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Hound Dog

Apr 18, 2009, 3:45 PM

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Cultural Exchange

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So here we were about a year ago putting in our new kitchen in our San Cristóbal refurbished ruin in the El Cerrillo Barrio and we had a couple of great guys doing the finishing work on some of our built-in appliances while we sort of watched television and stayed on the periphery and there was a point in time where my wife walked into the kitchen hours after they had started work and let me tell you these were highly competent guys but it seems they had spent the past few hours making sure the electronic clocks on our dishwasher and stove not only worked but were in sinque precisley to the minute and they were calling out to each other the precise time at which a minute changed and I swear to God we paid them for a half day of this without realizing it until it was too late and it never even occurred to them that the first time the electricty went off there as it does all the time that each clock would record the time as precisely 12:00Noon on the dot and that we gave not the least bit of a damn what time either the stove or dish washer said it might have been in the first place as, after all, we are retired and have no place we must be at precisely whatever hour.

So, once they figured that out at considerable cost to us my wife went over to check out the garbage disposal which, as best I can tell was the first one ever installed in San Cristóbal and which we had brought in from Guadalajara and my wife, upon having been satisfied that the garbage disposal had indeed been properly installed asked the plumber where the on-off switch was located and his reply was, "On-off switch? Why do you need that?" Upon which inquiry my wife replied, "So we can turn it on and off.". The plumber incredulously replied, "Well, when you want to turn it on you simply reach under the kitchen sink counter and plug it in and when you want to turn it off you reach down under there again and unplug it."

We now have a switch. We have lost this dude´s phone number.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Apr 18, 2009, 3:48 PM)

Carron

Apr 19, 2009, 3:44 PM

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Re: [Hound Dog] Cultural Exchange

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When we bought our house in Copoya, Chiapas years ago it was a large cement block building that had been used as a metal kitchen furnishings factory (like stoves, grills, etc.). The windows--lots of them--were covered with very nice painted burglar bars. Most of the windows were designed to open and close like shutters. But there was no glass.

We ordered the window glass, custom cut, from a store in Tuxtla Gutierrez and Hubby did the installation himself. Most of the village came out to watch in amazement. None of their houses nor those of anyone they knew had glass. I should have planned ahead and sold refrescos.