Hello again from Sunny Cochabamba!  We are still having 80-86 degree afternoons, but it gets down into the 40s at night and the mornings as we walk up to the temple are definitely "crisp" (as in, I need a sweater.)  I guess these are autumn days like we used to have in Montana when I was a teenager - what we called "Indian Summer" -  the mornings were cold enough that you truly needed a sweatshirt or sweater and then when you left school in the afternoon, the sweater was tied around your waist or bundled into a bag because you'd be much too hot with it on.  One of the ladies at church today asked me if I have a coat. I think she is worried about me with the cold weather coming. (She was wearing quite a heavy sweater today – but I notice that many women do that. I see them walking up the street on these hot afternoons in a heavy sweater and wonder how they can stand it – they must be cooking underneath. But I think it’s because it is so cold in the mornings and in the evenings and they just dress for the cold weather instead of layering.) Anyway, I told her I don’t have a coat (with me) but I do have a winter suit AND five sweaters! She seemed reassured by that.  Latin people are SO kind and loving; they really care, and it’s beautiful.

One thing I've been forgetting to mention here ever since we arrived is that almost all the cars are outfitted to run on propane - isn't that interesting?  The gas stations advertize "gas natural" instead of various brands of gasoline.  We've been told that most if not all of the taxis, trufis and little buses run on propane or natural gas with an auxiliary gasoline engine for when they have to climb hills (because the propane/natural gas doesn't give them enough power for some of these steep hills - and maybe the altitude [i.e., lack of oxygen in the atmosphere] is a factor too.  I'm not sure about that.)  Anyway, that is one significant difference between here and any other place we've lived, so I thought I should remember to tell you.

Something wonderful happened at the temple this week.  Three couples - members of the Uro Indian tribe who live on the floating islands of Lake Titicaca - came to the temple for their semi-annual visit.  It takes them more than 24 hours to get here, mainly because of delays in buses and having to make connections, etc.  They arrive fairly early on a Friday and stay in the hospedaje.  One of these couples has a teenage son who helped babysit part of the time, but he also got to come to the temple and do baptisms.  They attend as many sessions at the temple as they can on Friday and on Saturday morning, and then they leave after lunch on Saturday and get home about 5:00 Sunday evening.  Such devotion and commitment!  Here are some pictures they were happy to let us take.

This shows Farron and me and two other temple missionaries (Sister Adriana Monroy and Sister Linda Johnson) with two of the couples, just outside the temple doors.

Here we got everyone but us.  The white-haired lady is another temple missionary, Sister Perez (from Venezuela) and that's Sister Monroy (from Ecuador/Colorado) in the lavender hat (not hers; it belongs to one of the Uro ladies.)  The teenage boy standing in the back row belongs to the couple right beside him (she is sitting on the ground).  The man holding the baby is the President of the little Branch of the Church up there.  His wife is to his right and the young boy in front is theirs also.  The couple on the right (she is wearing a baseball cap and standing in front of him) are the oldest of the three couples.  The man might be an uncle of the other two men; we're not sure.  That couple has two sons who have served as full-time missionaries and a third son who is presently serving in the Colombia Bogota North Mission.



This is just a quick picture of me with the middle couple (middle in age and middle in placement in the picture above.) 

 

I hope you can tilt your screen when you view these pictures to whatever angle you need to really see the fluorescent quality of the ladies' vests and skirts.  They are so bright they dazzle the eye - and this is traditional dress, by the way.  Also note the traditional vests two of the men are wearing.

If you want to see some really beautiful pictures of these people in their own locale, Google "Uro Indians living on Lake Titicaca" and then choose "images".  There are dozens of gorgeous pictures and you will see that the women are wearing these incredibly-bright garments.  Also notice the bright colors on the shawl in which the baby is wrapped.  That shawl is traditional weaving of their tribe (and for that matter, of all Bolivia, I think.)  We see Indian women everywhere with their babies (and various other heavy loads) carried on their backs in shawls just like this one.

The native Uro language was lost some fifty years ago with the death of the last person who could speak it, but the tribe speaks Aymara (the 2nd largest Indian language in Bolivia) and Spanish.  Further, they recognize that tourism has been and will continue to be literally the life-saving industry for their people, so the men (at least) are studying English (and they are making sure the children learn it too), so they can talk to tourists and be active in the tourist industry.  We hope to make a trip up there before we come home, although the altitude is over 13,000 feet and that's a little scary to me after the hard time I had adjusting to the mere 9,000 feet here.

