Minor Frustrations

In conjunction with building our house, we are renovating a 'campesino' house outside of Valle de Angeles that we want to turn into a cafe. We hope it will be nice as we are trying to maintain the arquetectural integrity and style of a turn of the century farmhouse. One thing we want to do is grow our own organic coffee on the premises which we will use in the cafe. In order to do this, we need to cut down several pine trees and plant more appropriate shade trees for the coffee.

Recently, due to deforestation, legislation has been enacted requiring government approval prior to cutting down any trees. Now, I'm as 'green' as the next guy and I believe this law was way past due, but my wife has made three appointments with the responsible authorities to inspect the site and trees that we want to cut down. Each time she went to the property and waited several hours to no avail. No one ever showed up as promised.

I guess we better start getting used to this.

It reminds me of an American friend who lives in San Pedro Sula. When he built his house, the lighting fixtures on the wall in the powder room were not centered over the sink. Instead, they were installed about a foot to the left of the center. I guess its called compromise, but I still notice the light fixtures every time I visit them...

On the brighter side, my wife reports to me that our kids, Andrew and Adrian, really like their new school and are adjusting very well. They like it better than their old school is suburbia...

When they visit the home site, they tell my wife, "we better build a pretty home so Papa will come here!..."