Gripe

The word for flu in Spanish is la gripe. Perfect. And that's what I had, for the first part of my illness anyway. By yesterday, still sick, I realized something else was going on, so I went to the doctor in Alajuela. A woman who works at the institute came with me and translated for me, and the doctor diagnosed an infection (though I never asked specifically where--I assumed in my lungs as I've coughed constantly for a week) and prescribed about 4 drugs, the most dramatic of which was a series (count 'em: five) of injections of antibiotics. So I went to the pharmacy and they gave me my pills and some vile white liquid I have to drink out of a little packet and 5 hypodermic needles and 5 vials of antibiotics. I went back into the doctor's office and the nurse used one needle and one vial, and gave me my first shot in the butt. It's been a while, I tell you, and little kids don't cry because they're babies; they cry because shots hurt! Then I walked out with my little bag of medicine, including syringes, and was told to go to any local pharmacy to get the injections each day. Could this be true? I was flabbergasted. I asked at school today and was told, oh, yes, the pharmacist will do the injection. So I went to the pharmacy after school and in my pathetic Spanish ask to get a shot in my ass. The first pharmacist thought I needed more medicine, or more syringes, but finally she understood and said, "There's no doctor here." Well, duh. So I went to a pharmacy around the corner, and that pharmacist said the same thing. The happy ending is that the second pharmacy was attached to a clinic, and the doctor ushered me in, gave me a shot, told me I probably only needed to have 3 shots instead of 5 (I love this man) and then didn't even charge me for his services! As usual, I have no idea why the first information I got wasn't accurate, or why the first doctor wanted me to have so much antibiotic, but I must admit, aside from the pain, the medicine works fast and I feel ever so much better. The tricky part now is that Mike, whose vacation has been subsumed by my illness, seems to be coming down with something himself.....

Otherwise, all's well. Maggie is here too, so on several occasions in the past week, my whole family has had dinner together. Fabulous. Maggie seems to like Costa Rica: yesterday she and her friend Lizzie (who came along) and Mike did a zipline canopy tour which was a huge hit with the girls. As I write, they are all at Arenal Volcano and hot springs for the day. I sure hope Mike's feeling ok.

We had a great weekend in Jaco. That's not the nicest place in Costa Rica--very touristy, a little seedy, somewhat overpriced. The sand there is black, too, which is less desirable for lots of reasons--it shows up in your ears, for example, when you're done getting pummeled by waves. Still, we stayed in a great hotel at the far south end of the beach, and we really enjoyed ourselves. The waves were fabulous--though I was mostly way too sick to enjoy them--and huge, so they'd knock you down and fill your suit with sand. I've never been in waves so big. The hotel had two beautiful pools, too, which were more restful than the ocean. It was great.

The plan is to return to Cahuita tomorrow, but we'll see how everyone's feeling in the morning and then reassess.

My Spanish continues to be, well, what's the word? Awful? I have pretty much learned the progressive tense now--by which I mean without thinking too long I could say "Estoy estudiar espanol" and it would make sense. Truly, as I typed that I had to stop and think and think. It could be totally wrong. And therein lies the problem. The future tense--isn't that the one with "voy a + infinitive"? Why can't I remember? Well anyway, I knew a few things for a few hours this morning, and we'll leave it at that.

More sooner or later, at this rate. But always, at least, in English.