—Could you say that's what happens with water, or don't you have an answer? — Said Mrs. Angela to Roberto in a haughty and rude manner.
—I imagine that water from the street stopped coming in, and that's why the water pumps were turned off. — Said Roberto.
—Well, you should have checked the tank by now, that's your job! Or is this not the case? —
—Actually it's not like that; this is not a job; it's a responsibility that several neighbors assume and that the Condominium Board assumes, but it's not a job. On the other hand, there are no concierges in the building, everything is being taken over by the neighbors. It's good to remember that. Finally, Mrs. Angela, it is good that you respect the neighbors and that instead of criticizing them, you support them from time to time. And remember that you never know when you will need a person, that's why it's important to always maintain education and good treatment towards others. — Said Roberto, with a lot of patience, tolerance and humility.
At that moment, the elevator arrived and Mrs. Angela entered, and the response to the comment and advice given by Mr. Roberto was “Unhappy clown" while the elevator door was closing.
Ruben, another neighbor who saw the situation, when he saw Roberto said, — That's why I will never be in the condo, people here are very rude, and they mistreat a lot of the people who are on the Condo Board working for the community. In addition, if Angela saw her phone, she would have seen the message from Mrs. Clara from the condominium group that there is no water entrance from the street and that the water is going to be turned on from 8 to 10 at night. —
—The truth, Rubén, is that it will not be possible to keep all the people of such a large community happy, and someone has to take responsibility for running the building, and that's up to the owners. But yes, you have to have a lot of patience and tolerance to be on the Board and not confront anyone who treats you badly. —
At that moment, the other elevator arrived, and Roberto got on the elevator with other neighbors to go to his house.
Roberto, along with two other neighbors, had won the elections to be the members of the Condominium Board. For him, as a landlord, it was important to be on the board due to the serious situation in the country and the changes in labor policies, plus those that gave a right to people who worked in the janitorial shops, with which they could take ownership of the apartment that belonged to the building.
As a result of these legal changes and the economic crisis, together with the attitude of the concierge, the building decided to withdraw the concierge from his job, hire people to do the cleaning and trash can work for days, and attend to certain structural emergencies that were occurring in the building.
After the Condominium Board, where Roberto was, assumed its functions, the stages of rationing in services began in the country, which meant that the government, because of different reasons, such as lack of maintenance, lack of entry of resources due to economic sanctions, corruption, or all of them together, made cuts in water services by areas.
The water cuts are usually 48 to 72 hours without water. So the board had to learn what the reasoning days were, and they also had to learn how long the water tank lasted and how long the water could be put in. And finally, it was concluded that the tank lasted 3 days after putting in 2 hours of water. And the schedule was placed from 8 to 10 at night to place the water on the reasoning days, and that remains to this day since we have had years with a water reasoning, which starts on Fridays and ends on Sunday at dawn.
After having some time with the reasoning of the water, the community had to adapt to its new reality, and really, almost everyone was calm, except for Mrs. Angela and a small group of neighbors, who were dedicated to mistreating the members of the Condominium Board, both by WhatsApp groups and in person. Which provoked a kind of rejection between both sectors of the community that was really strong.
One afternoon I went to visit Roberto, who is a neighbor of my apartment in the building. He asked me to check a fault in a program on his PC, and when we were chatting and checking his computer, the power went out.
—The power went out. Could it be that he left the area? — I asked.
—According to Twitter, it's a nationwide blackout. We have to check if someone is locked in the elevators. — Said Roberto.
—Luis, you can check the floors from here to the roof, and I check from here down. If you get someone, tell them to calm down and inform them that we are going to take them out, but they must wait a moment. We communicate by cell phone, — Roberto told me.
I said yes, and when we left his house, the hallway really was gloomy; absolutely nothing was visible. We were on the 15th floor, and I started going up from the 15th floor to the 20th floor. I stood in front of the elevator doors and shouted, “There's someone locked up,” and I got a gentleman who was locked up with two girls on the 18th floor.
I started talking to them since the girls were very nervous. Since they were locked between two floors, I warned them that Roberto was checking the floors below and that when he came up, we were going to take them out. I called Roberto and informed him that there were 3 people in the elevator.
When Roberto was on the 11th floor, he began to hear screams and banging on the elevator door. Roberto started to tell the lady who was screaming that she would stay calm and that they were going to take her out. When Roberto checked, the lady was between the 10th and the 9th floors; she was alone, she didn't have a cell phone, and she was really hysterical.
Roberto started talking to the lady from the door, which was at a higher height than the lady, and tried to illuminate her through the crack that formed between the doors. When the lady saw them in the light, she began to cry and asked to be taken out. The woman was heartbroken and barely understood what she was saying between crying and babbling.
