17/01 - Rebellion paradise

Magic is up in the air!

Curacao is truly a little paradise. A paradise though that's not as the Biblical paradise, without evil and treason. The blend of warm weather, friendly people, bribery, crime and fatigue makes it an environment where all the things, good and bad, are bright and clear as the colors here.

A few days ago I was lying on a commercial beach (Hemmingway's, for the locals) with my 3 Groninger (my home town in Holland) friends. White sands, palm treas, a nice breeze, and a beautiful little bay with the most clear water you can imagine. You could see extraordinary fishes swim, everything was perfect. The next day I'm in Fuik again, where I am helping out at the homework classes. Here are kids from 14 years old that don't know what percentages are, kids with hunger, and is the whole area a sort of desert, with cacti and big hills. On the beach day I'm spending 15 guilders to get a chair on the beach only, figure how much the drinks are. On the next day kids don't know what 10 guilders are; pennies and dimes are there lifes.

Since I've been here, minus the first 2 days, I've been working each day at the Lobster House. It's a great place to work at; Antillian pace, lovely colleague. Bartending is going great, I'm learning a lot about liquors and mixes. As I might have described before, the manager at first only hired beautiful girls, so I am the first guy on the floor (in the kitchen there are already guys). So altogether it's perfect to work. On the other hand though, it IS a luxury restaurant; and people who come here spend a lot, easily over a couple of hundred p.p. So again, another side of Curacao.

Busy as I am now, with 3 afternoons in the week Fuik, 7 days in the week work, and an occasional party night, I'm still really relaxed. Even people from Curacao itself tell me they keep having the feeling they are on vacation in there own country; the feeling here, it's perfect. It remembers me of a video game I used to play when I was young (gheghe, that's only a few years ago...). It was called Just Cause (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/733/733208p1.html), and took place in some S American country. The thing that sticks the most was the sound of shrieking brakes and barking dogs; same in Curacao. Furthermore there was a sort of mix of beautiful and peaceful nature with rebels that where shooting everyone. Curacao doesn't now rebels of course, but there are loud and noisy things here, and the feeling of rebellion is present (breaking free of Holland).

Even though it's really nice here, I have to keep setting targets for myself, otherwise it would become boring after a while. So when I learned Papiamentu, Spanish and a little Portuegese, I think I will be done here. Hopefully I earned enough money at the time (of course it will take a while to learn 3 languages) to move on, otherwise I will see what I am going to do.

For now, Karnaval is coming!