E for EXPAT = the A-Z Challenge

EXPATS from all nations settle here in Tenerife.
 Although Don and I have integrated into the local area and have friends from several countries, our nearest bar is an English one. The British accents you would hear there include Scouse and Geordie, Southern, Midlands, Cockney, Devonshire and of course Irish and Scottish.  This was the crowd that gathered to celebrate my birthday last year. (I'm second from the left in the striped dress.)

 Other Europeans fly south for several months each winter, and are therefore known locally as Swallows. Many own a property here but others simply rent apartments, often meeting up with the same friends each year. Some enjoy the Canarian food but others prefer to stick to what they know, hence the proliferation of restaurants offering 'Traditional roast dinners' and 'Full English breakfasts'.

There are also expats from mainland Spain and several South American countries, plus Portugal, Italy, Russia, Holland, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Africa. Our group of friends here are Italian, Columbian and Venezuelan.

And finally, a poem about another expat. 

I was born in Australia and taken to England while still a baby. Betty was a gift from my godmother when I was born and I would rescue her from a fire before any of my other possessions.

BETTY

 

Betty is Australian,

Betty is a doll,

she didn’t study opera

or become Ned Kelly’s Moll –

she went to Victor Harbour

in nineteen-forty-four

to live with Baby Lizy

in her house by the shore.

They played out in the sunshine

under the kumquat trees,

or on the beach on a rug to keep

the sand off Baby’s knees;

they saw kangaroos and parrots

and gum trees on their walks,

and snakes, and grapes, and lots of flies,

so they wore hats with corks!

They sailed away to England

when Betty was just two,

past India, Africa, Egypt, and

the Bay of Biscay; through

from summer sun to winter –

it was all strange to eyes

used to eucalyptus trees

and wide Australian skies.

But there were woollen gloves, and snow

and crumpets on the hearth,

and, in the springtime, daffodils,

halfway round the earth --

so Betty became English, though

years later, when she went

back home, the eucalyptus filled

her soul with long-lost scent.

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