WASHING MACHINE

I have had problems with my washing machine for the last year or so. It fills up with water and then stops working. The maintenance guy comes about four times per trip here. It happened again last night, and I decided that we needed a higher level of knowledge about GE washers. The repairmen (yes, plural, two came) came at about ten this morning. The maintenance guy was here also waiting for them because he could tell them exactly what was not happening, since he now knows our machine intimately. They worked on it for a while and came out with a part which looks like a condenser, I guess. The problem, as usual around here, was that they did not have replacement parts, but they told us that we could go get them at a store in the big town 15 miles from here. (Rubia, do you remember where we went one time to eat typical food cooked on a wood burning stove?) The store name is "The Toucan." It is a general store that sells everything you could imagine, owned by Koreans. Now, he just told us to go to The Toucan to get the part. He assumed that we knew where the store was, since there are no addresses in this country. The scary part is that we know where the store is! We are becoming locals!

We left at eleven o'clock and got there just past twelve. Bad planning because they close for lunch. Some stores do and others don´t. It was very hot and windy, but we did not feel like eating anything heavy, since we are going out tonight. We walked to an ice cream shop across the street from the Catholic church, had some ice cream, and walked back to the store, thinking that they opened at one. Alas, they opened at 1:30; therefore, we walked back to the plaza and sat under the trees for thirty minutes. As I said the owners are Korean. It is a ma and pa store. They sell everything from toys and piñatas, to car parts and it turns out, washing machines parts also. Pa speaks Spanish very well, but Ma has a very heavy accent. They also have a teen-aged daughter who works at the store. She either was born here or came as a young child because she speaks Spanish without an accent. Pa had drawer after drawer filled with condensers. He found the exact part and off we went. We got back home at 2:30, called the maintenance guy who came and put the part in. I am now doing laundry again! We will see how long this lasts.

As I said above, we are going out tonight. We are taking our friends Francisco and Luz (See their picture here) They are the care takers of a large property and live there, but, as you can read on the link above, Francisco is building his house across the road. Anyway, she cooks and keeps house for the property owners. They are nationals. The bad news is that they just retired and will be living in the property full time. Luz told us that she never gets out. The only time she gets out is when we are here and have the couples events. So, we are taking them out to dinner tonight to our favorite restaurant. We are going late enough so that they will be done with their duties at the farm.

Until next time...from the beach