Day 73

We went to look at the little house next to La Ranchetta, the home of our favorite Belgians, Ronald and Karyn. We aren’t actively looking to buy something here, but we’re interested in looking and informing ourselves of the market. This house had first been pointed out to me a couple months back. I asked Pauline, an Irish woman who lived near Ronald and Karyn and who we kept running into, about it, and she told me to be careful – many people would be interested in showing me this house, but they would all want a commission, which could add another 10,000 – 20,000 dollars to the price. She suggested I contact the owners, and Karyn and Ronald might have that information. Karyn and Ronald, it turns out, had had a falling out with the couple who own the house. Ronald had built it for them, but it seems they didn’t like La Galera as much as they thought, and were looking to sell. Karyn told me they liked drinking and guns, a great combination in any neighbors. Karyn had an old e-mail address for them, which turned out to be a dud. We asked around some more, and it seemed anyone who might know of the house was a potential commission-looking person, so we didn’t aggressively follow up. Then one day Pauline came to us with a name and phone number for the caretaker of the house, a Dominican man named Tony. We called Tony to set up a time to look at the house. This was the day last week when it poured and the road was flooded and we ended up at Gri-gri’s for the afternoon. When we contacted Tony again, we set up a meeting for this morning. We met there, with us arriving a little early and saying hi to Karyn at La Ranchetta. When Tony showed, he let us in the gate and yard. Then he told us he didn’t have a key for the house, and the person who did have a key for the house would be in town later today or tomorrow, and he would contact us when he could meet. This seems like such a stereotypically Dominican thing – we made plans two weeks ago, talked with him multiple times, and he didn’t once think to tell us that he didn’t have the house key. So we eagerly await the call from key guy #2, who probably has a key for the front door, but no key for the kitchen.

Some people have rented the house next door to us– it seems like a mix of French and Dominicans, with young children. They have been blasting the worst music possible – late ‘70’s – early ‘80’s American rock (I heard some Heart, some David Bowie, some Tina Turner) and a bunch of French music that sounds like France’s answer to John Cougar Mellencamp (what was the question?) AND, to make it worse, their CD player skips at the end of every song. The plus side is that it will make the people on the other side, who often play opera at night, appreciate us.

There was again no school today. I think the kids have had 4 days of school in the past month.

CURRENT READING: “Salt,” by Mark Kurlansky, the author of “Cod.” A history of salt as a food, a preservative, and an economic entity. He must’ve spent 10 years researching and reading every book ever written.