First Laundry

January 26, 2012 - 10:31 PM by ManaGeRrR

By Avi (Alden) Solovy

The scene: the basement laundry room in a new off-campus housing complex for students and guests of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. I’m with Ellen, a remarkably sweet woman from Albany, NY, who’s showing me how to work the machines. Ellen and her husband Jack, a couple in their 60s, are regular participants in the BGU winter semester ulpan where I’m also a more mature student. It was my first experience doing laundry in Israel.

Together we had three loads, but there were only two available machines. Someone left laundry in the others. We each started a load. A man came in, asked about the machines full of wet clothing. Not ours, we told him. He took the clothing out of one washer and put it in a dryer. I followed his lead, moving laundry from one machine to a dryer. So did Ellen.

Moments later a young woman stormed in, upset that her laundry had been moved. Five people are talking, questioning, arguing in two languages at once. She’s downright indignant.

“Don’t you know these machines are for students who live here, not just anyone who wants to use them?” she said. And: “You shouldn’t touch my laundry.” I pulled out my student ID and told her that we’re students, that we live in this complex and that I asked another student the protocol for the laundry room.

“Okay, okay, I was just shocked.” She started her dryer and left.

After we got our laundry going, Ellen and I moved to the adjacent study lounge. There, sitting at one of the desks, was the angry woman from the laundry, Adar from Eilat. She shoots a smile that says, what’s done is done, no problem! – and says hello. We get acquainted. She wonders why I’m considering aliyah. We talk about Jews living in our own land. I ask about her family. We talk in Hebrew and in English. Good practice for us both.

Adar’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Her grandfather came here in his teens, spoke no Hebrew, knew nothing and no one. “It was a rough life,” she said. Her family now lives in Haifa and Eilat. “You should come to Eilat.” Her mother can fix me up with a date, she said.

Adar plays guitar and writes love songs. She’s a scuba diver. Near the end of our conversation, she confesses that she doesn’t actually live in these dorms. She shrugs. We laugh.

I forgot to ask her what she studies here at BGU. No problem! We traded phone numbers. Perhaps we’ll catch coffee. Or a beer.

It’s true, what they say. You can argue with an Israeli and, when it’s over, you can make a friend.

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