The day i left the sunshine house i was just getting over strep throat. The owners of the retreat center had two kids and one was sick with scarlet fever. It happens to be highly contagious and since they don't believe in "traditional" medicine he had been sick for about a week and because they had neither healed him with their chanting or with their herbal pills he was still contagious. I of course came down with strep throat. I woke up one day and said "I'm going to be missing work today, i need to see a doctor" barely audibly. "We don't believe in doctors" was the response. i bit my tongue. "well i am really sick and i think its strep throat, its really contagious and LouLou (their son) has it soooo..." "you didn't get sick from LouLou, a body only gets sick when it wants to get sick and is ready to get sick" i bit my tongue harder and was starting to get angry. "I understand but i am still going, i think its best for me". They sighed and told me that they could give me some of there herbal pills and i told them "thanks anyway but i need antibiotics" "We don't believe in antibiotics" my fist clenched i told them i was leaving for the day and that i was sorry, i needed to see a doctor to get a prescription. Turns out you don't need one in Greece so i walked into town and bought them for five bucks at the pharmacy. With in two days i was feeling better and in four i left the sunshine house all together feeling happy i spent some time there but also happy i was leaving. LouLou was still suffering, i thought about having a heart to heart with him while slipping him the medicine that he needed but i decided not to interfer. I was heading back to Crete to meet two buddies of mine who decided to visit Greece on their vacation. I was really looking forward to it. I hopped a plane and landed without incident. I didn't see my friends Chuck and Heather. i stood in the middle of the road with my stuff at 11:30 at night saying "CHARLIE" to myself. thinking maybe i had told them the wrong day, time or airport. But after only five minutes they came out of the airport, as confused as i was. "Darell!", oh man it was great to see them. The next four days were spent in the company of a lot of these guys:
Chuck
Heather
Mr berry wine
Sweet berry wine. our favorite came in a plastic bottle, 1500ml for 4 USD. cheap and plentiful equals dangerous. We drank it out of cans so no one would be the wiser, this allowed drinking all day. We also spent a good amount of time at the beach, maybe not the way Heather tells it haha, but three out of the four days anyway. They had been there for three days before i had arrived and i have a feeling the beach was a part of those days too. Charlie being the good boyfriend that he was, didnt hit one golf ball the entire time. Heather being the good girlfriend that she was didnt complain when Charlie and i extended our stay at the bar from thirty minutes to three hours. She was worried about Charlie and had worried he had driven behind a school and crashed his car into a fence or a parked airplane. why those two things? i have no idea. Heather's aunt has a time share and it was fantastic to have our own kitchen. i had my own bed and plenty of space for my crap. Charlie, like as far back as i can remember did all the driving and heather was free to sleep and i was free to do decent job with the map.We cooked all of our dinners and made most of our lunches but still found time each day for a gryos. Meat, onions, tomato, french fries and taziki wrapped in a pita, they were magic in the mouth. Heather whipped up a batch of homemade taziki as well, it, was, bomb. So we ate that on everything, our breath must have been awash with garlic but i never noticed. Due to a miscalculation (charlie) in search of a cave we ended up in the mountains where the mouth of the cave had been snowed it. i wasn't disappointed it was the first time i had felt snow all year and had i not taken the chance to hit chuck with a snowball it would have been the first year that i hadn't thrown one in my entire life. I was glad not to break the streak. it was fantastic to spend those four days with them. So good to see some friends so far from home. they could have gone a lot of places but they cam out to see me and crete, but mostly me right guys? right!!!??? it meant a lot either way. after they dropped me off to head to the airport i found myself back in the company of strangers and it stunk but that all melted away once i arrived at my new WWOOFing spot on Paros Island. A big thank you has to go out to Chuck and Heather, thanks guys for everything. Truly, big thanks and hugs from afar. love you both. also happy 30th chuck wish i could be there to celebrate ya bud. take care of yourself.
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