All at once

My money struggles ended yesterday. Pay day came. The timing for everything was perfect.

The first bank machine was empty so I headed for the one at the grocery store. I wanted to go there anyways for light bulbs amongst other things. They had sweet hot dog relish, something I´ve been looking for since January. I bought four bottles.

I still needed gas. No problem. There was a gas truck pulling into our court yard at just the right time. If I hadn´t made a detour at the store, I might have missed him.
Cash, light bulbs, hot dog relish and gas. Wow. From rags to riches.

I went to school the day before to get my coffee machine so I wouldn´t suffer too badly. I ended up using it to heat my chicken soup for dinner. I boiled eggs and cooked porridge in it next morning. Not a bad emergency cooker but you have to plan ahead and start before you get hungry.

Pay Day Will Come

UMAR is empty except for iguanas and security guards at the gate. We’re getting paid and don’t have to go to work. The word came to vacate on Monday afternoon. The students had already left and Mike was entertaining us in the air conditioned comfort of the Auto Accesso lab with a fun game for the classroom. The place was a ghost town within five minutes.

Luckily for me and my students, all of our midterm exams have been completed, except for a very few no-shows who I will be glad to take care of when we get back. Let’s hope their reasons for not arriving weren’t too serious. Now I have all the time in the world to get that marking done. When we all get back, I’ll be ready to print off the results for administration and carry on where we left off.

Tomorrow is pay day and not a minute too soon. Since discovering myself with 400 pesos total last Saturday, outside of my emergency funds, I have been living in austerity. I made the mature decision to pay 300 of that right away on the power bill. If they cut you off, you have to pay a substantial fine to get hooked up again and, besides, you don’t have power for a while and that’s not fun. OK. 100 pesos for a week. Ulp. Well, I have food in the cupboard, power and lots of clean drinking water. That shouldn’t be too hard. There is a welcoming dinner party for Li from China on Thursday, just in time. But a spontaneous dinner and drinks affair came up for someone’s birthday yesterday. I definitely had to bail on that one. One more day.

Today the unexpected happened. I ran out of gas. If I was tough, I would just go without coffee tomorrow morning. But I’m not. Neither am I ready to break down and hit the Canadian funds. I have been working here since January and it’s high time I had some new localized emergency funds put away. I have to live within my means. So I’m bombing up to school to get that coffee machine I bought for the office. I can use it as a kettle until the money arrives in the bank and get the gas tank replaced. Maybe I’ll find some loose pesos on my desk. I’m short exactly one peso for a pack of smokes and I’ve already dug between the couch cushions.

Look what I just found under the cushion of my desk chair. I’m going to invest this in cigarettes.

When I said I had plenty of food, I never imagined myself eating cold chicken soup or cold spaghetti sauce over dry uncooked noodles. I am so close to making it until pay day. I can’t give up now. Aw shoot. I just heard the “awooogh” of the gas truck. Nothing I can do about it.
Off to school again.
Here are two good reasons helmets are such a good idea in Crucecita.


Alright. Normally hidden wildlife is out enjoying the peace and quiet of a deserted campus. These pheasants didn’t even cluck away from me.






It turns out that maintenance staff and some clerical workers have been left behind. They must be classed as essential services. With so little work to do, these ladies went overboard on the cleaning, even arranging the loose papers on my desk in a neat pile with a paper clip. I was so impressed.

Come and knock on my door

One of the issues that kept me hopping on my free time was the apartment. The first one just wasn't working out. For a lot of reasons. There was a toilet tank that constantly dripped water into a bucket. Every 24 hours that bucket was full. The kitchen sink wouldn't drain. I tried industrial drain cleaners. No good. On Thor's recommendation, I gave Alka Selzter tablets a whirl. That worked a little but the problem wouldn't go away. They spray this town with insecticides but standing water on the coast is still a serious health hazard. People tell me that, yes, you can catch dengue fever twice and it's worse the second time. Worse!!?? That can only mean you die.

I forced myself out of bed last Saturday morning and went looking for a better place. Found one. Quite a few more pesos but what a place. Sure, it has it has flaws but it's a big furnished luxury palace to me. Great features. I have a huge frost free fridge cold enough to keep ice cream. There's a high end gas oven and stove that needs no matches. Gas flares up at the touch of a button that sends an electrical spark with a snap. I am afraid of the oven though. The electric charge doesn't work below and I ended up with my right hand in cold ice for two hours last night after a minor explosion. Whoomp.




The shower! Yow. I have one of those high powered shower heads like they use all over Guatemala only without the scary corroded electric wires. Turn this thing on full blast and you can drown under it. I have a hot water heater and mornings can be chilly but I rarely use it because I need that refreshing jolt to get moving some days. It's a small act of courage to turn the tap but once you're in, you're in. I love my shower.

I had all my stuff moved in after five bicycle trips from the ghetto and spent the afternoon cleaning and arranging what I could. I wanted to get as much done as possible because Mike was coming down from Miahuatlan to do an apartment hunt of his own. I kept hustling, expecting a call any minute, until it was dark and my productivity was in decline. I tried to call him and that's when I figured out I'd given him, and almost everyone else, the wrong number. William picked up and I could hear Mike and Richard in the background. They were just about to knock at the door I woke up behind that morning. It was fantastic. Instant house warming party with good friends and alcohol. Richard even made us all a yummy pasta.

Next day we were off to Arracito, a tiny beach near Tangolunda and a high end condo neighborhood. Great snorkelling. Richard has one of those snorkels that automatically shuts off when you dive. It holds your breath for you. Strange sensation. I saw a nice sized oyster shell at the bottom that now serves as a groovy ashtray. Good weekend. This one is almost over. Yesterday was nap day. I felt the energy depleting all week long. I needed more sleep. I had a fever. Gone. There was a night time Chinese New Year celebration at Arracito I couldn't make. I wondered if I'd be able to sleep after a whole day of napping. At 9 o'clock, I gave it a whirl. I was under in 3 seconds

Everyone agrees the new place has a "Three's Company" vibe. It's so 70s. Makes me want to listen to Peter Frampton and Supertramp. Iv'e been overdue for a haircut for about a month so the apartment really suited me. But I was tired of the 70s hair and finally squeezed in a haircut on Thursday.

This is what happens when you're overtired. You fall asleep while someone cuts your hair and wake up with one of the most conservative cuts of your life. I was out of the sun. A soft cool breeze blew in from the street and I was out like a light. The lady was very meticulous. I probably napped there for a full half hour. Once in a while she would make a noise and my eyes would open. Holy smokes. I thought, "Stop. That's enough. Put some back, would you?" but I didn't say a word and fell right back to sleep. Everytime she took a brush or the buzzer for touchups, I thought,"Ok, that's it." and then the scissors would come out and she was back at it. What could be left? I have very short hair but at least it beats that Sgt. Rock cut I got in Mexico city before leaving for Korea. Plus there was that horrible cut the girl gave me in Panajachel. I think she was trying to give me a faux hawk because you saw that stupid cut everywhere there. So this lady had a lot of damage to undo and probably had to go that far down to get life back to normal.