This was the highlight of our week at the temple -- meeting these people and visiting with them.  Given their meager income and the difficulties of ground travel in these South American countries, I think their sacrifice to come to the temple twice a year is greater than our so-called sacrifice to come here and serve a mission.  We may be giving up our time, but in every other respect we are living very comfortably (or will be if I can ever figure out how to bake at this altitude and cook with the products that are available here) - so they are sacrificing much more than we.  It was a tremendous inspiration to meet them.

We hit our one-month mark last Tuesday (April 16th) - one month in Bolivia, that is (almost two since we left home.)  I am happy to report that the altitude sickness has pretty much stopped - praise the Lord!  Life looks a whole lot more manageable now.

Monday evening - the 15th - we had a Family Home Evening activity for all the temple missionaries at the Cochabamba Mission Home.  President and Sister Dyer (mission president and wife) join our activities as often as they can and were kind enough to host this one, which was a game night (so we really needed their home.)  It was called "Temple Missionary Olympiad" but thankfully (since many of us are NOT athletes), it was more for fun than for athletic excellence. 

We had three events:  a water balloon toss, ping pong, and basketball.  Each missionary couple was a "team" and had to figure out some sort of costume to indicate their "team status".  Here are pictures of some of the couples so you can see what they did for their costumes.  

First, our friends Bill and Linda Johnson, from a little town north of Spokane, Washington.  The insignia on their shirts is/are stickers from "Blueberry's" - the frozen yogurt shop I mentioned in an earlier blog, of which Bill and Linda are devotees. 

Second, Bob and Tammy Cardon, from near Oklahoma City.  They were in charge of this activity and did an outstanding job of planning and executing it.  You should have seen the charts he had worked up (they looked like "Final Four" or "March Madness".)



Lloyd and Christy Bradshaw were by far the most professional-looking, and they won the basketball competition so these exercise suits aren't just for looks. 

This couple are the jokesters of our group:  Diana and Lynn Crayk.  (He is the temple president's younger brother.)  Can you see the MTC tags hanging around their necks?  And his shirt tail was out the entire night.

 

 

Elder and Sister Eames were "The Eames Eagles" - those are eagles (of sorts) on their heads as well as on their backs.

Personally, I thought President and Sister Norman had the most clever idea of all.  Look closely!  They took a pair of pajama pants and cut them in half, then pinned one half to his right leg and the other half to her left leg, so when they stood close together like this, they matched.  Who would have thought of this?  Not me! 

We love President and Sister Dyer.  Their concession to costume was the matching ties.  He reminds us very much of our wonderful mission president in Ecuador, Bill Johns - the same humble, loving, kind, spiritual person.  The missionaries in this mission are lucky to have the Dyers!

We got a lot of praise for our "costume", which was entirely Farron's idea.  Pretty good, hm?

Here's a picture of one of the ping-pong matches.  The Hursts (on the left) are from Bonners Ferry, Idaho - very near my family's home in Montana.  On the right are our temple president, Lee Crayk and his wife, Connie.  (They won at ping-pong and they won the balloon toss, too.)

We had the balloon toss outside in the street that runs along side the mission home.  Before we actually threw water balloons, we practiced with eggs!  The first time Farron threw the egg to me it hit my ring (which had slipped around so the stone was on the inside) and broke in my hand.  Yuck!

You can see why we needed to use the mission home.  They have a ping-pong table AND a small basketball court.  So many of us were so bad at basketball that it took way too long, but eventually we got a winner (the Bradshaws, as noted above.)

 

Actually the whole evening was planned as a farewell activity for these two couples, who left the next day.  The Bradshaws went back to Utah and the Delgados went back to Chile.  The Delgados are applying to serve another temple mission here, though, and we hope to see them again in a few months. 

 

  

I should have put this picture with the others at the beginning but it didn't load when it was supposed to.  This is Elder and Sister Vallenas from Chile.  They are the quietest and most retiring of the Latin couples, but very sweet. 

 

I suspect these social functions are as hard for Sister Vallenas as they are for me.  We have not had this much social activity in our life EVER.  I don't know if all temple missions are like this, but here the President really encourages social interaction in our free time.  I'm sure it will be good for both of us, but it takes a little getting used to.

