The Horse Hair Plumber

By Charlie

Whenever the doorbell rings, we expect that it is someone looking for money or another alleged landlord claiming that they own our apartment.

Nasantoghtokh rang our doorbell on Sunday afternoon. (Yes, I dare you to say that name out loud.) He did want money for something, but he also had a problem. Water was dripping into his apartment and he suspected that it was coming from a radiator in our apartment. Sure enough. The radiator under our stairs was dripping away and we had not even noticed. There was a pool of water on the floor and the water damage was done.

And here’s a reason to like Mongolia: An hour after we discovered the water, Ganzorig appeared, leather tool bag in hand.

In Mongolia, you can get a plumber at any hour of the day or night. The plumber comes quickly, he fixes the problem and his rates are reasonable. Ganzorig is the second Mongolian plumber I’ve met and he is by far the friendliest.

NPR people will appreciate this analogy. Ganzorig is the Guy Raz of Mongolian plumbers. He is tall, lanky, soft spoken, eternally competent and all about business.

The job appeared to be no big deal. There was lots of to and fro between our fifth floor apartment and the basement, but he worked quickly and got the job done. He wanted to repair a second radiator that showed some early signs of trouble, but he did not have the right part with him.

We talked about this for a while in Mongolian – sort of. He agreed to return on Monday to fix the second radiator. When he appeared on Monday, we realized that nobody had bought the required part. He understood that I would buy it and I understood that he would buy it.

No matter. We agreed to buy the part together.

“Odo yu?” I asked. “Now?”

“Odo,” he agreed. And off we went.

$2.50 bought the required valve and 75 cents paid for our taxi rides to and from the chaotic hardware market.

And then Ganzorig got to work again. First he had to turn off the hot water supply at a valve in the basement. This was a mess somewhat akin to capping an oil well. Hot water drained out of the radiators and ended up in a steaming puddle outside the building’s garage.

Then Ganzorig took apart the radiator and installed our replacement valve. As he reassembled the radiator, Ganzorig applied a mysterious fiber to each joint.

“En yu vey?” I asked about the fiber. “What is it?”

“Os,” he said, “hair.”

“Mooriin os?” “Horse hair?”

“Tii.” “Yes.”

Of course it was horse hair. This is Mongolia and Mongolia has horses.

So the radiators are warm and no water is dripping, thanks to Ganzorig and a little mooriin os.

Total fee for about three hours of work: $12