Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Welcome to Africa column: Hiring movers

The family in the house next to us in our compound at #4 is moving out. Yesterday and today a moving company with two large trucks has been here. Yesterday, the vans were still parked in front of their house and ours, blocking our driveway, when Sarah got home from work. As Sarah was trying to park in a different spot, I was talking to the driver of the larger van about moving it so she could park the car in our carport.

It turns out that the van was having engine trouble, and they couldn't get it started. So a handful of men started pushing it backwards. I thought they were doing that to get it out of the way of our driveway, which was a sight that was funny enough - men trying to push this very large and heavy moving van. But actually they were trying to get it started, and the driver was inside behind the wheel, and all of a sudden the truck lurched and started.

Apparently the truck was still having engine trouble today.

The name of the company is "Urgent" something, and the side of the truck shows moving boxes with the words "Urgent shipment" in big, bold letters. I would guess this refers more to how they urgently need to get their trucks to start so they can transport people's belongings.

Wouldn't these sights just inspire confidence in you if you had hired this company to move you? I guess they have to load up their trucks, and then they push them to your new house. Urgently.

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