Roberto spent minutes talking to the lady in order to calm her down. I actually called him to ask him why he hadn't come up to the Sacra people. He told me that the lady's situation was serious and that she was about to have a panic attack. I explained to the other neighbors that they were locked in the 18th, and they took the situation calmly. I was actually sitting on the floor at the elevator door, making jokes and playing with them.
Roberto, when the lady calmed down a little, asked her who she was, and she told him that it was Mrs. Angela, the same one who mistreated and humiliated him daily in the WhatsApp groups of the building. Roberto identified himself and started talking to her so that she would stay calm.
At that moment, some neighbors were coming up the stairs, and Roberto asked them to talk to Mrs. Angela so that she wouldn't feel lonely and wouldn't panic again. The neighbors supported Roberto, and he went up. We met on the 18th floor, and I accompanied him to the engine room.
There, we decided to take the elevators up to the 20th and 19th floors and take people out there since we had the keys to the doors in case they were needed, and it was more comfortable to do it upstairs. I remember that I did what Roberto told me, I would remove the brake, and he would take the elevator up by the pulley.
Finally, we went up both elevators. Roberto gave me the key to the elevator door, and I put it in the door and opened it. But I think he was really opening without the key. Roberto went straight down to the 19th floor to the odd elevator, opened the doors with his hands without needing the key, and found Mrs. Angela curled up and shivering in the corner of the elevator.
By that time, the 4 of us had already gone down—the gentleman, the two girls and me—to the 19th floor. There we watched as Roberto, illuminated by the lamp of our cell phones, entered the elevator, hugged Mrs. Angela, and helped her up while she cried desperately without letting go.
Roberto took her down to his house, knocked on the door of a neighbor very close to Mrs. Angela, and left her with her at her house while he went back up to his house on the 15th floor.
That was the first blackout we had in Caracas, and it lasted three days, with some intermittent connections of a few minutes.
Roberto, along with other neighbors and the rest of the Board, had to organize the neighbors to get water with a rope and a container from the tank, fill the neighbors' containers, organize the young neighbors to get water to the grandparents who lived alone, and organize support for people who did not have food and for those who could not cook because they had an electric stove.
After that blackout and the crisis that was generated with it, a light came to the community that was more important than the one provided by the electric service, since people began to support and respect each other.
As for Mrs. Angela, her change was monumental, she stopped mistreating the members of the board and began to greet and treat Roberto as a gentleman. Continuing with that deal to the present day.
Thank you for reading me.
Click to read spanish
Creative Nonfiction: Una luz para la comunidad.
Historia:
—¿Podría decir que es lo que ocurre con el agua, o no tiene una respuesta? — Dijo la señora Ángela a Roberto de manera altanera y grosera.
—Me imagino que dejó de entrar agua de la calle y por eso se apagaron las bombas de agua. — Dijo Roberto.
—¡Bueno, usted ya debería haber revisado el tanque, ese su trabajo! ¿No es así? —
—En realidad no es así, esto no es un trabajo, es una responsabilidad que asumimos varios vecinos, que asumimos la Junta de Condominio, pero no es un trabajo. Por otro lado, en el edificio no hay Conserjes, todo lo estamos asumiendo los vecinos, es bueno que lo recuerde. Por último, señora Ángela, es bueno que respete a los vecinos y que en vez de criticar apoye de vez en cuando. Y recuerde que uno nunca sabe cuando va a necesitar de una persona, por eso es importante mantener siempre la educación y el buen trato hacia los demás. — Dijo Roberto, con mucha paciencia, tolerancia y humildad.
En ese momento, llegó el ascensor y la señora Ángela entró y la respuesta al comentario y consejo dado por el señor Roberto fue “Infeliz payaso” mientras se cerraba la puerta del ascensor.
Rubén, otro vecino que vio la situación, al ver a Roberto le dijo, —Por eso es que yo nunca estaré en el condominio, aquí la gente es muy grosera y maltratan mucho a la gente que está en la Junta de Condominio trabajando por la comunidad. Además, si Ángela viese su teléfono, hubiese visto el mensaje de la señora Clara por el grupo del condominio, que no hay entrada de agua de la calle y que se va a colocar el agua de 8 a 10 de la noche. —
—La verdad Rubén, es que no se podrá mantener contenta a todas las personas de una comunidad tan grande y alguien tiene que asumir la responsabilidad de llevar el edificio, y eso nos toca a los propietarios. Pero sí, hay que tener mucha paciencia y tolerancia, para estar en la Junta y no confrontar con cualquier persona que lo trate mal a uno. —
En ese momento, llegó el otro ascensor y Roberto, se montó en el elevador con otros vecinos para ir a su casa.
Roberto, junto a otros dos vecinos, habían ganado las elecciones para ser los miembros de la Junta de Condominio, para él como propietario era importante estar en la junta, debido a la grave situación del país y a los cambios de las políticas laborales, más aquellas que le daban un derecho a las personas que trabajaban en las conserjerías, con la cual podían tomar la propiedad del apartamento que le pertenecía al edificio.
