Seasons of my gut..

As I arise and head on out, to get on with the day's work, I see something that gets me nostalgic and yearning to relive those moments just for a minute. I see the warm and hefty ladies on the roadsides, sitting by their charcoal stoves, frying and warming their snacks to serve to their VIP clients that have brought meaning in survival for them and their families. These VIPs, mind you, are the little ones going to school, looking so fresh and full of hope for a new day, to see their friends,  some to tease others and some to defend others. The food vending seems to be an easy to start and lucrative business, because every other 5 metres is a lady selling her merchandise. 

What caught my eye though is how the day has just began but every lady's snack bucket is 3/4 way empty. These school kids are a serious market, it is routine for them to buy. For them, it is a way of life.  It is the eating pattern actually growing and grooming our little ones into young adults. 

For so many children and parents to have adopted this as a society norm, I doubt the kids fall sick over these foods. For so much variety of snacks being served with interesting nicknames like, tie a tie("musibatayi") for tea bites, "namungodi" for huge rice samosas, "mandazi" for doughnuts, I doubt that the kids are more in love with any other food snacks.

The way the kids speedily run in the chilly breeze to buy these snacks, I doubt the kids have anything more conveniently hot for their school mornings. 

I was one of these kids once, enjoying the morning food shopping tradition, though what I bought for break time would be eaten even before I entered the school gate, I was still good. Why the hell,  am I now troubled with toilet marathons or tummy cramps, when I attempt to munch on these snacks of my childhood that led me so well to the days of my youth?