Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Curse of the Cabinet


I saw a flyer posted at our neighbourhood grocery store advertising a moving sale. We’re anxious to find bookshelves and some other household goods, so we went to visit. When the door opened, I was startled to see a familiar face! It was the secretary of the American School, one of the few people I have met here. We ended up buying a metal kitchen cabinet from her and her husband.

They helped us wrangle it down the steps from their second story (that’s third story to Americans) apartment, but it was too big to fit into the work vehicle David had borrowed. So, we left it sitting there in front of their apartment overnight. They assured us they would have a pick-up the next day for some of their other things and they could drop it off at our house.

The next afternoon, though, they called and told us their pick-up had broken down and we’d need to find some other means of transportation. David called one of the drivers from work to see if he knew anyone with a pick-up, but when he told us he didn’t, we felt like we had hit a brick wall. We don’t even have a phone book! Our best idea was to go find one of the donkey carts that plies the streets around here and hire that driver to deliver it for us, but we knew our Arabic wasn’t up to explaining that. Eventually, I found some telephone numbers for car hire places in an expat magazine, so I called them. The first one was no longer in business, and the second one, 5M Car Hire, told me they didn’t rent trucks for such a short time. “But as a special one-time favor, to help a foreigner, I will send a driver to pick it up for you.”

True to his word, the manager sent a pick-up truck and driver. The driver helped us lift the cabinet into his truck (did I mention it’s heavy?), but then his truck wouldn’t start. We waited about half an hour, wondering if our new kitchen cabinet carried a curse, but eventually he got it started again and followed us home where he helped us carry it up to our apartment.

When David tried to tip him, he kept refusing the money. Eventually, he convinced him to take it. So, thanks to the generous impulses of a car hire company and its strong, mechanical driver, we now have a well-outfitted kitchen.

1 comment:

Nate said...

We also have been having getting things moved because we only have a little car. So far I have been able to precarious balance items on the top of the car or tie them in with the end sticking way out of the trunk. I guess that not having a truck (or not knowing people with trucks) is a universal moving problem. Though I guess I could always go to Lowe's and rent a truck for an hour, and it sounds like that is not much of an option.