Smell Before You Buy

Please, take my advice. In a desperate attempt to find an article of clothing to keep me warm in the evenings (given it is often a brisk 50 degrees with no heat), the woman who lives in the main house, Jo, kindly offered to take me to a market. Being my frugal self, I didn't want to pay the price of a sweatshirt in a regular shop. We arrived at the market and I quickly acquired a pair of flip flops for 40 birr ($2.50) and some socks. I then moved on to searching for a sweatshirt. By the time we arrived most of the stalls were closing, so the options were limited. There was a stall selling many sweatshirts, clearly used and imported from the US. I found one that looked suitable (it was the thickest one on the table), and Jo negotiated the price down to 220 birr ($12). I took it home and dropped it in the laundry basket. The next day, my laundry was taken from the basket and I received it back a few days later (yes, there is someone who does my laundry but that requires another blog post). When I put on a piece of clothing that had been washed, I noticed that it smelled of gasoline. I thought it was odd, but as the day wore on, the smell started to give me a headache. I couldn't figure out what might have caused it. Then, that evening I went to put on the green sweatshirt andthe  gasoline smell was so intense that it caused me to cough. Ha. My sweatshirt must have been used to mop up a gasoline spill. I would have never ever thought to smell a piece of clothing before I bought it. Now, it will be part of my routine. 

Update: I have no idea how, but they were able to get the gasoline smell out of the sweatshirt. Yeah!