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At the Mall on December 26

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I thought my Canadian friends might be interested in this.  I went to the mall – actually, two malls, here in town on the 26th of December.  They were open.  But they were dead.  Not too many people around.  Nice and peaceful, actually.  Never seen them so quiet.

As I walked out in a parking lot, thinking how different things probably were in Canada, I glanced down and saw a licence plate that said Beautiful British Columbia (I don’t think I’ve ever seen another Canadian plate here in Ixtapaluca, except people we know)!

I guess old habits die hard – that mall has probably never seen such a high percentage of Canadians!

I wasn’t at the mall looking for deals, I was actually getting what I hope will be the last prescribed drugs I need for a while.  I’ve been fighting some kind of stomach thing since before conference (at the end of November).  I was actually quite sick at conference, then got a little better, then worse again.

Anyway, after several doctor’s visits, I think I’m on the mend.  The doctor things I’m probably somewhat undernourished after all that time, so he’s got me on some super-vitamins for a while.  Between that and the turkey, I should do fine… 😉

Leak of the Week?

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All right, so it’s been more than a week since I was last talking about leaks.  But "leak of the week" is much more catchy than "leak of the month", don’t you agree?

It was yesterday that we made the grisly discovery in Nathanael’s closet.  Here it is:

Corner leak in Nathanael's room

That’s not all of it, but it gives you an idea.  Now, this was in the back of the closet, so we didn’t see it right away.  But we don’t think it’s been there for ages and ages – we’ve just started noticing some extra wet in the bathroom (right behind this wall) and on the ceiling downstairs (under this wall).

Water isn’t dribbling out like it was last time, but we think it may be a trickier problem to solve.  It may either have to do with pipes in the wall, or perhaps a tiling issue in the bathroom.

But what do we know?  We need to call Mario again.  At the moment he’s busy in the church meeting place (remember the construction there?), but once the team from Michigan arrives he’ll take a break – and no better place to spend it than at the Cottrill house, right?

Meanwhile, I’ve carefully cleaned Nathanael’s wall (a temporary fix of course) so that he can use the room without the fear of a super-fungus monster creeping out of his closet at night!).  Lord willing Saturday or Monday Mario can come and take a look.  We may have people staying here next week – hopefully they won’t mind a little extra construction dust!

And the Leaks Go On …

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Knowing how much trouble we had with leaks when we first moved in, people still ask us if they’re all fixed.

Well, we thought they were mostly all fixed.  A couple of places still were causing problems, but now that it’s dry season, they’re not much of a concern at the moment.

Yes, you would think that in dry season, we wouldn’t be thinking much about leaks.  But somehow we still find a way.

It looks like there’s a leak in one of the pipes to our washing machine.  The leak seems to be in the wall, which means we will probably need to tear into the wall and ceiling (of our bedroom) to fix it.

Basically, when we do laundry, the water leaks into the laundry room and into our closet.  Some things in our closet are getting… well, like things get when they’re wet for a while.  Yesterday the water was literally dripping from the ceiling.  Not good.

The laundry room wall

You can see the wall of the laundry room here, with the wet mark all over the wall.

Yes, there’s always something going on here!  Please pray that we can get this solved as soon as possible.  For the time being, we don’t want to use our washing machine, and we’ve got some things moved out of our closet, which adds to the general household chaos.

I’ve got lots more to tell you about (non-leak related) – I’ll try to be back soon with more!

I’m cold. Deal with it.

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One cold kid.

I hesitate to even write this, because I imagine very few people will understand. But here goes nothin’.

When we got up this morning, it was 3ºC outside. That’s 37ºF. I don’t know what it was inside, but I imagine it wouldn’t be a surprise if it was 15ºC or 59ºF all day long in the house.

I know, I know – deal with it, right? I could be in Canada, with temperatures well below 0ºC and snow (let me tell you, we would get a fair bit of snow here if it was rainy season instead of dry season).

I’m not complaining about living in Mexico — I just love Mexico. But as the temperatures continue to drop, there are some unique challenges.

There’s no central heating in any buildings, including our house. That means that it’s a challenge to keep warm, and keep the kids warm. In Canada you go inside and warm up – but here it’s cold inside too, and we suspect that the lingering coughs and sniffles the kids have are related to the chilly weather. Both the kids have warm jackets now – and they can wear them to school and in school.

The teachers at Nathanael’s school asked that we send water for him at room temperature, because the water at the school was too cold.

Shari and I are still sleeping on a matress on the floor (you may remember our box spring didn’t fit up the stairs), so we’re increasingly motivated to find a solution, since the floor is a lot colder than the rest of the room.

In Canada, keeping the house cooler and using space heaters is a way to save energy. Here, using space heaters uses a lot of energy, and since the houses aren’t as well sealed, they can waste a lot of energy.

