Thursday, April 8, 2010

Mafa Kilda is movin on up!

Newsflash, newsflash, Mafa Kilda now has...(drumroll please)..cold drinks. Last week I eyed the "freezer" in one of the boutiques. "what is that?!!! What's in it? Are there drinks?!" Yes. 5 small cokes. Yes indeedy sir step right up for a cold drink that may be about the temperature of if you took it out of a refrigerator at home and sat it on the counter for about 10-20 minutes. Now I have gotten very used to drinking hot water. This time of year, that is what it is. Yest hot, not boiling, but like you cooked it on the stove or microwaved it for a bit. And the beauty is, I like it. The thing is when you're hot and parched water, any water, is wonderful, and I gulp it down appreciatively. But...now there is the possibilty of, every now and then, a cold drink--Coke. That's a dififcult thing to pass up. So tonight, I bought one. Clutching it like a baby in its little black plastic sac on the way home in the dark, I felt its coolness against my stomach and worried that its seconds there against my skin wouldn't take away too much of its chill. And the anticipation the way home was immense. I had already cooked at lunchtime. All I would have to do was warm up the lentils, sit on my porch, open the cold drink and enjoy the sweet and cool end to a long days work. So you can imagine my disapointment when I got to my kitchen and after looking around a bit realized I don't have a bottle opener! Nor do my neighbors as everyone just uses their teeth. Now I know if they do it anyway, I could have just asked them to open mine, but if I'm not willing to risk breaking my own teeth I can't justify asking them to. After tryign that option for a milisecond, I passed on it, not willing to trade a cracked tooth for a Coke, and went through my kitchen utensils, the wooden posts of the hangar off my porch, and other tricks all to no avail, counting the seconds going by and with that the coolness leaving. So I gave up deciding I'd take it back in the morning, get my money back, and buy a bottle opener in Garoua! Instead, I ate a fresh mango, which afterall is just as sweet, and while lacking the coolness factor, is certainly more healthy and 1/12th the price!
I say though, cold drinks! Mafa Kilda is moving on up in the world. Electricity in September, a pump (now broken for the second time) and Callbox (where I we can buy phone credit) in October, and now cold drins in March! It's as people say here, practically the city!

1 comment:

Rick and Nancy said...

Your Dad and I deeply appreciate you refraining from using your teeth! All those thousands of dollars on orthodontics, you know...
Love, Mom