Fernando, Fernando!

Ay, Fernando! How could you be so - necio?!? (Sorry, that's the nicest word I could come up with. It communicates a lack of common sense.)

Fernando Marin is our electrical engineer who was contracted three months ago to install our electricity. It's hard to imagine the comedy of errors in this whole process. Last week Fernando decided to cover all the conduits with cement before threading the cable through them. We had suggested to him to thread the cables first since rivers of mud and rock had been flowing almost daily down those conduits into our front yard for over two months. After all, it IS rainy season and we only live two miles from a tropical rain forest that gets up to 18 FEET of rain a year! But, Fernando was convinced the conduits were fine and didn't need tested.

Well, guess what? The conduits were blocked with stones and mud! There was no way to thread the cables through.

So, once again Fernando's suspicious-acting, chain-smoking workmen dug the channel. (This was the fourth time so far.) They put a new pipe over the old cemented pipe.To add to the craziness, they pured dirt over half of that pipe without cementing it again. So, tomorrow they have to dig again in order to pour cement again.

That's not the end of it. So far they have only strung the telephone wire in one conduit and the cable TV in the second. That still leaves us without the electric wire. I asked Fernando if they have tested the third conduit.

He said, "No, I'm sure it will work just fine."

OK, Fernando. Go ahead an pour more concrete and bury the tubes. Maybe you will be right and the electric cable will pass through the remaining tube - no problem. But, if you aren't right, these guys will have to dig again and lay more pipe and pour more concrete.

I think Fernando lost his calling in life. Maybe he should take the vacant Director of Immigration position!