Being bamboo

The rancho of the Gonzales family is far away from common conveniences like electricity, running water and telephone.

Fortunately there is a water well with good water.
This is pumped up with a gasoline powered water pump into two large cement reservoirs to serve the kitchen and the bathroom.

These days electricity is available thanks to two large solar panels and four batteries.
To power some lamps in the rooms and the TV.
However, when it is a cloudy day, there is no TV at night…

There is a washing machine and for this an electricity generator is used.

In general though, life is simple and never anybody complains for example that mobile phones do not work where is the rancho.

Most of the year the members of the Gonzales family sleep outside.
There are beds under roofs of palm leaves around the small stone house.
They sleep outside to enjoy the cooler temperatures.
But these colder months they sleep inside the house that has three rooms with five double beds.

The bathroom has a toilet and a shower.
There is even warm water thanks to a boiler on propane.

Although the rancho Punta Boca del Salado of the Gonzales family is on this location for almost a century, it nevertheless has an air of being there only temporary.
As if they arrived last year and will leave soon.

Probably a reason for this feeling one gets when seeing the rancho is that many structures are made of natural materials.
This has to do with the annual hurricanes that sometimes hit their area.
To destroy and devastate anything erected.
So, in their long history, like bamboo, they have learned to bend with the wind.
Not to erect structures that may be destroyed by the hurricane and will be costly to repair.
Things built and made of natural materials from the area are quick and cheap to fix.

There is also another reason why this feeling of fluency and temporariness arises when experiencing the rancho.
This is because it is a coming and going of persons.
Without that there is one schedule followed by many.
In more traditional families there is father, mother and the two children.
Who come together at the end of the afternoon to sit around the table to enjoy dinner.
And have more common and shared moments during the day, evening and night.

But at the Gonzales rancho it is more like a commune.
A group of people who centre their life on the rancho but continue to live their own specific life.
Coming and going when opportune.
It is like a living entity: increasing and decreasing.
Sometimes there are a lot of people.
Sometimes a considerable amount.
And sometimes just a few.

These people are not necessarily family.
They can be friends too.
Or temporary workers.

Why this works so well is because there is a tremendous openness.
Gumaro, the formal head and owner of the rancho, is very much in the background.
He is not promoting himself as the one in charge.
For him everyone is welcome and can stay.
And you do as you like.
One condition only: no drinking of alcohol.
Except when there is a celebration.

This ban on alcohol is never imposed though. Never will a visitor be informed about this. That is not their way.
When a visitor comes to the rancho, it is very obvious nobody drinks.
And this is most of the time understood stopping a visitor of possible alcohol use.

It is not that the Gonzales are opposed to alcohol.
That it is a doctrine.
They just know that alcohol can be very devastating.
It is hard work to make a living with a Mexican rancho and prosperity is negatively influenced when drinking frequently.

Things go by themselves at the rancho.
Because every person is loving, positive and having the best intentions.
If only the whole world could be like this…




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