I think that my recent, and currently ongoing, experiences with the refrigerator in my house will provide a small, but valuable counterbalance to the predominantly “good news” messages that have been the norm in my posts to this Blog.
Several weeks ago I noticed that the digital temperature
display inside my fridge was no longer working, causing one of those
“take-it-for-granted” reality check moments.
Like in most other households, a basic appliance like the refrigerator
is one of those things that, as long as it works, one doesn’t normally spend
any time thinking about. Until it stops
working – and then, all of a sudden, it becomes the focus of one’s attention .
. . until is repaired and starts working again and life goes back to a normal
state of indifference again.
However, one of the realities of living in a small community
in a remote part of the Baja in Mexico, is that whenever something goes wrong
with any of the more complex devices that makes life here easier, more
comfortable, or more entertaining, the solution is often considerably more
challenging that what we would be used to where we came from in North
America.
Of course, this generalization does not apply to everything –
for instance, it has been my experience in the past that car mechanics here in
Mexico are more resourceful than many of their counterparts I have had dealings
with elsewhere. For example, when my
power steering pump died during a visit to Cabo San Lucas several years ago,
the mechanic (who was working from the courtyard of his family home) had to
order a new pump from the mainland, and it took several days to arrive. However, when he went to install it he
discovered that he had been sent the wrong part and the mounting bracket did
not align with my engine block. 
But rather than re-ordering the replacement part, which
would have entailed another 3 or 4 days wait and the associated expenses of
extending my already longer than anticipated Hotel stay, the mechanic spent
several hours disassembling both pumps and transferring the new working parts
from the replacement into the housing of my old pump, which he then reinstalled
on the engine. A solution that I think
would not likely have been considered by most of the mechanics I have had
dealings with outside of Mexico. The difference
here being that mechanics expect to FIX things, not just replace old parts with
new ones until the vehicle starts working again – perhaps this is an unfair
simplification, but such has been my automotive repair experience elsewhere.
But back to my refrigerator!
When the problem with the temperature display first occurred the fridge
continued to work normally – for a day or so – during which time I half hoped
the problem would somehow resolve itself spontaneously, no such luck! The next thing I noticed was a
“click/whirring” sound that repeated over and over, like the mechanism was
trying to reset itself, unsuccessfully.
This symptom went on for apparently random periods of time before eventually
the compressor kicked in and resumed the cooling and freezing functions again, albeit
temporarily.
By this point it had become clear that there was not going
to be any Divine Intervention and that I needed professional help to find a
solution. It is mainly for situations
like this that I pay for year-round Property Management, since locating,
arranging for, and communicating with, in this case, a qualified Appliance
Repairman here in Loreto is not the straightforward exercise it would be where
I used to live. And so it was, a few
days later, Antonio from my Property Manager arrived at my house with a Spanish
speaking technician.
The good news was that the technician quickly identified that
the problem was the electronic circuit board that controlled the temperature
and display function – the bad news was that he was unsure where a replacement
could be found; but it would be almost certainly from the Mainland, and he had
no idea how long it might take, or how much it might cost to get it here.
Meanwhile, the periods of “clicking and whirring” were
getting longer and the periods of cooling and freezing were getting shorter,
with the result that things in my well stocked freezer were starting to slowly
thaw and the refrigerator section was turning into more of a pantry than a
cooler – in other words, action was required faster than the Mexican solution
was apparently going to deliver.
So I sat down at my
computer and in a short time I had found an appliance parts distributor back in
Calgary, called them by Skype (internet based phone) and, with the model number
of the fridge and the description of the part I needed, identified the part
number, which they then confirmed that they had ONE in stock – in all of
Canada! So I gave them my credit card
information to prepay for it and told them to hold it for pick-up.
Next I began the search for a potential courier to bring the
part from Calgary to Loreto. I knew of
one couple who were coming down in a couple of weeks but when I got in touch
with them they were able to tell me of another friend from Calgary who was
coming down the following week. After
exchanging a couple of emails the arrangements were made and a few days later
my “savior” arrived bearing the necessary circuit board.
However, in the meantime the fridge was now off more than on
and I had to make some alternate arrangements in the form of borrowing the
freezer in a nearby unoccupied house of a friendly neighbor and keep a bag of
ice in the refrigerator to maintain some degree of coolness for the
contents. The day after the part arrived
I had a return visit form my property manager and the technician who went about
replacing the circuit board – but, unfortunately, the same problem
persisted.
After pulling the fridge out of the wall cabinet and
disassembling the back panel he pronounced that it was now the main circuit
board that was the culprit – and, of course, the same problems existed with
finding and delivering the part to the Baja from elsewhere in Mexico. So now, drawing on my recent experience with
the procedure, I again called the same parts distributor in Calgary, who, once
again (fortunately) had the part in stock, which I again I prepaid for to hold
for pick up. I then got back in touch
with the original couple, whose trip was now only about a week away, and they
kindly agreed to pickup this second circuit board and bring it with them when
they arrive next week.
As I write this, my refrigerator is still not working over
two weeks after I discovered the initial problem, I have gone through daily
bags of ice, made nightly visits to my neighbors to get my evening entrée from
the borrowed freezer and have discarded some vegetables and dairy products that
have had a dramatically shorter shelf life in my barely cool fridge than
normal. But I am cautiously optimistic
that the second circuit board will be the cure (there’s not much else
electronic that could go wrong!) and I have also realized that however much we
take these “modern conveniences” for granted, life does go on with or without
them.
I have also come to appreciate how important a seemingly
small gesture like a friend picking up a part and bring it here in their
luggage becomes, when I am faced with the challenge of sourcing that hard to
find component here. But even more
importantly, this refrigerator episode has brought into focus how different a
world I live in here, than where I came from – and while this is an example of
how not all those differences are positive, on reflection, I realize that I do take
some real satisfaction from having found (what I hope to be) a solution. Learning to deal with the bad, as well as
celebrate the good – that is an important lesson to learn while “Living
Loreto”.
