Aquaduct Repair

Often times in the rainy season we are left without water, which may seem odd because we get at least a couple inches of rain almost every day here. (The other day we had a total of 3.4 inches!!) In total we have had about 8 inches of rain thus far in May. So it’s pretty normal when Rafael shows up at the gate before breakfast requesting one or two able bodies to dig out the pipe, repair it and recover it. One morning I volunteered to help….it was ….an interesting experience. Rafael is really nice and like every good Tico starts out the conversation “Are you going to the dance in a week?” “Do you have a boyfriend in Costa Rica?” But he’s harmless and a good talker. This day we realized the leak in the pipe was on the deepest buried pipe in this area (not the easily accessible top pipe, of course.) We ended up digging and throwing dirt for about two hours before we finally had cleared out enough for him to cut the PVC pipe and cover the hole with a new piece of pipe. Then….we had to recover the pipes, more hauling of dirt. In the end San Miguel had water again and everything thing was good. But I don’t think I’ll be helping out on that front for awhile. It killed by back for about a week or so, I’m just now getting back into digging and hauling various items.

The storms are pretty incredible here. I’ve never actually been scared in a lighting storm before. But it’s not uncommon here for buildings, lamp posts, or even people to be struck by lighting here. One of the structures on the ranch got struck the other day and almost all the light sockets were blown out and the switches all need to be replaced. Thank you to the lighting storm for creating more work for us!! Yay! (Not that I know anything about fixing electricity…) We’ve moved into the Cork now which is about an 1/8 of a mile away from la casa principal (the main house) which results in me having some interesting walks back to the house for dinner. Yesterday I was alternating between sprinting and walking because everytime I saw a bolt of lighting it lite some fire under my ass, if you will! I got scared! But I was wearing my rain coat and using an umbrella so I didn’t get too wet in the torrential downpour!