For those who have been following along with us, you know that we’ve been on a bit of a journey since our return to Senegal with trying to get our fridge fixed. Upon getting back, we found our fridge was only cooling to between 50 and 60 degrees usually, and sometimes it would cut out completely and increase all the way up to room temperature. Over the last two months we have been trying to get it fixed, and we wanted to share some things about what this process has been like here in Dakar. Some of these things we already knew, and some we learned during this experience.
- Finding the right help can be very difficult. Very few tradesmen (essentially none) will have any kind of online presence. Word of mouth and recommendations are key here, especially as the quality of work can vary greatly amongst tradesmen. Whenever possible you want to avoid hiring someone you have no recommendation for. This is true across all trades: carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, A/C repairmen, etc. We have needed to hire each of these (except for a carpenter), at least once, but some on several occasions, during our few years here. So, we first turned to the local missionary community to get a recommendation. Unfortunately, this only turned up two names. One we were told was an “A/C guy” and the other an electrician, but with the caveat that perhaps they work on fridges too. After neither of these first two guys worked out, we turned to a Facebook group for expats and asked for a recommendation there which is where we found our third repairman.
- A worker will probably not tell you when they don’t know what is wrong. We’ve been told this is a product of the honor / shame culture. We first experienced this when Evie was really sick and in the hospital when she was two weeks old. We were told by another missionary, who is the head of her organization’s medical team here in Dakar, that the hospital would not tell us when they had reached their capacity to treat her, and it was up to us to push for a medical evacuation if that was needed. We think that is what we were experiencing with the first repairman we worked with as well. Over the course of about a month (more on this next), he tried four different fixes, none of which fixed the fridge. We don’t think he really had much of an idea what our fridge’s specific problem was, but rather was just going about replacing parts that could be the problem. At the end of it all, he just stopped responding to us.
- Communication is often difficult and plans are held loosely. With our first repairman, he would often not get back to us for days. At one point we didn’t hear from him for about 10 days and we thought he was moving on from the repair without wanting to say that. Then one day he messaged and told me he was in the village and without data which is why we didn’t hear from him. Also, almost all plans are made with the phrase “Inshallah” at the end, which means “If Allah wills it” in Arabic. Over the course of the last two months of trying to get our fridge fixed, I would estimate that we have had at least 10 days when a repair guy said he would come by and then just didn’t show up, without calling us and without giving any explanation the next time about why they didn’t come. This can be maddening to our American sensibilities.
Last weekend our latest fridge guy stopped over and did a freon recharge. This seems to have done the trick…kind of. The fridge is now cooling to between 35 and 40 degrees consistently, which we are very excited about. However, the side of the fridge where the condenser is located is now super hot, like can’t-leave-your-hand-on-it-for-more-than-a-couple-seconds-or-it-will-burn-you hot. So we are not confident that all is working as it should. Only time will tell!