(Home)sick

Well, after more than a year of go-go-going and raving about how the clean air and proximity to nature in Quebradas has kept me healthy and energetic, I came down with a terrible flu this week, and all I wanted was to be back at home. Being sick definitely makes the unexpected twists of daily life here less entertaining, my open-air tree house apartment less glamorous, and cooking every meal for myself less fun.
For example, on my way back up to Quebradas from the grocery store on Monday, the bus just stopped about 3km (and many hills) away from my apartment and the bus driver said he wouldn’t be going any further today because of some construction up ahead. But, we could walk a kilometer and then wait two and a half hours for the next bus to come down from Quebradas. Great. Fortunately, as I started my journey, some friendly neighbors with an already overflowing car made room for me in the back.
Then, on Tuesday morning I want to take a shower but unfortunately there is no water in my bathroom. I call my landlady and she goes on about how she has never had this problem until I moved in and it is because the bathroom is on the second floor and it’s not her fault and I can move out if I don’t like it. Then she let me take a shower in her apartment. This on-and-off lack of water has also prevented me from being able to make comfort foods such as soup or tea, so I have been living off mostly cereal and sandwiches.
By yesterday I finally got the sense to cancel some of my classes and meetings to get myself better, and then this morning I had high hopes of sleeping in and taking it easy when a neighbor called at 6:30 and laughed when he realized I had been sleeping. Phone calls after 6am here are pretty much fair game.
Don’t get me wrong, people have been nice and sympathetic here and offered helpful suggestions such as rubbing butter and honey on my back or drinking milk with oregano, but this is all just to say that not feeling my best has made me miss and appreciate the comforts and conveniences of home more than I have in a while.
In other news, I am training for a half-marathon (though that was obviously put on hold this week) in Tamarindo in September, so have been doing some fun long runs with friends in the Zona Sur, including a beautiful run all the way from Adrienne’s community to San Isidro, followed by brunch at Bazooka’s. Kind of like my old routine in NYC, but very different scenery.
I also recently started a Junior Achievement course in San Isidro for students at the Casa de Juventud, an alternative education institution for people who did not/cannot attend regular high school for various reasons. Having learned much from what went wrong with my last attempt at the course in Quebradas, it is going really well so far. The group is more mature and very motivated and has a pretty wide variety of talents. So far we have a name, a vaguely defined product, and a market study in development. Will fill you in when we are ready to release the details…
And I am currently filling my downtime with beginning the grad school application process, which is not nearly as fun as reading on my hammock, but if there’s anywhere/time to have to reflect on my life path and achievements, this ain’t so bad. The lack of constant internet connection makes things more challenging, but I suppose it also gives me a better story to tell.
Finally, I am helping develop a renewable energy project at FUDEBIOL that could be really exciting and may involve me hitting you all up for some funding when the time comes, so stay posted.
Okay off to chug another Emergen-C and continue on the road to recovery…