Are my neighbors trashy?

As mentioned, the people with the little store in front of my house, Tienda la Bendición, are always around. They’d always seemed like good neighbors to me (even if rarely allowing the privacy I want when it comes time to burn my toilet paper), I’ve started to wonder a bit about their character. I was leaving my house a few weeks back to go to work, and one of the boat pilots, Arnaldo, came running up to me and asked me for a loan of 2Q (quetzals), which is about a quarter. Since I have to cross from San Miguel to Flores and back at least once a day, all of the boat pilots are familiar to me, and this one is also the brother-in-law of my landlady so he’s even done some work in my place. So I gave him the 5Q bill I had in my pocket and when he leaned in to give me a thank you kiss on the cheek I caught a whiff of heavy drinking. When I left my house the following morning, I saw Arnaldo sleeping on the cement patio of Tienda la Bendición. Then a few days later as I left my house, Arnaldo arose from where he was sitting on the patio of Tienda la Bendición, leaving a wet spot behind, and came running up to me again as I was leaving my house and asked for 5Q. Well, despite my misgivings I gave it to him, and he said he’d pay me back in boat crossings. That evening, I got on a relatively late night boat back to San Miguel, piloted by my landlady’s actual brother, Andreas, and since we were waiting for more people to arrive before leaving I casually started asking about Arnaldo and Andreas was like, “He’s drinking now.” So apparently Arnaldo will not drink for a few months and then will go on a binge of a few weeks to a month, during which time he is not welcome at home with his wife and 8 children because he will steal things to sell. He spends his time on the street, then comes home when he’s done. And the reason he asked me for 2Q was because he drinks rubbing alcohol, which at 2Q a bottle is much cheaper than grain alcohol. Apparently not too long ago another gentleman of San Miguel died from drinking rubbing alcohol. And that brings me to the question of whether or not my neighbors are trashy, because even though it’s illegal and deadly they sell Arnaldo the rubbing alcohol. Boo!

Soon after learning that, I went away for almost two weeks, and passed my proposal defense at UCSB. Now I’m back in San Miguel, ABD, and another 6 months to go here. This morning I saw Arnaldo sitting on his son’s boat and chatting, so maybe his binge is done. Anyway, the good news is that I now have a “new” camera with me. “New” because I think it might be one of the first digital cameras ever made. We’ll see how I ornament my blog with it.