It's raining in my bathroom

Yes, once again, water is dripping from my ceiling. Now if I were not on the first floor with two floors above me, I might think of this as just the heavy rains filtering through the cement ceiling. That's very common here.

I was going to start painting some of my inside walls tomorrow, but now I'm thinking maybe I should wait. You have to let them dry out for a month or longer, once they've have water filtration problems. I had waited and waited, and now, just when it was time--gotta reset the clock for the bathroom and the bedroom next to it. And I'm not sure that filtration is not going to hit the other rooms as it did last time. At least this time the leak is much slower.

Other things that have happened in this apt.: The light fixture no longer works in one bedroom. I use that room as a storage room, so mostly I visit it during the day. Since I moved here, I have only turned on that light a few times, probably. Still, occasionally I need to look for something there after dark, and it is rather inconvenient to have to use a flashlight.

In the kitchen, behind the stove, the water pipes that were installed were used pvc in not so good shape. Friday, I noticed that the little rug I stand on to wash the dishes was soaked. Water is dripping from the pipes, running down the crack between the tiles, and passing under the stove.

I've decided not to repaint the whole apt., even though the recent paint job has been ruined in every single room. The reason for this is that I'm not confident it will last. Instead, I'm painting the parts that are the worst looking. Like the wall in my living room that has blue paint showing up in large blobs, up to two feet long, on a cream colored wall. This is where the paint peeled off due to um....hard to say. No preparation of the wall before painting. Using the cheapest paint possible. Watering down the paint to the point is is practically whitewash. Very high indoor humidity due to the previous plumbing problems. Pick one or more or add another. All I know is that it looks kind of bad.

Here, you cannot just call up your landlord to fix things. Once you are in the place you are pretty much on your own, except for external issues. (That does mean that they should fix the rain in the bathroom, though, since its source is external.) When you rent an apt., you usually sign a lease that says you have received it in good condition. Of course, you cannot get the apt. at all, if you refuse to sign it. There are verbal agreements made at the time. "We will fix this or that." Some landlords are honest, and will keep their word, although perhaps not as quickly as one would like.

Others will simply refuse to do anything. Dominican law, however, does support tenant's rights pretty well in some ways. And if the owner won't take care of something that is clearly their obligation to repair, such as a leaky roof, for instance, you can deposit the rent in a special bank account in a certain bank, and withhold it until the repairs are done.

There are also rent controls, that prevent the owners from raising the rent exorbitantly from year to year. Once your lease is up they can "ask for the house," giving you an excuse that Uncle Joe is coming back to the country and needs it to live in, and then once you are gone, re-rent it at a much higher price. But they cannot get that price from you, even though your contract expired after a year. If they want to keep you as a tenant (and they always want to keep me, because I pay the rent on time and even improve the place) then they keep the rent within the legal limits and Uncle Joe stays in NY.

But then, what do you want for $210USD for a large 3BR 2 bath apt? You get low rent in lower middle class areas. The annoying leaks and electrical problems come with that. It's all a part of this Dominican Life.