House Sitting Job

' It can't possibly be true' we thought as we were driven up this driveway by the owner of the house, who was showing us his home with view to house sitting the very next week for around 7 weeks. We chatted with him and his partner for around an hour, and they showed us around, and then said 'how about it, do you want to house sit for us?'. No pause or consulting each other required, 'yes, of course, it will be a pleasure', we replied in unison, trying not to look too desperate!

So that's how it goes out here. Ex-pats are scared to leave their houses vacant for more than a few days as once the locals know that they are away, they will either end up broken into or occupied by locals!! Works for us, free lovely home of a standard and location that we would never be able to afford to rent! Being in contact with a number of ex-pats through the voluntary work we are doing, we were put forward for the job, so maybe it could happen again.

So we moved in on Wednesday and spent the last few days, testing out the hammock, observing the wildlife in the garden and (Rene) fiddling around in the kitchen marking his terittory! We are still full on with the volunteering and just spent two long days there, looking after the tinyest baby orphan monkeys in betweeen revamping the tropical gardens at the Rescue Centre. It's a long term project which is really interesting and we get other volunteers to work with us (getting the young ones without bad backs to do the digging!). It's a half hour cycle ride away so by the time we get home, we are so tired we can barely speak, and then of course a long shower is required to remove the animal debris! Love it though!