I'm a writer

Folks,

I was amazed how quickly everything was cleared up after the tornado. This week has been thankfully less eventful. And I need to update you a little on how things have been going with the writing.

This week, the papers were full of warnings about hurricane Felix. It said there was an alert for the whole country. But I really don't think that on the Pacific we'd get anything but bad weather. Being away from news I don't know what happened with Felix, but the weather's been perfect all week.

The pic of the week shows Ronald and the guy from the restaurant whose name I don't know cutting the tree that fell on the red casita as part of the clean-up.

Tornado clean-up
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On the morning after the tornado I went out for a walk. As I went down the road I realised that the chainsaws I'd heard were actually clearing fallen trees on the trail between the casita and the restaurant. It had been impassable in two places.

Along the main road, everyone was out clearing up. Pulling trees off the road and clearing up their property. The town had no electricity.

I got back at 9.30 and there was a hive of activity around the casitas. Ariel the gardener, Adrubal the chef, Ryan, two friends of Ryan's visiting from the US, Ronald (Charlie's partner), and the guy from the restaurant whose name I don't know, were clearing up. They hacked off all the branches of the fallen trees with machetes, and Ronald then sliced the bigger parts of the trees with the chainsaw. Everything had been removed by 12.30, and the electricity came back at 1pm. It had been gone for 17 hours.

The weather was so beautiful for the clean-up it was hard to believe that it had happened.

The red casita survived really well despite the size and weight of the tree that fell on it. There are just three small holes in the roof and no structural damage. There is a hole in my roof too, but it's giving me no problems, no rain is getting in, so they're going to fix it after I've gone.

I'm a writer
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I've made a lot of progress over the past few weeks in terms of my attitude to writing, if not yet the writing itself. I'm getting to like it more and more, and I think in some little ways it's improving. Although, some of the things I've been writing have been terrible!

A couple of weeks back, I read one part of The Right to Write book that says that if you're writing you're a writer. And I'm writing. So folks, I'm a writer. Once I said that in my head it's all fallen into place, and I really feel it's going to work out for me. How it will I'm not sure yet, but it will.

Knock knock
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On the day I had this epiphany, the exact same day, there was a knock on my door. There's NEVER a knock on my door. I thought I was hearing things. It was the girls from the blue casita (this was a few weeks ago). They'd had a few drinks and were looking for matches or a lighter. 'We don't know anything about you,' they said, 'But we know you're a writer and you're writing a book.' I must have put the vibes out.

First article accepted
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Then last week I got a mail telling me that the first article I'd sent off had been accepted. It's a gay guide to Costa Rica, and was part of an assignment for the writer's bureau. The assignment required that I send it off too. So, I sent it off to GCN and they've accepted it and will publish it in the next few months. They've asked me to send them 'an invoice as agreed'. I have no idea what that means, because I have no idea of price and nothing was agreed. But I'll work something out.
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Well, that's it for this week. I only have 3 weeks left in the casita, and I've been making progress on my plans for my travels around Central America, Mexico and Cuba for the remainder of the year.

So until next week,

Chau,

Éamon

Today's Headline in La Nación: Health service without medication for colds or pain