We finished the evening with banana splits, by the way, but with a twist:  they baked the bananas in foil on the BBQ first!  Isn't that unusual?  Actually, I love fried bananas.  They don't taste anything like over-ripe bananas (as I expected at first) and these baked ones tasted like fried except softer because they cooked longer.  I really liked the hot banana under the cold ice cream.  It really was a surprising and delicious change of pace.  Maybe when we get home I'll try it out on the family and see what they think - a South American spin on a very-North American dessert.

In the last two weeks, we've had four missionary couples leave so we are very busy now trying to get everything done each day at the temple without them.   I'm glad we're feeling so much better and can really give 100%. 

 

That's all for this week . . . que vayan con Dios!

 

Today I thought I would share a couple of the realities of living in a Third World country, specifically in South America.

First, Bolivia has 220 wiring everywhere instead of 110 as we are used to in the United States.  So the first thing you need is a transformer that will cut the 220 down to 110 before the power hits your appliance, or your appliance dies!  Here's a picture of the transformer we brought from the States.  We only brought one because the darn thing weighs about 5 pounds and we had very tight weight restrictions on our luggage.

This is in our bathroom, and the white plug is a power cord so I can plug into it with my curling irons.

This second picture is another transformer that someone here gave us; somehow they had an extra.  It was made here and is even bigger and heavier than the one we brought.  I don't know if you can tell that from the picture.  We have an extension cord plugged into it on the left and that, in turn, takes care of our clock radio, and whatever else we want to plug into it. 

These Bolivian-made transformers are tricky, I guess.   A couple of weeks ago one of the other missionaries here told me she had accidentally plugged her curling iron into the wrong end of their transformer (or something - I didn't quite understand how she could do it) but anyway, her curling iron melted right there on the bathroom counter!

The reason I don't quite understand how she could plug it in wrong, is that the plugs are different here too.  Here's what they look like --

Here's an adapter (we brought about 10 with us) and the plug-end of our computer power cord --

This is our computer plug with the adapter, which then plugs into the round holes in the wall outlet.

Another interesting thing peculiar to this apartment I guess, is that when I plug in the hand mixer it blows the circuit.  I have to take my mixing bowl in the bathroom sink and use the plug there.  We're still trying to persuade the manager of the hospedaje that this is a "solvable" problem -- but in the meantime . . .

Now a couple of notes about foods.  The boxed milk that we bought in Ecuador is not available here, so we buy milk in plastic packages and there is a special little pitcher in our apartment that is made just to put the milk package in and pour from.  Can you see the notch in the pitcher?



We might never have figured out what that odd pitcher was for if one of the other couples here hadn't explained it to us!

Almost all produce has to be washed in an antiseptic solution, but we were delighted to find that there is one brand that is safe to use right out of the package.  This is it:

The red circle (or sun?) on the lower left side is the key.  If it has that, it's safe.  You'll notice it says "agua pura" (pure water) on the package, meaning it has only been washed in clean water.  Things that can be peeled (bananas, avocados, mango, onions, potatoes) don't have to be washed, but anything else you buy fresh at the street market definitely needs it.  We also microwave the nuts we buy at the market - 30 seconds on High, wait 30 seconds, repeat the 30 seconds on High - and that takes care of any germs that might be on them.

Eggs are date-stamped as they were in Ecuador.  Isn't that interesting?  This one is good until May 9.

Now as to other things we've done this week . . . we had our first two experiences with the Immigration people.  I can't say Immigration Office because it isn't like that here. There isn't one place you go and get it all done.  The first place we went was actually Interpol! Isn’t that interesting? Also they took all ten fingerprints and they use a particularly indelible fingerprint ink that only comes off after repeated scrubbings.  We had our photos taken at a different location and – on our second trip downtown – had our signatures notarized on additional paperwork and our thumbprints taken a second time. And all this is in addition to the several official papers we had to obtain and have notarized for our visa before we even left the United States.

We've been told there will be one more trip next week, then ALL the paperwork will go to La Paz (the functioning capitol of the country, even though the historic and traditional capitol is in Sucre) and about three weeks after that, some sort of paperwork will come back from La Paz and we will make one more trip downtown to finish the job.  (Of course if any of the offices lose the paperwork, we have to retrace our visits, etc. They get paid a fee every time they process anything and I understand it is not uncommon for things to be misplaced and multiple visits to be required.) Anyway, we’ll see what happens. One good thing –we’ve been told (by people who should know, since they’ve gone through it) that if we were under 60 we also would be required to have a blood test and a urine test, but since we are 70 we’re spared that. Thank heaven! I’m not afraid of needles but I am afraid of the hygiene or lack of it in Third World countries.

