the neighbours

May 2004
In Rute, our neighbours are very friendly – they go out of their way to talk to us even though half the time we do not understand what they are saying – they are extremely open and curious – the first thing they ask is your age rather than your name which makes translation harder when it is not expected.

Generally, we have found that when it rains, everyone stays in and anyone that normally works outside (farmers/builders) do not work. They do not see the point if it is raining! When the sun comes out, it is amazing, out they all come, chairs outside their front doors, conversations held from one end of the street to the other – it really is lovely. It usually goes quiet when it gets dark (thankfully), however, a few weeks back we had a couple of interesting nights. One night at about 4 in the morning we were woken by a dog barking in the street outside. Steve looked out and there were 2 dogs which had cornered something under our car – Steve returned to bed thinking the owners would sort it out – 20 minutes later, fuse blown, Steve got dressed, went down and shooed them away. It seems either no one else cared or perhaps, even noticed!.

Every other Saturday seems to some sort of festival or carnival (we can’t keep up) – having worked hard all day, the other Saturday night we went to bed early (11) – at 11:30 we nearly fell out of bed when fireworks were let off which sounded more like mortar bombs!! The poor dog panicked and rushed up and down the stairs in confusion – we all settled back down and they set some more off at 11:45.

Peace at last, we got off to sleep then at 2:30, I awoke to hear a brass band. When I looked out of the window, about halfway down the road was a brass band playing their hearts out with not another soul to be seen. They went away shortly after and we still do not know what it was about. We must learn the language so that we can get a clue as to these odd customs.

July 2004
With the hot weather, our neighbours take their siesta far more seriously – we have taken the odd siesta ourselves, as every now and again we just feel wiped out by the heat. They make up for their siesta by mostly being up until gone 12:00 midnight laughing and chatting – but you can’t blame them as it is a lot cooler in the evenings.

They all sit outside their houses on chairs and stools and they invite me to join them, getting another chair for me. They all gather in little groups which never change and at around 10pm they all disappear to have their dinner, coming back half an hour later. It is wonderful street theatre as there are three generations of family all living within close proximity.

We have started to learn names – No 46 – Marie-Jose and husband Antonio with children Maria and Antonio – next door (No 44) Maria and Benito (Antonio’s parents with their daughter Rafaela) – next door Juanita, her mother Maria daughter Sonia and son Jose – round the corner is Luisa’s mother Matilde and her husband, Marin who is brother to Maria in number 44 – next door but one, we have Andrés and Antonia – it seems they are all related in some way, mostly are called Maria or Antonio(a) and all have a wonderful sense of fun.

I still do not have enough conversational Spanish so we mostly listen. What used to be just a load of babble is now beginning to make sense…..

July 2005
A few weeks ago, some builders demolished an old house at the end of the street followed by the noisy removal of tons of rock to level the site. We eagerly awaited new houses to be built and new neighbours to follow but the resulting buildings are three huge garages. We since discover that there is a shortage of garages in Ruté and these will probably rented out. Blissfully, they have been built with soundproof walls so any occupiers such as mechanics, goats, chickens, dogs, illegal stills or the like will be well insulated from us.

Last Christmas, one of our neighbours gave us a handful of nuts consisting of a few almonds and a lot of acorns. Although we are pretty adventurous, we know that most pig farmers feed their stock on acorns so we quietly put them in the bin. A few days later, we saw our neighbour sat on her doorstep, happily munching through a pocketful of acorns so we appear to have missed another opportunity to extend our culinary experience.

NOT….