Guirky Livin

When you live on a quirky Island you have to be prepared to live with some quirky things, one of which is our water supply. For the last 3 days the whole Island was out of water, our water is piped in from the mainland and apparently a boat hit and busted our water line Friday night. From what I hear this happens once in awhile, it’s just part of life here. After 3 days of having a sponge bath in the morning it sure does make you appreciate a hot shower. I’m learning to appreciate a lot of things and I am already wondering how I am going to be able to merge back into my old life without alienating and annoying everyone around me. I don’t think it will be a smooth merge. For instance, can you believe I am really enjoying hand washing my laundry? There is something so therapeutic about hand scrubbing my clothes under the big bugambilla tree in the heat of the morning with sounds of birds, chickens and roosters around me. I do laundry about every other day so that it does not pile up too much. I did sheets the other day which was a bit of a challenge but I managed. It’s wringing them out that is the hard part, I feel bad for women that have to wash jeans, they would be the toughest to wringe out, I didn’t bring any jeans. If I was staying here longer I would buy and old wringer washing machine, I see them everywhere in used furniture stores, but I’m not here long enough. It is very satisfying to have the laundry back in the house, dried, de-linted and ironed; I get a great sense of accomplishment out of it. I think I will miss that when I come home.
I’m getting used to the roosters crowing at all hours of the night; they don’t wake me up as much anymore. I might have to get some roosters when I get home.....oh right, we have bylaws and stuff. The other night at about 10 pm I had just put away my knitting and I had almost fallen asleep when a car drove by, I was so startled I literally jumped, thinking “what’s that?” and then realizing that it’s just a car, I rarely hear a car drive by my house after 7 pm.
When I first arrived I found a little store that sold Pepsi and I can’t remember where it was, it may not even exist any more. So I have replaced my Pepsi addiction to Toni-Col, which is a vanilla flavoured soda pop that is made right here in Mazatlan, together with a little bag of Cheetos (36 g) makes for a nice evening snack for me on my roof-top as I am winding down my day. I haven’t even seen Cheetos in a bigger bag than the 36 g, which is a good thing for me.
Yesterday I found myself doing something I never thought I would need to do, I had to pretend that I couldn’t speak Spanish.....I know! You’re thinking, “What do you mean pretend, you don’t speak Spanish” It wasn’t until I was pretending not to understand that I realized I could understand everything, and really had a hard time pretending that I didn’t. It was Sunday night and I was coming back from Mazatlan at 9:30 pm and arrived on the other side of the docks and had to wait for a boat with a older gentleman that had gone into the city to have some beers, a lot of beers, so the first thing he asks is do I live on the Island (rather obvious that I do as I am here this late catching a boat) so I say yes, well then of course, he wants to know where I live, this is when I pretend that I don’t understand him and I do the whole “no se” routine that I do with the lady at Casa Damasco. The poor man tried so hard and I must give him credit for that, he did not give up. The whole way on the boat he kept listing off names of people whom I could be renting from, “Carlotta, Sofia, o Daniela” I just kept shaking my head and sticking to my “no se”. It was during all this that I realized I could understand everything he was asking and I could have had a conversation him had I wanted too. I am getting a little frustrated with everyone wanting to know where I live. Last week some time I met a another gentleman that immediately upon meeting him decided he would bring a chicken to my house and we would BBQ, I told him I don’t have a BBQ, he thought an oven would be fine I said I didn’t have an oven either, then he was going to pick up an already cooked chicken, I told him I don’t have a table or chairs and that I was not set up for quests, I wanted to scream “stay away from me with your chicken”, but that would be rude, instead I just walked away in mid conversation, much politer. I don’t understand why Mexican men feel its ok to invite themselves to a women’s house that they have just met 2 minutes ago, or am I being too paranoid about this? Last week was terrible, if I wouldn’t have resorted to lying and being flat out rude I would have had a parade of men coming through my house all week. I don’t even care if they all had good intentions and just wanted to stop by to make the new gringa feels welcome, I don’t want men coming through my house every week, I’m just not that sociable and hospitable. The women I am meeting are just as friendly and willing to chat with me but don’t feel the need to invite themselves over. Oh well.....soon I’ll be old news around here, and then I might wish someone would stop by with an already cooked chicken.