Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Electricity...Gas...Hot Showers....Over-Rated?

Things are looking up here at the Schaefers. Little did I know that having our showers broken for a week and a half would cause a domino effect. Well, cold showers I can do (for a bit), but not so sure how I would have made out back in the time of lanterns and candles.

Melvin (the school's handy-man) fixed the showers yesterday but shortly after he left, the electricity died, no lights, no phone, no computer (and oh no, the fridge)...I won't go into detail about the stench spewing out from the fridge and the ants all over the counter due to rotting fruit...etc. Yes, we forgot to pay the bill - here in Monteverde, there is no notice reminding you that if you don't pay your bill in X days, your service will be cut-off (we remembered this the hard way). So, off to Stella's bakery Mike went last night at 4:45 to connect to the Internet and make good on the bill.

Did I mention that we have been out of gas as well since Sunday night? So, no oven, no stove, no home-cooked meals by yours truly. The tank is huge so we need to get a taxi to take us into Santa Elena to purchase a new tank and then hook it up where it rests in a little closet outside the kitchen. Yesterday, we were consumed with getting our electricity back and today, Mike was in a staff meeting until 5 p.m., so no gas today...this is the first thing on our list tomorrow.

We made 'campfire bread' last night and cooked it over a fire outside on an iron skillet. We then used another skillet to fry up some turkey deli meat, cut the bread open, a little mayo, and voila - a yummy turkey sandwich. The kids enjoyed the impromptu dinner and we ate via candlelight outside. Story time (via books) was replaced with story-telling by dad last night and we all hit the hay around 8 p.m. Veronica had us over for dinner tonight, so we were treated to fresh salad, tortillas and soy meat. Thanks Veronica!

With electricity back on, hot showers a flowing, I am confident that we'll get the oven/stove operable tomorrow...(does that mean I have to get back to cooking dinners?)

What I miss most? No way to make coffee in the a.m. - I didn't have coffee yesterday and oh how I felt the affects, but today I scrounged up enough colones to treat the kids to a pastry at Stella's Bakery where I quickly downed about four cups of coffee in a matter of 15 minutes. Oh ya, the bank - gotta get to the ATM tomorrow as well.

What have I learned from this? Perhaps I need to assume the responsibility for bill paying? (Love ya Mike) and I do still rely on some creature comforts.

Peace,
Signed: S

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