(and a few frustrations)

There are so many things good about Sicily that I hate to mention the frustrations. And......the frustrations are usually so minor they're not worth mentioning. But.....I thought I'd mention a few so you know even Paradise has some flaws.

The first is something I've mentioned several times before--no phone. I think we're the only Americans we know that don't have one (Come to think of it, we're the only people, American or Italian, we know that doesn't have one). The phone company has sent people out five times to hook it up and five times they've told us (as if we didn't know), "You don't have any phone wires." I guess we just didn't smile right when we asked for the phone.

Water has also been a continual frustration. We have a running bet on whether we will have hot water when we need to bathe or wash dishes. The odds are about 50/50. The hot water heater is a typical Italian one. It is a continual hot water type that sits outside on the wall of the back porch. Between the wind blowing the pilot out and birds using it as a nesting place we never know what to expect when we turn on the hot water. (Right after I wrote this I went to take a bath and wouldn't you know it...no hot water)

But, worse than that is the experience we had a couple of weeks ago with our water. Suddenly one day while Bob was watering the garden our water went out. When that happens he usually goes down the lane and flips a switch for the motor of the well pump but this time it didn't work. No one on our lane had water--- niether Giusseppe nor Tony. After fiddling with it for awhile (meaning days) and calling an "idrolico" to come see if he could fix it, Giusseppe decided it was a bad motor and had to order one to be put in. So, in the meanwhile he hooked up our water to the cistern. For almost two weeks our water in the house was green and smelled like pond scum.

We couldn't wash clothes at all and taking baths was simply washing off with bottled water. Washing the dishes was a trick, too. Use lots of soap and rinse with bottled water. The toilets were getting pretty scummy by the time we were able to get back to clean water.

Today we went for help to the Vodaphone store at the base because I've been getting about 6 video messages per day on my phone showing the same soccer tournament. I showed the guy the 20 I had gotten since Thursday afternoon and he said he would take care of it. Now, you have to understand that everything on our phones is in Italian.....the writing, messages, helps, everything. So the guy calls customer service and talked/listened for about ten minutes. They gave him another number to call. When he called that number he discovered it was for setting up those video messages not getting rid of them so he called customer service back. During this time I was tired of waiting (a little ADHD, there) so I wandered the store. After a bit I went back to be told that it was fixed (this is the second time they've "fixed" it). They told me it was against the law for them to start the service without my permission but they could have sent me a message (in Italian) that said if you don't want this service let us know (in Italian). Since I didn't contact them to not have the service (in Italian!) they started it, charging me weekly for the service. Yi-i-i. In order to get rid of it the guy had to go into my messages where, at the end of one of the videos (you had to watch the whole thing) it told how (In Italian!!) how to get rid of those messges.

Just another day in Paradise.