One of the amazing things about this journey down here is that you never know what is going to happen or where you are going to end up. I am typing this blog from my neighbor’s house. She is known as “Miss Julia”. She is 93 years old and is on her last legs. My friend, a gay man from Canada, known as Stash has been looking after her for a few years. How he does it, I do not know, as she is not the easiest person to get along with.
She is all alone and it still remains a mystery as to ho her children are. The ones that claim to be here children, Miss Julia says they are not and the ones she says are her children say they are not. So, here she is in her final days and her closest neighbors are taking turns watching over her just trying to make her comfortable. We all think it is best that she die at home rather than the hospital.
She apparently has had quite the life in her day. She was a well known cabaret dancer back in the 30’s in Panama. Her house is full of pictures of her in her youth and she was quite the elegant woman. It is possible by the time you read this she will have passed away as she is not drinking or eating anymore.
The house is really beginning to take shape. The first floor is all framed in and they are working on the second floor. The planters and fish pond are laid in the concrete on the first floor. The second floor has also had the concrete poured along with our concrete bath tub going on the second floor bathroom.
The whole process is exciting to watch, but also a little stressful as I have never built a house before. Each day I am faced with making decisions that I have no experience in making. So, I have aligned myself with a few people and my contractor and kind of making it up as we go along.
I have two neighbors who are real “hosers” from the Midwest US who keep trying to tell me to “tone down” the design. It’s really quite funny to listen to as one look at them and you could never imagine them even entertaining the word “design” for a home. In fact one said outside of the wood, I should have all tiles and paint white as I should be considering “resale”. I made it quite clear this house was not being built for suburban heterosexuals with no taste. And it this moment “resale” was not being a consideration. This is a dream home for me and not a spec house.
If all goes to plan, the house should be finished in mid October.
I have had a couple friends down visiting from Vancouver and Victoria. This was real nice as it gave me a fix of home I needed. Ed who recently road his bike across Canada came down for 5 weeks. He mad the decision to come down here after his bike was stolen in Toronto and his trip came to an abrupt halt. You can read all about Ed’s journey on his website at www.EdParker.ca
Again and if you are totally bored at your job and want some great reading on company time, Ed has a great blog. You can read about his trip around Costa Rica and down to Panama City. He is also one the “nonconformists” who just left a high-paying job to pursue a career in writing. I admire his courage and he fully understands and supports my decision to seek out some my aspirations.
It’s been fun playing tour guide and just having some sane people around to entertain me and help out with things like looking after the dogs.
Speaking of which, they continue to do well. We just built a big dog house for them and a pen in the yard. They are at the age where they want to wander and our yard is not fenced. We will move the dog house down to the new house when we move in.
I really do love the dogs, but they are a lot of work. Even more so in a place like this as there is so many diseases they can get or other dangers such as being stolen or run over by a car. I also never know that puppies ate as much as they do. They are just like little pigs and just inhale food.
Crime continues to be talk of town here in Puerto Viejo. Latest big news is “Who burnt down Bamboo Club. It is a notorious reggae bar here in town run by Italians involved in organized crime. Lots drug deals apparently go down there and it is nothing for neighbours to hear guns going off. I don’t think they are shooting each other (at least I hope). It’s just kind of another male macho thing to let people know you have a gun.
Personally, I believe the police burnt it down. The place was raided just two weeks prior to the fire with over 100 police officers from neighbouring city of Limon. They claim they were looking for illegals, but that is not immigrations method. I think police here just got sick and tired of being powerless over these thugs and wanted to skip a long bureaucratic court process.
As I stated earlier, Costa Rica has become a favourite import country for cocaine as Panama has gotten too strict and Costa Rica has all these potential “mules” to take stuff back to other countries. That combined with lack of military, makes it paradise for drug lords.
Another beautiful day in paradise… The sun is shinning. The ocean is quiet and just the neighbour hood kid “Francisco” raking up leaves for me. It would have been a better morning had he arrived when I asked. But I have a hard time realizing that not only is he only 14, but he is indigenous and keeping track of time in their culture is not something they are used to. When I asked him why he was here at 6:00 am versus 7:30 when I was hoping he would show up. He told me “It was okay, he had finished feeding and cleaning out the pig pen”. I then realized he thought it was better he show up earlier rather than later. I thanked him and went and got a desperately needed coffee.
The two workers I have coming around are young indigenous kids. I really like them. They remind me so much when I was their age going around to houses looking for work. They just stand outside your yard and flag you down and ask if there is work. They are really nice and very appreciative that you will give them work. Many locals don’t as their education level is very low. But I just try and spend some time with them trying to groom them. Every skill you teach them (even something as simple as how to rake leaves or weed around plants) is something they can take to other jobs.
They love working here as I don’t work them hard. I make them wear gloves. (Francisco had never worn gloves and had a hard time putting them on. He was curious to find out that they were like shoes and you had to put the right one on the right hand) I insist they take breaks and on top of 25% above average wage, they get breakfast. At breakfast is my Spanish lesson. We have chats about our lives and I try and do it all in Spanish.
Well, I should sign off. I am hoping that my periods between blogs will be a little shorter as I now have an ISDN internet connection in my home and kind of have a computer (it is not mine. Mine is still sick.)
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