Yella meets the 1000 Pound Gorilla

Yella arrived in Boquete yesterday.  She took the midnight Frontier flight to Costa Rica then Air Panama to David arriving a 1:30 pm.  Great price and a 13 hour trip.  All around the best flying to Panama yet.

Just to properly introduce her to Panama, I tell her about the progress or, more aptly put, the complete lack of progress on our house.

Last week, our builder said we would regrade the road (3 days work), paint the house (like a fool, I rushed out and bought the paint), finish the tile (oh ya, that's a biggie, he was 99% done already) and cut up all the felled trees.

None of it, nada, happened.

I lost the battle of self control and got pissed.  I have been here 4 weeks and should know better but enough is enough.  This is, of course, the kiss of death in the realm of Panama contractors.

Now for Yella.

She jumped on board, got pissed and layout out, to me before we meet with him, that we would start charging him for stuff not completed on time.  I have trouble even typing "on time" in Panama because I am racked with hysterical laughter...not the good laughter.  The manic, maniacal nasty stuff.

I pause to wipe the snot from my upper lip.

We go round and round about what threats are going to help and what threats will cause too much damage.  I my opinion, and after all, I have been here 4 whole weeks so I know, we can't push too hard.

Round and round we go...

Then to top it all off, he calls late Friday afternoon and wants us to meet him at the bank the next day to pay him.  Hell, it takes me at least 7 days just to get him to answer his phone and he wants us to pay him in the next 18 hours!  Forget it!

So we meet him at the bank the next day.

Now the 1000 pound gorilla arrives...the contractor disguised as a nice guy with all the answers.  How does he do it?

For Gods sake,  we pay him and feel good about it.  Someone please just shoot me now.

Yella is all a glow with confidence about his promised performance but I know...

For Yella, this is the first time meeting the 1000 pound gorilla so we must forgive her.  After all, if I'm still going up and down every 7 days from high to low, why shouldn't she? 

Yella says to me today: "Doesn't this feel like a multi-level marketing scam, with everybody living down here saying how great it is, so the real estate value will go up, when in reality it is just frustrating here?"  

Some times it feels like than. Where is that salad from yesterday that tastes like desert? 

Oh ya, I have to sign up 3 people under me to sell lettuce and tell every one how great it is, then I get rich eating salad.

It was a bad day.  Can you tell?