We Have Water
Update for 21 June 2003

On Monday of this week, Enrique went to the water office to sign up the four accounts.  He talked with the installation supervisor who schedules the work crews to see if we could get connected sooner than the 4 to 6 weeks we had been told.  Enrique offered to buy Cokes for everybody (the euphemism for a bribe offer).  The man said they had all the Cokes they needed, so Enrique offered to build a nice charcoal grill for him.  That got his interest.   Enrique and Coco set about to make the grill.  (Making/selling charcoal grills is a cash crop in Coco's welding shop.) 

On Thursday the guy stopped by the shop to check on his grill which was finished waiting for a paint job.  His crew showed up the next morning to hook us to water and sewer.  4 days instead of 6 weeks for less than $200 pesos of steel and paint turned into a grill.  Gotta love Mexico. 

I missed the hookup because I was stuck at home with battery troubles, hence only this picture of Ruben tramping the dirt left from the ditching,  This was too inefficient, so I drove my pickup back and forth to make a temporary tope (speed bump).  I don't know when the city will return to fix the street.

You can see in the white washed part of the front wall, we have the four electrical meter boxes ready for the power company to connect.  They were scheduled to come yesterday (Friday), but they were no shows.  
 
Next week we'll paint the rest of the front wall.  We'll also tear up and replace the old, broken sidewalk.

I reported last week that Martha and her family were going to move into their apartment without water and power. They negotiated a deal with their landlord to stay until the end of the month.  The house will be ready by then -- not finished, but livable.

Last week we showed Jesus trying to fit his oversized cabinet into Rosa's kitchen island.  He finally got it done quite neatly.

Meanwhile, the installation of Andrea's kitchen is progressing.  These are the last of the kitchen cabinets.

Coco is arriving with the last of the window screens -- those for his own apartment.

Water heaters have been set in place on little platforms that will make lighting them easier.  The walls in this north utility room have not been stuccoed yet.

Upper right is the backboard for electrical/TV/telephone connections in the south utility room which has been stuccoed.

I have a lot of connections to make.

The stairs have been tiled and grouted.  There is still a lot of cleaning to do as well as scraping excess grout and touching up the paint on the stair risers.

Enrique has a lot of hand rail work to do as soon as we get electrical power next week.

$27,484

$274,842

Completed

61,155

611,545

Completed

12,851

138,508

On Going

25,404

254,037

On Going

6,701

67,013

On Going

PROJECT TOTAL

$ 135,595

  $1,355,945

On Going

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