Fuzzy Math and Hellish Thanksgiving
We had the dramaz, the major unhappy dramaz. Why? The trainer I was talking about last week. Last week when he started training Jim he came up with the idea that he was going to move into our unoccupied guest house for the next month and train Jim. Jim was enthusiastic about this. I had to throw water right on that crazy flaming idea. I pointed out to Jim he didn't know this man from Tico Jeffrey Dahlmer.
Jim and I make quite the pair. He trusts everyone. I trust no one, at least not at first. It takes time, you have to prove you don't suck. This process has gotten longer in Costa Rica because of the craziest Americans and those Ticos that want to rip you off for being American.
We had a very unfriendly discussion over this nearly two weeks ago. It was settled. No random guys we just met moving in with us. Besides because of Covid I'd not dusted or cleaned in there for quite some time. Plus I have friends and family scheduled starting next month. The guesthouse just needs a good couple of hour scrubbing now.
I don't dislike the locals. I am just incredibly aware that there are many wolves out there fleecing the innocent. Any time, anywhere in the world you have a tourist area you're going to have a certain rapacious amount of local people eager to separate anyone they think they can exploit from their dough. We've already experienced this first hand a few times. Like the guy Helbart that quoted us 300 bucks cash to paint the fence, then placed his wife painting the fence and taking care of her newborn while he whined, didn't paint a lick, and kept demanding ever increasing amounts of money. I knew Helbart, I knew he was continually trying to scam Jim out of money. Eventually Jim caught on and it stopped.
On Monday the trainer showed up, telling some tale about his drug addled sister in south CR that he needed to go fetch, and somehow needed to stay at our guesthouse for the night. I told Jim then I was not entirely comfortable with the idea, but one night is doable, even if his tale made just zero sense. But one night only. It was sprung on me right as he was moving in, so there was no sweeping, mopping, dusting going on. Told him it was as is. All the cleaning supplies are in there.
Can you guess what happened? One night morphed into three nights, and I wasn't happy about it. The tales got more convoluted and less believable, trainer started trying to work us for money. Told us he was going to clean the guesthouse and we'd have to pay him a hundred dollars. Told him no way. We'd already outlaid a couple of hundred dollars for him to train Jim for a week. Then he wanted a thousand to scrub our large house. Nope. We just need a sweeping right now, everything else is clean but the floor is a little dusty.
Add in the frantic phone calls during the day the trainer was making to Jim about various things. Every day he would depart to the two area soup kitchens to get free lunches and free groceries, and try to whip up work. He wanted to do a yoga video with a pile of hot young Tico women and film it at our pool. We said no. Another time he called wanting to teach regular exercise classes poolside at our place and water aerobics in our pool. Another solid no.
There's almost no work in this area, yet we have guys like the Trainer that tossed what they had going on elsewhere to try and work here in Tama, without connections, money, or any real idea what they would do. The soup kitchens here are chockablock full of them. It got so bad in early summer they closed the bridge between Nicoya and Punta Arenas to limit outsiders to our area. It's been a huge problem. They automatically think if they can get to the Gold Coast, near Flamingo, Coco Beach, or Tama they'll be rolling in Gringo dough.
By Thanksgiving morn I was cranky, and had simply had enough. Three nights, three nights with thumping loud music, lights left on shining through my window and other various petty irritants without any clue when he would depart. The constantly morphing tales of his. I had enough.
I'd also felt hornswoggled, like he'd done an end run against my demands he not move into the guesthouse. Laws on squatters on properties and difficulties getting someone evicted are arcane here. Sometimes you're stuck with whomever you see. I have to post some photos the next time I go to Liberia of a huge squatters patch on the edges of the road and sugar cane fields of shacks made of old boards and tin cans. Squatters are almost impossible to evict legally. It's a many years process.
Add in this:
Yes, that is last year's Thanksgiving Day meal served up at the yacht club. This year is the first year in many I stayed home and cooked. Because of Covid. The club had their dinner, but I could not trust the social distancing was going to be enough. Usually when we eat out here during the pandemic we do it off hours, in places with outdoor dining rooms that allow us to put something like ten feet between tables. Thanksgiving not so much.
As I started to cook, do this task I just was not feeling at all, the trainer departed to go get his two free meals and food. Jim emerged and it was on like Donkey Kong. I unloaded, even as sick as hell as the asthma was making me I was operatic in my volume as I expressed my frustration with our sudden guest. Neither of us knew that the Trainer was standing right outside.
Long story short. He made further attempts to get monies out of Jim and to use our large property for his schemes before telling Jim he didn't understand why I was so angry and hostile. He finally left. I guess he realized I was not about to let another penny flow out into his pockets and I was definitely not cool with his constant occupation of the guesthouse.
This is the hell that living here can be, fending off those determined to take advantage of you. I've developed strong boundaries against this after leaving my old church, and never expected I would have to put them in constant use here.
This is not to bash all the wonderful Ticos we know, and the ones that work for us here, like the pool guys, and the gardeners. Most are fine, but these ones seeking to rip you off are relentless and make paradise hellish.
Comments