In Maya country

I have been in Maya country for almost a month now, but sadly, had absolotely no opportunity to blog, which is a shame since life here is colorful.

I'll have to do most of the blogging after return to the USA, I am afraid, but let me here introduce some of my new Maya friends.

Bureaucratic delays :-(((

My passport expires on the last day of May 2010, that is a few weeks after my planned return from Belize. Which means that my passport would be valid during my entire stay there and a bit longer.

Yet, the government of Belize decided that any foreigner wanting to visit their very beautiful - and very sparsely populated - country needs to have a passport valid for 6 month after the date of their ... no, not arrival, but departure.

Oh, big brother, spare me!

Add to it that - due to international terrorism activities and ridiculously sharpened - in the wrong way - security measures - it is no longer possible to renew Swedish passports at honorary Swedish consulates - which there are plenty of, in every corner of the world.

No, nowadays you have to go to the Swedish embassy - in the USA a long plane trip from most of the country - be photographed and fingerprinted there... and then wait for the new passport to be manufactured.... in Sweden, sent back to the embassy and by the embassy to the nearest consulate... thus sparing you - generously - a second - expensive - trip to Washington. DC.

Oh, Big Brother.. too many Big Brothers.... utterly silly Big Brothers!

Since I was thinking of going to Sweden before my old passport expired anyway, a very nice employee of the Swedish embassy suggested a temporary passport now, which I could get in Atlanta right away. Alas, Swedish temporary passports are valid only for 7 months - fine if I were going on a short trips of a few weeks duration, but not on a prolonged one.

So on Wednesday I am off to DC, whether I feel like it or not...and no, I do not feel like going to DC in January!

It will be a long day: leave home at 5 am to drive to Jacksonville airport, fly to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Baltimore, take a subway ? bus to downtown Washington, get the passport formalities done... and then back to Baltimore, to Atlanta, to Jacksonville and home, where i should arrive shortly after midnight!

I may not be too old, yet, to survive the rain forest... but the bureaucratic amok of government bureaucrats pretending that they are "protecting their citizens" from either terrorists (USA, leaning heavily on the others) or illegal immigrants ? ... might very well kill me!

Watch out, Belize, for an invasion of European Union members, whose passports expire in less than 6 month after their planned departure!

Golden years on the Golden Isles of Georgia

My retirement merry-go-round, i.e. "living the world" retirement type ended - I resolved - two weeks ago, when I moved to the Golden Isles of Georgia, to live my golden years in a more stationary fashion, thus the retirement-merry-go-round blog comes now to an end.

June and July were filled with travelling all around the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, (I promise to record those travels in this blog soon, under appropriate dates) before I settled on the Golden Isles, with their sandy beaches, fantastic nature preserves and the famous marshes of Glynn.

I shall continue my encore (= retirement, part time ) career of non-profit consulting offering hands on organizational and fund development to non-profits both locally and - for short term assignments - internationally, to aid them during the recession, and after it - especially rural and remotely located organizations, since these usually receive far fewer grants than other nonprofits, often due to lack of professional resources and far fewer public support due to their remoteness.

As for the rest, I plan to enjoy the beaches, forests and marshes, and the neighboring historical city of Savannah and the nearest large city of Jacksonville, Florida - both at a distance of 70 miles. I plan to visit my daughter in Atlanta often, visiting friends there and taking it the cultural offerings I so enjoyed there: opera, ballet, theaters, museums, my book clubs... enjoy what's left of my life!

I have enjoyed this blogging adventure for the last two years and all virtual - and personal - friendships I developed through it.

Till we meet again! :-)

Memorial weekend bargain hunting

At the beginning of the week I got an email from IKEA announcing a Memorial Day sale. This classic modern chair, designed by Noburu Nakamura some 20 years ago (?) was on sale today only, for a super bargain price of $39 each. I could not resist... for both practical and sentimental reasons.

Practical: before I left for Puerto Rico I left my bedroom, guest room/study and dining room furniture in storage, but sold practically all my living room ones - and left furniture I had in Puerto Rico there, so, once I moved into my new place I would have nowhere to sit, unless I bought something new, so a couple of those chairs, especially at this unbeatable price seemed like a perfect solution.


