The older two girls went off to school, but Cali had Easter Monday off. She went with us for our usual coffee routine. She played on her ipod and listened to music since the conversation was boring.
Then we biked up to a new retirement complex a friend of ours is building. He wanted to show us around. It took a while to ride up there. I’ll come clean–I was exhausted pile of goo by the time we got there. Paul was the one riding Cali there and he was fine. I felt like a couple of my vital organs were counting down to explosion. Cali added insult to my screaming muscles by bragging she’d chosen the right parent for this job, and yelling “woohoo, we are the champions!” Was not feeling the love.
Interesting place they are building. It’s meant for older people. It’s going to be great. There are 10 unique units. We saw the layout of each place. There is also a pool, an activity centre. We were watching the construction of the roof. I’m continually fascinated with the different building techniques here. On this project they smash large bamboo shoots by running over them with a dump truck, then the split bamboo is put on the roof and filled with concrete. I’ve mentioned before how cheap the labor is here. The men mix the cement by hand outside the complex and bring it in and up to the roof bucket by bucket. Most of the laborers are trained right on the construction site in an area of expertise (welding, electrical, plumbing). I learned a lot about winging-it-construction by visiting this (or any) worksite. They plan to have the entire complext finished in two months. Right now they are pushing hard to get the roofs finished before rainy season kicks in.
By the time we were finished poking around the place, it was the afternoon. The three of us decided to have lunch at PanaRock because they make a great salad. We coasted downhill the entire way into town. Sweeeet ride.
The town is so quiet now that Semana Santa is over. It’s almost eerie.
Cali enjoys a limonada con soda in a tongelele and day of the week and sometimes twice.
Sometime in the afternoon, we came back to the house and realized we were in the midst of a blackout. We all grabbed our books and settled in for a few hours of silence. Most blackouts only last for a couuple of hours.
When we have blackouts we make sure we know where the flashlights are, don’t open the fridge, spend more time in the backyard. The water doesn’t work, because we have an electric pump, so we try to use the toilet as infrequently as possible.
The older girls came home from school, and since we didn’t want to open the fridge unnecessarily, we went out to eat. That’s when we realized we weren’t in the middle of a blackout, because all of our neighbors had lights. Then is dawned on us that it was just our electricity that was off. We looked at the meter and sure enough, all the numbers were frozen.
We share an electrical meter with our neighbor because this part of the house has never had its own meter. I’ve been giving money to the neighbor to pay the bill. I went next door to talk to our neighbor but he wasn’t there. I remember a phone conversation that I overheard saying my neighbor was visiting family in California. I called a friend of mine who happens to know everything about everyone, and sure enough he was out of town.
While all of this was going on, my girlfriends called to say I should come hot-tubbing with them. I know this is going to sound irresponsible, but they sneak into a certain hotel’s hot-tub all the time. They say the hotel owners know they do this which to me says they aren’t sneaking in. So they were going to come out to the street and “sneak” me in. I said I’d just pay. No can do, they said. If I paid I would draw attention to everyone who snuck in. I decided I’m not interested in sneaking into anywhere to save a few bucks. Plus, I don’t have a swimsuit that fits me. Ok, that’s the real reason I wouldn’t do it. Even that little detail wasn’t enough for the girls to nix their invite. They said, “We don’t care if you don’t have a suit! Come anyway.” I loved their eagerness to have me participate sans swimsuit, but I’m just not that free.
Meanwhile I was having a lovely meal fully clothed, at Atlantis with my family. Kier was sitting next to the door and kept talking with her friends on the street who were walking by.
After the meal Paul went and got bags of ice to put in our fridge to try to preserve the food that was in there. He tuked it home with Cali and Kier. Madi wanted to walk home with me. As soon as we were on the main street we met my happy wet friends who were returning from the hot tub. They asked why I didn’t join them, that they’d been waiting for me. I told them we don’t have any electricity. They looked at me as if to say…..”and…?” Like the lack of electricity was almost not worth mentioning unless it was coupled with something more unusual It certainly wasn’t a big deal to any of them. Seeing their reactions, or lack thereof, made me laugh out loud at myself. They said on average it takes up to two days to get it reconnected. My one friend, without hesistation, gave me the key to her house and said, “Go take a shower at my place and make yourself at home, or come for a drink with us OR do both!” I decided the shower option sounded the most appealing, especially on a day I rode a bike up the mountain and had done something I rarely do, sweat.
Cali was over tired and didn’t like having a candle as her nightlight (just while she fell asleep, not all night, lovely grandparents who are reading this). She wasn’t coping with the whole situation and was going to bed about 2 hours later than usual. Someone had to sit upstairs with her until she fell asleep. Paul and I put more perishable items like the meat, in the freezer with a bag of ice because we thought it would be more likely to keep it cool in the smaller space.
Kier and I were both wanted showers, so we decided to walk across town to my friend’s house. Concientious Madi had homework to do, so did it by flashlight and used what little battery was left on Kier’s computer.
Unfortunately the bathroom was starting to smell since we couldn’t flush the toilet. I considered walking down to the lake with a bucket, but that seemed like way too much work. I’m sure an indigenous woman wouldn’t have even flinched at the thought, but I know my limitations.
Kier and I went and had our showers–heavenly! Then we hung out for a few hours at my girlfriend’s place. There were two other women hanging out at my friend’s house (not because they didn’t pay their electrical bill). They had hot-tubbed it, had a drink at a bar, and were now cooking supper together. The one woman was visiting from Cuba. We eventually went home happy, with clean hair, full tummies, and empty bladders.
When we got home we crawled into our dark beds like campers in the middle of the night.