Well, it has been a very exciting few weeks here in Fuente Tojar and no mistake.  Firstly, we have had lots of blessed rain.  Not the downpours of a Sri Lankan monsoon, which are always spectacular and not the cold rain of the UK that makes everything a bit depressing but much, much needed rain daily for about a month.

My god, did we need it.  There is a chart in the Ayuntamiento (local government office) which depicts the amount of rainfall each month and in the past year there has hardly been any at all.  As a result, the olive crops are rather pitiful this year which has huge knock-on effects for the entire Andalusian region and its people. 

But a month of rain in May and June?  May and June!  Bizarre even as it is welcome.  The weather is noticeably much more erratic here thanks to climate change and it is going to require some major adjustments for many people.  Change in the way things are done around here especially regarding water usage.  I don’t think people here are going to like it much even as they see with their own eyes what is happening to their crops and to their livelihoods. 

One unintended outcome of this rain has been the collapse of most of the walls of our patio garden.  One section was looking extremely iffy already when we came back and I was genuinely worried that it would fall whilst Manuel, our garden owning neighbour, would be tending to his crops so I dismantled it expertly.   Then, last Monday as we were busying ourselves with the Monday market in the village (with a churros seller of course, this is Spain after all) our topside neighbour told us she was worried that part of the back wall would fall and kill our dogs.  Upon inspection upon a really long ladder, it looked like she was right so I dismantled it without killing myself, which I consider a bonus.

And then we awoke a few days ago to find that one of the last bits of the side wall had indeed given up the ghost and simply collapsed into Manuel’s garden.  He was sanguine about it especially when we said we would get it sorted.  Now, getting it sorted here can mean many different things. It could be left for years. It could be argued over for years. It could be blamed upon our local government. It could even be used as an excuse to sue your neighbour. We couldn’t be bothered with all of that.

Our resident builder, Vicente, is a lovely guy with a lovely family but he is incredibly busy all of the time.  We asked him to take a look but we suspect it’s a job too small for his energy.

We think this may be a job for the incredible bricklaying duo of Sonalee and Paul.  Never done it before but I have the WH Smith DIY manual and youtube to guide us.  Our friend Ken suggests a lot of paint afterwards to hide the flaws that we will inevitably end up with.  Sometimes it is just easier to get it done yourself.

Anyway, in a gap in the rain we had the San Isidro festival in the village with lots of parades of religious icons, lots of marching with music and other festive stuff which culminates in the danze, a cultural phenomininon  phenomminom event that is fairly unique here in Andalusia.  The men wear skirts and a strange thing on their heads and do dances around specific points in the village whilst yet more religious icons are paraded around.  It’s quite something.  Only eight dancers are involved and their place is passed down through the family so there will be no chance of me taking part. 

Thank God.

One of the other major happenings in the past few weeks has been the local elections.  Fuente Tojar is, unlike most of the other villages around here, self-governed.  It has an allocated budget set by the regional government and spends it according to the decisions made by the village government made up of seven members which is based upon a proportional representation model so that your vote does actually mean something.  Another feature of this is that foreigners are allowed to vote as long as they are registered to do so.  Unfortunately we were registered in Colmenar Viejo but it did not stop us from getting involved in what was going on, partly because our friend Jan is a raving Marxist Trotsky commie or, as they are known outside of the UK, a socialist and she was part of the lefty PSOE party contesting the elections.  She may well have been one of the first foreigners to do so. 

Now, in a village of roughly 750 people this means politics can get a bit personal.  Jan has been snubbed/ignored/gossiped about by people that she thought were friendly with her prior to her involvement with politics.  I think it hurt her quite a bit.  As there is more chance of me eating a jar of marmite than ever supporting anyone not socialist we went along to the PSOE hustings to hear various speeches denouncing the dastardly PP (right wing) and Vox (wannabe fascists) and, to our astonishment, we actually understood some of it.

The current mayor, Marie Fe, has a deep Andalus accent that is a bitch to try to understand but some of the others were a bit more, I dunno, Spanish Spanish.  It was a good chance to see which other villagers are socialist in nature and some were a bit surprising.  I would never have pegged the local plumber as a socialist nor some of the old ladies that inhabit our street.  Yet here they were, to listen to promises that were to improve the lives of all of us in Fuente Tojar. 

Marie Fe has embraced the idea that a significant proportion of the population here is foreign and will continue to grow so she has enlisted the help of Jan who speaks Spanish well and also produced manifestos in English for us all, a nice touch.   She knows our votes might be crucial in a tight contest.    

When we first arrived here Marie Fe didn’t want to know us, probably because of the language barrier.  I’ll be honest and say that we weren’t exactly enamoured either.  But, she has made a real effort to court us forrins because she’s obviously not stupid and now Sonalee and her are BFFs. 

