Coco Mall

The other morning I was walking through the courtyard of the building where I work and I got dripped on. I wasn’t under a cloud or an air-conditioner. I was under a dentist’s office (not Rolex Omega’s, but now that I mention it there is a dentist here named Rolex Omega) and the ceiling above me was dripping with water. Upstairs I couldn’t see what would be causing the water problem because above the leaking area was just a desk and a bench, no dentist equipment to be seen. Maybe the equipment in the next room was leaking and the water was traveling to the side before pooling and forming the drip. Who knows? Suffice it to say, this building is falling apart.

There’s a large and beautiful tree in the middle of the courtyard that has grown so much since the building went up that now one of its enormous branches is weighing down on the roof, creating a rushing waterfall whenever it rains. The waterfall pours out over the ramp that leads to the second level of the building.

Tucked under a staircase on the other side of the building there is a small popcorn vendor. The man who works there pops corn all day and into the night with only a small desk-fan to cool him. He, like many other people here, wears a cloth around his face to cover his nose and mouth in order to protect his lungs from the fumes that stick to the humidity in the air. I’m not sure if the cloth helps or just makes you feel hotter. I keep meaning to carry a damp cloth around with me for air quality emergencies but so far I always forget.

In one of the other suites in the building they are refinishing the floor boards with what smells like the most toxic urethane coating in the world. It’s so bad that every time I have to walk past, which means every time I go to the toilet, I try to hold my breath and walk very fast so that I don’t have to inhale the fumes. I’ve peered in occasionally on my sprint by to see a woman working at her desk and a man coating the floorboards with a paintbrush. They both wear simple cloth over their faces, nothing more. The door is kept open so that they don’t die in there, but other than that there is no extra ventilation. Air moves here like a thick, gelatinous soup; I can’t imagine spending a day inside that toxic office.