Lavandera.

If you watch CNN regularly, you might have seen this big guy named "Ed Lavandera," who is one of CNN's field reporters. Obviously, he's Hispanic.

The word "lavandera," is Spanish for launderer; clothes launderer, in previous eras, but nowadays could also refer to money launderer.

Lavandera is a commonly used word among us Pinoys. Almost every household who does not have a regular maid would employ a clothes washer or a laundrywoman.

I remember growing up in a household with out a regular maid; what we had was a lavandera, plus an "ironing woman," and my two aunts who helped my mother with the day-to-day raising of seven kids plus one cousin.

If we had a maid, she was still aided by my two aunts who spoiled my mother.

When I first came home to the Philippines in 1994 after being away for nine years, I bunked in my mother's house for a while and their maid would wash my clothes. My mother knew I was finicky about my clothes, so she would personally wash my underwear instead of assigning it to the maid.

Being finicky about my clothes was not an original trait of mine. In the past, I could not care less if my clothes were assigned to a maid, handled by my mate or my mother. But years of living in the U.S. and in Canada where I did my own laundry had turned me into a "clean fanatic," not only in clothes but with everything else.

I want to do my own laundry; I want a spic n' span wash and bathroom; I want an immaculate kitchen and cooking range; a safe drinking water; a house rid of mosquitoes and cockroaches; a yard full of trees; and outside - streets free of litter and urine-smelling pavements.

The new old me is neurotic about cleanliness, and people around me could not understand it, they even brand me "insane."

I want the bedsheets fresh all the time, and the bathroom smelling of Lysol.

If a human "lavandera" or a maid does my laundry, I somehow feel that my privacy is being invaded. I want to make sure my shirts are not being pounded by the "palo palo" (wooden paddle) and that my whites are totally whitened. I want to know where they hide my underwear and socks in the closet.

I confess that I want my dirty clothes to be done by the machine; I prefer the "machine lavandera," or those commercially-run laundry business.

I once window-shopped for a U.S. -style washing machine and dryer but found the costs to be too prohibitive. Now I want to puke remembering that I dumped an almost brand new washer/dryer in the condo trash, because of one incident when water overflowed into the unit below; and I reverted to using the building's laundry facilities.

In the absence of maids, I do not understand why local people still prefer human "lavanderas," over machines. Personally, I think bringing one's dirty clothes to the neighbourhood machine "lavanderas," is more practical and hygienic.

You bag your clothes, drop it at the laundromat where they weigh it, and collect them after two days. Your clothes smell fresh and look ironed out.