The Puzzler

I am so glad to be married to Tom. He is a go-getter and never gives up.

Here's an example:

Our project this month has been renovating our office. I'll write more about that in a different post. One of the big things our office was missing was file cabinets. 

While down in Lusaka at the end of August we stopped in to the shop of one of our friends who owns a stationery shop. We were just trying to price cabinets and see what all we needed to get. He greeted us warmly and asked how things were going. 

We chatted with him for a few moments and told him all the exciting news from Kazembe Orphanage. At the end of our conversation he asked how he can help support what we're doing. 

So, we told him we were looking into getting some file cabinets and a supply cupboard. 

"OK. I'll give them to you." 

What? I thought he might offer a discount. But he was very generous!

He just told us to come back the next morning to collect the boxes. And they were ours. 

How exciting!!

The next day we collected four very flat boxes. Our friend assured us that everything just snapped together. We didn't even need screws. 

And this was true enough. We didn't need screws.

However, it was not a simple snap together job! The box revealed a bunch of flat metal pieces, some slidey pieces, oh, and some rivets. Yes. Rivets! So we didn't need a screwdriver, but we  needed a rivet gun. Thankfully Tom has one of those. (Am I the only one that finds that a little bit hot? Never mind, don't answer that.)

There were no instructions. None. Zip. Not even a picture of what it would look like assembled.

Tom and I labored over the first cabinet for 2 days straight. Pieces in, pieces out. Finally we had it pretty well put together so Tom riveted the frame, and we assembled and slid in the drawers. The bottom drawer slid in. Next the top drawer slid in. I let out a cheer--just a fraction of a second before the top drawer hit the frame. It didn't fit! Ack!!!

I walked away so I didn't dent the thin metal with frustrated punches.

Tom kept working on it and at last:

Success!

The next two file cabinets and the supply cupboard (also no instructions included) came together much easier for Tom.

I can't wait to reveal the rest of our office changes. Already my work is going so much smoother and I'm happy, happy, happy!

Exactly Four Years Ago:  Litterbugs