| Jocasta with kids from Capital Edge Community Center |
Blurry eyed, my head turned towards my
bleeping alarm clock. I slammed my hand heavily on the snooze button and
groaned - I knew it was time to get moving, but my body still demanded more
winks after the flogging it had received the day before.
I shook off the desire to nap for a
while and eased myself out of bed. It had been a heck of a day: full of heavy
traffic jams, long, LONG queues, dashed hopes and slaughtered dreams all round.
Yet, I couldn't help but release a random chuckle as the scenes from yesterday
flashed through my mind.
We had returned from a big day out. I
could, but I won’t turn each experience into a blog post of its own. Why I
could take the time to explain all the "fun" we’d had dealing with
Nicaraguan government officials, waiting in non-air conditioned offices at temperatures
WAY above 96 degrees Fahrenheit, driving in Managuan madness, being told
"NO, we can't process this or that unless...", having to deal with
bratty teenage-boy attitudes, and being left slightly hoarse, after having had to
yell all my conversations on account of the newly made hole that decided to
appear in the muffler. But I won’t... ‘cause you get the picture. It was an
action packed day!
So we returned only to find a large projection
of water, due to a leaking pipe, the size of the fountain on Canberra's very
own Lake Burley Griffin. Someone had taken the time to dig up and smash our buried
water pipes.
And I know what you’re thinking… Didn’t
they have this same problem just a few months earlier? The answer? Yes, we had this
very same problem a few months earlier and consequently buried the pipes for
protection. The icing on the cake with the overly red, delicious, plump cherry
on top was that they had also entered the property and drained our two water
tanks of precious H2O!
I had planned to have a relaxing night
of quality time with Sez and Billy, my plans being swiftly overturned into a
night of fighting back gushing water with a stick and then driving madly through
Managua in search of an open hardware store.
Nestor and I were about to lose hope -
the Sinsa store we were sure would be open was shut, and the workers were happy
to be turning the key... "POR FAAAAA VORRRRRR" I pleaded...
"I'll pay double, triple, cuadrupleeeeeeeeeee... just PLEASE let us get
the materials we need..." But it was no good... they said that everything
was shut and there was nothing they could do…
However, one of the greened shirt guys
took pity on us, and explained there was another Sinsa opened until 9pm...
"WHERE, WHERE???" but time was a ticking and I didn't have the time
to listen to Nicaraguan directions of one block to the lake and then 3 to the
south, past the broken glass bottle of coke and then a turn to the left... so I
interrupted asking, "Do you wanna just hop in the car and show me? Pretty
please?"
He nodded and jumped into my rust-bucket
of a vehicle. I know, I know… stranger danger and all that... but I was
DESPERATE!!!
We made it to the store and I offered to
pay for his taxi home, but he said he'd stay and help me find what I needed. (FYI
for any peeps living in Nicaragua: The Sinsa, near Rotonda Jesus Cristo, stays
open ‘til 9pm every night)
And so into the store we did enter. He
knew everyone and before I knew it, he had the whole store running around
collecting the bits ‘n bobs we needed for "operation - there's a leak in
the dam"
It was at that moment, as I was walking
through Sinsa's plush aisles, that I suddenly heard the squeek squeek squeeking
of my wet shoes, and it dawned on me that I was wearing white pants - WHITE
pants!!! Argh! I was soaked through.. WHITE PANTS and WATER can make an
embarrassing combo!
I scanned the aisles looking for the
curtain and blinds section to go hide in - but then caught a glimpse of myself
in the mirrors section (on sale might I add…) and was relieved to see that the
crisp white pants I had started the day wearing, now totally drenched, were no
longer the crisp white-as-snow pants from the morning.
Oh no, my pantalones had turned into the
same awful, glorious colour of the muddy brown dirt from the banks of my barrio.
Whilst I had fought with the gushing water utilising my trusty stick, alongside
our faithful security guard, Nestor, my pants had been transformed from elegant
ladies’ wear into crocodile fightin duds.
The Sinsa employee we had "picked
up" had done a marvelous job collecting all the things required to resolve
our leaking problem. I grabbed some pool products and asked if he could receive
the commission on the whole sale. He smiled. I then offered him taxi money as a
thank you and he refused to accept it...
WOW… I was impressed - it gave me hope
again that there were "nice" people in the world... I wasn’t living
in a land with only water pipe smashers after all.
I dropped my new friend off at a
taxi/bus route and before he could shut the door, I shoved $5 into his hands
and said "please take this" then before he could hand it back, I
yelled out "thanks" put my foot on the gas and allowed the noisy muffler
to kick in – Operation “patch up pipes” could now be achieved, thanks to this
guy who took the time out to help us get the goods required for such a mission.
| Waterpipe Crisis Resolved |
If you would like to support our mission to Nicaragua, please CLICK HERE for more information...
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