"I'm Alive And So Are You!"

I must be working on my seventh or eighth life by now. I've survived so many accidents and close calls that I'm losing count.  :)

Today's experience: sparks and screaming in the shower! YAY!

I've blogged before about suicide showers here in Guatemala. It's the most common type of hot water shower that I've found here. The first nice apartment that we moved into had a shower with water heated by an external water heater, just like home, but since then all my apartments have had electric shower heads.

After enjoying a nice 10 minutes of semi-warm spray in my shower today, I turned off the tap and was treated to an explosion of sparks and smoke. I shrieked an Oscar®-worthy series of shrieks and lept out of the bathroom amid a cascade of orange flamey bits and the smell of burning plastic.

After evaluating myself for scorch marks, I congratulated myself for surviving another attack of the evil shower demons. Took a few pictures, posted a Facebook update, and texted my landlord, "Mi ducha explotó!" (My shower exploded.)

The offending apparatus.

The wires from the wall that were taped together rather inexpertly and are now burnt and melted.

The melted wires near the shower head. There was a lot of smoke too!

Surprise, surprise, my landlord shows up at, like, 8pm with a new showerhead for me. He installed it -- without turning off the power, I might add -- in about a half hour. Then charged me Q200. Yeah, I'm renting. Nope, doesn't matter. Here in Guate, you break it, you buy it. But Q200 is actually a good deal, so I'm not complaining.

I live to shower another day!

When talking to my sister about this unfortunate event, she asked, "Why do you live there again?
Because...
It's November 5th and it was 21°C here today.
There are roses blooming in my garden and lemons tumbling from the trees.
My rent is $178.63 Canadian.
I have tons of awesome friends here.
Life is never boring.
I've escaped the rat race.

Why wouldn't I live here?  :D

The most gorgeous morning glories I've ever seen, as big as my hand.

For those that don't recognize the quote from the title of this blog, here it is! One of my favorite Christmas movies. :)