 

Here are a few of the pictures I took from the taxicab on our trips to downtown Cochabamba to see the Immigration people . . .

 

First, the old original Central Plaza in Cochabamba reminds us a lot of the Central Plaza in Loja.  This was just a quick snap, but the plaza is BIG and traffic goes around it in a two-lane circle.  Can you see that the lady in the hat has her baby wrapped in a big shawl that is looped over her shoulders?  We see that everywhere here, and the hat is the typical indigena headwear.

This colonnade is across the street from the plaza.  These balconies are on an OLD building that butts up against an equally-old Catholic cathedral that dominates the west side of the square.  The balconies (and the buildings) are historic, but our driver said the balconies are very dangerous because they fall off if any pressure is put on them!  (Couldn't get a picture of the cathedral, sorry - I'll do that another time, I hope.)

This is one of the streets that radiates out from the central plaza.  Notice the wiring hanging on the picture above and across the street below - it's everywhere.  Cochabamba (like Loja, Ecuador) is an electrician's nightmare.  I assume there are no wiring codes; surely this kind of mess wouldn't exist if there were?

This is a building under construction in the old downtown area.  Again it's very much like Loja and we were fascinated to see how they do it.

 

There are little stores lining the streets, each one no larger than a single-car garage, if that big. This is just one example.

Also on many street corners you will see a newspaper kiosk like this one.  They sell all kinds of periodicals including the South American versions of The Enquirer and those other trash papers.

This is a typical street downtown, except that it would normally have cars two abreast.  I don't know how it isn't more crowded in this picture, because it seemed to me we were always within inches of scraping the side of another vehicle.  The drivers invariably create two lanes of traffic out of one, and three out of two.  Fortunately, they are moving slowly enough that they don't seem to run into each other, though we're not sure how they manage it.  I don't know if you can see the graffiti on the blue wall and/or in the picture above.  Graffiti is EVERYWHERE, unfortunately.  I guess that's another mark of a big city.  We were so lucky not to see much of it in Loja.

 

 

On our way out of the downtown area we saw this little fruit stand at the corner.  That is very common, too, both downtown and in all the outlying areas.  There is quite a large fruit and vegetable stand just a block south of the temple grounds.  It's one of the ways people scratch out a living here - you will see them alongside the street with just a chair and a table and their fruit.  If they're lucky, they have an old umbrella for shade or a tarp like this one.

 

Okay, that's probably enough for today.  I have lots more pictures but I'll save them for a Monday when I don't have anything else to tell you.  You'll notice our weather is beautiful.  It's like this every day.  Cochabamba really is the Garden City of Bolivia, I think.

Not a great deal to report this week, but I thought I'd share some pictures I took at the Saturday morning street market, which is called a feria here (accent on the "e").  It opens at 8:00 am and runs until sometime in the early afternoon.  It covers an area about 3 blocks wide and 6 blocks deep.  The first "street" is almost entirely vegetables.  Across the north end are more vegetables and some specialty shops (socks, hair things, bags [purses but also the plastic shopping bags people carry here], and the place we buy all our nuts.)  The next street is all fruit.  There is a "meat" street that I avoid if possible.  There also are souvenir booths and cleaning supply booths and stationery supplies and toys all mixed in amongst the others as well as several egg booths.  It's easy to spend an hour here and not realize it's been that long.  The market is thronged every Saturday.  The prices are much better than in a supermarket.  Here are some pictures.

This is the entrance to the feria - that is, the entrance we always use.  You can come into it from any of the streets on either end.  Can you see that the booth on the right, nearest the camera, is selling parakeets?  Another one out of sight on the left has aprons and curtains.  I forgot to mention that on the left as we enter here, there is a whole block of flower stalls.  They are gorgeous.  There isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the way things are laid out, though.

This booth is selling pre-shredded vegetables -- carrots, cabbage, lettuce, etc.  I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, but obviously the locals don't feel that way.

