Salvation

As I’m sure anyone can attest, often it’s the little things in life that can make all the difference. While I’ve really enjoyed the apartment that the other YES trainees and I have been living in these past two months, little things have started to creep in; fortunately for each we’ve always found a way around it. Bathroom door doesn’t lock? House Rule: if it’s closed, it’s occupied. Main AC busted? Open the windows. Light goes out? Use the others. Unfortunately our main sink in the kitchen has proved more elusive.

At first it just leaked a bit; a bowl under the pipes, emptied as needed allowed us to continue with out lives. Then it leaked A LOT, and we shifted dish-washing temporarily to the bathroom while a plumber was summoned. Problem fixed, there was much rejoicing and a resumption of our usual cooking habits. Until… the clog.

Hand-plungering didn’t work. Yelling at it didn’t work. Liquid Plumbr didn’t work (oh American products, why do you embarrass me in front of my friends?). The suspicious and indubitably lethal little bags of white crystals, procured from some midnight salesman by an Arabic speaking friend? Didn’t work. All seemed lost until a random stop at a random homeware store secured our salvation. Behold:

The PlugFucker 9000.

It may look like a Swedish novelty device sold at certain stores around Times Square, but this device has delivered me from a diet consisting mainly of peanut-butter sandwiches and apples. The physics of plug-fucking are detailed and intricate in English, let alone in Arabic, so fortunately a simple series of pictures explained to us, PSA-like, our instructions.

Oh shits! Your sink is clogged!

Draw up some of that stank-water...

...and Fuck That Plug™

Why the fuck did you buy that toxic Liquid Plumbr shit? Ass.

And so, our pipes and eating habits were liberated once again, all for the cost of a slice of cheese pizza in Penn Station. It may not seem like a big deal but as was said before; sometimes it’s the little things that count the most.