Lair Davis (Our Man in Costa Rica)

No news is …

... just that. No news. Other than the fact that I have caught a cold, my first one in many, many years. It comes from my poor old (and it is feeling quite “old”) body having to adjust to new everything: weather, food, water, the whole thing!

It doesn’t help that I have been enjoying the exploration of my new home by taking long walks in the countryside every morning. When I leave my home, it is cool, with a crispness in the air (yes, even here in tropical Costa Rica!). Then, before long I have walked up a sweat, and the sun begins beating down on my poor head (which I have forgotten to cover with a hat on more occasions than I enjoy admitting). Then it begins to rain. All in a matter of a couple of hours or so.

So I return home, sweaty and rained upon. (There is a great phrase in Spanish: “¡Qué aguacero! ¡Estoy hecho una sopa!” = “What a downpour! I am made a soup!”)

Any wonder I have a cold?

This, too, shall pass.

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I think the most delightful part of living in a culture in which I was not born is the fact that it constantly makes me think, re-evaluate priorities and opinions, reconsider things that I thought I knew and to struggle to understand what I haven’t a clue about. I am exhausted at the end of most days just from the astounding amount of THINKING I have done. I have always been a “thinking person,” I suppose, but I really didn’t know what “thinking” was until I expatriated.

When I collapse onto my bed in the evening, there is this smile that simply will not leave my mouth. I am in my 60s, and yet I feel like a six-year-old who is soooo excited about going to school. I cannot wait for tomorrow’s adventures to begin!

How can I possible get “old” with this kind of constant stimulation?