There’s a strange phenomenon here in Afghanistan – each day seems to have a reset button. The effect simply erases the momentum of the day before…or worse, the momentum of the action you’ve just started.

Case in point…

Last weekend I was cleaning out my freezer. During my five-week absence the freezer had grown copious amounts of ice. So much ice, in fact, that the freezer door hung open about 1/2 an inch.

Working carefully I drove a plastic spatula between the ice and the top of the freezer with a handy meat tenderizing mallet I’d brought from home. This didn’t really get me anywhere.

A little voice inside my head urged me to let the freezer defrost…but where’s the instant gratification in that?!?

I ditched the spatula in favor of a short little knife. This worked well enough on the thin layers… and I even managed to scrape off a bowl full of the fluffy little ice crystals. …but, the glacier remained.

Going back to my utility drawer I found a rather long, albeit dull, knife. I made some great progress with this until I modified my ice removal technique to include stabbing.

Okay, I have to admit that the little voice that had urged me to cease-and-desist was now screaming at me. Of course, I continued to ignore it.

I was making real progress, that is, until I plunged the knife into the ice a little too deeply and heard a violent hiss. Slamming the freezer door I opened the kitchen window and stared at the freezer hoping against hope that the damned thing would quit hissing.

No such luck.

Fortunately my go-to guy was on Skype. I hated to admit to him what I’d done, but I needed an informed opinion…and this guy knows just about everything! After falling off his chair laughing at me (causing a mutual friend to run into his room to ask what was so funny, only further deepening my embarrassment) he told me I’d let the freon out & gave me some basic safety instructions.

…back to Groundhog day

I contacted the Ops Director & told him I’d killed my fridge. When work resumed, he had the property manager send another unit to my house…duly reporting that it was “taken care of”.

Ya, reset button.

When I arrived home late that evening I discovered that my version of “taken care of” and theirs was a world apart! The “new” fridge was standing outside in the driveway. To make matters worse, it hadn’t been cleaned since being moved from the previous guesthouse 4 months earlier. Oh, and you guessed it, it had been left closed the whole time!

The smell that hit you when you opened the doors brought tears to the eyes.

Come to find out, the manager had the unit delivered and since there was no cleaner on duty, had simply left it. Job done.

So, the challenge here seems to be finding a way to fight Groundhog day, for real!