Oper-cool!

Some people collect stamps. Others collect coins. In Switzerland you collect the tops off of the little coffee creamers. That's right. And they even have some sort of quasi-scientific name: opercules.

As a gesture of solidarity with the Swiss I have begun my own opercule collection. It was a light decision, but little did I know that coffee creamer collecting is serious business!

The first thing to do when you begin such an endeavor is to tell Jean-Pierre about it. The first couple of days I would come home and find several creamer covers waiting for me. About the fourth day after beginning my collection, I came home to find an entire bowl full them! Apparently that's about how long it took for everybody in town to know that they're supposed to save them for Jean-Pierre's missionary :o)

But it's not necessarily as easy as it sounds, although I'm certainly glad I don't have to drink the cream of every cover I collect. But the real work begins once you have the covers and you have to organize them. You actually buy at the supermarket album sheets with little slots for the opercules. The images on them come in series, so I organize them into groups. Fascinating, I know. Don't worry, everyone back home can see my collection in person when I come back in December. For now you'll just have to satiate your curiosity with the few photos I've included below.