These are potatoes - a dozen different kinds.  I hope you can see the little skinny yellow ones and the little black-ish blue ones.  I haven't tried them yet, but Linda Johnson says the yellow ones are good when you bake them.  I don't know how you'd put anything on them (like butter) when they are so small.

This is a good view of one of the wheelbarrows that young boys ply up and down the street to carry shopping bags and purchased goods for the customers.  Notice the open flat of eggs and the big blue plastic shopping bags.  Each time you buy something, the vendor puts it in a little plastic bag and then you put it in your BIG bag.  If you're going to buy a lot, you really need one of the wheelbarrow boys to follow you around the market.  The man in the wheelchair behind the wheelbarrow is a beggar.  There are a quite a few of them at the feria, so we try to remember to take extra coins for them. That's my friend Linda Johnson with her back to the camera.

 

 

This is just another view of the street and the people and a wheelbarrow boy with his back to you.

 

This is the "nut booth" that we patronize.  Their nuts are fresh and they seem to be very clean.  We buy peanuts, brazil nuts, and almonds.  Occasionally they have pecans and walnuts, also cashews (which have a strangely chocolate taste!)  The man in the black T-shirt is our mission president, Lee Crayk, and the blonde with her back to you is his wife Connie.  The man in the funny hat (of which Farron needs one) is our friend and fellow temple missionary, Bill Johnson.

This is just to give you a long view of the feria - it really does over quite a large area.

This has nothing to do with the feria but was taken when we visited the Patiño mansion a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know what that plant is behind us, but we took the picture there because of the huge leaves.  Can it be an "elephant ear plant"?   These are our friends the Johnsons again.  They are from a little town (about 2400 people) north of Spokane, Washington and this is their third mission too.  They served at the MTC in Lima, Peru with President and Sister Crayk, so President Crayk called them and asked them to volunteer for a temple mission here because he needed help.  They responded immediately and unselfishly.  They are wonderful people!

We had a wonderful Conference Weekend, watching all the sessions in English at the President's house.  We felt lifted and strengthened by the talks, the music, and the Spirit.  With the blessings of Conference in our hearts, we wish everyone a beautiful, safe, healthy and fulfilling week to come.

A week ago today - March 25th - all the North American temple missionaries as well as three of the Latin couples took an all-day bus trip and visited two places.

First we went to the Parque Ecoturismo Pairumani - which is just what it sounds like:  a big park where the government has preserved the natural environment.  Unfortunately I had forgotten to charge my camera the night before and was afraid of the battery dying before we got to our second (and more glamorous) stop, so I took only a couple of pictures at the park.  Here they are:

You probably can't read it, but the words on the effigy say "Thieves will be hanged." I don't know if they mean it or not, but I should think it's a pretty effective deterrent - wouldn't you?

 

Notice the wildflowers beneath these signs.  There's water in this park - you can sort of see the stream in the picture below.  It is a good healthy stream and it is falling at a tremendous rate.  In fact, it was used to provide hydroelectric power for the super-rich industrialist whose country home we went to visit after our picnic here.

 

That building you can see in the above picture was part of the electrical generating plant.  We walked past it (and past the bull you see tethered there -- we don't know how he got there, since this is government land and he's obviously private property -- but oh well) - to some nice picnic tables (with nearby rest rooms.)  There was a hike (about a mile, I think, and at this altitude it was WORK) up to a little grassy plateau from which we could see forever - and also see the dam and resultant waterfall that were built to fuel the hydroelectric plant.  Although it took us an hour to get here, we weren't that far out of Cochabamba.  We could see the whole city from this mountain.

 

After our hike and picnic, we drove about 20 minutes back down the mountain and toured the country home of a man I'd never heard of, but his story is so interesting I'm going to add it here . . . a mini history lesson, but I think you'll like it.

His name was Simon Iturri Patiño.  He was born 1 June 1862, died 20 April 1947 in Argentina and was buried in Cochabamba.  I'll skip his early life.  The important thing is that as a young adult, he
started in mining with Compañía Hunanchaca de Bolivia, a silver company, and then with Fricke y Compañía. Patiño was assigned to collections for the store, and in 1894, he agreed to accept a deed of land in compromise for a $250 debt owed by a prospector. The deed turned out to be for the rocky side of a mountain, and Patiño was fired from his job for settling an account in exchange for a worthless piece of property. Legend has it that Patiño was forced to pay back the store from his own funds, and was stuck with his own bad bargain.

