Why I Fear for the Olympics

Remember my post about the ceiling in Julio's and Juan Carlos' room?

That was 2 weeks ago today. Would you like to see what it looks like now?

The main problem area is larger, a lot of the drywall has fallen off; the red arrows are pointing to areas that are now bubbling up (down?) and dripping water.

What has been done to fix this problem?

Ab-so-lute-ly NOTHING.

Let's review timeline of events, shall we?

Three weeks ago:

The problem starts.

Many calls were put in to the owner of the apartment, as she, under Brazilian law, is to have a say in who fixes her property.

She doesn't answer her phone. Her husband doesn't answer his.

Two weeks ago:

Guapo has someone at his office find a reputable company to come out and take a look at the problem. They come out the day of my last post about it, and tell us they will send someone the next day to take the measurements to do the estimate.

Guapo finally gets a hold of the apartment owner. She is irritated with us that we have "waited" so long to call her, implying that it is now our fault that this is such a big problem. She insists on sending out her guy to check things out. But of course, he can't come until the next week.

He finally comes and says the same thing the first guy said, basically that the whole apartment is falling apart and it needs to be redone. It's raining the day he comes and he says he has to wait until it's been dry a few days to see if it drips when it hasn't been raining, even though I already explained to him that it had been dripping for 2 weeks rain or shine. I mean, who am I to know about such technical issues as dripping water? He tells me he'll come Monday if it is dry over the weekend. It was dry.

He NEVER came back.

1 week ago:

The landlady and her husband are once again unavailable.

The estimate guy from the "reputable" company finally shows up. He promises the estimate the next day. Although Guapo's secretary has called every day since then, they still don't have an estimate for us.

Today:

No Landlady. She knows we have a serious problem and she won't answer her phone or call us.

No Estimate.

Noth-ing.

We are now in the process of looking for another "reputable" company, but we will just be starting over from square 1 (or -1).

The rent is being withheld from the landlady. She'll eventually call as we pay a lot every month.

My blood pressure is now up from writing this. I have to go find my happy place now. All I can do is laugh, right? I can't believe I was ever worried about having workers in the house.