A Fridge Story

Here's a little glimpse for you into the world of Honduras. Don't get me wrong - we enjoy life here, and for right now, it is the right place for us. There are certain things though that get to you after awhile.

Take our fridge for instance. It has been broken, on and off, since we came back at the beginning of July. Every time it stops working, we take all the food out of our fridge (throwing out the inevitable rotten food), pack it into grocery bags and load it into the camp fridge up at the lodge. After the third time, Ken got us this little mini-fridge from the office, so at least we could have some perishable food in the house. After moving all the food, we head into the store - sometimes with fridge in tow, other times just with the receipt. The people at the store always have a good response - commonly, the technician isn't in till tomorrow, but as soon as he is, he'll get right to it. So, generally a week or so would go by, and the technician would appear and "fix" it, or at least make it work for a few weeks. Well, a couple of weeks ago we took it in for its 3rd or 4th fix..and since then, we've been waiting.....

A few times each week, Dave goes into the store and inquires about our fridge. Each time, they say either they are waiting for the part, or that it is fixed but it was at someone's house (slightly random) or that someone is going to deliver it that day, at 4 pm. So, we go home and wait in anticipation for the delivery truck, but no one appears.

After weeks of waiting, a fridge finally arrived today. This time, not our old "fixed" fridge, but a brand-new one! And not really delivered as promised, but on the back of the camp truck after Dave went in for about the 10th time to ask about it!

This waiting game is a very common experience here, and it can drive you a bit bonkers. We first experienced it when we tried to get our internet hooked up, and every day there was some reason why the couldn't come. It is currently happening with our car. We've had it in to 3 or 4 different mechanics, all saying it is fixed, but yet it continues to sound like a racecar about to take off at any moment. But, what can you do? Not much, except tell yourself that the fridges and cars can be part of the refining process, teaching us that there's more to life than cold milk, that patience is a virtue, and those million other little things that are hard to learn when things are going your way.