A street in Ystad, a well preserved medieval town

Sentimental: I owned a couple of those - with pale blue cushions - some 15 years ago, when I worked in Poland, but had a seaside apartment in Ystad, in southern Sweden.

Lodz

Poland at that time was still in its early post communist period, and was certainly a fascinating place to work in, but utterly uncomfortable to live in, so every month I worked for about 24 days straight, workdays and weekends, just to be able to escape to my tranquil Swedish seaside paradise for one week, breathe some fresh air ( I worked in Lodz, at that time a heavily polluted industrial city of almost one million inhabitants squeezed like sardines in tiny - and mostly dilapidated - communist era apartments, or crumbling - and equally dilapidated - early industrial ones),

walk on practically empty, miles long beaches, flanked by wild rose hedges,

heather filled meadows and pine forests....

I loved it there... but work - and new adventures took me elsewhere... so now I had to have at least those armchairs again!

On Thursday Disa and I went to IKEA for lunch ( Swedish meatballs with lingonberries!) to preview the various options before today's mad dash, and there, while testing the different types of cushions for style and comfort, I got engaged in an animated conversation with an interesting guy... and made a new friend :-)

More bingo

AMPI has bingo fundraisers three times a year: in January, May and September. Here are some pictures from the first bingo I ever attended.

It's early, about four hours before the official bingo starts, but already there is a group of volunteers busy : ...assembling and placing tables and chairs...
...filling ice chests with water and soft drinks...
... brewing the first pot of coffee...
... arranging snacks...
... while kitchen volunteers start cooking...

... bacalaitos... ... and sorulitos... which, of course, require tasting...

...a chore undertaken with enthusiasm by Eunice, needing refreshments after assembling tables...
a crew selling food vouchers is getting ready...
... as is the crew selling and validating bingo cards...
and the first players are greeted enthusiastically by Zenaida.
The most eager players start gathering around 10 am, ... preparaing their cards and their tokens...
socializing...
introducing themselves...
... snacking... having a good time...
... or concentrating on an informal pre-game.
... while the kitchen crew keeps busy...
as does the food serving crew, serving lunch...
and this fabulous Tres Leches cake for dessert....

while THE game finally BEGINS...

Landlords from hell

I am sorry to say, but ALL my patience with the discomforts of living in Puerto Rico is now gone!

I know that - in a larger perspective - my complaints are petty ones, but I detest discomfort caused by someone's inneficiency, uncaring and general lack of service.

I can take a certain amount of discomfort, if it is adventurous and only for a short time: living in the rain forest, without a phone (since not even cell phones work there) and internet due to lack of coverage (providing those services are available nearby and can be accessed daily), parking my car half a mile down and walking up a steep hill to the cabin.... carrying my laptop, and all the groceries on my back.

But I can't take a lack of water, because the cabin's owner did not install it properly... or an invasion of bugs, because the owner put a roof floating over the walls, instead of attaching it to them... and failed to inform me of any of the cabin's "quirks". And abandoned her kitty in the cabin, so I had to adopt the poor creature!
At least there the rent was peanuts.

But here in Joyuda I rented a beachfront condo, a so called luxury one for a luxury price. It proved to be a hellish place - overheating so badly, due to lack of insulation that even now, in January, when the temperature outdoors is 84 degrees it becomes even hotter inside. Didn't the landlady know about it? Didn't the real estate agent? Should not any of them inform me?

Anyway, I was not aware that I needed a temperature clause in my rental contract, so there was not much I could legally do about it... I could only swear and complain.

But repairs, which according to contract were the obligation of a landlord, were another matter: so after two months of reasoning with my landlady - through a real estate agent, since any efforts to reach the landlady directly failed totally (she never replied), I finally decided to delay the rent payment until the things that - according to the contract needed fixing - were fixed.

And, halleluja, after only two and a half months (!) I finally got a missing window screen, an internet connection (landlady insisted all utilities etc. remained in her name, so I could not get it in my name, without violating a contract... I suspect she does not declare the condo as rented in order not to pay taxes on the income... but I am not a tax police).
I got hot water after only a month, because I got tired of cold water and fixed it on my own. I know, I am sooo impatient!

So I paid my November rent in a sheer euphoria that my landlady finally got something fixed, despite the fact, that faucets in both my bathroom and kitchen needed urgent replacement, as they tended to fall off at will, creating unexpected - and undesirable - fountains in the kitchen and bathroom. And she promised to fix them.

