Merry Crisis

The past three weeks were unusually not so paradise. Unfortunately, I had a chain of accidents.

First, I had a blockage in my thoracic spine after surfing. So I took a few days off and spent them in a hostel on the beach. Then I realized that my Visa card was no longer in my wallet. As it turned out later, I had left it in the ATM. When I went to the supermarket to inquire if the card was there, I was told that the ATM had been blocked by my card for three days. You need to know that there are only three ATMs in Puerto Viejo. Another one was already broken, which means that there was only one functioning ATM in Puerto Viejo because of me. I had noticed before how long the queue was in front of this last ATM. In the night, I was then woken up by a nightmare. I dreamt that the people in Puerto Viejo were not only cashless because of me, but also that the coronavirus was spreading rapidly through the long queue in front of the ATM. And who was to blame? In my dream, the woman from the supermarket pointed at me and I was chased by the whole city. I still haven't gotten my Visa card back.

When I returned to the station after a few days, I could hardly help because of my back. And when I was weakened by a supposed cold, I had to watch idle as everyone around me worked. Then two new volunteers came to the station. One from Germany and one from Costa Rica. Both are very nice. In the evenings, we cooked together and then I suddenly noticed that I could no longer taste anything from the delicious tomato sauce that I had made before. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I might be infected with the coronavirus and had probably infected a handful of people. The next day, I went to the clinic to get tested. After that, I moved to the house of the project owners for quarantine and indeed: I tested positive. Now I have reached the end of the quarantine and luckily none of my contacts are showing symptoms. But I had to spend Christmas alone. At least I had the guard dog with whom I explored the jungle around the house a bit and took photos of the numerous monkeys.

I find it very unfortunate that this chain of accidents happened just as my girlfriend Marlene and the other volunteers arrived, but luckily I still have two months before I fly back to Germany. Two months in which I can try to make the most of my time here again.