The Bolivian Refridgerator Part 3

To add to the already crazy stories about buying furniture in Bolivia, I decided to share to story of the refrigerator. Last week my friend Derek and I traveled to a large outdoor market called the "Campasino" Market. It is basically a huge, overcrowded, confusing maze of stores filled with everything from pirated stereos and DVD's to half cooked goat heads hanging on a stick, oh, and an appliance store or two. So we found the appliance street and went into the garage where there was a row of fairly nice appliances to choose from. They had washers, refrigerators, toasters, microwaves etc. Most everything was new and in decent shape. We selected a nice looking LG refrigerator and talked the lady down to a price that was reasonable and in our budget. Next we hailed a taxi and the driver strapped it onto the back. As you can imagine more than half the fridge was hanging out the back of the car but what do you say, it's Bolivia. One lesson we learned in all this is that the guarantee for the appliance is actually taped to the outside of the box. Yes, the important document that assures you can have it fixed if broken is actually just taped to the outside of the box. Not exactly how we expected. Well, we got the fridge home and plugged it in to realize it didn't work. The motor was clicking but it didn't seem to turn on. We went back to the store a few days later and talked to the lady, hoping to get a new appliance, and she would not return the old one because somewhere in the hustle and bustle of moving the thing the guarantee had either fallen off or was misplaced. So... no new refrigerator. So, here we are the first day in our apartment and we have a brand new malfunctioning refrigerator, and no guarantee that says we can get it fixed without paying for the maintenance. Well, by the grace of God the service man was willing to come to the house on Sunday and check the machine out. Amazingly the man walked in the door and plugged it in and it worked!! Come to find out, the plugs in Bolivia are different and you don't plug the cord all the way in because it actually moves beyond the connection point and you get no charge!!! Who would have thought! So, the refrigerator worked after all and we now know that if the plug looks as if it is falling out... it's actually just where it needs to be. I'm sure the Bolivian man had a good laugh as he walked out the door. We paid him 20 Bolivianos to plug in our new refrigerator!!