More House Problems...57 days to go

(Posted 2 days late...)
Last night while I was on the computer Andrés was in our closet area, saying, “What happened here?” Curious, I got up to find him in our hallway to the bathroom, looking at the floor. “What happened here?” he says again, and I immediately called Bryon, who came running. He thought that something terrible had happened to Andrés. Instead what he found was our entire closet area soaked with water, running out of the bathroom. The carpet was buried under a river. We all got on our flip-flops and made our way to the bathroom. Turns out there’s a hole in the back of the water tank on the toilet which allows water to escape once the water reaches a certain point. In this case, the tank bulb had not reached its limit, but was blocked from that limit, so the water continued running. We spent ½ hour squeegie-ing the water back into the bathroom and down the open drain, with which, fortunately, every bathroom in every house in Argentina comes equipped. Now the rug smells mildewy, the air is heavy with the smell. Bryon has gone to the mission office to pick up the rug cleaner, which will suck up the extra water.

Had I told you that I can’t wait to get out of this house? Eight weeks and 1 day to go…

Let me tell you what happened after the rain we had on Friday night. As usual, our circuit breakers all tripped during the storm and we woke up with no electricity. There’s a particular zone that sets off all the others whenever it rains. Lately we have been having lots of rain, and without fail, that zone has tripped. We have to wait quite a while for it to dry out before we can turn it on. Unfortunately that is the zone which supplies power to our alarm system. The monitoring department calls us whenever we are disconnected to them or when we have had a “failure” in that zone. And usually it is I who answers the phone when they call. I have the conversation memorized; it goes something like this:

Hello ma’am. This is (insert name here) calling from Siemens Alarm Company. With whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?
Christine
Uhhh…
Cristi-NA
Very good. And what is the security password please?
(You didn't very well think I'd actually post our password, did ya???)
Very well, ma’am. We are calling you today because recently we are showing a break in our connection with your alarm system. Can you tell us why?
Yes. Every time it rains, the circuit blows a fuse in the zone where the alarm is connected. (I can hear typing furiously in the background, and assume that he is recording my response.)
Do you believe that this problem with be remedied soon?
Well yes, once the weather dries out.
Thank you ma’am.
No, thank YOU for calling.

I feel like making a recording and pushing play whenever Siemens calls! Why can’t they just see the notes from last time and draw the conclusion that due to rain, we have no connection. Imagine someone reviewing our file and finding the same responses every time? I might take the situation more seriously if we had more reason to depend on the alarm system. As it is, we have a problem with the box inside (certain lights are flashing that shouldn’t be), and the box outside was not working properly so a representative came last week, took it with him, saying that it will be fixed within 10 days.

Even though we have no A/C power connection, there is a battery source, which the alarm runs on until the original source is reconnected.

I love this home, the wonderful yard and even the swimming pool, the high wall surrounding us, the many rooms. The kitchen is very nice, even if the oven doesn’t work (better to heat up the outside with that oven anyway!), the laundry room is such a blessing, and we have been very fortunate to be here for these past 2 ½ years. Yet as much as we like this place and feel that God has blessed us tremendously, we will not miss the problems this house has!