Costa Rica Journal - Monday, 4-27-09

My eye ended up healing well and quickly, too. By the end of that day it had decreased considerably in size and by the next morning, the swelling was all but gone. I was so relieved to have my eye back, its amazing how you take even just a normal state of being for granted.

That weekend was rather uneventful, as they usually are. Eduardo came over a few times to practice Spanish with us. He is very nice and very patient. On Saturday evening, he stopped by with his family, while they were on their way to his mother-in-law's house. He brought us a bag full of fruit from his family's farm, I especially liked the huge grapefruits. They were green on the outside, but white and ripe on the inside. Joe picked out two most Latin looking puppets (Frida and Dali) from our collection and we gave them two Eduardo's two children to take home with them. His son took the puppet from me, but his daughter was too shy and Joe gave it to Eduardo to give to her.

Living here in Cabanga is nice and peaceful and the people are seem very happy and friendly. Still, we find ourselves feeling very bored with too much time on our hands. I really wish we had a car that we could go explore the country in. Joe keeps telling me he wishes he were someplace else. Half of the time I find myself agreeing with him, but I also feel that I want to stay and make this work out. As much as I want this, it doesn't seem like we'll ever be comfortable and happy here. Perhaps once we start a garden of our own and have some wheels to make traveling easier, then it might be better.

I do know that I had a lot of naive presumptions about what our life would be like, and it isn't anything how I thought it would be. We have too much idle time, and not enough to do. The heat is hard to handle, so we don't get out much during the day, and that makes my body tired and stiff. I'm also having a hard time maintaining the kind of health that I want. I thought that being raw would be so much easier here than in Utah, but the opposite seems to be true! The produce selection here is very disappointing. I can get some good fruits, but the veggies are very limited. If I didn't eat rice and beans then I wouldn't be eating much at all.

We are very homesick and missing a lot of the conveniences at home, so I know this has a lot to do with our disgruntled perspective. Feelings of frustration by not being able to communicate sometimes get the better of us. I really hope things get better and our perspectives change. Sometimes its hard to always stay positive and look on the bright side when you feel so out of place.