The little things: My beloved enamel mug
I dropped by SouleMama's blog today, and found a charming postcard. The coffee mug in her hand sent me on a quick memory line detour.
In the late nineties, I was a student in Edinburgh, One day I found myself in the canteen with a girl who's travelled a lot. She had this light, charming enamel mug in her bag - much nicer than the styrofoam throwaway cup I was drinking from just then. "That's nice," I said, "Where did you get that?" "Oh", she replied, "You get those everywere." That may very well be so, but I wasn't all that familiar with British shops apart from bookstores and grocery stores, so I asked again, only to reveal that the mug in question was bought on a campsite in ... Tanzania, I think it was.
I never bought such a cup just then. In 2001, however, I was in Alice, South Africa for a couple of months. There, I found simple enamelware in my local grocery store. Light and plain, it's just the kind of stuff I like to bring home as souvernirs. Every time I drink from my enamel cup or use the bowl I've got in my kitchen I send a grateful thought to South Africa and the people who shared their lives with me for eight precious weeks.