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.

Turkey-less Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started early this year. On Tuesday I had an afternoon meeting in San Juan, which coincided perfectly with my daughter's arrival.

She arrived in the evening and wanted to do some Christmas shopping in Old San Juan, so we stayed overnight in the city. After a year spent in Puerto Rican towns and villages full of ugly concrete bunkers enveloped in even uglier metal cages, I truly enjoyed the architectural grace of Old San Juan, without holding a grudge that it lured me to Puerto Rico under false pretenses (I first visited Puerto Rico on a cruise , and naively thought the entire island was as charming as old San Juan - a big, big mistake)
Enjoyed the gracious buildings, the pretty balconies,

even the early Christmas decorations ... although I, as a principle, oppose Christmas before Thanksgiving. It feels so out of place.

But I LOVE old San Juan, no matter what!

So we spent Wednesday shopping, doing our dardenest to stimulate the economy in a typical American way: spending money.

Still, it was not easy: both old San Juan stores and the stores in the outlet mall in Barceloneta, where we shopped on our way back to the west coast were so full of bargains, almost everything seemed to cost a lot less than a year ago.

During the rest of the week we mostly enjoyed the sea and the beaches:

the one in front of my condo in Punta Arenas,


with its panoramic view of Mayaguez coastline ,

and, of course, the Playuela
so quintessentially Caribbean ,
and so full of fun!

We also went to Bahia Salinas, where we enjoyed another beach,
a spa, with its sybarytic lounging beds
around the infinity pool overlooking the typical glorious, west coast sunset

and had a great dinner at their renowned Meson type restaurant Agua al Cuello,
eating ? (see top picture) FISH! Without even a slice of turkey in sight!

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.