Butter is a rare commodity here. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen a single dairy cow here - so it's not just butter, but most dairy products that are tough to find. Rare things have an appeal of there own, but in Ghana, butter's appeal runs even deeper because the alternative, margarine, is completely unpalatable - easily the worst whipped oil product we've ever encountered...anywhere.
So when Heather sees butter in a cooler somewhere, often in our local gas station that also happens to stock Kirkland brand 'foodstuffs' (a term Rock uses frequently), she buys butter. I'm always happy to see butter in the fridge because it tends to be high quality 'foodstuffs' imported from Europe. But while I was away last month, Heather snapped...and did something in desperation that can only be described as culinary lunacy.
She cashed in our 401(k) and took a massive investment position in butter. Not butter futures...butter 'presents'...as in $50 of butter lining our freezer from end-to-end.
At first, I questioned the financial wisdom of this investment...but I'm beginning to see her logic.
Life here is simple but also unpredictable. With all the vicissitudes of life in Ghana - unreliable power and water (we're going on 7 of 8 days without water) - there is one comfort, one luxury that now no one can take away from us.
That's a bit of financial wisdom from my African Butter Queen you can take to the bank. That is my kind of self-reliance!
So when Heather sees butter in a cooler somewhere, often in our local gas station that also happens to stock Kirkland brand 'foodstuffs' (a term Rock uses frequently), she buys butter. I'm always happy to see butter in the fridge because it tends to be high quality 'foodstuffs' imported from Europe. But while I was away last month, Heather snapped...and did something in desperation that can only be described as culinary lunacy.
She cashed in our 401(k) and took a massive investment position in butter. Not butter futures...butter 'presents'...as in $50 of butter lining our freezer from end-to-end.
At first, I questioned the financial wisdom of this investment...but I'm beginning to see her logic.
Life here is simple but also unpredictable. With all the vicissitudes of life in Ghana - unreliable power and water (we're going on 7 of 8 days without water) - there is one comfort, one luxury that now no one can take away from us.
That's a bit of financial wisdom from my African Butter Queen you can take to the bank. That is my kind of self-reliance!
Heather and Travis... I can so empathize with this post. It is tooo funny!
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