“The Rise of Carwash”

Over a decade ago, there was this place that was a swamp turned to a Car washing bay, apart from the few buildings that doubled as the office and a sort of men’s hair salon as well as a shed for a pool table, there was literary nothing more to boast of. Of course not forgetting the iron roofed structure that served as the car shed as the boys did theirthing, and the “nyakatsi” (grass thatched hut), the place was a preserve for car owners that came to have their cars washed. As the religious say, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop” and hence, the owners of the place decided to introduce a bar of a sort; this bar was special in that, it kept the owners of the cars being washed from being used as thedevil’s workshops. In its early days, the place was the only source of the famous “Inzogera”, a friend of mine used to make his order by shouting out, “nzanira inzogera ikonje cyane” (bring me a very cold Bell), of course other tribes eventually found their way there. There was no the likes of Wahome nor the Tuskers and the so called “Nyama chomas but, we always settled for our Bellos as a form of “throat wash” accompanied by some not so well done “brochettes” (barbecued meat). This reminds me of Gafa who used to call them “Bull Shits”, maybe out of his little knowledge in Mr. Sarkozy’s lingua franca or because they both were bull products! Whatever the case maybe, the goddamn stuff always tasted great! After all, those that had cars to wash made up about 25%, the rest were either invitees or escorts (flukes) that frequented the place in a bid to find someone they happened to know, who happened to have brought his car or that of his relative’s relative for a wash! Then without warning, some overzealous business entrepreneurs decided to take over the place and turn it around for the best. They renovated the weather beaten structures, modernized the place somehow, built a Kitchen and improved on the floor of the main grass structure; they introduced a nice bar as well as improved on the open area. This did not come at no cost; they decided to change the place from washing cars to roasting edibles. In brief, they had re-branded the place from Carwash to “Roasters”. Come D day, the pace was ready for a grand launch and that on New Year’s Eve in the year 2002. Come New Year’s Day (2003) Carwash aka Roasters was the place to be. Surely, Roasters was second to none, we ate, drunk and partied all nights long till the wee hours of the morning. The success of Roasters aka Carwash did not come on a silver plate, word had it that, there was a simmering “civil war” between the two neighbouring joints .i.e. Roasters and Cadillac Club, that, Roasters was taking away many of the would be revellers to Cadillac! Why not? Why pay for a dance when you could have a whole night of merrymaking by just buying beers at their normal price? Apart from being so spacious, Roasters had plenty of climates (as the late Dr. Idi Amin Dada VC DSO MC would have said) and hence no need for the so called air conditioners! (to be cont’d) mfashumwana@fastmail.fm