A Chilling Tale

As I’m washing dishes I look up to see Maria standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Her expression is a mixture of disgust and horror. Hanna asks her a question in Swedish, and after Maria responds she follows her out into the living room. Curious, I follow them.

Cindy and Stella have also gathered into the living room. Stella was in the middle of brushing her teeth, but froze with the toothbrush still in her mouth as her eyes found it. The five of us stood there in complete disbelief and utterly repulsed at the sight of it.

Hanna turns to me, her eyes wide with horror. “What do you call this in English?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.

They all turn to me. I gulp, trying to bring myself to utter the word for this disgusting scene before me. It was everywhere; it covered the sofas, the coffee table, and even the top of the television. It was of a sickly gray pallor, desperately feeding off of the residual moisture on the furniture.

Finally, I manage to choke out the name of this repulsive creature.

“Mildew.”


Macau normally has between 75% to 90% humidity. Being from the dry desert of Phoenix, and the even dryer mountains of Flagstaff, humidity is something that I am definitely not used to. It affects everything: my hair (which is perpetually frizzy), how fast my clothes dry, and even our living conditions within the apartment.

Yes, it may sound vain, but I hate the way the humidity messes with my hair. I’ve done everything I can! I blow-dry it straight when I get out of the shower, and then use a flat iron, hairspray, and two types of hair-straightening product. It still comes out curly and frizzy. I even had a top-of-the-line hair treatment in Jakarta that was supposed to get rid of the frizziness. It’s a war against the weather, with my hair the casualty of every battle.

I’ve also had issues drying my clothes. I’ve stated before that I don’t have a dryer, so when we wash our clothes we have to put them outside on the clothesline to dry. But it takes days for anything to dry, especially heavier items like jeans. I ended up getting the chills my first week of school from wearing clothes that hadn’t completely dried.

And our apartment is perpetually wet. That’s why we had mildew growing on our furniture. Our bathroom is even worse. I share a tiny bathroom with Stella and Cindy, and I swear I have never seen our tile floor dry. Each time we take a shower the steam makes the floor completely soaked, and it collects dirt and hair and makes me want to die each time I look at it. And the mildew even started growing in our bathroom sink. It’s hard to keep clean, especially since the conditions weren’t so great when we moved in to start with. It’s just like fighting a losing battle with the humidity.

One of the ways I’ve begun combating the mildew in the living room was placing one of the fans in between the couches. Its head turns enough to blow air on both couches and the coffee table. But we can’t keep it on 24/7, and it makes the room freezing. But it will have to do.

Off to fight the war!
Kati