Great People

There are some great people here. One of them is the guy in charge of the corner shop downstairs.

Tonight when I tried to make supper I couldn't get the stove to light. A quick check verified my suspicion- our gas bottle had run empty. Like most people here, we use 5 liter gas bottles on an exchange system. When your bottle runs out you go to the nearest place that sells gas and exchange it for a full one. We are amazingly fortunate in our apartment because our nearest place to exchange bottles is the corner shop downstairs.

I unscrewed the bottle from the stove and carried it downstairs to the shop. The guy in charge of the shop wasn't there- it was just his assistant running the place. When he saw that I had an empty bottle he said, "I hope we've got a replacement." He looked through two stacks of bottles leaning against the wall but they were all empties. Then he went into the back room. He emerged with a bottle that looked like it had been dragged behind a truck for a couple of miles. But it was full, and that was what mattered.

I payed him for the gas and started back up the stairs, carefully holding the bottle out in front of me so I wouldn't get grimy marks all over my shorts and T-shirt. I've had this T-shirt since 2001 so it would be a shame to mess it up now!

Unfortunately a bottle full of gas is a lot more heavy than an empty bottle. I was doing my best to appear manly and strong as I struggled to navigate the twisty staircase with my awkward burden, but I still had a slight grimace on my face.

I came around a corner halfway up the stairwell and met the shop manager, who was coming down. He saw me before I had a chance to wipe all signs of the grimace from my face and promptly insisted on carrying the bottle up the stairs for me. I refused, but before I could say anything more he grabbed the bottle, wheeled around, and marched up the stairs ahead of me. When we got to the top of the stairs he plunked the bottle next to our front door, duffed his hat (in my imagination- he didn't have a hat in real life) and trotted back down the steps. I tried to say "thank you" in his language but I messed it up. He got a kick out of it anyway and I heard his laughter echo up the stairwell. What a great guy.