So believe it or not, mock if you will, deride, but the cold really is a challenge for us. We’re concerned about our health, and concerned about not being wasteful.

When it gets cold, our Mexican friends say,"Oh, but you’re used to this. You’re from Canada". Ironically, the opposite is true. They’re used to it, and we’re not.

Now excuse me while I go stand in front of the oven.

Read this post for more on my theory about Canadians, Mexicans and cold weather.

0 (zero) -part 2-

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Finally I was driving into through the entrance to the Verificentro.  I was waved on in, and into the second line of vehicles waiting to be verified.

(By the way, if you missed part 1 of this story, read this first.)

It was a fairly large place – maybe 5 bays for vehicles – surrounded by a wall, but all outdoors.  The joker from outside asked to see my papers again (actually, he was a nice guy.  Just trying to differentiate him since I didn’t find out his name).

Now, I’m forgetting the details here, but somewhere along the line they were telling me again that I couldn’t get a "0" sticker.  It was probably because I didn’t have the magical … what’s it called?  Some card that all drivers in Mexico have for their vehicle.  I told them that we didn’t have those in Canada, but that I did have a copy of my vehicle registration.

"So," he asked me, "is there work in Canada?"

"Oh yes," I answered, and we chatted about Canada and the cost of rent and this and that.  Then he told me I’d have to take my papers and get copies.

"Oh, these are copies," I said.

"All right then, just go and pay at the cashier’s over there, and give her your papers."

I went to a window in a wall.  I couldn’t see through it, but eventually I heard a voice asking me for that card that all-Mexicans-have-but-I-don’t.  When she found out I didn’t have one, she sounded bewildered.  But the joker – I mean, nice guy came to my rescue.

He apparently explained the situation to her, and then she asked for my license plate number.  I never remember it, so I started over to the van to check it.  His voice shouted through the window – "In English!"

That threw me off – I’m not good at switching back and forth, but I managed to give them my plate number in the requested idioma.  She handed back my papers.  Apparently she had made copies anyway.  Did I pay for that?

I came back to the van and someone had appeared in the driver’s seat.  He took my papers (two copies now) and said he’s take it from here – I had to go and wait near the entrance for the verdict.

The van was pulled up into one of the bays, and someone was crouched over a computer pumping in numbers.  He looked confused.  A woman joined him.  She looked baffled.  Soon there were four or five workers crowded around the computer beside my van.  No one else had four or five workers around their computers.  Finally, someone motioned to me and I went back over.

"Sorry, we can’t give you a zero," said the computer guy.

"Why not?"

"It’s just the type of vehicle.  I punch everything in, and the computer shows that it doesn’t qualify for a 0."

"Well, I had a friend come in just a few days ago with the exact same kind of van," (I didn’t mention that mine is a slightly nicer colour) "and he got a zero."

"Really?" (more people began to crowd around the computer) "Same year?"

"Yes, same year, same model."

"Hmmmmmmm…"

Now it was just me and the computer guy.  And it was the computer that stood in the way of me and using my van every morning of the week.

Some little part of a computer program, put together by someone somewhere in a little office in downtown Mexico City.  Or maybe they hired someone in India.  Could I talk to that person?

For the next ten minutes, I was going through the data entry with the computer guy, making suggestions.  Are you sure that number is right?  Oh, here’s my address.  What if we used this number here?

Every once in a while someone would come over and explain to me that I couldn’t get a zero.  And I would explain to them that I had a friend with the same kind of van who had just gotten one.

Amazingly he patiently listened to my suggestions, and we tried this and that.  Then we came to the screen where he was going to show me that it said I couldn’t get a "0".

But look!  This time it did have a zero!

The computer guy looked confused.  It might have been a good time to talk about the power of prayer, but the look on his face made me hesitate.

So… there’s a zero now – there’s hope!  Right?

But the computer guy didn’t sound too hopeful.

I didn’t quite catch what he was saying.  But I know he was confused about why the computer was saying what it was saying.  And he was telling me that I still might not get the zero.  Then he told me to go wait again by the entrance.

How many times now had people told me I couldn’t get a 0?

The van was tested, and pulled ahead.  No one came to tell me what was going on.  No zero stickers were produced.  It just sat there.

Finally someone came out and called me over.

"Where do you want it?" he asked.

He held in his hand a beautiful, shiny, new "0".  I didn’t cry.  I told him to put it on the back window.

I was allowed to leave.  The bearded guy moved the chain and let me out.

Unfortunately, I forgot to check how long this is valid for.  The maximum is 6 months.  But it might only be one month.

I need to check that out.

You mean – in a month I might have to go through this again??

I’m not asking for much.  Just another zero.

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