This is a short radio piece introducing the Silver Lining charity. It’s a charity set up in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis of October 2008. It’s headed by two ex-pat Icelanders who live in Los Angeles, California. Veigar Margeirsson is an Icelandic composer who has created music for many Hollywood movies including Batman Begins, Ironman and The Da Vinci Code. His partner, Sirry Jonasdottir, is the charity operations manager. They took the time to speak with me at length about what Silver Lining is and what its goals are. Another ex-pat Icelander and first person to donate to the charity, Karl Jonsson, also spoke with me. His interview, including the Margeirsson and Jonasdottir interview will become a full audio package with complementing print story in the very near future.

For two British ex-pats, living in Iceland is a place of extremes whatever the time of year.

The summer nights are long where light continues to stream in through the windows at midnight. Then, in winter, it’s the complete opposite.

“You get to midday and you’ve still not woken up because there is no sunlight,” says 22-year-old Sam Webb. “It’s bizarre.”

Webb and his fiancée, Rhiannon Brown, 19, have been living in Gunnarsholt, Iceland, since October 2008. They arrived in the country after Webb was offered a job to oversee the website and databases for the government’s soil conservation department.

The seasonal changes are just one challenge they live with as they make their lives and despite the light and dark issue, they both have a lot of praise for the country they’ve come to call home.

For one thing, it’s a lot more laid back than the UK.

ICELANDIC LIFESTYLE

“People trust you be able to be ale to do something instead of you having to prove you can do something,” Webb explains. “I don’t need a certificate to change a light bulb… and everyone can fix a car, wire a lamp.” It’s self-reliant kind of place, he says. “Instead of calling someone to do it… they like to do it themselves.”

Which is rather useful because with such unpredictable weather making the hour and a half journey to Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik, from where they live in the south-east of the country, can be difficult. “We have to travel over a mountain to get there (to Reykjavik)… if the weather’s bad we don’t go,” says Brown.

This leads to people making more of an effort to get together in the evenings, she says. It’s not unusual to receive an invitation for pancakes and hot chocolate from a neighbour. And that’s one of the best things about life in Iceland. “(People) drop round any time of the day or night… sit down for a glass of wine and have a chat.”

Being British and living in Iceland after the Icesave dispute doesn’t seem to have brought them problems either. “(There were) no hard feelings once we came,” Webb says. “Everyone was accepting and kind.”

Their “town” has a population of 750, but it’s not difficult to shop or buy anything. Yet, prices are higher- almost double what you would pay in a supermarket forty-five minutes away by car.

For Webb it’s a 30 second commute from their on-site home to work where he is employed for a government department, repairing the land from wind erosion, because there are few trees in the country. They’re now using open source software because of the financial problems. “They don’t have as much money to spend on software or hardware as they did a year ago,” he says, alluding to the unfavorable economic conditions.

DRIVING AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Living close to your place of work is definitely helpful in Iceland due, once again, to the weather. Brown had never driven in snow or ice before. “I’ve got stuck a few times and got people to come and help,” she says. Now they have a new car, which handles the conditions a lot better. “The unknown is when you go out with an old car that’s not a four wheel drive,” Webb adds. “You never plan a whole day in case it snows… it is not going to stay on the road.”

Going off the road and into someone could prove all the more embarrassing in a country of just over 300,000 people. “You don’t run anyone over in Iceland because you’ll get out and you know the person… it’s that kind of atmosphere. You do know everyone and if you don’t it only takes one phone call to find someone who does,” Webb says.

If you’re calling someone in Iceland, the chances are they’ll speak English too. At least three of Webb’s co-workers have excellent language skills. As do doctors and dentists, he says. Brown’s work with children in a nursery helps her reciprocate by learning Icelandic. “It’s amazing what you pick up when you’re around it everyday even if you don’t understand structured sentences,” she explains. “You can pick out words and guess what they’re saying.”

THE FUTURE

With the end of 2009 nearing they’re beginning to look at 2010. Webb and Brown plan to get married as well as see more of the country. “Once you go up north you start to see some amazing things,” he says. “You’re basically in the arctic circle.”

And for those thinking coming to live in Iceland?

“Come and give it a try,” says Webb.

“It’s a place you fall in love with,” adds Brown.