I really don’t know what’s happening in this building of mine. A few weeks ago, I woke up to find my house without a drop of water. The problem was fixed and I moved on. Well, apparently it wasn’t that easy. After that day, the building ran out of water on three other occasions, twice this week, being the last one last night.
On Wednesday, the plumbers were investigating where the problem was and they think there’s a leak in one of the flats that’s causing the inconvenience. I have noticed that there is a big stain on the garage’s ceiling right below the next door flat’s bathroom, so maybe that’s the source of the leak. However, the owner or tenant doesn’t live there, you know, it seems as if it’s a place to crash whenever the person is in the city. That actually happens a lot in this building. There is what I call “the Veranopolis Mob” living or hanging out here, every week you can see different cars in the garage and basically they come and go, lend the flat to friends and relatives and at the end of the day you’re not really sure who’s who, but they sure are all obnoxious people.
Anyway, I had no water overnight. I texted the person in charge of the building but she didn’t reply — I guess she is away — so I would have to contact the company that is supposed to help with the maintenance in the morning. I woke up this morning and there it was, water, running from the tap. I don’t know if somebody fixed it, if there’s some water in the water tank or some higher power just stated “let there be water…” What’s bothering me is that now every time I go to the kitchen or bathroom is gonna be a surprise: will I be able to flush, brush my teeth? Is today gonna be a shower or no-shower day? Clean or dirty dishes? Come on…
And the funny thing is that we ran out of water around 11pm, and some half hour later I started hearing cars getting out of the building, you know, as if people were just fleeing the scene, “no water? I’m getting the hell outta here!” So now I have to leave my own flat, for which I monthly pay a substantial amount of money, because they can’t fix the problem? If there’s a leak find the fucking thing and fix it!!! (I just hope they’re not as efficient as BP…)
Just one thing about Veranopolis. I’m not saying that everybody that lives in that city is obnoxious, I’m sure it’s a lovely city and there are hundreds of fantastic people over there, but it seems that these guys from this city were handpicked to make everybody else’s lives just miserable.
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I have FINALLY finished writing the assessments… of the first group… Curiously, I read this fascinating article in the NYT about plagiarism. I know it focuses on college and university papers, but the timing couldn’t have been more perfect because of the cases I had while correcting their writing tasks. The second group is now in process of taking tests and I’ll interview them in a couple of weeks. A lot of those interviews will be over the phone and I wish I could record them, you know, to have something to refer to while writing the evaluations. A couple of years ago I did it through the speaker phone, the quality of the recording wasn’t great but it was excellent to get to listen to the conversation again. Now, do you think I have this at my disposal? I better start sharpening the pencil…
Not to mention that the distance classes thing isn’t going very well. I haven’t progressed one bit since I presented the first draft last month and I’m supposed to present the final project in a couple of weeks during my second visit in Santa Cruz. What really disappointed me was the unhelpful reaction I got from people that were suppose to contribute to the making of the project. The last thing I need is somebody telling me that this is something very difficult to pull off given our current situation and coming up with a list of cons. I know it’s fucking difficult, but it’s been okayed by the school and now it has to happen.
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I have one more translation available on TEDTalks, reviewed by Rafael Eufrasio. Filmmaker Newton Aduaka shows bits of his movies, focusing on “Ezra,” which tells the story of a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Available here.
-- Never too many beers -- 