Andrea's special realization

Cocoa Wah Wah has become one of my favorite watering holes here in Cape Town. It’s a café on Main Road in Rondebosch with three sister restaurants (Cocoa Cha Chi and Cocoa Oola and Cocoa Expresso) in neighboring parts of Cape Town. It’s not a superbly African café, rather it’s usually full of American study abroad students doing homework and using the Internet vouchers, but I love it for what it is anyway. I work at two different cafes at home, and the atmosphere is comforting to return to. My favorite items on the menu are the crushes, a sort of Frappuccino-esque blended ice beverage that can be Coffee, Mocha, Chocolate, Vanilla Chai – or any of a long list of flavors. The other day as I stood at the counter waiting for my take-away coffee crush, I stared into the kitchen through the pass-through window the waiters use for food. I heard the blender go on and so I tilted my head to see the crush being made. It grumbled for thirty seconds before Richard (one of the waiters I’ve befriended and the person who was making it) turned it off and poured it into a cup. He filled it to the top, then moved the blender pitcher down to fill two small cups with what was leftover. He covered my drink, put it in the pass-through window and rang the bell so someone at the register would turn around and bring it to the counter where I was. As I waited for someone to grab my drink out of the window, I stared back inside the kitchen. 

Richard had picked up the two cups with leftovers and brought one over to his friend working there too, he passed him a cup, they clinked glasses, and drank the leftovers as if they were shots. I laughed to myself because I do the same exact thing with my coworkers where I work. I’m supposed to throw away all leftovers in the sink, but my friends and I drink them in sample cups if it’s a good drink someone ordered. The moment reminded me of home so much. I’m still planning my summer, trying to figure out whether I want to pursue an internship in public health, or just work where I usually do and spend time with my parents learning how to farm, but it made me nostalgic for work. I know I’ve realized it before, but sometimes Cape Town seems very foreign – filled with people who are completely different from myself – but it really hit home again that people are the same everywhere. We all have different cultures, languages, tendencies, and perspectives, but in the same environment and atmosphere, people are the same everywhere and it’s sort of a beautiful realization.