Friends Forever

One of the most striking differences between my life in NYC and the life I observed in Monkey Point was the human connections that exist when there's an utter lack of pretty much everything else.  In Monkey Point, it gets dark around 6pm or so... and dark doesn't mean that the sun just isn't there... it's absolutely 100% pitch black dark.  I was lucky enough to be in Monkey Point during the new moon, so at night I couldn't even see my own hand in front of me.  People use headlamps and flashlights when they need to get around, but mostly they just sit around and chit chat in the darkness.  Since there's not even a radio (let alone a TV) to provide mindless entertainment, they're forced to occupy themselves with each other.

Additionally, they've lived through everything together, and invested so much in each other's lives.  Every guy that owns a house had the entire community help him build it.  When we lowered and raised the turbine tower, all the men pitched in their strength.  I even heard a story from one of the guys about how he'd known Pito since the civil war (think Reagan era in the US) because Pito had led him and his friend from Monkey Point all the way to Costa Rica on foot.

As a result, I noticed that the guys I hung out with were friends on a level that ran much deeper than I've seen in a long time.  They seemed to have a certain respect for each other that only comes with knowing someone more intimately than he knows himself.