No Brushing, No Akara

It's been over eight years! 

When my father was alive, he owned and managed a soap manufacturing factory. Every weekend, he drove the family down there. My dad was a kind of person that loved to make his children know the worth and value of things. That was the reason it was made compulsory for us all to go there. We even had to do minor things in soap making process and I must say that I learnt quite a lot. Then, it almost seemed like a burden but my siblings and I now understand better.

Every Saturday morning, dad stopped to buy akara at Awawu bus stop, our nearest bus stop. It didn't serve as our breakfast but as 'mouth warmer' to keep the mouth busy throughout the ride. The Yoruba people call it 'ipanu'. 

We didn't like to be left behind at home. We'd have to trek to the bus stop to board a bus. Walking from our house down to the bus stop is about thirty minutes. Apart from the stress, we knew we would miss akara so we all tried to be ready before dad switched on the ignition.

After buying, dad placed the opened nylon of akara in between the seats at the front with its suicidal aroma attacking our noses at the back seat. One after the other, we dipped our hands in the nylon and took akara balls till none was left. Dad ate with us and took turns too in picking. Talk about love and joy unspeakable! 

I don't know how but I think dad discovered there were times that not all of us brushed before jumping into the car. Maybe one of us had spilled that little dirty  secret unconsciously and dad had heard. 

The following Saturday, as usual, dad bought akara. Guess what he said? 

"If you know you have not brushed your teeth, don't pick any akara."

Gbam! We were good children (we still are) and we weren't taught to lie. Even when one of us tried to lie, we jokingly exposed the person and we all laughed it off. One of my brothers was on this table. Dad was really serious about it and my brother couldn't eat with the rest of us. 

Since we all knew the new ticket to partaking in the weekly akara feast, we made sure we brushed because dad still asked again.