One of the great things about travelling like this is the wonderful people we meet. The property in which we are staying has another small house at the bottom of the garden. So far it’s been empty, but the day before Gabriel’s birthday party, a couple arrive to rent it who we quickly get to know. Anshu is American, but hasn’t lived there for an awfully long time, and Ramadatta is Dutch. We quickly discover that their slightly unusual names are not their birth names – they were both Sannyasins and lived for many years on communes in India, following the guru Osho. I know him better as the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the name he went under in the ’70s and ’80s – there were a handful of Sannyasins who played Ultimate (frisbee) for the (Bristol) Samurai. They talk a lot about how many people focus outwards and that it’s more important to focus inwards, as ultimately that is all your can control. I found a quote from Osho that seems to summarise (what I understand to be) their philosophy: “I have been working hard to abandon everything that is outer, so that only the inner remains for you to explore”.
Anshu during one of their many visits from the bottom of the garden!
Cheers, Ramadatta!
They are extremely friendly and regularly pop in for a drink and a chat. It’s immediately clear that they are very comfortable with children (which is just as well given that we’re having a birthday party in the garden the day after they arrive!). Sadly, they seem to be having exactly the same problems as us (worse, actually) in terms of the smell of cats’ pee in their house and the general state of the facilities. But they are very philosophical about it all and just take it in their stride.
They are very a very spiritual and inspirational couple – Anshu exudes an incredible positivity and energy, and always has a twinkle in her eye. She has remarkable patience with the children (she reminds me of my mum in this regard) and possesses that wonderful quality in that when she’s talking to someone they always feel they have her complete and undivided attention. She’s very creative and spends lots of time with Millie making clothes for her dolls from odd scraps of material. What’s all the more remarkable is that Anshu has had to overcome extraordinary personal tragedy – all three of her children died in the space of ten years (in their late teens and 20s, I think). The sense of calm and positivity she exudes is all the more remarkable and inspirational under the circumstances.
We’ve decided to stay longer in San Cristobal than we originally planned – we are really enjoying settling in and living here rather than just passing through. It’s going to be very interesting when we go on a regular holiday again in the future – we now feel that it takes at least a couple of weeks to settle into a place, when under normal circumstances we’d be heading back home again! We’ve grown accustomed to our house here and the animal smells are receding, but the owner is returning so we have to find a new place to stay for our second month here. There is surprisingly little available but we’ve found a lovely looking place on the north side of town – it’s significantly more expensive but looks significantly nicer!
Anshu and Ramadatta very kindly offer to look after Jemima, Gabriel and Millie on the day of our move. Having a couple of hours without children under our feet to do the final clearing and packing is really helpful. As it turns out, they spend the whole day out together, wandering around town (Jemima apparently does a fine job as main Spanish speaker) and having Pizza for lunch. They were also aiming to go to the park, but apparently couldn’t find it – anyway, they eventually returned a couple of hours later than scheduled at around 5pm; our impression was that everyone had had a great time!
George the Gorilla!
Our new house is lovely, up on a hill above the Museo Na Bolom. The owner is an artist and she designed the house – it’s really beautiful; light and airy (and clean!), with a glass fronted studio on the first floor that opens onto a balcony with a fabulous view over the city. It’s all built with traditional Adobe bricks and decorated beautifully. It’s such a change from where we were before! It’s also refreshing to be living in a different part of town, which gives a new perspective. The walk to school is a similar distance but is now down hill. There’s a huge mural of a gorilla a few doors down; every morning, Jemima Gabriel and I hold hands and run down the hill, saying good morning to George as we pass!
Our new house – it’s so much nicer than our old one!
Walking down into town with Anshu and Ramadatta
Jemima has started to do aerial dance classes three times a week in a studio that it’s only a five minute walk from our new house. She really loves it and after the first week or so, Gabriel decides to give it a go too. It involves a lot of climbing up lengths of fabric and swinging around, so not surprisingly, Gabriel takes to it like a duck to water. It’s amazing how quickly they improve week by week. It’s incredibly good for flexibility, arm strength and general core strength. Given that the are not too many parks around here, it’s great that they are getting this amount of exercise. Millie gave it a go too, but unfortunately she’s just a little bit too young.
The studio in our new house has wooden beams, so we decide to get a couple of lengths of material so they can practice their aerial dance at home. I also manage to get a foam mattress that I get the shopkeeper to cut in half (he uses an extremely sharp machete – I’m glad I didn’t try to do it myself), so they’ve each got a crash mat to land on should they fall! So the studio in our house is turning out to be fabulous; it’s a Lego studio, and aerial dance studio, and the children are always disappearing up there with a phone and the small Bose speaker that we brought with us (that was such a good decision!) to practice their dance routines. Even though Millie doesn’t go to the classes, Jemima and Gabriel are teaching her some basic aerial dance moves at home!
Jemima doing her aerial dance
Anything you can do….
Gabriel has also been going to Capoeira classes. Unfortunately, the start of the classes was delayed because the teacher had to go to Oaxaca for a couple of weeks, but it’s also great fun. The teacher is very funky – he is Japanese, with his hair in one very long, thin plait and his beard in three little plaits. Gabriel is seriously impressed when he goes directly from sitting on the floor into a handstand! I sit and watch the first class, but then decide to take part in subsequent weeks. I’m convinced I’m going to injure myself in the first 10 minutes, but we do lots of stretching and I somehow managed to avoid that. In the first class, there are a couple of sisters aged 10 and 12 (who we end up meeting again under other circumstances) but in the following classes it’s just me, Gabriel and a couple of other young boys in the class – it’s fun doing synchronised cartwheels and I somehow manage to avoid kicking my small partners in the head!
An arts and crafts session with Anshu and Ramadatta
Anshu & Ramadatta say that they want to fulfil their promise of taking the children to the park and so offer to take them for the day. I drop the children off at their house (it’s lovely to see Marta and Luiz again) and then wander into town. About ten minutes later I hear the rumble of thunder and the skies turn black. As I head towards the cafe in which I’ve agreed to meet Fi, I ponder on the fact that they are now walking out of town, along the river to a country park. I know that our children don’t have rain coats and I’m pretty sure Anshu & Ramadatta don’t have them either. “Oh, well” I tell myself, “they’ll manage.” Sure enough, as I’m enjoying a lovely coffee waiting for Fi to arrive, the heavens open and it buckets down.
After a lovely lunch, we wander home and find Anshu, Ramadatta and our children already there. They tell us of their adventure… not only did no-one have raincoats, no-one had suitable shoes or a jumper. As the rain came, their path turned into a muddy, slippery quagmire and it got cold. They all managed to squeeze into a tiny cave in the rock face to take shelter and huddled together, telling stories and eating whatever sweets they had, keeping each other warm and waiting for the storm to subside. It was clearly one of those situations that clearly got so ridiculous that everyone got quite hysterical!! They’d stopped off for Anshu & Ramadatta to get dry clothes on the way back and then headed to ours, to get dry clothes for the children. It was clearly a memorable afternoon and once again, Anshu reminded me of my Mum in her ability to turn adversity into fun.
Sadly, Anshu & Ranadatta are only here for about 3 weeks and so we say our fond farewells as they head off to Guatemala. I’m sure we’ll meet them again sometime, maybe in London, maybe somewhere else. They are special people who’ve made us really think about what is important in life.
Five Go Round The World 