Where do you get your clothes?
The only in-country places to get clothes are thrift stores. Around our neck of the woods, you'll often hear 'do you like my new top, only 1 Kina!!!'. I used to wonder why missionaries dressed funny. (As a kid I thought they did). Now I know. Once you get used to wearing out dated, used clothing that is super affordable, it's hard to justify buying new.
But, for us Big n Tall guys, even the thrift stores offer little hope. One of my big n tall buddies, buys 2 pair of jeans, then sews himself a single pair out of them. That's resourceful, and even skillful, but it results in a frankenstein type look.
Elastic wears out of your socks and underwear rather quickly, because we don't use clothes dryers. We do laundry in a very Australian way, we hang them out to dry and it takes a short time because the sun is so hot, when it's out. Sometimes the rain pours while the clothes are on the line and prolongs the drying time.
The Laundry Dash - is a cultural happening when you're in the middle of something and realize it's raining, you sense the rain, is it going to be a downpour, or light, if it's light, you leave the clothing out, if it's going to be a downpour, you bring it in.
Everyone of your neighbors knows what clothing you wear, no one needs to ask you 'boxers or briefs'? Of course we're clever, we puts the particulars on the inside of the line, and the sheets on the outside to give that added bit of privacy.
The end result of all this is that if you're a Big N Tall guy, you only buy clothing when you're in your home country. And when you do you need to buy a lot of it. But it will hurt you because you think 'my wife got a top for 1 Kina, but I need to buy 20 t-shirts at $20 a piece!!!' You get coupons, you wait for specials, etc. When you get back, you'll be the sharpest dressed guy in town for a few days. Then your socks will start to droop, and your whites will be more like light brown, and your pants will have holes in them.
All that to say, a sense-of-fashion isn't highly regarded in these parts. Another reason why men feel so at home here, few of us have a sense of fashion anyway.
