Convenience

Convenience is very different here in the city than it is in the US. Let me give you just one example . . .

The last few days it’s been quite hot and I haven’t felt like cooking a hot meal in the evening. Instead, I decided to just have a salad, and so I walked about a block to the lady who makes and sells salad in the evenings. Thirty cents for a salad – lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, and dressing. Ten cents extra for mayonnaise, twenty cents extra for a hard boiled egg in it.

But when I went last night, the lady wasn’t at her stand so someone went into her courtyard to tell her that she had a customer. She didn’t come out quickly, and after a bit someone came and said she was taking a shower. (Here, it’s not awkward to talk about that!) My fast food just became a lot less fast. But I decided to work with the convenience of life here – I left my 50 cents (salad with egg, no mayonnaise) and the tupperware I brought with a lady sitting nearby and explained where my house was. And I went home. After a bit, a kid came and delivered my salad, in my tupperware, to my front door. Talk about service and convenience! (And no delivery fee, even!)