Personally, I have never entered any hotel in OlKalou town and sat down to eat anything. We were trained like that growing up and it stuck with me to adulthood. Growing up, we were reminded constantly that food prepared in hotels in town was for travelers passing through town, who had no other choice but to stop and eat, and for people who worked in town.
For us, our parents constantly reminded us we had plenty of food at home, and our visits to town were rare and very brief when they happened, eliminating the need to eat anything while we were in town. We were also not the family of “Mirio na Miago” translation “Delicacies and Fun”. That was our parents plan for us. We begged to differ but didn’t say a word. We simply obliged.
The only thing we ever had in town was soda, drank straight from the bottle, either leaning on the shop counter or standing outside on the shop veranda. Such soda was usually bought for us by an adult who knew our family.
That was something we remembered for a long time, because it was a rare occurrence. But when it did happen and we had our taste of Coke, Tarino, Pepsi, Sprite, Seven Up or Fanta, I now wonder if soda had more fizz back then, or it was our bodies that were not accustomed to such gases. After finishing that 300ml bottle of soda, the entire of that day, we kept burping some very strong bubbly gases that exited through our noses and mouths, nearly choking and blinding us temporarily.
You might think that was uncomfortable for us. No, it wasn’t. We actually enjoyed it instead, because it was sensational and the flavored fumes of the soda we drank earlier spread through our esophagus, nose and mouth, reminding us of our good fortune. Gross, but we enjoyed it immensely.
