Abby, Zoë and Enzo

We had a few issues with the apartment, mainly the phone and the shower in the master bathroom. 

I wrote an email to the owner, who is the daughter of the Divanda, whom we call the land lady.  The owner is in Germany, she works for the Brazilian consulate in Frankfort, and is married to a German.  He wrote me back on her behalf, stating that the land lady, would come by today and bring a new phone (the 4th one) and also bring a specialist to fix the shower.  The land lady showed up around 10:30 - 11 AM.  We tried the new phone with the same results.  The line is always busy, even when trying to call out.  And when someone can call in, the phone makes a very short single meep.  That meep is so soft, we wouldn't hear it in a completely quiet house, which this isn't.  So the phone will wait another week until a specialist can come to take a look, Wednesday. 

We were then waiting for the electrician from an engineering company to come and fix the shower.  I know, an electrician for the shower, keep reading.  Apparently the showers in Brazil are all heated on demand, with electricity.  Actually, they are heated in the shower head by massive amounts of electricity.  I know, water and electricity don't mix, but they have a ground wire in the water stream to make sure you don't get any of the 20 Amps at 220 Volts while getting squeeky clean.  The shower worked moderately well after we learned to only allow a slight amount of water to trickle, enough to activate the trigger, and put electricity through a coil that heats up the water flowing around it.  I tried the shower after Laura was in there on Wednesday or so, and it was completely luke warm, tap temperature.  We checked the circuit breaker, the switches, everything, no hot water in that bathroom.  It turns out, the coil was on it's way out, and finally snapped with her shower.  So he installed a new coil, super quick operation.  The engineer couldn't get the lid back on, for the shower to have enough pressure for the trigger, so he wrapped about a half mile of teflon tape around it, and said it was good to go.  I was going to leave well enough alone, not wanting to mess with the electrical aspect of this job, but while showering, it threw the breaker and I had cold water again.  So I took it apart, fixed the gap and applied the lid correctly.  The shower is now so hot, even on the lower setting we can finally get some higher water pressure.  It is a joy to shower now, but unfortunately, once you look behind the curtain, you can't pretend showering isn't a super dangerous event, not because of slipping in the shower, but because 20 AMPs will kill you, and between life and death is a small green ground wire in a water stream.  Thank god we can predict where the water flows. ;)  Now I know why nonno Ernie only wanted to shower in the maids quarters, no hot water and no risk of death.

Oh yeah, Lunch with the land lady.  So we are waiting and waiting for the phone company to open back up after noon.  So around 1 PM, we offered the land lady some rice with chili over it I made the night before.  She said it was good and ate it all up.  Maybe she was just being polite, I do not know.  But she got to see me clean the apartment once the girls went to nap, and commented to Laura how Brazilian men wouldn't be caught doing any domestic housework.  Laura just smilied at how lucky she has it, then ordered me back into the kitchen to do the dishes.  Anyhow, around 2 PM, she got ahold of the phone technician, that told her the earliest they would be here, is in 7 days, next Wednesday.  She tried to argue with them, was cut off, and then called back and said, sounds good, see you next Wednesday.  I hope one day soon, we will be able to call out with our phone, and hear the ringer when someone tries to call us.