The mountain turned out to be richer in minerals than anyone had imagined. Although the first several years of work yielded little, the turning point came in 1900 when Patiño located a very rich vein of tin, later called "La Salvadora" (The Savior). Over the next 10 years he built up the control of nearby mines and other important mines in Bolivia.  By the 1920s he had also bought out Chilean interests in his mining company and went on to buy tin smelters in England and Germany. By the 1940s he controlled the international tin market and was one of the wealthiest men in the world, hence his "title" The Tin King (Rey del Estaño).  During WWII he was considered to be one of the five wealthiest men in the world.  How about that?!?  And I'll bet you had never heard of him either.

What is really sad is that because of his health (he had a heart condition that could not survive the altitude in Bolivia), he had to live abroad for the latter half of his life.  He never set foot in this beautiful home he built in the country for his wife and children and I believe the same is true of the even more grandiose home he caused to be built within the city of Cochabamba.  Apparently his family spent at least half the year in Bolivia, even though he had to stay in another country.  His descendants (great-grand-children) still come to the country home in the summers.  They live in the second story; the first story is a museum.   His city home has been given to the government and is a museum we have yet to visit.

Here are the pictures of his country home - which interestingly enough is called the "Villa Albina" (named for his wife.)  It is open 1 hour each day (from 3-4 pm) Monday through Friday.   This is what you see as you walk down the long driveway. The grounds are extensive and utterly beautiful, too.

 

This is a little closer view so you can maybe read the title near the top in the center: Villa Albina.

The statue (Venus, or ???) stands in the center of a lovely circular garden, facing the house.

This is what you see when the front door is opened and you step inside. The house is built around an open courtyard - typical Spanish architecture.

Here's a picture of the two of us sitting at the fountain (our backs are toward the front door.)  I tried to post this in Facebook instead - sort of as a trailer to bring friends to look at the rest of these pictures - but couldn't get FB to cooperate, so . . . it's here instead.

The view of the house taken from in back. There also is a long one-story wing off to the right, behind
that enormous tree.

 

Now pictures of the interior . . .  the first is a room that was originally a music room - for family concerts and/or for visiting musicians to perform.  Now the Patiño Foundation uses it for board meetings, if we understood the guide correctly.  (To me it looks like an old-fashioned church sanctuary - what do you think?)

This room was NOT used for music, nor was it the dining room.  We are not sure exactly WHAT it was, but it's pretty.

This was the "ladies' sitting room" - not really a boudoir or powder room - but still a place they gathered to primp a little, I guess.

This may have been meant for an office - or perhaps just a formal sitting room.  The most important thing about it, to me, is that a portrait of Señor and Señora Patiño hang here.

This is just one end of the dining room (I wanted you to see the grandfather clock.)  This table seats 24 and is fully extended all the time.  The room is quite elegant, but I don't know if I could enjoy a meal in a "fuschia" room.

This was their ballroom.  Of course now you see tables and chairs in little groups, but I guess the tables were removed and the chairs placed around the perimeter so they could have room for dancing.

This was another small sitting room - not sure why they needed so many.  Notice how HIGH the ceilings are - much more than the 9' ceilings in our La Verne home - these must be 12' or 15' high.

This was a tea room - as in "4:00 afternoon tea" like they have in Great Britain.  The room is twice this long with several more sets of tables and chairs.

I should have put this at the beginning with the exterior shots, sorry.  They actually had a swimming pool.  The gardener was mowing the grass around it while we were there.  It must keep a full staff of gardeners busy taking care of this place because the gardens and grounds are enormous.  There is also a fish pond big enough to use a small rowboat in.  There's an archway-walk with a gazebo built out into the water, and the gazebo has a little boat dock.

 

 

And finally, one shot of a small part of the grounds, taken as we were walking back up the driveway.  

 

We really enjoyed seeing this BEAUTIFUL home.  Several of us remarked that we could just imagine ourselves living here, dressed in long dresses with hoop skirts (sort of like those Southern mansions you read about) - but only if there were a multitude of servants to keep the place clean and do all the laundry, ironing, cooking and so on.  In other words, living like a multi-billionaire, which Señor Patino was.  How sad that he never got to see this place or live here.  What good is all the money in the world if you can never go home to the place you love?  I'll bet he would willingly have traded a chunk of his money for a new heart.  Too bad heart transplants hadn't been figured out yet.