the curse of the dobis~

sounds like a good horror movie? wrong

does it sound like an urban legend? wrong again

its a problem im facing here, and i know more who have worse experiences than mine!

THE IBU DOBIs of INDONESIA

we dont have a washing machine, im not sure why, but maybe its because it would be a hassle to have to wash, hang and iron ourselves. so, it sounded like salvation when i first heard of the IBU DOBI system, i.e hiring a maid (ibu) specially dedicated to tidy up my dirty laundry. Students studying elsewhere would think we were super rich to have maids just for that, but its pretty cheap i tell ya...

anyway, the story goes that the first time you meet an ibu dobi, you would think she would be PERFECT for the job. Flashing a lovingly-mom style smile, one would melt at seeing this IBU who has to pick up the dirty laundry after you, bring it back to her place, get them washed, hang them fresh and iron until they are crisp. Thats the oldest trick up the sleeve, and i fell for it. My first ibu dobi was a winner, she lives near my place and is the caretaker here. She had this small doe eyes that looked so innocent, you would not dream that she was as cunning as a crow....

The first few weeks went by without any incident, and i was pretty happy with this IBU. I got my clothes on time, and i did not have anything to complain about, except that she demanded we pay her on time every month, but hey, thats just business. As the weeks grew into months, we noticed that everything was not as was promised. She came less and less to send back our clothes and when she eventually did, they smelled foul and were not even dry! owh God, imagine the times i wen to class and someone must have smelt my clothes and commented on bad body odour! (if anyone did, blame it on the DOBI!)

I breathed a sigh of relief one day when she told me some of us had to hire another ibu dobi, because there was just too much on her hands. Me and my friends qucikly found one(that was odd) and hired her. It was the same thing all over again, except this time it was worse! The first weeks were good, and then, i saw pure evil! (seriously!). She would come at 6 in the morning knocking on our doors for money eventhough it was still too early in the month. Sometimes, she would come up with a story like, she had to feed her children, or someone was sick in the family and we would pityfully borrow her money even for the nextmonth. I didnt mind at first, not until i found out that she asked from everyone else the same thing, and sometimes absentmindedly forgot that we had paid in advance. The same trouble was brewing again, we got our clothes late, and some were even a bit dirty than before we sent them!

One day, she knocked on my door, and said `Neng, ibu kan cucinya pake tangan,(which i didnt know), jadinya, baju neng itu kebanyakan...jadi harus bayar lebih,kalau gk, ibu udah gk mau cuci bajunya`....and i was like, ya udah, gk usah aja, nanti sy cariin yg lain..so i went in search of another ibu dobi and my friends suddenly wanted to join me because they were VERY UNSATISFIED with this one. woe behold! the next day the ibu dobi knocked on my room screaming her head of, saying why did i ask my friends to join me(my jaw was opened wide at about this time) and i suddenly got a lecture on how i did not care about people who needed money and jobs. I thought that was bad enough, suddenly out of nowhere, the 1ST IBU DOBI came(i found out later, all ibu dobis seem to know each other) and she gave me a lecture on REZEKI and it was not good to take rezeki from other people. I just stood at the door in utter amazement while my friend F was in my room and sadly gave in to their scoldings, they would not take another ibu dobi like i did...

So, ONTO My 3rd ibu dobi. As usual, she seems great at first, but i did have lots of problems, fortunately, she did try to improve everytime i told her to.

1. my white clothes became yellow, especially my lab coat which when i wear to class looks as if i rolled in mud compared to my fellow colleagues.

2. i sometimes buy clothes for the brand(loe behold one of my bad habits), and SHE WROTE KAMAR NO 9 on every single designer label there was on my clothes...aaarggghhhhh!!

3. she does come late during rainy seasons, and there would be a pile of laundry outside my door. i think if one day the cat kind of rams into it, it could die if all the clothes fell on him.

4. i once got a bunch of socks back, and they smelt of cat urine!

My neighbours told us their story which sounded even worse than ours, and i thought that we had it bad.

1. Their ibu dobi once asked to pay for a WHOLE YEAR, incidentally, telling a tale of how her next child is just starting pre-school and all.

2. They loose a lot of their clothes, and the next time they saw it, it was on some guy cleaning the house, innocently wearing a ZARA tshirt while humming to an indonesian dangdut tune.

3. sometimes, when they get back their clothes and wear them......they would suddenly start scratching and fishy red bumbs suddenly appear out of nowhere

well, Those are among others that i still remember, but it has been a tiring hunt finding for the perfect ibu dobi.

For those who are lucky enough to have a reliable one, i take my hats off at how you were able to. Anyway, i hope someone could tell me a solution to this problem, or maybe recommend me a 5 star IBU DOBI that you know of. It would help a lot @_@...

hope you liked this post, cheers!