Labor Disputes III: News From the Legal World

For any of you still interested in our long, awful story, thanks for hanging in there.

As we last saw our heroes, they were impatiently waiting for the recommendations of the Rwandan attorney on how to proceed with our living situation.  It took several days more than we expected to hear back, but he eventually advised that it was going to be very difficult for Andrea's work to get a satisfactory outcome on the insurance claim. 

Apparently policies like this one have been very successful for this sort of thing in the past, but they must be written very precisely and carefully, and this one was not.  So the effect was that the company would get back a portion of the payments, but only at a much later date (the end of the year maybe? I don't remember).  And it would likely take a lot of effort from work and from the attorney to produce that limited satisfaction.  So Andrea's boss conceded that it would be best to work with the house as it is, and to do our best to control the terms of the settlement.

So Andrea's boss, Irene, and her immediate boss Elise, the attorney, Andrea, and Senora all met at work to discuss how to move on with the agreement.  The goals: get the workers paid, and the minimum house improvements remaining completed, and get her to pay for the added security guard at the house ($300 / month approximately).  Senora was characteristically unreasonable and rude, insisting that she has been cheated.  She is of the opinion that she should be paid the remaining of the first year's rent immediately because we have taken possession.  She regards the complaints of the work not being done satisfactorily as unimportant, stating that we can just finish those things.  She also regards the security problems with the workers as not really her problem.  She states that we should pay her the entire amount and trust that she will pay the workers what they are owed, rather than work paying them directly to assure she doesn't just skip town with the dough.  And lastly she doesn't really think she should pay for the extra guards.

So this impasse has been going steady for a few weeks now, as negotiations continue to gradually progress.  Senora continues to be extremely unreasonable, and quite delusional about what she has done and what she is owed.  She is rude to the workers and guards, and to all the Rwandan staff at Andrea's office.  Quite a woman.  Quite a different woman from the one we got to know over nearly daily visits as we were checking the place out and eventually checking on the early progress.   We don't know if she was already just as crazy -and we just didn't see it- or if this has progressed since we've known her.  I think she'll be healthy again if she can just get back to Spain where her son is, and where she has a real home and a busy art studio.  She doesn't realize how much she is hindering this end goal from happening by her paranoid persecutory behavior (as well as the drinking).  

In spite of all this conflict, she is still very civil to Andrea and tells the others during these meetings that she likes us and knows we care about the house.  And in spite of all this drama we have continued to unpack and to try to establish this as our home.

One frustrating side effect to all the battling is that we can't progress on any improvements to the place, as it's officially undecided who's paying for them or performing them until all the contracts are signed.  So we have one shower that works well some of the time, and one that is unusable.  We have shelves in the pantry that can't really be filled with anything heavy until we get them reinforced.  Same for the kitchen cabinets.  We have cupboards in the garage / bike shop / man cave that could be hung on walls but are just sitting in stacks.  And so on.  Relatively these are little things, but we've been here for months, and just want our house to be our house.

So this brings us up to date.  We are awaiting signatures from all the senior parties confirming the Big Deal can go through.  Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow.  If today, then we should be able to expect a worker payday attended by Andrea's work and by Senora early next week.  And then the work?  Whenever the contractors are not too busy with other things.  

Next Chapter:  A small post saying it's all done?  And then, only talk of more interesting parts of life.

PS: with a great deal of consternation, we have a slightly higher speed of internet, so I expect photos to start appearing on the blog again soon.