Waiting

We were told to be at a meeting of the Municipal Board this morning in regards to the land for our next housing project. The time to be there was set at 9.00 a.m. We arrived early in order to set up our projector and have it ready for our presentation.

All was going well when a young man wearing a phone in his ear - always a danger sign in my mind - arrived to tell us that we couldn't set up the equipment before our presentation and that the presentation wouldn't be until 10 or 10.30. The Board meeting started at nine and, for some odd reason, they couldn't have a projector sitting on the table while they met. It is 11.00 now and we are still waiting. Not sure how the presentation will go because we have to go through the rigmarole of setting up computer and projector while one of us talks to the group.

One of the frustrations of working here is the reluctance of so few to help out. There seems to be a feeling that, since expatriates have recourse to unlimited funds, we should pay for anything and everything and at an inflated rate. Totally frustrating.

Post Meeting.

The presentation went fairly well. Manuel and Chepe did their usual stellar job of presenting our program and telling where we wanted to go with the next project. The Board was somewhat interested but only after the intervention of a fairly impassioned plea by the Mayor did there seem to be any indication that action should take place quickly.

Afterwards, we met with our lawyer to discuss cost of documents and so forth. Once again, we were taken completely aback with the cost suggested. Using a simple calculator, the lawyer was asking for what would work out to a million dollar a year income. She was genuinely puzzled why I would think it rather exorbitant or why I would have trouble getting the money. After all, we would just pass on the price of the lawyer fees to the people in the project ... in other words, we would just ask the poor to pay more for their homes - the equivalent of one month's minimum wage for each home owner for each document ... and no saying how many documents we would need finally. The solution, in the lawyer's mind was that we could pay later ... didn't have to pay up front. I missed the point of the solution as it would still have to be paid. The lawyers' union has, evidently, set prices for certain types of transactions and you are supposed to pay those rates regardless. When land is involved it is partly based on the amount of land involved - so ... more land, more cost.

Enough griping.  Won't help find the solution. It has been one of those weeks with frustration after frustration by people who want to milk the cow without feeding it.

TTYL

BB