Tag Archives: living in rural Mexico

December 31, 2024 · 8:47 am

Convivio without CFE

A week after the official power inception, the CFE supervisor was back doing some final checks. He asked for, and I handed over the solicitud (application) for the last murete (meter post) that was installed and connected. I asked him if he had a date that he and his supervisors would be available to plan the convivio (community gathering). He said that week he was busy, but perhaps Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Super Prez got a confirmation for Thursday between 2-3, and preparations began. R. bought a borrega (sheep) and a chiva (goat from my sister-in-law L. and assured us he knew just the person to have them prepared with montalay (which is a vegetable dish in guajillo sauce commonly served with birrira). R. was also in charge of the beer. My other sister-in-law, T., made 12 kilos of tortillas. C. made rice to accompany the meat and montalay. Her son-in-law provided disposable plates, cups, napkins, and utensils. We asked that anyone who was attending bring a family-size bottle of soda. We rented the chairs and tables from another colono. And the best part is I didn’t have to lift a finger to organize it! Anyone who asked what they could do or bring, I referred to C. and let her handle it.

I posted the date and time in the WhatsApp community group, which started a firestorm. Immediately, the question was how much this would cost and whether they would have to pay if they weren’t attending. I explained that the cost would be divided equally among the lots and would come out of the fees for the second semester. A few colonos said they weren’t paying a peso. Others responded that they would gladly pay their part even though they couldn’t attend. One individual reminded everyone that in the old days, a meal was an appropriate demonstration of gratitude, and it was only fitting that we offered CFE the same for the enormous benefit our community received in having electricity installed, even if only a part of the fracionamiento (neighborhood).

I tagged Super Prez in the conversation, and eventually he swooped in to smooth ruffled feathers, pointing out that divided among the properties, the cooperacion (contribution) for the convivio would not be more than 20 pesos, and there was really no reason to put up such a fuss. That settled everyone down, and we had approximately 80-90 colonos confirm their attendance.

The day of the convivio arrived. Super Prez confirmed that the CFE delegates were still planning on attending. The tables and chairs were set up on the first road with the hope that there would be some shade. We really need a community palapa for this type of event! Everything came together, and the tortillas, meat, and beer were delivered almost at the same time the rice was ready, which was seriously some sort of miracle. At just about 3 pm, colonos began arriving, and the serving table was set up.

Then Super Prez got a call from the CFE supervisor saying they could not make it. Apparently, his boss had just been fired, and the office was in a major upheaval. Hmmm, we’d have to look more closely at that situation, but not this day.

We went ahead and had our community gathering without them. The food was yummy. I had my husband haul the speaker we bought for the juntas (community meetings) down to the corner and got some tunes playing. The feeling was decidedly pleasant, and I enjoyed myself immensely.

The sun disappeared behind the house, leaving a chill around 5 pm, and we started winding down. Attendees helped fold the chairs and tables and pick up trash. And that was that.

****

Want the background to our little community adventure? Check out La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico! Available on Amazon.

Get your copy today!

Let There be Light – Part 4

The date was finally set for the CFE crews to coordinate on making the live connection from the intersection to La Yacata on Tuesday, October 29th at 10 am. Having faced delay after delay, I wasn’t convinced it really would happen as scheduled, so there was no fanfare at our house. Gotta see it to believe it!

We finished up adding the bits and bobs to switch from our solar setup to grid power. It was the longest 5 days ever. Our solar system needed renewal. The batteries were no longer holding a charge. The days were overcast, and even during midday, power was an issue. And I had classes to teach! I was as power-saving as possible. No lights on, only my camera light. As soon as the beeping started, I would switch to battery. The screen brightness was lowered, and all power-saving options were enabled. Still, I was counting down the minutes to see if the class would end or if my battery would give out first.

Super Prez had his work crew come out and install the muretes that were not yet placed. It took two days and considerably more effort than if the CFE crew with their winch and pulley setup had done it. I watched as the guys roped the murete and picked it up with the backhoe, then hold on to the other end while they bounced up the hill to the designated location.

Finally, those were done, even though they would not be receiving electricity with this first group of 43. I’m still a little fuzzy on what needs to be done to make those connections, but that’s a problem for next month.

Tuesday finally arrived, and then we waited and waited and waited. 10 a.m. came and went. Around 11 a.m., we disconnected the solar setup and waited some more. My husband said he wanted to make sure the CFE workers had lunch, so we raced to town for some carnitas and coke. On the way, we passed the first CFE crew, who were readying their part for the live connection. On the way back, the second crew had arrived. We told them to stop by for a taco when they had finished and headed home to wait some more.

We sent a message to Super Prez’s crew to come for some carnitas and gathered in my son’s house. And then, suddenly, there were lights!

The meter ran a full 24 hours before the CFE truck came by with its GPS locator and booped it into the system. The relief I feel knowing that I have enough power to finish my evening classes has been immense.

There is still more work to be done. We have started the application for the electricity project expansion so that EVERYONE can have electricity in La Yacata and hope to hear back sooner rather than later on that. We also need to move the process to electrify these muretes along. Meanwhile, we went window shopping for a refrigerator and TV just to see the prices and hope to add them to our home soon.

