Things I never knew

Of course there are many things I never knew, but if you never knew them you do not even know you didn’t know them, right?

I never knew Maurice could fit inside a 2500 liter pila! He had to climb inside to drill a hole for the connector. There may be a day this week that we will actually have running water in the bodega. His climbing into the pila and drilling the hole is about step number 14 in this process. I will really like having running water as washing my hair outside from a garden hose is not the same as a warm shower. I guess standing up and sponge bathing at the kitchen sink is the not the same either.

I also never knew how much I missed arguing politics! We had dinner last night with our “new neighbors”. This couple bought the land next to ours, the land that Alex was selling the same time we bought ours. They will be on the south side of us. They are from Houston, Texas. They are probably in their late 40's and are on a 5 year plan, like we were. So in essence they are not our neighbors at all. Anyway...Texas...the home of George W…… our evening ended with a very heated discussion of Republicans vs. a Democrat. Of course I am on my own in the Democratic arena, but I still have to argue. It upsets me when Republicans say that if people WANT to work and earn money they can; People are poor because they are lazy. With these people moving to Mexico, the land of the poorest most un-laziest people I have ever seen, I am sure they will be Democrats in no time! Anyway, it was stimulating and this morning when they came by I called them Republican-Bush-lovers and we all laughed. I will really enjoy spending more time with them....I just wonder what they are saying about me in their blog! :)

I never knew one man could move 200, 50 kilo (110 pound) bags of cement all by himself without hesitation. Yesterday our delivery truck driver unloaded this load, bag by bag from his truck onto skids. We gave him juice afterwards. Aren’t we kind? I could barely stand to even watch him do it!

I never knew the beach was filled with carcasses. I walk this beach every day...well I have for a few days now, and until Retro, all I saw was beautiful sand and waves. Now, two days walking with Retro, who is really amazingly good considering he has lived in the streets all his life, all I see are dead birds, dead pelicans and long pointy fish who have not swam in the sea for a long time!. I see them as I am pulling Retro off their rotting carcasses so he doesn’t eat them. Gees, the beach is looking different these days.

I never knew people could work so fast!! Here are some pictures from today. Yesterday they laid concrete on the floor of casita number 1; All by hand, by the way. We tired with a pump but they could not get the truck up the road. So three guys are mixing cement while two guys take turns literally running it in wheel barrows to the cement layers. So today they laid the floor in casita number 2 and started the walls in the first casita. They now have stopped because we ran out of blocks, but here are the pictures from today. There are also a picture of our place from “those Republicans” land cause we walked over there with them. It kind of gives a different perspective...AND OF COURSE...no day would be complete without seeing Retro on the beach digging for sand crabs.