The many uses of Coca Cola

Aside from providing a sweet, frosty treat at the end of a long, hot day, I have recently discovered two other important uses of the world’s favorite cola. First, we’ve had some recent concerns about our drinking water – not that it’s bacteria ridden, but that we might actually be over treating it with chlorine. It hasn’t been a problem for me personally, but a few other volunteers have been sick on a few recent weekends after the chlorine treatment happens. So, they’re drinking bottled water, boiled water … and coca cola. I don’t know – does it settle the stomach? Does it re-hydrate? Or is it just tasty? Anyway, we’re working on the water situation, and in the meantime, some people are taking precautions and drinking Coke.

Then this morning … we went to our usual Mass with 400 children and families at the Missionaries of Charities in Delmas. We came in two cars, and on the way out, discovered that one driver had left the lights on and the battery on the truck was dead. First we tried pushing it down the hill while she tried starting the ignition – evidently sometimes this works. It didn’t. So we pulled the other car up next to the truck and tried jumping it. But either the cables were bad or something, because it wasn’t working at all. Then as a small crowd of neighbors and people coming out of Mass gathered to watch, a man with a local mechanic shop came over with his tools and just started helping. They tried everything, but nothing worked. The highlight of the efforts included sending a tiny little kid around the corner to buy a coke, then using the coke to clean off the battery acid from the battery so the jumper cables could get a better grip. I think I had heard of this before, but would not really have believed it if I didn’t witness it with my own eyes. This crusty, baked on battery acid just pulled away. It was amazing. And gross. Well, the end of the battery story is that it never actually worked. We ended up taking the good battery out of the car that worked, putting it in the truck to start it, then taking it out and putting it back in the other car to start it … then putting the bad battery in one of the already running cars for it to charge. Is that freaking brilliant or what? Who needs AAA?