While you were out...

The following is a true story. Whether or not you choose to believe it will likely depend on whether or not you have ever visited a charming little country south of the equator called Ecuador. (Note: some names have been changed to protect the people who have been effected by the following events) Once upon a time there were three panas who were in cahoots with one another as the holidays were approaching...we`ll call them Isabel, Freddy, and Louis. It was a muy buena noche. The cats and dogs were friends. All of the divino niños had been blessed by the tacky red plastic rose drenched in holy water and held in the very hand of the man, the myth, the legend PADRE PAÙL. Jasòn had successfully gone abajo three times. Conor had actually posted a blog on time without even having an existing saving the planet email address. The volunteers had all enjoyed several masses, several more performances of the critically acclaimed, off-Broadway Scrooge production, and an Italian Christmas dinner at Sr. Annie`s home. The live nacimiento in Arbolito had gone smoothely with Jasòn as a superbly dressed wiseman, Marissa as an amazing female sacerdote (priest) and Conor leading the gang as Josè who is, by the way, not Jesùs` real father and therefore all of the lineage of Jesùs being traced back to David is bogus...for further details, ask Conor. We had an Arbolito community Christmas breakfast prepared by Kerry and Conor and then opened secret santa stockings filled with affirmations. Simply put, all was right with the world until one night, that all changed. Here is a brief Post-Navidad Recap:
December 26, 4:30am-Elena awakes due to rain...in her bedroom
4:45am-Marissa awakes due to Elena`s bedroom light and a deep thirst for coke
4:46am- Marissa and Elena realize that the entire living and dining area along with Elena`s room are completely flooded to ankle level with rain water.
4:47am - Se fue la luz....no power!
4:50am - We wake Darc, Clarita, and Jasòn the engineer, grab some flash lights and candles and most importantly, Marissa whips out her trusty rain boots and we go to work checking the rest of the house and tearing down everything on our walls and water proofing our rooms.
5:30am- Marissa quenches her deep thirst for coke.
6am -We go back to bed and the rest of the story goes something like this:
Our roof was poorly constructed and had numerous leaks.
Our house was flooded.
Conor invented a new form of slip and slide.
Elena was forced to move to the back of the house.
Crazy flying ant creatures infested Marissa`s room and she was also forced to move to the back of the house.
Elena began to clean.
Elena kept cleaning.
Matt is here...He LOVES Kerry.
Clare jumped on Elena`s cleaning kick.
The architect was lost.
The Zambranos saved the day (AGAIN)
We have rats.
Se fue la luz.
Se fue the phone.
Se fue the water.
Random men lie to us about our power outage and try to rip us off.
Kids canceled school because it had rained.
Se fue la luz again.
The grillo (grasshopper like insects) plague of Biblical proportions came at 9 en punto.
Se fue la luz otra vez.
Our architect is found but we soon lost him again.
Wheezy has a broken leg...
We flooded again!
We found our architect again.
Lots of men were on our roof.
The reindeer effect has now mixed with God`s grace.
The arbolito girls did not Not NOT take a trip to Quito as planned...the arbolito boys did not Not NOT win as planned.
We laughed, we cried, we danced salsa, we ate rice and life goes on...because you see, we build to that and right now we are in it.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Stop by Arbolito any time!
Happy Christmas and here`s to a new year!