Embassy Life; When State Department "Takes Care Of You"

Disclaimer: Kris and I like to be independent and have learned we don't like to depend on others and do so only when we have to, this includes home repairs. We have no choice here in Mexico, we are forced to depend on the Embassy for anything to do with housing and cannot fix things ourselves unless we
1. Want to spend our own money on it (not that big of a deal for our family's comfort)
2. Don't mind being held accountable and blamed for any more damage we find or run across during our own repairs. (a big deal since any minor repair seems to turn into a nightmare with this house)

As I write this we have no water. The cistern, and water pumps from the water tanks on the roof don't work. The City has turned down the water for rationing and we have these ginormous tanks full for emergencies and rationing but we should have known the pumps didn't work...stupid us for thinking that was part of the GSO pre-inspection for the home. So now we are looking at a week without water unless the City turns the water back on early. Dang it! We do have plenty of drinking water though and Kris can climb to the roof and get water in buckets for the toilets and such....lucky him.

Have you ever seen this commercial? We think this guy works for the GSO here in Mexico (GSO is the section where the embassy housing office is, also stands for the functionally retarded morons who work there, Isaiah Parnell is the chief moron-in-charge)



On Wednesday we had another home experience brought to us compliments of GSO:

How to fix a cracked toilet tank according to GSO:

No need to replace the 1970s era toilet (everyone knows how porcelain just gets 'stronger' over the years right?) just use silicone to fill the crack. Leave the new tenants unaware at your moronic attempt at a repair.
Sit back and enjoy the excitement when the rest of the tank cracks causing water to fill the master bathroom, master closet and master bedroom. Thank goodness you have to step up a few steps from the master bedroom otherwise the water would have found its way through the rest of the house.

The original crack filled with silicone:


And the new crack expanding from the old one (I don't think silicone works on a tank like nail polish does on a run in your pantyhose):


I would have taken pictures of the water but to be honest I started crying the second Weston ran in telling me "MOM! There is WATER EVERYWHERE!"(I've had enough of this stupid house) I then slipped on the marble floor while trying to battle the water and rescue some of our furniture (HELLO! Solid mahogany is freaking heavy when you can't even lift a full laundry basket!).

Landing in all that water was VERY COLD not to mention pretty traumatic when all that weight driven inertia culminated on my tailbone and head. I couldn't move and thankfully Kris got home soon after so he could help me get up because I was about as mobile as a beached whale. I think everything is ok; baby is still kicking, arse is pretty bruised.

I did think to snap some pictures of the tank once it was all over just so Kris and I could laugh about this someday. I also was sure to take pictures of the water damaged floor so GSO couldn't stick us with a bill when we left. CYA if you know what I mean. If you don't know what CYA means...google it, and no, it's not Canadian Yachting Association.

This follows the toilet in the boy's bathroom (a nice 1970's royal blue) cracking at the end of January, flooding their bathroom (which has a lip enclosing the area saving us from a flooded bedroom). GSO still hasn't fixed their toilet because they are fighting with the owner of the home over who is going to pay for it. So I have to get after the boys for using the shower as a urinal in the middle of the night...poor boys, who can blame them since walking to the other bathroom means going through scorpion territory. It was a loosing battle so now we keep the lights on so scorpions aren't an excuse...but it's still a long walk for half-asleep boys and the shower is still closer.

Oh, this ALSO follows a water leak in our dining room and ceiling of the boys' bedroom that is still not taken care of either. The GSO informed me "there was no leak, I must have just spilled some water". I'M NOT FREAKING KIDDING YOU, they actually told me I must have spilled some water!!! Ricardo Tejeda (one of the supervisors) literally stood in my dining room and told me I was "a silly woman" for thinking there were water pipes behind the wall and "look, all of the bricks are dry!" When Kris got home he made the hole bigger and found rusty wire and....WET BRICKS AND CONCRETE! Kris yelled at GSO and I believe his exact words were "open up the damn wall and fix the problem!"

When they finally opened up the wall, this is what they found. Be sure to have the volume up so you can enjoy the "babbling brook" effect:



I must have spilled A LOT of water!