Freako (or, "There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.")

Fifteen days with no blog posts - enough to make some mothers think their children are dead! Fear not and have faith, we are alive and well. Sunshine House has been a beautiful, calm center of the storm that is our adventure, providing us with amenities we didn't even know we needed. Among these we include: a never-ending supply of pomegranates and oranges, stolen fresh off of the trees of our Grecian neighbors; a library full of books on topics as varied as Buddhism, 'Grandpa Ganja,' and "The Golden Fountain" (which - wouldn't you know it - includes advice on psyching yourself up to drink your own urine!); more mung beans than any human being could consume in one, two, or three lifetimes; sage wisdom from children ("I have a jar of judgement and inside there is... massive toasts!"); and the list goes on and on...

Yet while the list goes on, time has chosen to stand still. These fifteen days could have been two or two-hundred. It is easy to lose oneself in the simple rhythm of daily life that governs Sunshine House in all of it's dear, infectious madness - to steal a British term, for all the accents we've been hearing around here. There is something timeless about a man named Laurino, the author of a novel entitled "Latrino's Tantric Constripation Dance" as he describes his month spent meditating in a cave and defends the integrity of Italian spaghetti. Or about Kostas, the local shop-keeper who champions the beauty of Woodstock and the genius of Bob Dylan, while giving us bananas as gifts and musing on how unusual it is for a German and an Israeli to be together (long story)! We have learned from Jean-Pierre that Jesus is the fire and Buddha is the water; that in the Polynesian Islands it is considered a holy act to save a sea turtle; and that "it is no good to feel shit." And with every passing day, the tapestry of our time at Sunshine House inevitably gains the presence of yet another unforgettable character...

Yes, our time here is good. We eat well and sleep... Well, that depends on too many factors to list, though the latest disturbance is one we invited in whole-heartedly: a little starving kitten named Gandhi who bears a striking resemblance to the famed man, as well as to a rogue Gremlin. Savage mosquitos provide another hurdle, as does thetendency of my hair to choke Joshua in his sleep. The work, if it can even be called that, is easy for the most part. Dishes to wash, meals to cook, gardens to weed, fitted sheets to fold, children to amuse - simple stuff that makes the days go by. Josh gets the truly manly tasks: fixing roofs, unclogging drains, and mending dressers. I cook for shamanistic workshop participants and giggle at the shaman's nose ring (raising the question; am I too young to be saying that "things just ain't what they used to be"?)

Today is our first of two days off - today we are lazing about in the sunshine and taking advantage of a few hours of empty-house, tomorrow we will bike to Chalkida and see if there are any cheap tents or wristwatches to be found. Then we will enjoy our last week of Sunshine, make our way to Athens and board another flight... Asia has come a-calling and we would soon feel too stagnant to be calling ourselves "travelers" if we stayed in Greece much longer. So Kuala Lumpur it is (or will be, come November 2nd) and as usual, I'm sure it won't feel real until the moment we realize we have arrived... And this, I hope to do on a deserted beach with the sun beating down on us; as we eat mangoes of trees and crouch over bowls of curry, shoveling it into our mouths with our hands; conceiving friendships born of language-barriers and laughter; and falling asleep under the stars after yet another day together.

Sappy? Yes, but... You only live once. And so we are living.

Love,
Dewi and Josh