the revenge of the dogs

I'm using some of this year's annual leave to give my Spanish a bit of a push forward, with three weeks at a Spanish school in Nicaragua.  I picked it on the basis of a website which seemed to suggest (to me and the other people currently staying here) that the premises were surrounded by nature - by birds and other creatures.  The reality is not quite as I imagined, however.  Whilst it is located in a reserve, so are all the buildings around us, including the lakeside bars with their loud music pumping out...

But still I am happy to be here.  It has its own kind of tranquillity, indeed I found myself sleeping better from the very first night.  A very important factor in this is the other students; whilst my Spanish teacher told me that it would really help me to improve my Spanish if I didn't speak English with the other students, their level is not enough to enable us to hold conversations in Spanish, and their travel stories are so interesting that we have spent many long hours conversing (in English).

Strange stories though.  One American guy - seemingly an alcoholic (he started on the beers by 8am and continued throughout the day despite the protestations of his teacher) and a sex addict (an average of two different women a day during his travels??), with a penchant for any available drugs - told us of his experience a couple of years ago with magic practitioners in Mexico City.  Apparently a woman there asked if he wanted to be a part of their magic circle, and although he felt scared as he knew it was dangerous he was also fascinated so said yes.  The woman (during sex, of course...) made some movement that somehow (he claims) passed a very powerful magical force into his body, which he told us he sometimes feels moving around his body, but which sucks his energy and passes it to her.  He is unable to remove this force.

Then a Dutch guy told us of his experience with a transgender lesbian who he had some kind of a relationship with - about the costumes they wore (or didn't wear) as they went out on the streets for Hallowe'en as (sex) slave and slave master...  He also recounted some of the beliefs she had, including those about universal forces controlling the planet, and how nothing is coincidental but all is controlled by these forces.

So, when the American suddenly departed on Friday, having decided that he wanted to find somewhere to eat dog meat (no, it's not legal nor culturally acceptable in Nicaragua), and later the same day the nice Canadian lady who had joined us Thursday (effectively taking his place in our cosy little set up) got badly bitten by a dog, I remembered the 'lack of coincidences' tale and could only assume that her bite was revenge for the dog meat eater - deflected from him to her by that mysterious magical force in his body!

Christmas (or not) in Panama

Forgive me if I have said all this before, but one of the things I really like about life as an expat is much-reduced pressure to conform to social norms.  It happens in the day-to-day sphere, where I don't bother to wear make-up (would not have been seen dead without it in London!) on the basis that most Panamanians would see me as just "a white lady" no matter what I was wearing and how made up my face was.  So what's the point in making an effort?

It is of even greater benefit when it comes to big days on the calendar, however - especially Christmas.  I've never been a fan of Christmas, and relish the freedom here to totally avoid tinsel, cards, turkey and brussels sprouts, etc.  Of course the locals do celebrate Christmas, with it being a Catholic country, but they are less insistent on knowing what I, as a foreigner, am doing, so it's much easier to do nothing at all than it was in the UK where that was seen as making some kind of statement.

However, this year the Panama City authorities have gone all out with the Christmas decorations, with the trees in every park lined and dripping with silver lights, and light sculptures of reindeer and Christmas trees and other random stuff placed between them.  It's impossible to avoid but I have to admit they have done a good job and the decorations are very pretty.

Not quite so good were the so-called "Carols by Candlelight" held on Saturday evening.  I've managed to avoid them all the other years I've lived here, but this Saturday I was just walking home and there they were, people gathered round an outdoor auditorium, ready to start.  So I sat down for the first song - which turned out to be the last, for me.  A bunch of seven-year-old schoolkids singing "Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly" (in Spanish), slowly, tunelessly, and accompanied by two electric guitars... it was one of the most dire renditions I have ever heard, and I was grateful to be able to escape back to my totally un-Christmassy apartment.