guarding the welcome gate of a home. You find them strung up above your head when you sit on a porch. They are inescapable. In the U.S. nobody sees my underwear except for whoever glimpses while I'm washing clothes or if I specifically WANT them to see them. Which is very rare grandma J I had to grin and bear it. People here do not have the luxury of having fancy dryers inside of their home. I am lucky that part of my wash is taken care of by a small washing machine. I have to rinse and scrub the clothes after and then hang them up. The rest of my community does it without shame. This says more about U.S. culture then it does about them and it inspires me. One day…not now but one day I will not feel embarrassed to see my panties blowing in the wind.   

Fellow PCV Alex from Ohio shot the photograph