Zingo Wa Ringo: Weibdeh's Renovation Rampage

We can't help loving our Weibdeh store! The yellow place with its famous taxi bumper and clotheslines display that attracted all people all around Amman. In 2011, we realized our need for a bigger store with a whole lot of functionality to it. This is when we decided to give our good old store a renovation. We knew that this was going to add a lot of coolness to Jobedu, but what we never thought of is that a renovation like ours can turn out to be one hell of a bumpy ride with the complements of two chaotic handymen.

Back in that summer, while Tamer and Meesh were pondering the possibility of giving the Jobedu store a new look, they met a carpenter who made one of the cash register counters of Jobedu. A major slip of the tongue happened when they shared this idea with that carpenter, who immediately got elated and shouted that he wants to renovate the store with his brother (another brilliant handyman, obviously!). Tamer and Meesh were skeptical about that man’s skills, but they decided to go with the flow and trust the guy, and hey, Jesus was a carpenter. Nothing can go wrong! And so our friend was offered full plans drawn and quoted for the renovation. He then stood straight, held his head high and declared that it can all be done in 3 weeks.

The journey started on the first of October 2011. There was no intention in closing the store while renovating because our good carpenter friend said that as a start, the cash counter can be pushed forward for works to be done at the back of the store away from customers. The noise at the back turned out to be horrible, yet all customers were served during that time. However, the noise at the store became so loud that one of our good Jobedu representatives flew all the way back to his home in Panama to escape the noise!

The two handymen brothers then brought 3 workers to tear down the walls. The problem was that not only they were elderly and not in shape, but they were also barely able to hold the hammers they used. Plus, the fact that they never used a jackhammer doubled the period needed for the process a multitude of times. The 3 workers spent 2 weeks demolishing the walls, and so the first deadline of the new store, November 1st, was missed. This lengthy process was the inspiration behind Jobedu’s hit song “Santayn”.

The following stage of renovation revealed a whole lot of scandalous, downhill mistakes! Our two handymen insisted on doing all the work done on their own, no matter how complicated or out of their specialty it was; be it plumbing, gypsum boards, iron or even electricity. That’s when a chaos outburst happened; pipes were coming out of walls, others were tucked into the ground, and none of them was functioning. The store’s electricity meter was lost after they covered it with a gypsum board; walls had to be redone entirely; iron was redone twice; all kinds of chaos one can find only in episodes of Pat and Mat aka Zigo Wa Ringo! The second deadline, December 1st, was also missed, and this is when Jobedu moved to a makeshift store across the street for the rampage to simmer down.

Despite that Tamer and Meesh lost their throughout the whole process, and despite its ridiculous costs and the postponing of the reopening till January 2012, the crazy load of mistakes caused by the handymen were eventually minimized. Tamer and Meesh also were able to learn a wide range of crafts, as well. It was an insane time for everyone, but also they heydays of creativity at Jobedu. 

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