lessons learned.

One thing I've learned over the past few days, is there is definitely a purpose for paper towels, and that I should never skimp on how much I use when picking up little gifts the puppies are leaving for us in the middle of the night.

Oh how lovely it is to wake up to first thing in the morning.  You really have to watch your step.

Yesterday, I used a tactic to speak to the house maid about theft.

I informed her that I know how some people will steal a little bit at a time, and, "I trust you are not going to do this to us."

I told her that as long as she's a good person, she can work here.

She really stepped up her cleaning and after speaking to her about how food should not be on dishes when they've been 'cleaned', we are grateful to have her.

There was a big blowout between the Pool Man, his wife and the caretakers of our house.  So much so, that even the Dominican Daddy and his mother from down the road got involved.

We weren't here.  We were on yet another venture of bring yet another animal into the vet.  It's become a daily occurrence.

While we were gone, emotions boiled over and everyone was fighting.

I came home to hearing both sides and with one side, I said, "I told her what I want done, so she understands now."

With the other side I said, "Don't worry about the pool people being bossy, because they're just being over protective of us and they won't be here for very long.

With close to tears in her eyes, she gave me a hug for understanding and I spoke to her about honesty in our home.

We are considering keeping her now, and at one point, she told me that if we ever don't have money, she'll come to clean anyway.

I told her that if we ever had no money, I would find a way to exchange services.

Then the funniest thing happened.

After speaking badly about the Pool Man's wife, she told me, "All Dominican women talk bad about each other."

Within 10 minutes of this happening, the Pool Man's wife said the same thing to me, "All Dominican women talk bad about each other."

I told them both with a giggle that it's not much different in Vancouver.  This week has been proof of that.

We actually thought the drama would be better once we moved out of the city.  Turns out we couldn't have been further from the truth.

I suppose when you move away and aren't in people's vicinity, it makes it easier for them to attack you because they know you won't run into them on the street.

I suppose when you move away, you can find out the truth of how people feel about you.

That's fine.  We've learned more in 3 weeks than we would have ever expected.

Learning is good.

I've learned that not speaking my mind is no longer the way for me to work.

I've learned that I know more about myself than I did before we left the big city.

I've learned that I don't need too many beautiful private emails from people, who understand because they've been where we are, to make my heart heal.

I learned from a woman of colour, who moved from a developing country to Vancouver, that she too was robbed and taken advantage of.

Like I've maintained before, a thief is a thief no matter where they come from.  Even people who nickel and dime their friends are just as greedy.

We were warned by most that we would be taken advantage of financially by someone we know back home, and I didn't want to believe it, but it's true as well.  Both Papi and I tried so hard to say, "No, you're wrong about that.  You'll see."

Well, we see now.

I'm grateful for being a kind person, even if I'm taken advantage of by people and even if I make mistakes.

I doesn't mean I need to stop being generous.

I can give my time and my love and if someone can't give it in return, the generosity stops with that person only.

I'll just move it on to someone else.

I feel better about the house maid and I talking.

I'm grateful to have her help us, while I'm running around chasing after escape artist puppies and cleaning up their business on the floor.

It's nice to return from the vet to a clean house.  We'll just go with that for now and be grateful for what have and what we've learned.

As the rain comes down in torrents, the workers are all hiding from it on our deck, singing their songs to pass the time.

It's a beautiful thing, even if I don't know what they're saying.

Oh great.  Mr. Extortion just showed up again.

i have no right to compare myself to anyone else, because i don't know their whole story