Sonalee and I have discussed how, actually, the village has improved since we arrived.  It has improved in the way it looks, the infrastructure and the events that it puts on.  They even put on free Spanish classes for us forrins and, frankly, we appreciate it.  The village looks nicer, she is trying to attract tourists to see the murals that have been commissioned and I think the social make up of the place has improved with the art fair, various social issue campaigns and facilities being constantly upgraded.

The big issue, that seemed to get people riled up, was the great water shortage of two years ago.  There is an argument to be made that a village running out of water is rather important and Marie Fe has been relentlessly attacked for what happened.  In many ways I don’t think it would have mattered who was in charge when it happened – it seemed to take everyone by surprise – but I don’t think she helped herself when she was looking for someone to blame to take the heat off of her.  It was all a bit shouty for a few months, for which we were thankfully absent and on our way to Portugal.

It has to be said, though, that she has worked hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  New infrastructure and wells and pipes and stuff should ensure water safety for the foreseeable future.  And she does seem to work hard in other areas too; she is always around making sure the oldies in the village have what they need as well as setting up stuff for the kids. 

What is really nice is that no one seems to give a toss that her partner is (gasp!) a woman.   Okay, maybe a few Vox supporters (they call LGBT rights an evil) but the vast majority couldn’t care less.  The one advantage she did have over the PP was that their candidate doesn’t live in the village whilst she does.  Victor, representing the dastardly PP, lives in Priego which is about 20 minutes away.  His dad, Manuel (yes the same one) and his brother live here but if you’re going to be mayor here surely you should live here, no?  Victor seems like an okay bloke but his manifesto was definitely lacking ideas.  He, following on from PSOE, did produce one in English which is very much appreciated but it was noticeably thinner than the PSOE one. 

That PP were expected to do really well across Spain (and they did) perhaps Victor became a bit lax or over confident since he lost.  During election day we received regular nervous updates from Jan as to how it was going down in the library as well as the sudden burst of joy from her when they all realised that Marie Fe and the PSOE had won an outright majority.

This was the cue for an impromptu piss-up down in the plaza which we joined in with since I would much rather live under a socialist government than a right wing one.  Sonalee got rather “happily animated”.

PP did get two seats on the council and Vox got one as well.  I am not going to say too much about Vox except that we were kind of praying that they would canvass our door so they could explain to us why all foreigners should be expunged from the country. 

They didn’t. 

Yesterday was the official inauguration of the new village government and a chance to watch democracy in action.  It was quite humbling in many ways; the people had spoken, had asked for representation and now the winning candidates were being asked to make solemn vows and promises in front of the very people that had given them this power.  The pledges were spoken and oaths made.  The seven councillors voted to make Marie Fe their mayor once again and she accepted the honour,  with some emotion it has to be said.

It made me realise that the promises you make to people matter.  The oaths that you make should not be taken lightly.  The trust that we put in our political representatives is a sacred one and should not be abused as is has so recently been in the UK.  Your word should be your bond and it should matter.  If this trust breaks down then the whole system breaks down.  Yes, this was an election in small village in rural Andalusia; hardly earth shattering in its scope.  But that isn’t the point because democracy is such a precious thing that so many people around the world simply do not have.  We should defend it at all times.  And celebrate it.

Afterwards there was a piss-up at the swimming pool bar involving a rather good paella.  What to do?

This last weekend has seen me take part in the 2^nd annual Art Fair in the village.  Never done anything like it before but it was an enjoyable for the most part.  I tried to sell some of my photographs (with frames) of the village and surroundings.  Bear in mind that the people of our village can be VERY traditional in what they like, I really wasn’t sure what would sell so I presented a bit of a smorgasbord of photos to see what would be popular, a kind of market research if you will.    As it happens, pictures of local people will sell as long as it looks a bit different to a normal photo.

Hence I was able to sell a photo of some of the San Isidro dance that I had changed into a cubist style using some basic software and got an order for another.  Now that I know what appeals, this is my focus for future sales.  This time next year I will be a, well, a tenneraire or maybe a fiftyquidaire!  

Nobody at  the fair made much money, if any at all.  Jan sold a few pics; this is her second try at it so she was bit more canny.  But, it was fun.  It is now an established part of the social calendar of the village.  The bands were good, the food and drink good and the atmosphere jolly.  There were loads of visitors from the towns and villages around Fuente Tojar and that, I think, was the most important thing. 

Events like this are an attempt to arrest the major problem that Spain has, that of rural depopulation.  Our village needs people to stay.  It needs to be attractive for people to stay.  These kind of events are an important slice of that and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.  

Not only that, but with so many photos not sold, we don’t have to worry about buying Christmas presents!  Woo hoo!

Ayubowan,

Ciao

Hasta Luego, inshallah

Paul

PS:  She was amazing.   Difficult to pick out a favourite but I like this one a lot as well.

These two, Seeni and Sambol, are making life more complicated