Winkelen

Alleen al het blikje Lyle's Golden Syrup zien doet mij watertanden. Het goudgele goedje smelt op mijn tong en verwarmt mijn hart.
Er was namelijk maar een grotere supermarkt in Ethiopie. Het droeg de heldhaftige naam "Victory". Waar die victory op sloeg was iedereen een raadsel, want de winkel was vaker leeg dan vol.
Maar af en toe kon je een blikje van dit spul kopen. Dat was dan een traktatie.
Op de Injera Westerns pagina op facebook stond de volgende beschrijving van boodschappen doen bij Victory. Ik ga het niet voor je vertalen, maar als je het globaal leest, dan snap je hoe ingewikkeld boodschappen doen soms kon zijn.

" I used to go to Victory, shopping with my Mom. They had the world’s most complicated check-out system. Only certain items could be put in your shopping cart, the rest remained behind the counters until you had paid for it. For example for cheese you had to go to the cheese counter, ask for what you wanted, have the person write out a note with the name of the item, the weight and the price listed. Each note came in two different copies and colors, I think. One copy was left with your chosen items, which were put in a plastic bag. The other you held on to until you were ready to pay. There were quite a few different counters (and oh yes, the chocolate and candy bars were behind one of them! ). Once you were done shopping, you would bring all your notes to the check-out counter, have the cashier sum them up plus write a new note listing each and every item that was in your shopping cart. Then after having paid, you had to run around the store and collect your items (handing back the notes, so that they could be matched with the correct copy + plastic bag). Once you were done and before you were allowed to leave the store, each and every item was counted and compared to the shopping receipt. If there was a mis-match, it would take forever to be corrected. Yet we were the priviledged ones who could shop there. Quite often there would be people standing outside asking us to buy sugar. Sometimes we did."