There's a Coke Light shortage in Lusaka. Not a Diet Coke shortage (it doesn't exist here), not a Coke shortage (ubiquitous and unavoidable, as it is in most places throughout the globe), not a Pepsi Light shortage (a newly-opened plant in Lusaka covers that territory) but Coke Light. I've surveyed about 5 different grocery stores and 3 or 4 different gas stations that have been known to stock the addictive caffeine-laden soft drink, but to no avail. It's not even that I crave it so intensely, but the mere knowledge that it's nowhere to be found piques my interest, jogs my yearnings, and leaves me determined to find it at any cost. Scouring shelves, asking stock-boys why it's missing or when it's coming in, contemplating packing my purse the one time I find it out at a bar on a Saturday night...It becomes a mission, solely for the game of it. It also causes me to re-evaluate what we so often take for granted at home: the ease of acquiring a Diet Coke, the size and shape of soda cans (they come in heavier cans here, deceptively sturdy, so you think you have a whole mouthful left when all that remains is really only a trickle), recycling the leftover aluminum (or pinching off the tab to apparently make wheelchairs – why they can't use the entire can I still can't figure out...). It forces me to remember that despite the fact that we have big South African chain supermarkets out here, things still often work at a different pace. And you know what? Often they do eventually materialize – I walked into the store Monday and guess what was stacked 4 feet high? Six-packs of Coke Light. I have yet to buy one...
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