McGyver

A story from last week: When I first arrived at my house, I had no household essentials. After two days, when I ran out of the water that I had brought with me, I had to ask Katy for some from her filter. While she graciously offered me as much water as I needed, I was eager to be able to boil my own. During my first trip to town, I didn't have enough room to bring a pot or electric water heater back with me on the moto, so I had a few more days ahead of mooching from my neighbor. Finally, on my second trip down, I found not only a store that sold a reasonably priced electric water heater, but also room in my backpack. It cost 12,000rwf which is about $23 and way more than what I would pay for the same quality appliance in the States. There was some dirt on the top of it and it looked a bit flimsy, but if I was going to have my own purified water that night, my options were limited.

That afternoon I returned home with a few visitors. Some of my fellow volunteers wanted to see what all the fuss was about. (They had started calling me Rapunzel since I had been trapped up on the mountain for a few days until I figured out how to get a moto to come all the way up here.) After a hike around the neighborhood, we sat down to eat and I decided to make some tea with my new purchase. But, when I pushed the button down to turn on the pot, it snapped right back up. I tried again. Still no luck. "Of course!" I thought, "this is what you get for not shopping around." I tried the button one more time willing it to work…willing it to work a little too much, because I heard a snap and the button swung free from its place. Not about to make another trip into town for the next few days, I resigned myself to Katy's generosity until I could bring the thing in to have it fixed.

The next day, after church, I was trying to put off doing dishes and decided to see what I could do about the water situation. I brought out my Leatherman (thanks Tim!) and unscrewed the four screws that were holding the pot together. After a few trial and errors, I was able to fix the button so that it wasn't loose anymore. Unfortunately it still would not stay down when you turned it on. I determined that this was due to shoddy design and there was nothing that the store owner would be able to do about it. So out came the embroidery floss. I tied it to the underside of the button, pulled out the loose end, and put the screws back in place. Plugging in the cord, I pushed the button and pulled the floss down, pinning it under the base of the pot. Success! The button stayed and I soon heard the water boiling. And so, for now, I can make my own water. Seriously, who needs duct tape when you've got embroidery floss.

Note: Rapunzel has been rescued. I now have a moto guy…Alexandre, he always answers when I call, understands my French, and knows how to avoid the potholes on the way down…a knight in shining armor really. Royal stead, visored helmet and all.