I Need Air!

The air conditioner in our living room began acting up the week before Christmas. It no longer cooled properly and the fins became rapidly blocked with ice and frost every time we turned it on. At first, I thought the condensation water drain tube was blocked and backing up. But I couldn’t find anything wrong there. Fortunately, it’s not the hot time of the year, but Kathy wasn’t looking forward to having to cook Christmas dinner without some A/C to help cool down the living room and kitchen area of the house!

So I called our trusty Burkinabè electrician, Daouda. He and his team came over last Monday morning to check things out. They discovered that the unit was low on Freon. Since we’d not even had the machine for a year yet, this meant there had to be a leak somewhere. So they removed the unit and took it somewhere for testing and repair.

By Wednesday, I still hadn’t heard anything. And Christmas was coming up fast! So I called Daouda. He said they were still testing the machine but hadn’t found anything yet. I began to frantically think of a way to motivate him to do his best to get the thing back in place and functioning in time for the holidays. Finally it came to me.

“Daouda,” I began, “you’ve got to help me out here. If that unit isn’t back in place and working before Dec 25th, I am not going to get anything to eat on that day because my wife won’t cook a meal for me without it.” For a Burkinabè man, things can’t get much worse than that, and Daouda immediately promised to do his utmost.

The air conditioner was back and working by mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve. I wasn’t there to thank Daouda and his team for their effort on my behalf because I was busy with the young lady who’d run into our truck. But I sent him a thank-you message on his cell phone.

On Christmas morning, I get a phone call from Daouda. “Is your wife cooking you a nice Christmas dinner?” he asked. “As we speak,” I replied, “thanks to you and your team!”

It was a great Christmas dinner :)