A Gorgeous Night

Mornings are always pretty slow here, but after lunch yesterday I headed down to John's house to get a firsthand view of the hillside that is releasing boulders and trees dangerously close to the house as we worked on finding corporate sponsors.  The new highway passes next to the house, so the Fomilenio team decided to blast the hillside but not put in a retaining wall, leaving the whole thing to come crashing down little by little every day.  Nighttime was another bout of table tennis with Filipito and Owen and some of the others rotating in  occasionally, while we waited for John to come for hockey practice.  Practice never happened, since on the way to fill up his tires, one of John's tires burst and he was stuck on the road for two hours.  The non-event at the Tamarindo was fine, but I was in need of a little adventure.  After pupusas for dinner, I headed out under the beautiful night sky with Gio and Marlon to watch stars and tell stories up at the water tank.  The night was absolutely perfect, the company good, the stories interesting, and the jokes often over my head.  Boys will be boys, and we talked about girls and gringas and what makes a good boyfriend, and other fascinating and amusing subjects.  We differ often, but they respect me and my opinions, and always want an explanation for everything under the sun.
Gio is quite the character, and he has a million nicknames, all with a story.  
He calls Marlon "barril" because when Gio was younger, there was a soccer tournament and all the Guarjila players formed teams to compete.  Gio's team was one of the best, and certainly had the most avid fans.  For the games, Marlon brought an empty barrel and a stick, and used it to cheer on the team.  Because of the empty jug, Gio gave him the nickname Barril.  In truth, almost every person has a nickname here, and half of them I only know the nickname, not the real one.  Learning the stories, I become more and more a part of this community.  Maybe I will have a nickname other than gringa by the time I leave.