Category: Rat in The Toilet

The Cult of El Senor

Wherever we lived in Latin America, the power always centered around El Señor. Whoever he was, whatever he did, it always was the same, the culture believed that El Señor magically always knew best. Very “Father Knows Best” of the 1950s, but then the Latin America of my time was just like that.  So it... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
June 26, 2020 at 9:17 am • 

Eating Like an Expat in the Time of Coronavirus

Caveat: I am not an expert in anything, but living abroad.  Having lived for 16 years in what some have undiplomatically call “shit holes”, how did I keep myself and my family healthy while eating a bounty of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables? Cleaning fruits and vegetables like an expat. Where the original suggestion... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
March 24, 2020 at 1:01 pm • 

Memories of Living in the Curacao in the Caribbean

On a forgotten flight out of Curacao while living on the island in the early 1980s, I found myself sitting next to a highly caffeinated Dutch woman. Before we reached cruising altitude, she shared with me her retirement plans. To move to Curacao with its never-ending sunny days. Since the island was still a part... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
January 15, 2020 at 7:19 am • 
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The Joys of Passalongs (a.k.a. hand-me-downs)

As a young child of the 1950s, the bane of being the youngest daughter of Depression Era parents was the passalongs, those hand-me-down clothes that came at regular intervals, washed, ironed and neatly packed in a box sent by the U.S. Mail. Aunt Mildred would send them to her younger sister, my mother, who’d just... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
August 30, 2019 at 9:20 am • 

USA is a Banana Republic

And yes, it is bloody bananas but tragically true. My firsthand experience living for two decades abroad–14 years in banana republics–gives me the street cred to answer Dana Milbank’s Washington Post op ed question of August 6th. “Have we become a shithole country?” Yes indeed. Hop in your TARDIS to time travel back to Donald J. Trump’s kvetch... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
August 9, 2019 at 9:20 am • 

The Attempted Inside Robbery

Sophie had always been a light sleeper. Compounded with the challenges and real world threats to her family living in Mexico City, sleep was even more elusive. So it wasn’t surprising she was awake the night of the attempted break-in, distinctly hearing above her the thud of footsteps on their rental home’s roof. With her... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
August 2, 2019 at 10:05 am • 
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Stores Stocked with Christmas Twinkle Lights in August

Life is weird. We spend a lifetime accruing, learning and if lucky–loving and being loved, only to–WHAM. Die. So what is the point of it all? Does nature make a point? No, it just is. As part of nature, we just are too. What keeps me engaged in this experience we call life is humor. Not... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
July 19, 2019 at 9:52 am • 

The U. S. Embassy Abroad

When I turned 21-years-old, my aspiration wasn’t to go to a bar and order a drink, but to vote for the first time. So when I moved to Lima, Peru in 1972, I began the tediously difficult process to learn how to get an absentee ballot for the Nixon-McGovern election that November. Registered at my... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
July 12, 2019 at 9:41 am • 

Raining Cockroaches in Texas

In the wild kingdom of my life overseas, I’ve experienced the company of bedbugs, cockroaches, centipede, scorpions, fleas, head lice, iguanas, jelly fish, lizards, frogs, mice, rats, pin-worms, ringworms, ticks, termites, goats and more. Some of these critters also made appearances in my so-called civilized homeland in America, like the centipede who scurried out of... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
June 21, 2019 at 9:58 am • 
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At Home Abroad-The Expat

“Why the hell would you want to move from one Third World toilet to another?” inquired my best friend in Willemstad, Curacao when I confessed to her we were moving to Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was a common question. The interrogatory, well-meaning relative had put it another way. “How do you expect your children to ever... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
June 7, 2019 at 9:06 am • 
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    Candace Drimmer

    TIMELINE June 1972 to June 1973---Candace moves to Lima (Peru)----- June 1973 to May 1974---Candace and The Husband live in Glendale AZ----- May 1974 to August 1974---Living in Toronto, Ontario (Canada)----- September 1974 to May 1975---Living in Aberdeen SD----- May 1975 to July 1979---Living in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)----- July 1979 to June 1980---Living in Asuncion (Paraguay)----- June 1980 to September 1980---Living in NYC----- September 1980 to November 1982---Living in Connecticut----- November 1982 to January 1983---Living in Ponce, Puerto Rico (USA)----- February 1983 to July 1986---Living in Willemstad, Curacao (Netherlands Antilles)----- July 1986 to July 1989---Living in Guayaquil (Ecuador)----- July 1989 to July 1995---Living in Connecticut (yes, again)----- July 1995 to August 2001---Living in Mexico City (Mexico)----- August 2001---Return to Gringolandia (a.k.a. United States of America)----- I was an accidental expatriate; love and marriage led me to it. One day I was a bandy-legged kid sitting atop my dogwood tree looking out of my small backyard world in 1950s New Jersey, wanting to move somewhere--anywhere, different. Next thing I knew I met a young hirsute anti-war, soon-to-be-Peace Corps volunteer, fell in love and moved to Peru in the 1970s. WHAT an adventure it's been!! NOTE: I gave up Facebook, so apologies that I cannot answer any comments since it is only set up via FB.

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