Lekan! Lekan!!, I heard my mum calling my brother's name. She stood outside with her arms akimbo.
“Maaaaaaaa!”, His response came not more than five seconds after. I heard footsteps as he walked hurriedly to find out what my mum needed.
“How did these matchsticks get finished? I just bought it two days ago”, I heard her ask him while showing him an empty matchbox.
I quickly stood up from the bed where I was lying down in the room and peeped outside from the window.
I saw my brother scratching his head, looking for an answer that won't land him in trouble.
“I-I-”, he stammered.
“You-what?” “You have finished it again right?”, she asked, looking at him angrily. I watched her thinking of how to punish him for wasting the matchsticks again but she gave him some money instead and told him to quickly get her another matchbox from a woman selling it in the next street.
I laughed as I watched him take the money and quickly ran off. He is fond of wasting matchsticks all in the name of cooking.
Back then before gas became commonly used for cooking. We always use a kerosene stove and a coal pot for cooking. We use the latter mostly because it is a very affordable and fastest method of cooking,especially when we want to cook foods like beans.
Sometimes we would be lucky to get a very dried charcoal which won't take time to light them up for cooking but sometimes we weren't that lucky that it would almost take forever to light up the charcoal.
In times like that, I don't even stress myself too much. I would just use a small foam to take a little kerosene from the stove and pour it on the charcoal and with one matchstick, the fire would start burning in it and in no time, my cooking would begin.
But our uncle Lekan(colloquial) would say “Noooo” he has a method that wouldn't require kerosene. That's when he will bring out almost all the used books in the house and start cutting them. He would place used nylons and the papers inside the coal pot before placing the charcoal on it. Then he would light a matchstick on the paper and expect miracles to start happening.
While his method is commendable, the downside to it is that he would end up using about 10-15 matchsticks before he could finally get the fire going. Plus he would also use a handfan to keep blowing the fire so it could light up well.
The foodie in me is always impatient whenever it's his turn to cook as I would start calculating when the food is supposed to be ready when the pot isn't yet on the fire.
I am a foodie, so I’m down for any method that would help the food get ready faster. But my brother would rather do all his serenren (unnecessary, over-the-top) cooking style while I would watch with my stomach grumbling for food.
There was a day I could no longer stand the torture. He had been fanning the coal pot for what seemed like a “decade”, trying to get the fire to light up.
“Oga, pour small kerosene inside this thing and allow us to eat on time na”, I told him, trying to get him to see reasons from my hungry perspective.
“Don't you know adding kerosene into the charcoal all the time would affect the food's flavour?”, he asked, giving me a smirk.
“What? That's absurd. All the food I’ve been preparing all this while, haven't you enjoyed them?”, I asked, boring holes into him with my eyes.
He didn't even respond. Well, he knows better than to condemn my cooking. He just waved, dismissing my idea.
As soon as the fire was ready for use,he finished cooking in no time. We always did enjoy his food but the waiting period isn't always fun. His wastage of the matchsticks didn't stop as well despite my mum's warnings that he should learn to stop wasting it almost all the time.
As if things couldn't get worse. One day, I had an early appointment to get to. I quickly got ready before dawn and decided to reheat some leftovers from the food we prepared for dinner the previous day, so I won't go out on an empty stomach. I went into the kitchen and placed the food into a pot. I took the matchbox ready to light a fire to the stove and once again I was met with an empty matchbox.
Groaning out loudly. I screamed. “Lekan!!!”. I didn't mean to call out his name seeing that he was older and such was not acceptable in my culture but the anger that rose within me that morning was unique. That anger could have razed down the statue of Liberty, hehe.
Lekan paid me no heed and continued sleeping. I was left in the kitchen, staring at the empty match box. The match box that my mom gave him money to buy just a few days ago. *"Mtchewww, this guy doesn't understand the rule of waste not want not right? No problem, he will get what's coming for him soon.
That morning, I had to trouble our next door neighbour for some match sticks. My neighbour, Mummy Kareem was kind enough to give me some amount of match sticks which I put inside the empty matchbox I was holding.
I quickly placed the leftover food in a clean pot, started a fire and warmed up the food. After doing that, I ate and was ready to leave when a thought occurred to me. "I'll give him a taste of his own medicine today", I thought to myself as I carried the matchbox which contained some match sticks given to me by Mummy Kareem.
I went inside and hid the match sticks box in one of my handbags, a place where I knew he wouldn't dare touch. I left for my appointment after I was done hiding the matchbox.
Later in the day.......
I came back from where I went earlier that morning only to find my able Brother Lekan sitting outside the house with a gloomy face.
I inquired what the matter was from him and he was kind enough to reply with "is it not because I have not been able to prepare food as there are no match sticks anymore?", he replied.
"Did you try to borrow some from the neighbours?", I asked him further.
His reply was "they (being my neighbours) refused to give me some. They said that they would not give me any matchsticks and they asked me to wait for mom to get back".
Immediately he finished speaking, his stomach rumbled like thunder on a stormy night and I could not help but feel sorry for him.
"This is the reason why you don't waste resources. If you can learn to manage the way you use some things, you will have them to use in the future", I said to him and he nodded in affirmation.
"Give me a minute let me get some matchsticks for you", I told him before going inside the house to fetch some sticks for him to use.
The broad smile on his face after I handed him some matchsticks was contagious. I smiled as well. He thanked me and quickly rushed to the kitchen to prepare something to satisfy his hunger. Looking at him happily preparing food in the kitchen, I hoped that he understood the proverb I had earlier mentioned
Thank you all for reading.