Hello Zika

The whole election shenanigans are coming to an end. The court sort of went to sleep even though the delegates signed a paper to say they were not present at the count, so the local electoral court had forged their signatures. So no result to all our work. But we are now suing for fraud in the civil courts and looking for compensation. I don't hold out much hope but we will keep on fighting.Unfortunately the people of Guayacanes, most of whom voted for Danilo are stuck with a mayor who did nothing and who will do nothing. It really is a travesty of justice and they are the ones who will suffer.  In the meantime, word is on the street that to "apologise" for cheating and fraud,  the government will give Danilo and some of his team a job - on August 16 the new government takes power and all of the jobs change. I will believe it when it happens.

While waiting for University to start again, Danilo has been clearing the land. We have like four or five acres which became overgrown as he was off campaigning and given the drought last year most of it was dead. Anyway as he cleared it he found four grapefruit trees, an orange tree, two mango trees, and avocado tree and a guanabana (soursop) tree. They all look pretty healthy so hopefully they will deliver fruit in a year or two.

I was feeling pretty tired last week, which isn't usual for me, and pains in my hands were waking me up in the night. I was a little concerned I had arthritis or rheumatism and hands are essential when you are typing all day long. Then, a week or so ago I got up and felt worse. Eyes were bright red and sticky, hands and feet hurt and I was covered with a rash from head to toe. Well hello Zika! I have escaped dengue since I have been here, which is just as well as I have had it twice - once in Singapore aged 8, and once in St. Lucia when it was hemorrhagic dengue. The third time will be even worse. I also escaped Chikunguya so I can't moan just getting Zika. It was gone within five days and I was all back to normal, but loads of people seem to have it at the moment.

We were having problems with our Sky satellite TV as the signal kept going in and out, so Danilo decided it was because the trees in the mahogany wood next door were too high. Easy to fix, just take shoes off, put machete between teeth and climb 60 feet up a thin swaying tree with no safety gear and lop top off

He is there in the middle of the picture

At the top of the tree some 60 - 70 feet above the ground

When he reached the top, he lopped the top off (hoping that the Ministry of the Environment would not appear as you can't cut trees down without permission - especially mahogany trees) and then I noticed the satellite wasn't pointing anywhere near that tree! A day later the Sky satellite stopped working all together, called Sky in Mexico where I didn't understand a word as Mexican Spanish might as well be Chinese, but Sky man turned up today and fixed it all. No need to cut down any more trees.

The pups are growing - looking super cute but should go to new homes soon. Maybe apart from Lobita