Sophie’s New Kitchen Provides Shelter from the Storm
“It’s been raining for three days and guess what I’ve been sleeping like a baby! No more worries about the food getting wet. I now know that if you are at peace, the shower of rain on the roof is like a lullaby.”
For many years, Sophie dreaded the rainy season because if the maize meal, an African food staple got wet, a month’s worth of food would be destroyed. Sophie was used to getting up at night to put the buckets on the kitchen floor.
But now with the new kitchen, the days of dreading the rains are over. Sophie doesn’t worry about the leaky roof, the cracks in the walls, and the rain seeping into her tin bins.
In Sophie’s Creche Kitchen, the pink and grey plastic bowls are for washing dishes. The tin bins are for storing food. The metal bins she uses are handmade with pliers and a hammer from a street vendor, who collects scrap metal. No one knows where they get their metal and it’s best not to ask.
Sophie bought the bins because they were cheaper than plastic containers. It’s not apparent, but metal bins leak because the corners of the bin and lid never quite seal the metal pieces together. For “extra care” Sophie would put plastic over the bins with bricks. Often, she put the bins on bricks or another container to keep them off the floors in case they flooded.
She no longer has to worry about the rainy season. And when it rains, it no longer causes anxiety or fear. For Sophie, the rains are now a soft lullaby lulling her to a restful night of sleep.