Thurs, Aug 8: Tool Hero

Andrea: Eric caught a ride to town today to try to get set up with a cellular modem and airtime for internet access, and hopefully buy a car, but it turns out today was Eid (Muslim holiday) so all the things owned by Muslims were closed, and a lot of stores are owned by Pakistani/Indian Muslims. Malawi is about 80% Christian and 13% Muslim. They get along well enough apparently; a Muslim was once elected president despite being a minority.

When he came home he worked on getting the refrigerator working, by cutting the plug off the extension cord and wiring on the right one. This was thanks to Joel, who has turned out to be the tool hero of this adventure. A typical exchange over the last couple days goes like this. Eric, working at some part or another of settling into the house – be it rearranging the few pieces of overlarge wicker furniture that completely fill our living room, fixing the wicker furniture, hanging mosquito nets, or whatever – says, “I wish I had _______ (pliers, screwdriver, string, duct tape, measuring tape, etc.).” Joel says, “I have some.” If Joel would start charging Eric a rental fee for his multi-tool, it would be a pretty good racket. He also brought his lock-picking stuff so he can practice, but so far nobody has asked to borrow that.