Transforming a Courtyard
Allen and I spent the last weekend in Tegucigalpa as it was our “rest” weekend and Allen wanted to explore some plant nurseries in his quest to beautify the courtyard of our living quarters San Vicente. When we arrived last year, the courtyard was overgrown. It had several trees that had not been pruned and some of which were not healthy, many bushes in a similar state, grass that was periodically trimmed with a machete, brickwork for a previous walkway to a firepit, and various planter-type structures most of which were caved in with rotten wood and basically falling down. It needed some TLC and Allen has gradually been transforming it. He has cleared it, removing rocks, decaying structures, and sick trees so you can now see the uneven ground. He plans to have some good dirt brought in and level the ground with a retaining wall in the middle and he hopes to finish this project before the rainy season which generally starts late May.
He put in a raised bed close to the common area and planted a
few flowers that he hopes will add beauty and fragrance to the home. He wants
to add more flowers and several fruit trees – lemon, orange, avocado, and
passion fruit. The fruit trees will be of the dwarf varieties so that they do
not overshade the areas of the courtyard that need more sun. The courtyard is pretty
much a blank slate for Allen, and we are all looking forward to his
masterpiece. The only drawback is the question of who will take care of it
after he is gone. It will need to be watered periodically, mostly during the
dry season, and what happens when there is a water shortage?
We stayed at the Clarion Hotel for the first time this weekend as there was a nursery right next door. The Clarion was fine but will not replace the Honduran Mayan as our favorite hotel in Tegucigalpa. The Honduran Mayan has a larger pool, a working fitness center, a great breakfast, and a better discount for NPH volunteers. The Clarion is more of a party hotel with a couple of clubs that we have been to with the other volunteers. However, we greatly enjoyed the air conditioning, nice bed, and plenty of water. We were quite pampered for a few days.
When we returned to the ranch Sunday evening, the non-potable
water in San Vicente was not working which means none of the bathrooms were
getting water. The only water available was the potable (drinkable) water from
the kitchen sink. I think this was a nice twist as previously we have not had
potable water but did have non-potable water. If I had to pick which type of
water to have, I would choose potable even though you have to sponge-shower and
haul potable water to flush your toilet. There were no buckets when we first
got here, but Allen scrounged one from somewhere so that we could have a mop
bucket. That bucket disappeared when we needed it (to haul toilet flushing
water). The next day Christine was able
to requisition enough buckets for each room!
Allen and the maintenance guys traced the water issue to a couple of holes in the (non-potable) water line feeding San Vicente. The water was apparently turned off on Sunday when someone noticed the leak. It took a lot of work from maintenance, but the pipe was replaced so that we could have water to our bathrooms on Monday.
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