The Fridge Incident

I learned another life lesson this past week - how not to defrost a freezer. So here's the deal. My freezer was completely full of ice - TONS of ice. It was so bad that I couldn't really keep anything in there because there was so much ice.

Well, Beau came over and we were having a lovely time watching The Office and listening to music. Somehow, I'm not even sure how or why, we decided to "defrost" the freezer using a hair dryer, hammer, and a screwdriver. And it was working so well! I cheered him on as huge chunks of ice came out. I literally dumped buckets of ice into the sink and bathroom to melt. Just as we were making some substantial progress I heard, "Bang, bang, bang, HISSSSS." Well, it turns out Beau accidentally hit the Freeon part of the freezer and all of the Freeon was released. At the time, I didn't understand the gravity of the situation, but I do now. Apparently, Freeon is what makes a fridge and freezer work and when it spews out with fury, that is bad, very bad.

I called all of my Thai people who help me with things, but everyone was at a funeral, which is oddly a likely place to be in rural Thailand. So in the meant time, Beau and I unplugged the fridge, took my refrigerated items to the neighbor's fridge, wished we could go to a bar and have a couple drinks, but because we live in a rice field, decided to do a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle instead. Later, my landlord and neighbors came over and Beau and I had the troubling task of explaining in broken Thai what happened. They kept saying "Don't worry, it's not a problem" as Freeon spewed into their faces. After 20 minutes passed, and a lot of standing around, poking at the remaining ice, and watching Freeon hiss out, Beau and I convinced them that the fridge needed to be repaired.

Then next morning, my landlord came over with her truck and about 15 people watched in the street as my fridge was loaded into the back. I'm sure they were all muttering "Crazy foreign girl... she took a screwdriver to her freezer. Shouldn't the American know better?" While the fridge was being repaired, I used Grandma's fridge next door. She loved it! I would just walk over there, get the milk, and walk back over to my house like it was totally normal. She hoooted and hollered about the broken fridge so if nothing else, I entertained her... yet again. I'm beginning to think Grandma is benefiting the most from this little thing called Peace Corps.

Magically, the fridge was repaired in about a day and for about $35. Not bad! So now my fridge is back in it's place, a little noisier than before, but no longer spewing Freeon. And yes, I learned my lesson. I will defrost the freezer like you are supposed to from now on.