A raíz de esos cambios jurídicos y de la crisis económica, unida a la actitud del conserje, el edificio había decidido retirar de su trabajo al conserje, contratar personas que realizaran las labores de limpieza y del bote de la basura por días y atender ciertas emergencias estructurales que se estaban presentando en la edificación.
Después de que la Junta de Condominio, donde estaba Roberto, había asumido sus funciones, en el país comenzaron las etapas de racionamiento en los servicios, eso significaba, que el gobierno a causa de diferentes razones, como podrían ser la falta de mantenimiento, la falta de entrada de recursos por las sanciones económicas, la corrupción, o todas ellas juntas, hacía recortes en los servicios de agua por zonas.
Los cortes de agua, son normalmente de 48 a 72 horas sin agua. Así que la junta, tuvo que aprender cuáles eran los días de razonamiento y además tuvo que aprender cuánto tiempo duraba el tanque de agua y cuánto tiempo se podía poner el agua. Y finalmente se llegó a la conclusión que el tanque aguantaba 3 días poniendo 2 horas de agua. Y se colocó el horario de 8 a 10 de la noche para colocar el agua en los días de razonamiento y eso se mantiene hasta el día de hoy, ya que tenemos años con un razonamiento de agua, que inicia los días viernes y termina el domingo en la madrugada.
Después tener un tiempo con los razonamientos del agua, la comunidad tuvo que adaptarse a su nueva realidad y realmente en su mayoría todos estaban tranquilos, menos la señora Ángela y un grupo pequeño de vecinos, que se dedicaban a maltratar a los miembros de la Junta de Condominio, tanto por los grupos de Whatsapp como en persona. Lo que provocó una suerte de rechazo entre ambos sectores de la comunidad, realmente muy fuerte.
Una tarde fui a visitar a Roberto que es vecino de mi piso en el edificio, el me pidió que le revisara una falla en un programa de su PC y cuando estábamos conversando y revisando su computadora, se fue la luz.
—Se fue la luz. ¿Será qué se fue en la zona? — Pregunté.
—Según Twitter es un apagón a nivel nacional. Hay que revisar si no se quedó alguna persona encerrada en los ascensores. —Dijo Roberto.
—Luis, puedes revisar los pisos de acá hacia la azotea y yo reviso de acá para abajo, si consigues a alguna persona, le dices que se tranquilice y le informas que los vamos a sacar, pero que deben esperar un momento. Nos comunicamos por el celular, — Me comentó Roberto.
Le dije que sí, y cuando salimos de su casa, el pasillo realmente era una penumbra, no se veía absolutamente nada. Estábamos en el piso 15, yo comencé a subir del piso 15 al piso 20, me paraba frente a las puertas del ascensor y gritaba, “Hay alguien encerrado” y conseguí un señor que estaba encerrado, con dos muchachas en el piso 18.
Me puse hablar con ellos, ya que las muchachas estaban muy nerviosas, desde la puerta del ascensor, puesto que ellos estaban encerrados entre dos pisos, les avisé que Roberto estaba revisando los pisos de abajo y que cuando él subiera, los íbamos a sacar. Llamé a Roberto y le informé que en el ascensor par había 3 personas.
Cuando Roberto estaba por el piso 11, comenzó a escuchar gritos y golpes a la puerta del ascensor. Roberto empezó a decirle a la señora que estaba gritando que se quedará tranquila, que ya la iban a sacar. Cuando Roberto reviso, la señora estaba entre el piso 10 y el 9, estaba sola, no tenía celular y estaba realmente histérica.
Roberto se puso a hablar con la señora desde la puerta, que estaba a una altura superior de la señora, y trató de iluminar a través de la rendija que se formaba entre las puertas. Cuando la señora vio ellas de luz, se puso a llorar y a pedir que la sacaran. La mujer estaba desconsolada y apenas se le entendía lo que decía entre el llanto y el balbuceo.
Roberto pasó minutos hablando con la señora para poder calmarla. Yo de hecho lo llamé, para preguntarle por qué no subía para sacra a las personas. Me comentó que la situación de la señora era grave, y que estaba a punto de un ataque de pánico. Le expliqué a los otros vecinos que estaban encerrados en el 18 y asumieron la situación con tranquilidad. Yo de hecho estaba sentado en el piso, en la puerta del ascensor, echando chistes y jugando con ellos.
Roberto, cuando la señora se calmó un poco, le preguntó quién era, y ella le dijo que era la señora Ángela, la misma que le maltrataba y humillaba a diario por los grupos de Whatsapp del edificio. Roberto se identificó y se puso a hablar con ella para que se quedara tranquila.
