Cabbages and Queens

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings."


After an inter-office brawl, I banged the door and skipped and hopped to one of my favourite restaurants in town. I found myself at Mama Susu's on Gurley Street and decided to treat myself to a scrumptious 3 PM lunch. 

I hugged her and asked her about her health. Her rheumatism is worse than ever and she even mentioned a ruptured blood vessel near her eye but what is really disturbing her these days is the state of affairs in Syria. A pro-government proud citizen of her country, Mama Susu seems to be increasingly affected by the violence and the West's talk of intervention. 

I told her she needs to take a break and really think about retiring back in her village in Syria, surrounded by her family. She says she can't wait for the day but since her business has started to thrive again after so many hiccups - including illness and a couple of civil wars - she wants to be sure she can leave it in safe hands. 

We sat down to chat and I admired a moving digital Chinese landscape which she had recently purchased and kept hynotising me. 

I ate the special of the day: pasta and fried sambousik. The pasta sauce so delicious that I ate a whole bowl and a half. In fact, Mama Susu also ate along side me and we passed a nice hour chatting and enjoying our food. 

I convinced Mama Susu to come out for a walk with me back to the office which she had not visited since we had moved in. She agreed and we walked arm in arm up to Randall Street and she kept observing the little odd changes since she had not been out for a walk in a while. Anyone living and working in Liberia will notice the massive construction of new buildings and renovation of old ones going on in the capital - a healthy sign of change.

She said she wanted to make a quick detour to Benson Street to see if she could get some vegetables. She was looking for tomatoes and cabbages in particular. We reached the sellers adjacent and opposite Monoprix Supermarket and, there was definitely a dearth of the produce. We did see some cabbages at one woman's vegetable stand and Mama Susu bought almost all the produce she had. She bought them for 100 LD a pound while normally it goes for 75 LD. Most of these vegetables come from Guinea by road but because of various constraints are not readily available. We couldn't find any tomatoes. 

We took the produce to Monoprix where Mama Susu bought some more goods she needed for her stock and asked the Supermarket to have them delivered to her restaurant. 

While she was shopping, it really re-inforced the problems faced by businesses here. Imagine, vegetables are imported into this most fertile and naturally blessed country! Some produce is grown here but it certainly doesn't meet demand and also is affected by high costs of transportation on really bad roads.  

We then strolled over to our office but not before she stopped at Stop & Shop on Randall Street where she luckily found more cabbage and stocked up again.

My favourite bit of the walk was us eating almond Magnum ice cream bars while strolling down Randall Street, arm in arm. 

Mama Susu loved our office, especially our wooden floor. I served her a coffee from my Nespresso machine which she had with a couple of cigarettes. She remarked that our office was surprisingly very quiet and peaceful. 

She was still in an energetic mood so I also took her to show her our apartment and rooftop garden. She said she was proud that we had made such a homely place. 

That was my day, utterly relaxing and stress free. If you ever have a quarrel with your business partner, just go to Mama Susu's for lunch and take her out for a stroll. You'll be doing yourself a big favour!