by Karen McConnaughey
I know I mention Jose, our gardener, and his wife Vicki (our
housekeeper) a lot, but to me they embody everything that is good and fine and
wonderful about living in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. They take care of us…yes,
because we pay them, but also because they care about us. I don’t know how the discussion
started, but one time Vicki and I were having a conversation about a neighbor
of theirs. Vicki talked about how this woman had no children and she was seriously
ill, and that Vicki would help her out by getting groceries, cleaning her house
or making her food among other things. She was relating it not because she
wanted me to know how good she was, but just in a matter of fact way of that’s
what neighbors do here…they take care of one another. I was a little overcome
by her story and later came up and slipped $200 pesos into her apron pocket and
just said, “para su vecina” (for
your neighbor), and started to walk away. “Senora
Karen,” Vicki said. I turned and she hugged me and said, in Spanish, that
before she met us she had never known any Norte Americanos very well. She
wanted me to know that she loved us and she would never leave us. She would be
with us forever. Needless to say, we both had tears in our eyes at the end of
that conversation.
Vicki and Jose take care of us in so many ways. They’re
always afraid we’re being taken advantage of. Once we had some workmen here who
Vicki thought took much too long and did not do a good job. After they left, she
said that whenever we needed anything, we should ask her. If Jose couldn’t do
it, they would find someone good for us to use.
So now when we need something done, we ask them and, for the
most part, Jose has been able to help us. For instance, Jose painted almost the
entire inside of our house, repairing walls and ceilings at the same time. In
some cases, he had to chip out the cement and go down to the brick. Then he put
in chicken wire to enforce the wall, re-cemented the area and repainted it. He
did all of this for around $300 USD. And, honestly, we tried to pay him more,
but he wouldn’t hear of it.