En ese momento, venían unos vecinos subiendo las escaleras, y Roberto le pidió que se pusieran a hablar con la señora Ángela, para que no sé sintiera sola y no volviese entrar en pánico. Los vecinos apoyaron a Roberto y él subió. Nos vimos en el piso 18 y le acompañé al cuarto de máquinas.
Hay decidimos subir los ascensores a los pisos 20 y 19 y sacar a las personas ahí, ya que teníamos las llaves de las puertas en caso de ser necesarias y era más cómodo hacerlo arriba. Recuerdo que hice lo que me dijo Roberto, yo quitaba el freno y él subía los ascensores por la polea.
Finalmente, subimos ambos ascensores, Roberto me dio la llave de la puerta del ascensor y yo la metí en la puerta y la abrí. Pero creo que realmente abría sin la llave. Roberto bajó directo al piso 19 al ascensor impar, abrió las puertas con las manos sin necesidad de la llave y se encontró con la señora Ángela, acurrucada y temblando en la esquina del ascensor.
En ese momento ya habíamos bajado los 4, el señor, las dos muchachas y yo al piso 19. Ahí vimos, como Roberto, Alumbrado por la lámpara de nuestros celulares, entró al ascensor, abrazó a la señora Ángela, la ayudo a levantarse, mientras ella lloraba desesperada sin soltarlo.
Roberto la bajó hasta su casa, le tocó la puerta a una vecina muy amiga de la señora Ángela y la dejó con ella en su casa, mientras él subía de nuevo a su casa en el piso 15.
Ese fue el primer apagón que tuvimos en Caracas y duró tres días, con algunas conexiones intermitentes de pocos minutos.
Roberto, junto con otros vecinos y el resto de la Junta, tuvo que organizar a los vecinos para sacar agua con una cuerda y un envase del tanque, llenar los envases de los vecinos, organizar a los vecinos jóvenes para que le subieran agua a los abuelos que vivían solos y organizar apoyo para las personas que no tenían comida, y para los que no podían cocinar por tener cocina eléctrica.
Después de ese apagón y la crisis que se generó con él, llegó una luz a la comunidad más importante que la que da el servicio eléctrico, ya que la gente empezó a apoyarse y respetarse.
En cuanto a la señora Ángela, su cambio fue monumental, dejó de maltratar a los miembros de la Junta, y comenzó a saludar y a tratar a Roberto de señor. Continuando con ese trato hasta la actualidad.
Gracias por leerme.
What an incredible story. It's unfortunate that it takes such a life-changing incident for some people to learn kindness and caring toward others, but it is certainly good that Mrs. Angela eventually learned this! Thank you for sharing your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well, and for reading and commenting on the work of other community members.
Hello @theinkwell, happy day.
Yes indeed, many times we have to go through certain situations, to learn to be better people and be more tolerant in our life.
That experience left great friendships and respectful relationships, between several neighbors.
But he also left behind enmities with other people, who still cling to political sides and uncompromising positions and refuse to accept and respect others.
I think there are always fans who think they have the truth. However, we must learn to live with them, since we are in a community and that is where tolerance comes from.
But, what is very interesting is that each condominium and each community is in itself a particular world, full of stories, religions, beliefs and experiences, where you get a lot of material to write about.
Thank you for your comment.
Finally, I wanted to comment that I hope the translations are better, I did what you told me, with the proofreader, but I also changed translators.
Thanks for the comment and best wishes.
Interesting read. I am glad that in the end, Mrs Angela was able to learn how to treat people with care and kindness. And Roberto was really a gentleman, I love how he was kind and calm with the lady on the 10th floor
Hello @iskawrites, happy day.
Yes, Roberto, he is a great person and an excellent friend.
When it comes to Mrs. Angela, I treat her with respect, but I stay very far away, just the greetings.
I try to always stay somewhat away, because he has a conflicting personality, but deep down he is a good person.
Life is very ironic, I have proven that with many situations that I have witnessed and heard, this situation is one of them. Sometimes it takes difficult experiences to unite people around the same cause. I really liked reading this life experience that you shared with us.
Good day.
Hi @rinconpoetico7, thank you very much for the comment and for the support.
That was a really intense experience, I'm glad everyone made it out safely. It's amazing how a crisis can bring a community together while promoting respect and support for one another. Nice story.
Hello @loveah, happy day.
In reality, the political and economic crisis has united and separated people, the same here in the building.
But in the most difficult moments, it allowed us to get to know the needs and realities of many neighbors.
More with the economic sanctions imposed on the country by the US and EU. The whole country pays for a political problem, and here in the community it was seen with particular realities.
There are many retired and retired grandparents, who worked all their lives and now with what they receive from pension and retirement, it is not enough for them for the basics, so certain levels of help were created between neighbors to be able to get by with medicines and food.
But the important thing is that it came out and it will continue to come out ahead and that strengthens the resilience and resistance of people.
My greetings.