Followers

Monday 28 March 2011

Day 58: The Ice Man Cometh (28/03/2011)

About 7am each day the streets of city echo to the sound of sawing and hacking.

Before the heat has risen, the ice patrol begins.

Great blocks of tantalisingly cool, clear crystal appear on forecourts and in garage doorways. Men attack them with saws and chisels, creating fissures and exploiting fault lines. Little by little the huge boulders are reduced into more manageable sizes. A fleet of flat bed tuk tuks come and go, collecting and delivering blocks the size of concrete lintels, wrapped in muslin to insulate them against the increasing temperature. At 7am, in the late dawn, the air is a pleasant 17 degrees. Half an hour later, when the shadows are receeding, it is torpor inducing 30 degrees.

The iceman has to work quickly as his stock perishes faster than any other. His tuk tuk careers along the bouncy tracks to the beach front bars, clattering his load but never losing it, and weaves through the oncoming morning traffic to reach the city restaurants. His rounds are finished by 8am and the distribution finished, the utilisation begins.

Ice for ten thousand fruit shakes. Ice for ad hoc refridgeration in a town of sporadic power supplies. Ice for the endless road side cooler boxes preserving consumables through the long, hot day.

The blocks do not last long. Sub divided between shops and restaurants by co-operative buying, they are fed down the food chain to bicycle vendors and mobile stalls until the whole town is supplied with the only antidote to the heat.

Street grinders break it up. Hand turned chippers and crushers finish the job until finally the heat triumphs and the ice returns to water.

At night, the freezer vats are filled for the whole process to begin again the following day.

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