Life At The Orphanage

The orphanage is really just a two storey, two bedroom townhouse. It sits empty except at night when I'm here sleeping or typing on the computer (like I am right now). And I've got A/C and a very large, comfortable bed so I'm happy. But life here has had its moments. Here is a summary of my adventures (some of this is a rant).

A few days after moving in, the water started coming out of the tap in spurts. Then it just stopped coming out altogether. So I check the tank outside and it was EMPTY (everyone has a tank at their house in case of a water outage). Valves were open but no water. Turns out whoever was at the place last, turned off the water when they left, and I had been using tank water the whole time. Mystery solved (thanks Tim).

Nobody told me that there was going to be someone cleaning the place while I was there. I first found out about the mystery person because the pillows on my bed would get moved around. Not a big deal but c'mon, leave my pillow alone.

Went into the kitchen one evening and discovered a giant spider. I think there is a picture of him in my photo album. He must have been 2" in diameter (with the legs). Tony wanted to kill him, but the spider moved extremely fast and went up into a crack in the ceiling. I haven't seen him since, and I've decided he must have moved next door.

Came home one day and flicked the switch for the lights. Nothing. Checked the breakers, they were all on. A power outage? But my neighbours had lights on. So I go to check the power meter on the telephone pole in front of my house. THE METER IS GONE! I call Karen, who calls the landlord, who comes over right away to inspect the non-existant meter. Apparently he sent someone to pay the electrical bill and the guy didn't pay it (and when you don't pay your bill, that's it, no power for you!) He was very appologetic and offered a room at his house. I declined, but took all my bedding and slept at Tony & Scott's place.

The next day I brought my bedding back, and put it on my bed. I left it in a ball because I didn't know if I was really going to get electricity that day. When I came back that night at 11:00pm I had power! Went upstairs and my bedding had disappeared! It's 11:00 at night, and my bedding is gone. AAAAAAAH! What are you supposed to do in a situation like this? I can't go back to the church (it's past 11), and there are no other sheets in the orphanage. I concluded that the cleaning lady had assumed the bedding was off to be cleaned and took it to the laundrymat (turns out I was right). Well intentioned I'm sure, but I need that bedding EVERY night. Finally, I took a comforter from the other bedroom and slept without sheets.

About a week ago, Goi and I were in the office when 2 vanloads of kids show up at the front doorsteps of the church. We were the only ones at the church and neither of us had any idea what this was about. They were from Lorenzo Home which is a catholic AIDS orphanage nearby. They wanted to see the orphanage. OH. For you see, I wasn't expecting any visitors. And although the place wasn't really messy, it wasn't exactly presentable. So we got on the phone with Karen pretty quick and so Goi waited with the Nun and the Kids while I high tailed it to the orphanage for some quick sweeping and putting away of some unmentionables that I had left out to dry. I learned that when living in an orphanless orphanage, always have the place presentable.

In my quick sweep job, I swept up 2 cockroaches who were upsidedown and dead. It seems that if a cockroach finds himself on his back, there is nothing he can do to remedy the situation. What I want to know is what they were doing to get themselved in that situation in the first place. One of the cockroaches had died in front of the refridgerator. The day after I swept up, there was another cockroach on his back in front of the refridgerator. What's the deal with dying on your back in front of the refridgerator?? And if I clean this one up, will another one take its place?

Those are the adventures so far. I guess the next thing would be the wireless internet which keeps going down (as I write this, the internet is down). Oh well, it all keeps life interesting.