Last week when my househelper opened a cupboard to put away
some empty food containers, as she often will do after washing dishes, she was
met with an avalanche. Yes, I had
intended to tidy up that cupboard for some time now, but instead, I simply
tossed each new empty peanut butter jar, milk liter bottle or margarine tub in
and closed the door quickly. After all,
I just might be able to use those containers someday, but didn’t have time to
organize them right then…Can anyone relate?
Indeed, I have used milk caps for homemade game pieces,
yogurt tubs with a few beans or buttons inside for shaker instruments and dish
detergent bottles as squirt guns for the kids, but do I really need all that
filled my cupboard?
No, I don’t.
So, I offered some of those containers to my house helper
who had gladly taken empty containers before.
She eagerly accepted and we filled two grocery bags full. Today I asked her what she did with all of
them. She smiled and said that she sold
them. I was glad, as I assumed this was
their fate. Upon the end of her work day
today I commented that I needed to do some cleaning up and would look for more
containers for her to sell. I glanced up
at a shelf in my kitchen and found around 15 empty spice jars.
I have been at a loss of what to do with them
since they are glass and I don’t want the kids throwing them around in their
pretend kitchen, so I asked her if they were sellable.
House Helper: “Yes,
madam, they are expensive!”
Me: “Who wants to buy
an empty spice jar? What do they do with
them?
HH: “Take-Out
restaurants buy them to put salt in.”
Me: “Oh, that makes
sense. How much can you get for one?”
HH: “Oh, they are
expensive….100 kwacha”
Me: “Really?!” (this amounts to about half an hour of work
in common wages)
HH: “Oh yes!”
I proceeded to pass 11 jars down to her, keeping a few for
my own homemade spice concoctions, cinnamon sugar shaker, etc.
HH: “Zikomo kwambili (thank
you very much), madam, you give me food!”
Me: “Zikomo (you’re welcome)! And how about the other containers here?”
HH: “The 2 liter oil
bottle is 30 kwacha, the 5 liter is 50 kwacha, the tin can 10 kwacha.”
Me: “Well, as I clean
the garage and pantry, I will look for more containers for you!”
HH: “Zikomo
kwambili!”
As our language teacher told us in a lesson about Malawian
culture “Everything is useful!” Things
we are likely to throw away without a second thought because they are broken or
empty are likely to be useful to someone here.
As a mother of preschoolers, many things like toilet paper tubes are
indispensable for making dinosaurs for my dino-crazy son as well, but to learn
that my cluttered cupboards can help feed a family is something else
altogether!
