Frustrations Latino Style

This is one of those days you can not photograph. It is not only if something can go wrong it will, it is if anything can go wrong Latino style it will.
We have not had water at school for two days. Last Friday the plastic water line was cut just outside the school campus. Now it is time to stand in a big circle and point fingers and no one will take responsibility for the repairs. Repairs means two small plastic couplers and two small clamps. The water tube is above ground (that's how it got cut) and so there is no digging. I think total repair time should take 15 minutes at the most. We have toilets that have been used for two days (sat over the weekend) which reeks in the 78 degree temps. We have dishes from the cafeteria which were not washed today. They are short of staff by one. Everyone hopes the $2.50 repairs will be made this afternoon and at least that problem can be resolved.
Problem number 2 has to do with the copy machine. This is an every day problem. Paper is purchased one and maybe two reams at a time. Re-order time is when we are actually out of paper. A taxi is called and the paper appears after an hour or so. Ink is another matter. It has about the same routine as the paper. Maintenance on the copier is off the chart. Someone comes out and guesses at the problem and "fixes" it. The moral of the copier story is to stay well ahead of the use of your copies.
We have two laser printers on campus. We just brought the second one back with us in November. Within a week the main office was using my printer because the ink had run out of theirs. Cartridges are ordered from Quito. So, for three days they made several trips a day from the office to the English work room to do all their printing. I suggested they order six replacement cartridges and they answered they were farsighted and ordered two. In all of this I did resist the request that they take my printer to the office. I still wouldn't have it back.

In most of these matters (and the list of matters is long), the most important factor first of all is to go through the blame game with each person denying any responsibility. After we have wasted a bunch of time and increased everyone's frustration to the breaking point, the problem will finally get solved but probably not before another one is on the table.
There! I feel better! Complaining is good for the soul. It just doesn't fix the problem