A couple of days ago, I had a nerve-racking experience. When I returned home in the evening, I inserted the key in the lock-after a single turn, the key refused to move! I tried a number of times; pushed and pulled at the door, tried to coax it open, even kicked and….finally gave up. I had to accept that I had been “locked-out” of my house!
Called the bawaab, he in turn called a “carpenter”. The quotation marks have been used to show that the so-called carpenter was totally useless… completely useless, just managed to damage my door. By now three men had gathered outside my door-the bawaab, the “carpenter” and my driver. They were talking more than being useful. Finally, I told my driver (who understands English) to get a locksmith. Within half an hour, he was back with a locksmith who opened the door in 5 minutes.
Till now, I had been quite cool. Now came the question of installing a new lock and the locksmith offered us three choices-a “made in Italy” lock for LE 250, another lock for LE 185 and yet another “locally made” for LE 85. When I tried telling the man that the locks were very expensive, he insisted that these were the correct prices and also demanded LE 30 for having opened the door. That was an outrageous amount-my driver and he got into a heated argument regarding the sum-my driver told him not to “over-charge” just because we were foreigners. Finally, after much shouting and almost coming to blows, the locksmith took the LE 10 and left. But we had not heard the last of him-when we went down to the car, we noticed that it had been badly scratched on one end-the gate-keeper seemed to think that the angry locksmith had done it-it really upset me to see such an act of vindictiveness.
Finally got hold of another locksmith who installed a lock for LE 90 and took another LE 30 for his services. Often, in times of emergency such as this, we land up paying outrageous amounts for some work-partly because of lack of knowledge as to the correct rates and also to avoid any hassle. But it helps to have a well-meaning “local” with you (in this case my driver) to help you through the situation.
Called the bawaab, he in turn called a “carpenter”. The quotation marks have been used to show that the so-called carpenter was totally useless… completely useless, just managed to damage my door. By now three men had gathered outside my door-the bawaab, the “carpenter” and my driver. They were talking more than being useful. Finally, I told my driver (who understands English) to get a locksmith. Within half an hour, he was back with a locksmith who opened the door in 5 minutes.
Till now, I had been quite cool. Now came the question of installing a new lock and the locksmith offered us three choices-a “made in Italy” lock for LE 250, another lock for LE 185 and yet another “locally made” for LE 85. When I tried telling the man that the locks were very expensive, he insisted that these were the correct prices and also demanded LE 30 for having opened the door. That was an outrageous amount-my driver and he got into a heated argument regarding the sum-my driver told him not to “over-charge” just because we were foreigners. Finally, after much shouting and almost coming to blows, the locksmith took the LE 10 and left. But we had not heard the last of him-when we went down to the car, we noticed that it had been badly scratched on one end-the gate-keeper seemed to think that the angry locksmith had done it-it really upset me to see such an act of vindictiveness.
Finally got hold of another locksmith who installed a lock for LE 90 and took another LE 30 for his services. Often, in times of emergency such as this, we land up paying outrageous amounts for some work-partly because of lack of knowledge as to the correct rates and also to avoid any hassle. But it helps to have a well-meaning “local” with you (in this case my driver) to help you through the situation.
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