back.

i'm finally back in santiago - i say finally, but i've been here for 5 days now, but i guess i'm just finally getting settled in.

i arrived to a bizarre "this only happens in the 2/3rds world" situation. apparently the neighbors association cut off the general light to our apartment complex, so while we have our own electric in the house, there are no street lights - and worse - there is no central water pump pushing water through to our house. we have water, but not enough to push through for a real shower and doing laundry takes hours. i've been trying to figure out exactly what is going on, but everyone has a different take - but i figure that the lawyer from the association is basically robbing all of the "maintenance fees" and then blaming us for not paying. it's weird. and kind of funny. it should be resolved soon, i hope, but until then we're filling buckets.

our upstairs neighbrs had their roof repaired - which meant, i think, pouring sand and cement down into our windows, i mean onto the roof and then covering it with a new cap. and while i've been dusting since i got back, i'm glad it's finally done because when their roof leaked we got the residual effects of it and our walls leaked. not fun. but, it's rained everyday so far since thursday and we've got no water coming in!

so, the house is finally as dust free as it can be, our clothes are washed and put away - the only thing left is to organize samil's room - that for some reason is less than organized. i start classes again today in the house and am organizing and promoting the institute all this week in hopes to get some students. i haven't talked to the owners of the school i'm renting to see if our first "promotion" reaped a harvest, but hopefully i'll see her today to hammer out some details.

*** samil is trying to stick his entire fist in his mouth to get one little cheerio that is stuck to the back of his hand. i wish my camera battery were charged.