***

Check out where it all began in La Yacata Revolution–available on Amazon!

2 Comments

Filed under Electricity issues

Tagged as community issues, electricity issues in rural Mexico, La Yacata Revolution, living in rural Mexico

October 31, 2024 · 1:57 pm

Let There be Light – Part 1

Way back in July, at the very end of the pozo (well) update, I mentioned that CFE paid a surprise visit to La Yacata. I haven’t posted anything about it since. I really didn’t want to jinx it, and even now that the initial project is done and over, it’s still something of a miracle. But let me start at the beginning.

About a month after the letter to the governor, someone came a’banging on my door to tell me that CFE (the electric company) was down the road and wanted to talk to someone in charge. Um, well, I guess that would be me.

So I hurried my fanny down the road and sure enough, there was a CFE vehicle and two men holding what appeared to be plans. I approached and they gave me the astounding news that we were one of three neighborhoods that the federal government would be providing electricity in the next few months. Say again???

So they did, and they showed me the plans, asked about who the president of the association was, and assured me that this wasn’t a prank. The contractor knew Super Prez, so they made immediate contact and set up a time to meet. I took pictures of the plans because NO ONE WOULD BELIEVE ME and did some happy jumping around.

I had a few questions because this seemed almost too good to be true. First, what were we to do with the existing posts and wires that had never been registered and, therefore, could not be used. The contractor said that he could remove them, although that wouldn’t be covered under this grant, which meant the colonia would have to pay him to do it.

The plans also showed several roads that would not be electrified as the roads themselves were in deplorable conditions. What about those? The contractor said he could give us an estimate for finishing the lines after the posts, wires, and transformers that were given by the federal government were installed. Fair enough. Finishing would be a fraction of the cost of starting from scratch, which is where we stood at the moment. The transformers were also small, and he cautioned that, realistically, they could only support 40 dwellings each. We don’t have 40 full-time residents right now, so that would be fine. Then, as the colonia grew, we could petition to have the transformers removed and replaced with those with more capacity.

Super Prez was all for letting the colonos (residents) know about this windfall immediately. I suggested we wait a bit. It wouldn’t do to have everyone’s hopes up and then have it not materialize, so we waited and waited and waited.

Then we got word that the CFE workers were digging the post holes in another of the three neighborhoods instead of La Yacata, which was only discovered when the CFE supervisor came to La Yacata looking for his crew, and they were not here. Obviously, there was some miscommunication somewhere.

Super Prez called the contractor, who assured us that yes, indeed, we were first on the list. He also said he’d send over the estimate for the post removal in the next day or so with the idea that the new posts could be placed in the same locations.

A couple of days after the phone call with the contractor, there was another banging on my door. My presence was requested by the CFE crew, who were sent to dig the holes. I hurried my fanny down the road, and they asked if I could help them locate the lots so they could mark the dig spots. My copy of the neighborhood plans had been given to the contractor, but these workers didn’t have it. I had a miniature copy, but even with my bifocals, I couldn’t make out the lots’ dimensions.

The neighbor lady, the sister-in-law of the now-deceased Chuchi, ran into her house and popped back out with some plans she had. It seemed she had been holding out on us. She claimed that she gave all the paperwork to Super Prez after Chuchi’s death. Obviously, that wasn’t so. Regardless, it was helpful since Super Prez was out of town, and we needed the plans.

These guys had a tape measure that wasn’t long enough to mark the distance between the posts, so the measuring was an estimate. One guy would mark a spot with orange paint and move up, dragging the tape behind him. The other guy couldn’t ever seem to find the mark and spent considerable time hunting it before reading off the new measurement to be added to the first one to get the correct distance.

I traipsed along with the plans, checking the lot dimensions as we went. When we reached the first corner, my husband showed up. He’d been out searching for seed corn to plant. When he arrived, the two guys said they needed his help to line up the posts now that the spots had been marked. So if he would stand on that orange spot, they’d go down to the end of the road and check the alignment.

They hadn’t brought any stakes or anything to mark the spots besides the paint. So what they did was one guy stood at the bottom corner, and the other stood on the first spot, straight and tall, as if he WERE A POST. The guy at the bottom squinted and bobbled his head to see if the two human posts lined up. This process was repeated up the road at each marked spot.

I was laughing so hard at this point that I nearly missed a phone call from Super Prez. I had sent him a message saying we needed the plans. He called the contractor, who said the two guys had the plans. And well, yes, they did have plans, but those plans weren’t the plans for La Yacata. They were the project plans, and there had been some modifications since the project plans had been made, one of which was that the new posts were to be placed in the same spot as the old posts. Nobody had told this to the two guys who were marking on the opposite side of the road.

Super Prez was going to send me to have a new set of the plans printed out, but he remembered he had a set at his house. He called the ‘chacha and told her to expect me. We dashed to his house, picked up the plans, and brought them back to the guys. When we got back, they had moved on to the posts on the main road, the ones that had fallen, and were doing the same measurement skit there.

I have to say that these guys were probably not the most capable electrical road crew I’ve come across, but perhaps they were just the post-hole diggers, and the next group would seem more like electricians. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.