I have a thing about ziploc freezer bags. I'll explain later. I know Ziploc is a brand name, like Kleenex, and we don't always buy the name brand resealable zipper bags, but you get what I mean.
In PNG, you'll see pictures like above, people drying their ziplock bags on the clothesline outside, or in the dish dryer inside. Because they are re-usable and useful, hard to get, and sometimes pricey.
Whenever I empty a ziplock in the U.S. I often look at it, and if it is too dirty I throw it away. In the time that it drifts down into the trash, I have two thoughts:
-I miss PNG
-I would NEVER have thrown away that practically new ziploc in PNG!
and then I guiltily glance left and right and make sure no other missionary saw me being so WASTEFUL! (=
Here's my peccadillo about Ziplocs freezerbags:
A ziploc bag is a very very handy thing to have around, especially when you have a child who is prone to car-sickness. It is more useful than tupperware, because you can throw it away.
When you don't have a ziploc available, you can make due, but life is harder.
When you run out of ziploc bags, you usually wish you had more almost instantly.
We don't often buy the nice ziplock name brand bags.
(remember that commercial with the buzzing bees in the bag, and shaking the bag loose? Which bag do you trust? Apparently we trust whichever is cheapest. It's worth risking a few stings.)
Years ago, before becoming missionaries, my wife had splurged and used a coupon to get the nice big freezer bag Ziplocks. Yellow and blue make green indeed! There was a satisfying clicking as my fingers moved along the zip, that I enjoyed. It said to me 'this is the cadillac of zipper bags, you have finally arrived, you can afford the nice resealable plastic bags'.
For me growing up, we never had a lot of money, but our parents made sure we kids didn't realize that. Still, there were certain items I had in my head as 'rich kid items'. Stuff that I might see when I visited friends houses and thought 'wow, they have THAT, that's rich kid stuff.'
For example, Eggo brand freezer waffles. To me, that was rich kid stuff.
Ziploc brand freezer bags was also 'rich kid stuff'.
Anyway... on the very day that we had purchased those nice ziploc bags ( I mean, they were new, not even disturbed enough in the box so that they were all messed up, they were still silky smooth and organized in a tight roll) , a friend asked me 'oh hey, by the way, do you have a ziploc I can borrow?'
Unfortunately for that friend of mine, some 15 years ago (before moving to PNG), he accidentally stepped on not 1 but 2 of my pet peeve mines.
I unleashed a lecture upon him, with other friends watching on, that forever garnered me as 'That Weird Ziploc Guy' in the eyes of some of my friends.
"Borrow? Do you really intend to return it to me? Don't you mean have? Unless you're going to go to the store and buying me a brand new freezerbag, which by the way, cost about 16 cents each... I suspect you mean HAVE. Would you ask me for 16 cents so cavalierly?"
"And while we're on the topic, NO, no you can not have one of my ziploc bags. The tone in the way you asked me told me you didn't really value the ziploc bag enough. You asked so flippantly like you were asking me for a handful of sand, or maybe some pocket lint. Don't you realize the importance and the usefulness of Ziploc bags?! No, I won't give you one of my precious ziplocs, because I don't think you appreciate them well enough. Perhaps going without one will help you to appreciate them more."
Knowing me, the guy thought I was joking. He asked "Man, are you being serious right now?" To be honest, I wasn't. I was allowing my imagination to run my mouth, of course I would have given any friend a 16 cent gift of ziploc any time they would ask. But I was so impressed with my own rant, that I decided to press my luck.
"I'm dead serious. Good luck finding something else to hold your stuff in. Maybe next time you'll bring your own ziplocs." I really had to keep from laughing at that point. I decided I was investing in this gag fully. But it backfired a bit, because the guys assumed I had gone mental. To be completely honest, there is some odd emotional attachment I have with ziplocs, but none so great as to deny one to a friend whose leg I am not currently pulling.
Later my brother in law told me "Dude, every time I use a ziploc I remember you going off on that guy."
I say all this to my great shame, and to illustrate a point.
When I arrived in PNG, people were WASHING their ziplock bags. These people valued their ziplocs.
It was one of the dozens of quirky things about the place, that made me feel totally 'home'. Like God had designed me to live there.
And so, seeing a freezer bag makes me homesick for PNG.
(if anyone knows anyone over there at S.C. Johnson and Son, tell them my story and tell them I'd happily be a spokesperson for them in PNG!)
