Doin' the "can can"

I am sometimes surprised at how resourceful I have become. I have a hole in my douche (shower) for water to drain outside. This drainage "system" is great except it invites stuff from outside into my house. The last volunteer that lived in my house just sat some kind of jar lid over the hole at night to shut out the light which attracts the little visitors in the first place. But, I saw a FAT roach (like he had been eating cornbread and greens) in my douche one night. As soon as I saw him I went looking for something to kill roachzilla. Upon my return, I saw him slide under the lid to his own little critter safe heaven. I yelled down the drain after him telling him not to come back and to be sure to warn his friends of the dangers of venturing into my house. I've heard that roaches tend to be unreliable so I devised a safeguard. I made a drain cover out of a tomato paste can. I cut one end off of the can and used my hammer and a medium sized nail to poke holes in the other end. Then, when "installing" my little piece of brilliance, I discovered that the can was fitting a bit snugly in the hole. So, I proceeded to "resize" it also know as hammer the hell out of it until it fit securely into the hole. I am so proud of myself!

I must be honest and state that I can't take full credit for the tomato-paste-drain-cover idea. I saw it at Jim's house in Dogboe. But I am still proud of myself for actually taking the initiative to make it myself. Plus, the custom resizing job... was all me.

As a matter of fact, you can do many, many amazing things with old cans. I don't have an oven here which is sad because anyone that knows me well knows that I love to bake. Well... no problem! Did you know that you can make your hot plate into an oven by using a big pot, some sand, and three tomato paste cans. Yeah... For real.

Here's How...

You cut both ends off the cans, throw some sand in the bottom of the pot, and place the cans in a sort of triangular configuration (or whatever best supports your baking pan), put your baking pan full of tasty goodness on top of the cans then set it... and forget it!

Well... actually... more like set it and don't worry about it for a while because it takes a while for stuff to cook this way.

Fine, fine. I doubt that Ron Poppeal will be selling the sandpot baking system on a latenight infomercial anytime soon but I still think that it's pretty neat. If you think about it.

What else.... Oh! I have used old coffee cans for holding pens and other knick knacks and have even made instruments out of them for the neighborhood kids. Not to mention that due to my bad luck with intestinal parasites and other stomach issues, Peace Corps medical offices are constantly receiving "Petite Cadeaus" or little presents from me also know as "samples". The item that I lovingly refer to as "My Official Peace Corps Projectile Specimen receptacle" (in laymens terms... a tuna can) comes in very handy.

Maybe I should have kept that to myself. But what story about the Peace Corps experience would be complete without a bit of toilet humor.

And now that you have ventured into the wonderful world of cans, I hope that you too will be inspired to turn your trash into treasure.

Current Reading List:

The Ugly American............................ William J. Leader + Eugene Burdick
A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
Confessions of a Shopaholic.............. Sophie Kinsella
The Economist
The Island of Dr. Moreau.................. H.G. Wells


Hey, send me your "canned" thoughts, feedback, or whatever at worldlysistah@yahoo.com