But come December and they were not fixed - surprise, surprise! - so I delayed rent payment again. My landlady called me promising to fix the faucets, but asked for a rent check in advance of repairs. I declined.
And still nothig happened. Faucets fall off almost daily now, and ... two days after I got back from the mainland, my stove top and oven quit working.

A message to my landlady remains unanswered - ok she might be travelling, or even be in a hospital, but she has family: a daughter living close to me and dropping in during my work hours to put utility bills under my front doors. So there is no excuse. And I guess she does not need the rent money???

So by now I have " recovered" my deposit - by not paying rent since November - and could - and should - move out without having to sue her in an unfamiliar legal territory ... since I seriously doubt I would ever get my deposit back, or manage to get a discount on my rent for all the dicomfort living at her place caused - and causes - me, without having to sue her for a breach of contract. Sigh...

OK, OK, I feel slightly sorry for her, if her negligence as a landlady is a result of a - monumental! - ineptitude and not ill will, because I am almost equally inept in practical everyday matters... but knowing my strengths and weaknesses I would never even entertain a thought of being a landlady... without hiring a management company to deal with bothersome for me details!

But a simple thought of moving to another place in Puerto Rico and dealing with - most likely - irresponsible landlords, in addition to extremely shoddy construction, gives me shivers... so I sent a couple of emails instead, to check a possibility of a relocation to Florida and ... got a green light the same day... despite my age and recession. (But I do get results - funding - for my non-profits, despite recession, so - naturally - they all want those results.)

Still, I decided, that if I can fix the stove top and oven for a reasonable amount of money, I'll endure another seven weeks on the island and transfer at the end of February - in order to be able to finish at least the most critical aspects of my work project and - hopefully - find a replacement for myself.

But if the stove can't be fixed inexpensively - I am out of here now!

Grand opening

Life would be too sweet in Puerto Rico, I guess, if its bureaucracy was a little more oriented toward serving the public ( that pays through the nose for it) and a little less toward creating obstacles under the slightest of pretexts... and often, with no pretext at all.
Anyway, common sense and goodwill prevailed this time and La Casa de Junny was finally ready for its grand opening.

Friday before Thanksgiving trustees,

employees,

clients and their families,

friends,
neighbors,
invited officials, media and - last but not least - future tenants,
descended on La Casa de Junny to take part in its grand opening.

After a handful of inauguration speaches

a representative of the future tenants cut the ribbon,
AMPI employees formed a receiving line,
and each of them escorted a tenant to her room as both tenants and guests entered La Casa de Junny.

When the tenants settled happily in their beautiful new home, and guests had enough time to inspect it in detail, both tenants

and guests
enjoyed lunch.

La Casa de Junny

Yesterday was an important day, a - small, perhaps, but very important -social progress day in Puerto Rico.

Yesterday the first in Puerto Rico assisted living house for people with mental retardation has been inaugurated in Mayaguez by AMPI: Associacion Mayaguezana de Personas con Impedimentos.

The house is called La Casa de Junny - named after Junny, a person with mental retardation, who died a couple of years ago.

It is a very nice house. Large, with plenty of room for 8 people and with separate appartments downstairs for the caretakers.

Until now in Puerto Rico adults with mental retardation could only live with their families - if they were lucky enough to have families able to house them and take care of them, or live in oldfashioned, often dehumanized institutions. Now it will all change. They will be able to live independently, yet assited by the caretakers they need.

Casa de Junny has ample space for both togetherness and privacy for its occupants.

It has an ample formal living room

Here filled with AMPI's employees preparing for the house's inauguration

An entry parlor

An ample dining room

adjacent to the living room

and a comfortable family/entertainment room in another part of the building
with a flat screen TV and a nice sound system

There is also a little study, where we hope to have a computer soon


There is also a well equipped
eat-in kitchen with storage and laundry

with a large adjacent terrace, serving as an outdoor living and dining room

balconies on three sides of the building

and a large yard with fruit trees, plants and lawns to use for outdoor exercise.

Last but not least
There are six individual bedrooms upstairs
each of them different
to accommodate various preferences of their new inhabitants
each of them comfortable
and each lovingly arranged
by AMPI staff and volunteers, thanks to generous donations from the people of Mayaguez and surrounding communities.