May 7, 2010 TGIF

what a day yesterday ....after collecting all the trash from in front of where Nelo is building the 4 hotel rooms, his son told me that it was Andres's guys who made the mess. I will have a talk with Andres and maybe one day I will kidnap him and his family to come cleaning with me. You do it once in the intense desert sun ...and you will never litter again !!  it is very hard work.  And the desert is so incredibly beautiful without rash. what amazes me is that the plants, with a touch of water, flower immediately and most often the flowers are bright shocking red.  i guess this is nature getting the birds to come and spead the seeds. you cannot miss the bright red.

When i got home, i started the blog and soon Antonio came by (water truck driver). he told me he was having aproblem with the neighbor, her trash was not getting picked up because she hadn't paid and the toilet paper was flying into his yard.  so, i called the garbage money collecting lady who confirmed that Estela, whom i have not met, had not paid and owed 70 pesos. i told Gloria that i would pay, i would drop off the trash i had collected at the fron of la bocana there as well, and to please have the trash guys stop by in a while.

no one was home at estelas but the garbage boys tell me that she told them her paycheck is not enough. she hasnt paid for water either but she had some nice big plants in the front and they had been watered. no one answered and no one came home.  i am considering asking for a plant in exhcnge for paying the trash. waht do you think?  fair deal in my opinion !!  i will visit her today and see what we can do about an exchange

i did visit the vivero near our house and added 5 plants to my collection. one is called cat's paws. such a cute little plant.  project number 5,000 is to start a cactus/flower garden, where all the plants are catalogued and maybe charge $1 for people to see it. just another way to add to our kitty for town projects. the plants are quite varied and a lot of them are from deserts in brazil, south africa, argentina

my goal today is to manage to get 14 people to sponsor the kids uniforms !!!  I have written to many folks, $50 each and they will be so proud !!!  Allen at UCSD committed to 2 - he is really a good sport. Like I tell everyone, good good very good karma.

I almost forgot to mention ...yesterday,I also got called into the delegado's office - i guess he is upset - one of the trash guys had borrowed 200  pesos from me and never paid it back, i talked to his partner about it who mentioned it to the delegado. well, when the kid got demoted to sweeping sand off the streets, i think  this was the motive...then he asked to go to la paz for a couple days and the delegado got pissed off. so, i am pretty sure Gordo got fired yesterday. the delgado says he was taking drugs...i dont doubt it but what a shame ...really a shame ... BUT I got advised to never ever EVER gove any of the trash guys any money ... too bad, their loss, we had a good system going.  but the bottom line is, the main trash has already been collected. what we get now is bottles and plastic bags - abandoned stoves and sinks and fridges are pretty much a thing of the past.

so now La Bocana needs a sand sweeper, if anyone needs a job !!