Mightier Than The Sword III

In Mightier Than The Sword II, I mentioned how a foreign retail and fast food company in Ghana was infested with cockroaches. I also mentioned the company has three shops in Ghana with the latest barely a month old (now, it should be about two months old). I reported how for the love of consuming food that wasn't cockroach infested, I'd decided to ditch this shop and try out this company's new shop (hoping cockroaches hadn't yet discovered it).

To the best of my knowledge (and my ever curious eyes), cockroaches have not discovered the new shop (yet). The cockroaches got beaten to this discovery by the flies. Found this out two days before Christmas.

Flies around food really is no news in Ghana (not much of a big deal). It's something we see over here everyday especially since there appears to be this desire to sell and buy food next to open gutters. Thing is, when some of us do not have that desire and choose to walk into a shop (totally away from any gutter, open or otherwise) and spend good money there, we don't expect to get what we can get cheaper and more conveniently by the gutter (especially when the shop is located in a mall).

The other reason I am writing about this is, you should see this shop. It's got cleaners moving around all the time (I almost got knocked over by one cleaner who was in too much of a hurry to mop the floor right under my feet). One would definitely think if a fly made its way into this shop, their over zealous cleaners will spot it instantly and get rid of it before a curious shopper (yours truly) saw it. Interesting thing is, I stood by the display case (which I should add is refrigerated) for more than 10 minutes, taking pictures etc. and still no cleaner. Yes the fly looked immobilised (possibly by the cold) and I saw it next to covered food, but trust me, even if I had seen the fly next to packaged tissue, I'd still have been disgusted (who said it wasn't done with the open food anyways and was just taking a break cooling off). The sight of a fly (even though I am very Ghanaian) is not one I want to contend with. How is cholera spread again? And typhoid fever? And leprosy (yes, leprosy)? Flies are interesting like that and can carry parasites and diseases transferring them from one point to another. Show me an open gutter or a pile of rubbish, and I'll show you at least one fly.

Oh? Why are these sweet looking cakes covered? I could do with some dessert. Well, let me just cool off for now. Hearty lunch I just had - said the fly

I didn't do this in Mightier Than The Sword II, but I'll do it here.

Apple juice for me now, will have a bit of doughnut later - said the cockroach with a sweet tooth

I should add that two days before New Year's day, I went to the first shop (the cockroach infested one) and I did not spot a single cockroach (at least not in the part of the shop I was in). Hopefully a permanent solution has been found to that situation.
What's that saying again though? "Once bitten, twice..." (I am very shy).