Buying groceries

Buying groceries is an all-day affair here. I caught a ride on the bus
to Solwezi, which leaves at 4:30 in the morning. Sort of. Actually, it
leaves in front of the hospital at 4:30 (this is what wakes me up most
mornings with its beeping as it backs up outside my door) but then
drives around in hopeful circles, trying to entice people out of their
homes for an early morning jaunt on the bus for 4 hours. I can't
imagine that this strategy of passenger recruitment is very successful,
but it seems to be the SOP around here, with the effect that the bus
leaves at 4:40 from the hospital but 6:00 from the town 3 minutes away.
I was the last guy on board, so I was stuck on the broken seat that
leaned to the side and was balanced on a plastic jug, a problem which I
felt in my lower back for several days afterwards.
Solwezi is a whirlwind tour, as you have to get your shopping done
between arrival at 9:30 and 1pm or you miss the only bus back. I was
again the last person on the bus, which was 'oversold' this time, but
without the nifty gift certificates and travel vouchers that you get at
home for oversold flights -- just a hauling up of your luggage onto the
roof and an offer to stand for the 3 hour trip back. Since most of the
people around Kasempa know me by now, I got a seat as they made the 12
year old kid stand; selfish of me, but I accepted the seat.
I don't have to go to Solwezi to eat; just to buy fancy things like
olive oil or chocolate or cheese. You think long and hard about how
much you want that cheese, though, when it takes that kind of effort to
procure. And of course my yoghurt containers exploded over the rest of
my groceries on the way home, giving my backpack a 'mango-pineapple'
sort of smell. Not bad, but hard to get rid of.