Furniture=Customer Service with a Smile

As some of you might know I have been living like a bachelor, namely like the volunteer before me, without furniture except the one table and four chairs that the community is required to give you and of course the bed. As a side note, I really only have two chairs and two small stools which is usually ideal but not so much when you try and eat dinner with more than two people around the table. The third or fourth person is forced to kneel on a stool or sit on a big water jug as you can also probably imagine is not very comfortable.

I decided to rememdy my furniture situation about a month ago when I was in Labe. I ordered a couch and a shelf. I went with my friend Tor and Melanie, a G9er who had ordered furniture from these people with great success. Tor and I painfully looked through all the pictures and picked out the bamboo couches and shelves we wanted. They quoted us an unreasonably high price so we started to make requests to modify and simplify the furniture to drive the price down. After about an hour and a half of explanations and price negotiations we put down some money and described for the 5th time how we would like to modify our piece based on the picture. We stated that we would be back in a month to pick it up and they assured us it would be done.

A month later Tor went back to check on it and amazingly it was almost done. She went in the morning and they promised that it would be done by the evening as they only needed to put the varnish on it and make the sofa cushions. Tor got busy and was not able to go back that day which was almost 2 weeks ago. This is a long background to the story of the furniture that never gets finished. But yesterday could have been the furniture follie day of the year.

Tor and I got up and went directly to the furniture place (old abandonded building) at about 9. They should have been there so we waiting for a bit until we saw someone who told us they were coming “toute suite” (French translation is immediately, Guinean translation is maybe next week). So we decided to wait after about an hour but as we started to leave and the guy came rolling in. We looked at our furniture and it was in the same state that Tor found it in 2 weeks ago. By the way, the modifications Tor requested ended up on my furniture. After a long and dramatic comedic interchange including the fact that we had to pay more of our downpayment for the couch coushins they determined that they could definitely have it done by 6PM.

Tor and I started to leave the house about 5:45 to get there by 6 so we could find our furniture. Luckily, Mom called and I got to chat for a bit. When I got off the phone I practically ran to the place as not to leave Tor alone with 2 couches and 2 shelves...etc. I had these images of her carrying the 2 couches stacked on her head and a shelf in each hand. NO LUCK!!! When I arrived they were just starting to varnish the shelves!! They told us they needed to do this last and it would take 3 hours to dry. We asked if they planned on transporting them before they were dry and they looked at us like we were stupid and didn’t we want these things now, after all we were the ones pushing them to finish!!!

There was great hope as 7PM approached and all the items were varnished and one sofa even had coushins. However, dark rolled in and the tailor determined that she could not finish the cushions for the second couch this evening. They told us this and we told them in our American pushy way that it was not an option. At this point Tor, 3 workers and I are sitting on her couch with the cushions surrounded by the shelves on the outside of the abondanded building. It was almost comedic as if we set-up our living space outside the building and were just hanging out talking about why the Guinean men wanted to marry 15 year old women. Finally, at about 8:30 we determined that we did not want to wait for the last cushion and that they would carrry a few things now and then come back later in the evening with the last couch. So, we now have a train of 4 people, 1 person with a couch on his head and the other three (Tor and I included) taking all the short-cuts through people’s yards in the dark. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the PC house with 1 couch. They left with the understanding that they would return with the rest of the stuff that evening. I have to admit I was doubtful but Tor had confindence. I can honestly say it does not pay to be “Debbie the Doubter” as they rolled in an hour later with the rest of the furniture in tow on their heads. Now, the next step is to get it to my site.

So if you come to Lelouma please plan to spend a few minutes admirining this furniture. For those of you not able to come I hope to post some pictures for your viewing pleasure.