Thursday, October 25, 2007
It has been slow and confining for weeks. Ann and Gene have been sick off and on for days now. First flu, then Gene contracted some kind of blood poisoning, and then Ann has had the flu and complications.
We had it worse last year when my road was completely impassable because heavy gravel trucks tore it up so bad when it was soft. During the dry season the village got a complete grading of all the roads. This year the bad spot in my road is dicey but I haven’t gotten stuck yet.
It’s Ann’s road that’s been torn up now. A water pipeline comes up from the river at Crystal Paradise Resort, crosses the main road at Ann’s entrance, continues up to Winston’s and then winds through a pass in the hills to the village of San Antonio. That village got a wild hair and decided to use their pipe in some other water acquisition scheme and spent the summer digging up the pipe.
Typically the project was half-assed; they broke the ends of numerous pipes by throwing them on top of each other; didn’t fill and pack Ann’s road worth a damn; and tore up Winston’s road so bad he’s about to lose his ability to traverse it even in 4 wheel.
Trying to see how Ann and Gene are doing has led to me getting stuck twice. During their second round of illness, I didn’t hear from Ann for a week! We usually see each other every few days, and I was worried enough that I was determined to get over there some way.
I got stuck right in the damn pipe muck and managed to back out to the turn-off, but it was so soupy I couldn’t jump the verge of the main road. It was the kind of mud that sucks your boots off and I was about to fall head first into it when Winston drove by and stopped.
I said, “Ah, another glorious day dawns in Belize!” Winston leans over to the passenger window and says, “What’s wrong?” I suppressed saying What the hell does it look like?, and smilingly asked him if he had a tow rope. So he pulls me out which was easy, he didn’t have to get his tires dirty.
He’s all nicely outfitted, his new truck is clean, and the interior is nicely brushed out. He’s had a recent haircut and is clean shaven. I’m barely dressed, wearing boots, my hair has partially fallen out of the little ponytail I’m growing, and because I don’t’ have any lens wash I’m having to wear my glasses and the nose piece is missing and I’ve forgotten that I have part of a makeup sponge glued to the bridge.
I really do have cabin fever and I have only three cigarettes and no money and been on half rations of Zoloft, and if I let this chance to improve my day go by, I’ll regret it.
I tell Winston that I need to get out of the house and might do something self defeating if I just go home, can I just ride with you. I need to get some cigarettes, do you have any cigarettes? He hands me a pack with only three left and I hand them back saying I’ll get some in town.
We drop off my car at the entrance to my road, it’s only about “two blocks”, and there is a village man standing by, waiting for a ride, so Winston stops to pick him up. He tells Winston he has to stop at his house and so we stop again about a 10th of a mile later. His whole family comes out of the house and begins to pile in.
I always feel so used when this happens. I ask if anybody is sick. I look at each one of them and ask again if anybody is sick. They’re not; they’re just taking the baby for a checkup. The baby looks fine. So they pass muster. One of the quickest ways to get sick, is to give somebody a ride who proceeds to cough and sneeze all over you. Peter hated riding the bus for that very reason. Every time he got sick he just knew it was from the bus. Gene said he got the flu from Nelson’s elderly father who wanted a ride back to Arenal.
We rode into town and I told Winston that Ann and I wanted to get an official looking paper spelling out that we had authority to secure the other’s place until relatives took over. I’ve had so much stolen while I’m alive that I can well imagine the looting as soon as I die. I think the remaining tools, sheets, and kitchenware would be hustled under aprons while I was still cooling down. They’d have to wait till dark and get a tractor and trailer to make off with the furniture, fans, radios, and electronics. Lain and Elliott would still have my books and photographs.
He spent the rest of the time explaining that he didn’t practice law anymore. I inwardly sighed and thought “who said anything about it being legal, jeez; I just wanted some authoritative boiler plate so nobody but Ann could start acting like they were in charge of my stuff”. He’s very rule-minded.
He had to get breathing filters for his workers because they decided they could exterminate the bats in the guest house attic by waving at them and spraying them with bug spray. Winston was dubious, but insisted they at least wear masks. I need to ask him if it worked because as thoroughly as I had the builder seal my house, he still didn’t screen the attic vent and now I have bats. I was really surprised that he was driving into town for just one item.
I pushed his patience a bit by asking him to buy me some cigarettes, but he was nice enough about it. Oops, I still need to pay him $11. I wouldn’t have been able to get up his road the past two weeks anyway.
The next day Ron came by to see if I needed anything and brought me $20 and two packs of cigs. Yes! I need to go check on Ann and Gene and told him how impossible it had been to communicate over a tiny distance of a half mile.
I surmised that there hadn’t been any sun, so they couldn’t charge their phone batteries. They must be too weak to drive out in their 4x4’s. I told him my truck got stuck yesterday and it’s been raining ever since, so that was out. And I just couldn’t walk that far, especially in the rain, slipping and slogging through mud. He thought we ought to check on them too, so we made that detour.
Yes, they were that sick and were real glad we came by. We have talked several times about how vulnerable we are if someone doesn’t come by. I’m in a good enough location that the people who regularly pass by, or come by would probably spot something amiss – sooner or later. I thought Ann and Gene had solved that big problem by having Nelson’s family living on the property, but it’s a long story as to why that’s not so perfect.
The same conditions have happened this week, only now I don’t have a phone card, my credit expired. Once again it’s raining, the roads are soup, and I haven’t seen Ann. But today, she text me saying she had been sick since Sunday but was feeling better, but her road was bad. I didn’t have any credit to reply. I just have to trust that they’re OK enough. It’s supposed to be dry tomorrow and I’ll definitely try to go over before I go to town.
The nicest news is that this last rain was from the north and it’s cooled down like somebody turned on the A/C. Even at noon it was only 76 in the house.
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