It’s interesting how some people among us prefer brown over green cover on the city’s landscape. I’m talking about those stubborn and weird folks who have openly expressed their unhappiness and anger at the present onset of rains. Who in their right state of mind would choose the recent onslaught of searing heat and dust storms over rain? I would only choose the heat over rain if I were a taxi motor rider, seeing as business grinds to a total halt for them whenever the skies open up. Or if I had enough money to visit those small amata na fanta bikonje shops ten times every day like I’ve been doing on account of the hell-sent weather. Talking of amata na fanta bikonje shops, they occasionally do sneak in hot stuff on their menu, so don’t get fooled by the name that seems to suggest otherwise. Well at least they do hot milk, inshyushyu. However I have on several occasions overheard other clients placing orders for inshyushyu ikonje; basically hot-cold milk. What’s that? Amata na fanta bikonje shops should come together in the spirit of ubumwe and craft a new and better-sounding name for not-so-hot, yet not-so-cold milk. We are still with milk shops. Why not? The rains are here, so it’s boom time for milk shops. Anyway, just like they need to consider coining a better-suited name for ‘not-so-cold and not-so-hot milk’, so is the case for some of the snacks they sell. Snacks like those tasty brown things made from wheat, and that they sell from the same container as the samosa but whose name still remains a mystery to many. In fact, who knows what those things are called? The only clue I seem to have about the name is that it alludes to knotting of a neck tie. I could go on and on about milk shops, but hey, this is supposed to be about the changing weather patterns. The return to rain is also good for vegetarian-leaning folks like me, for the obvious reason that it facilitates the return to life of otherwise cowardly crops like epinari (spinach), which must endure serious constipation in dry weather. Epinari is such a big coward that if it were a human being, it would not be admitted in the army. If it were admitted, its call of duty would be short-lived as death by firing squad would be its sure fate. In fact, this anecdote about spinach should serve as a clear lesson to all those young people with secret ambitions to join the armed forces but that are cowardly. That’s the fate that awaits cowards in most armies that I know.
