You have to know Swahili for this one, and have lived in Tanzania, and remember the time when plastic bags were scarce and a possession, not something you throw on the side of the road after the first use.
Up until about 5 years ago there used to be this old colonial lady in Arusha, called Mama Saska. She had a doctorate in something (I believe) and came from East Europe during colonial times. Any way she had to make a living after her husband died ages ago and did so by making floral arrangements for important meetings and weddings ( before Tanzanian women caught on). She drove this famous old car around, having bought it 50 years ago new.
She had this exotic garden with about every kind of flower and tree. I had fresh flowers to sell and she was one of my stops a couple of times per week. She always wanted my tuberose.
One day she told me this story.
She had two huge macadamia nut trees. As you might know Macadamia nuts are expensive. It was good money for her. It came a period when she was getting less nuts from the trees. She asked her assistant and the night watchman Paulo (name changed to protect the innocent) whether animals were eating them or something. Neither had any idea what was happening to them.
Then she noticed that in the evening there were a more on the ground than in the morning. So Mama Saska laid a trap. She decided to be outside when the night watchman Paulo left early in the morning, something she rarely witnessed.
The next morning she spied Paulo leaving with two big plastic bags with handles. (This was before the time of free plastic bags lying all over the place, given out free when you buy something in a shop.) She confronted Paulo as he reached the gate and demanded " what is in that bag?" Paulo had no option but to show her the contents, as she is a mzee, memsahib, and his boss.
Low and behold he had shelled the nuts, and sealed them in smaller clear plastic bags. Ready for sale. He probably had about 20,000shs worth of nuts bagged up. His salary at the time was 100shs per night.
Mama Saska was furious. Furious. As only a white memsahib can do, she berated Paulo, threatening to fire him, take him to the police , etc.
Poor Paulo had no recourse but to hand over the bags of nuts in the two big plastic bags. His lucrative side business was over.
But he had the balls in the end to say "Na mifuko wangu je?" (= what about my plastic bags, you got to give those back.)
(nb: I was going to correct that to "mifuko yangu" but I think he probably did say it the way I wrote it, certainly mama Saska said it wrongly, as I do most of the time.)
Up until about 5 years ago there used to be this old colonial lady in Arusha, called Mama Saska. She had a doctorate in something (I believe) and came from East Europe during colonial times. Any way she had to make a living after her husband died ages ago and did so by making floral arrangements for important meetings and weddings ( before Tanzanian women caught on). She drove this famous old car around, having bought it 50 years ago new.
She had this exotic garden with about every kind of flower and tree. I had fresh flowers to sell and she was one of my stops a couple of times per week. She always wanted my tuberose.
One day she told me this story.
She had two huge macadamia nut trees. As you might know Macadamia nuts are expensive. It was good money for her. It came a period when she was getting less nuts from the trees. She asked her assistant and the night watchman Paulo (name changed to protect the innocent) whether animals were eating them or something. Neither had any idea what was happening to them.
Then she noticed that in the evening there were a more on the ground than in the morning. So Mama Saska laid a trap. She decided to be outside when the night watchman Paulo left early in the morning, something she rarely witnessed.
The next morning she spied Paulo leaving with two big plastic bags with handles. (This was before the time of free plastic bags lying all over the place, given out free when you buy something in a shop.) She confronted Paulo as he reached the gate and demanded " what is in that bag?" Paulo had no option but to show her the contents, as she is a mzee, memsahib, and his boss.
Low and behold he had shelled the nuts, and sealed them in smaller clear plastic bags. Ready for sale. He probably had about 20,000shs worth of nuts bagged up. His salary at the time was 100shs per night.
Mama Saska was furious. Furious. As only a white memsahib can do, she berated Paulo, threatening to fire him, take him to the police , etc.
Poor Paulo had no recourse but to hand over the bags of nuts in the two big plastic bags. His lucrative side business was over.
But he had the balls in the end to say "Na mifuko wangu je?" (= what about my plastic bags, you got to give those back.)
(nb: I was going to correct that to "mifuko yangu" but I think he probably did say it the way I wrote it, certainly mama Saska said it wrongly, as I do most of the time.)
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