In summary....it's been wet!! On Christmas day though the sun shone for a few hours, just long enough fortunately to attend the two outdoor events that we had planned.
First of all, we were the entertainment at the soup kitchen Charity Xmas dinner. We have to admit, we had had a very lovely and late night with our neighbours on Christmas Eve and didn't have much song in us on Christmas day! We managed to pull it out of the bag though, with the help of our neighbour and fellow volunteer Jana providing harmonies and tambourine percussion. We performed a selection of sorts of Christmas carols, including a Spanish one, and some random pop/blues songs during lunch! So the indigenous people of Costa Rica were not only nutritionally nourished but experienced a brief history of British/American pop music on Christmas day. I'm not sure that they would thank us for the latter but the organisers and fellow ex-pat volunteers seemed to be tapping their feet!
Following that, we attended a party in the botanical gardens where we met lots of fellow ex-pats and made some new friends. It's funny, that here the term 'neighbours' takes on a different meaning. Despite being friendly people, we barely knew the people in our street back home, but being in a country that is not ones own, has an effect of making the most unlikely people bond. I guess it's that old tribal instinct in us all, and that there must be something about being in the minority that makes us stick together.
Ideally we came here to live and mix with the locals, but perhaps that was a bit idealistic, or so we are told. Sadly there is a huge crime problem here, which is not uncommon in a relatively poor area of natural beauty where there is an influx of tourism and foreign investment. That's why we have decided to work with the charities, it's one way of bridging the gap. However, really it's the same old rich/poor divide that is unlikely to be bridged. School/any sort of education here is a luxury, and the charity that we are involved with helps provide funds for such but can only help a fraction of the needy. The Costa Rican government obviously has better things to spend their money on, it certainly isn't the roads. We are still working out what it is!
That aside, we are certainly having an interesting insight into life in another country. Along with poor people, are poor (hungry) animals, and most of them are on our doorstep daily, in-fact two of them are often sneaking into our lounge! The cats of Costa Rica are particularly persistant and of course, you know what a pair of softies we are. I often find Rene in the kitchen cooking, and I ask, 'is that chicken for dinner tonight?', and he say's, no 'it's for the cats'!
We had some news from the owners of the house that we are sitting, that they have extended their stay in the US for a further 3 weeks until mid February now, so can't complain. We have this lovely place for longer and for the whole time that Julia comes to stay. She will love it here in the jungle!
We are hopefully back to work tomorrow, rain permitting, at the rescue centre. It's a 3 mile or so cycle ride away, hence the rain permitting bit! I have missed them stinky monkeys! Though not as much as we have missed all at home, goes without saying, it's hard being away from family and friends at Christmas, but love is all around and we still feet it in our fingers, feel it in our toes. Happy New Year to all, love S and R xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment