Anyone Up For A Walmart Run?

Grrr…I could really go for a Frosty right now (that is always our hypothetical comfort food from home), followed by a quick Walmart run. I don’t care if I have to wait in line for 30 minutes with a screaming baby in front of me and a squealing hearing air battery behind me, I would be happy to! Let me explain.

 

When my parents came in August, they brought along a chicken egg incubator, complete with an automatic egg turner. Pretty nice, I know. So we waited until the rainy season passed so as to have sufficient power from our solar panels and we started our first eggs. However, we learned several times that the thermostat is bit moody and if it feels that we are messing with it too much it will just go crazy and spike the temperature way above what a developing egg can survive. So, anyway, we have been watching it closely. However, one particular evening Andrea and Micah went to check and actually place 15 new eggs into the incubator. One of the Gumuz guys from our area followed her into the translation office (where the incubator was set up) and basically asked enough questions to be bothersome – not at all unusual for him. Andrea, probably wanting leave sooner rather than later, failed to wait around and monitor the thermostat after setting up the new eggs and wouldn’t you know it, the thermostat got upset and the temperature spiked, roasting ALL the eggs ALL night long – By the morning check, not were all the eggs ruined, but so was the thermometer (which was rated to only go to 120 F).

 

“No problem,” I thought, “I’m in Addis, I’ll try to find another. It’s kinda an adventure.” And to be honest, I was up for the adventure, given that I had a day to kill before heading back to Gesas. So the adventure started Friday night as the sun was setting. I started looking around the part of town we live in, going first to our typical hardware. “Termamiter ale? (is there a thermometer?)” After some discussion found out that they didn’t have anything like that. But, I’m no idiot, I asked the question I knew I would soon be saying in my sleep “Where can I buy it?” Oh, try the pharmacy around the corner. Alright, it was an idea. “Termamiter ale?” The pharmacy quickly responded with a smiile, “No we don’t have any left, try the other pharmacy over there.” Upon asking there, I was told, “We do not carry those, you would have to go to the Gihon pharmacy (in a totally different part of town).” I decided to try some other hardware stores, stopping one lady just before she closed up shop. “Termamiter ale? “ “No, we have nothing like that…but they have them at the store down by the taxi stop.” I started walking that way, enjoying the crisp night air. About half way to the taxi stop I passed a store with household items and poked my head in “Termamiter ale?” He cocked his head like a confused puppy, so I explained, “It measures air heat.” “Oh,” he said “try in front of  ‘Amigos.’” Amigos is a restaurant right by the taxi stop, thus confirming the previous tip. Yet, I didn’t hold my breath. Arriving at Amigos, I saw a substantial hardware store across the street. Entering, I greeted the guy and asked the question of the hour “Termamiter ale?” “For what?” he asked. “For measuring air heat,” I responded with confidence, now well-practiced in the vocabulary. “We have none,” he said, “Look in piazza. Do you know piazza?” Of course I know piazza, it is a CRAZY part of Addis Ababa with a GAZZILION shops of all sorts, so I followed with a question “What kind of shop do I look in?” He thought for a minute, “Yetul suk wust tiyaq.” I understood all the words except one so I asked, “tul min malet no? (what does ‘tul’ mean?), to which I once again received the cocked head posture “tul, you know, English, tool.” I hate it what that happens. Then he gave me an honest comment (probably the first I had heard all evening), “I do not know for sure if they have them, but checking there is better than here.” With that I was satisfied, tomorrow, piazza it would be.

 

Arriving in piazza, I was surprised at how easily I found and squeezed into a parallel parking spot. I double checked that the truck was locked (believe me I KNOW piazza!) and headed out on foot stopping in every tool shop that I came across. I repeatedly asked, “Termamiter ale?” only to receive either the cocked head of confusion or an unfounded impulse response, “Yes, we have them come on in” (only to hear them ask a second worker “do we have a termamiter?” or “what is a “termamiter?”). I was shown quite a few voltage multimeters before finally I entered one store that had a HUGE wall thermometer (not ideal for an incubator but it could work). The excitement over the actual thermometer faded with the rudeness of the lady in that shop and the very high price I was given. So, having more shops ahead of me and more time to kill, I said would ask around and return. No joke, 25 stores later I had not uncovered anything more except one broken thermometer and a handful of people trying to sell me multimeters. Returning to the first shop, I asked to buy the large expensive wall thermometer, only to be told by the now smirking lady, “You have to come back Monday, I am leaving now.” “What? At 2:30 in the afternoon, you are sitting behind your desk saying your closed? I can’t come back Monday, I’m leaving for the countryside tomorrow.” After much grumbling, she and the other man in the store agreed to sell me one. I remember seeing the guy take a handful of thermometers off the rack, packaged up one of them in a dark plastic bag, took my money and hurried me out the door. I expressed my gratitude and walked toward my truck feeling tired yet victorious.

 

The victory didn’t last long as at my next stop, just 5 minutes down the road, I took a look at my great find and did an immediate double take: A broken mercury line and a nice clean crack in the glass casing. “You have got to be kidding me!” Now, of course, at Walmart in the US, that is no more than the simple hassle of returning to the store and getting it exchanged. But we aren’t in Walmart anymore, Toto. There are basically no return policies in Ethiopia, after all, what evidence do I have that I did not drop it along the road or break it on purpose. It would simply be my word against theirs and who ever heard of the ridiculous notion that the custom is always right? Sounds like a great way to go out of business.

 

So, if you have any other suggestions on solving the “termamiter” puzzle, I’m all ears. Otherwise, if you are ever walking through Walmart and find a simple $2 thermometer, don’t forget to smile and say a little prayer for our continued sanity as we navigate life’s little challenges.