Lessons Learned & Applied

Once upon a time … May, 1983 to be more precise … I learned about the concept of letting go as an element of developing a more spiritual life.

Long story short, the rationale is that by letting go of old and outdated belongings and attitudes,we can free up the physical and emotion space to allow new and more creative elements into our lives.

This week I read about how completing the past can allow us to embrace the future. Similar theme … different source.

Both of these concepts resonated with me on many levels. From my experience in creating, shuffling and storing paperwork, I recognize that I value closing files almost as much as I enjoy opening them.

So with this background, this blog post will close the Costa Rica blog file that I opened January 3.

I have learned a lot over the past eight months.

Certainly I have learned a great deal about Costa Rica.

It is a stunningly beautiful country. And on the basis of the Costa Ricans I met and with whom I interacted, the people of Costa Rica are among the happiest and nicest people I have ever met, anywhere.

Definitely worth a visit, or even better, an extended stay.

However, as much as I learned about Costa Rica, I learned a whole lot more about me.

In fact I continue to learn from my reflections on the experience. Somehow I think the reflections and the learning will never end. But for now, it's time to close the Costa Rica 2010 file.

To simplify matters, I have edited my lessons to the following four.

Lesson #1: Practice Better Stress Management

Despite the negative election rhetoric that is currently polluting the environment, Toronto is truly wonderful city. It has virtually everything that anyone would need or want.

This doesn't mean than anyone does or indeed can enjoy everything Toronto has to offer. But it sure is nice to know there are so many attractive and different choices available.

And as with everything wonderful, Toronto also has its downsides. Once of these downsides is the incredible stress that goes along with living here.

For my first few days in Costa Rica, I realized that a familiar element was missing from my life...stress.

I realized that I must have left the stress at the airport when I flew out.

I loved the simpler, less stressed life in Costa Rica. I was quite happy free of the stresses that I had allowed to accompany my most of my life.

Now that I have been back for about 3 ½ months, one of my top priorities has been to do a better job of managing my stress. So far so good!

Lesson #2: Embrace 'Less Is More'

From my observations, Central Americans are incredibly resourceful. They have to be … the governments lack the resources to provide services anywhere near what we expect and take for granted.

This resourcefulness shows up in how Central Americans manage to do more with less.

Consistently, instead of purchasing a special purpose widget or gizmo to perform a specific task, most people I saw could adapt whatever they had or could find to perform the same task.

One of my former colleagues used to compliment me on my resourcefulness. I continued to be reminded of his comments whenever I saw Central American resourcefulness in action.

I really like my resourcefulness and enjoy applying it. Because the concept of less is more resonates so much with me, applying my resourcefulness will continue to be an important element of my life.

Lesson #3: Doing Things On Purpose

For a very long time, teaching English was a dormant seed deep inside of me.

I now realize that part of what was driving me to pursue the Costa Rica experience was the growing of this seed.

As gratifying as it was to teach English (my two students were wonderful!!), this big payoff came from my reflections on the teaching experience.

I realized that what I was doing really wasn't teaching...it was coaching.

When I got back to Toronto, one of my top priorities was to learn more about coaching.

The more I learned about coaching, the more apparent it became that virtually all client services that I delivered were in fact coaching.

This was as true of the my first client as an articling student to the coaching client I spoke with yesterday.

In practice, most of these coaching services focused on helping adults learn new things and improve how they performed familiar tasks.

As a result of my researching coaching, I have also been able to identify an important factor that seems to have been eluding me: my purpose in life.

At this point, I have identified my purpose in life as helping motivated adults learn.

In the past, I have done this through professional services, writing, speaking, teaching and so on. Happily, the coaching concept embraces all of these activities.

Moving forward, my website will focus on helping adults learn through the web content and also through my coaching service.

The nice thing about my website is that it is now 'on purpose'.

Lesson #4: More 'Less Is More'

Here is a sampling of some of the pictures that I took while in Costa Rica. Most of them are from the San Jose (SJO) area...because that is where I spent most of my time.

And now the file has been closed.

Gracias por leer mi blog.

Reflection #3: Options & Choices

Today, I did something most un-Costa Rican at lunch.

Today's Lunch

In Zapote to deliver my remaining course materials to the school office, I decided to have lunch at a nearby soda that I knew offered excellent meals.

I was one of the first lunch customers so had to wait a few minutes for my meal to be ready.

When the owner of the soda proudly delivered my hot, heaping plate, I was delighted with how delicious it looked...and amazed at how much food was piled high on the platter.

In clockwise order around the platter were huge servings...easy double the North American norm...of green salad, beans, rice and fried plantains, topped by a fillet of fish that must have been 8” long and 4” wide.

The size of this meal was typical for a soda, as was the price: about $3.35.

The fact that I did not eat all of this meal was not typically Costa Rican. I left enough of everything but salad to feed another non-Tico.

Yes, Ticos have hearty appetites. And much of what they eat is high in fat, salt, sugar and carbs.

Very soon after arriving here, I made the decision to go easy on meals like today's lunch, but to enjoy as much fresh fruit as I wanted. Good choice!

Positive Experiences

Walking home from Zapote (got home before the rain started today, so far I am still dry), I found myself reflecting on what a positive and happy experience I have had here. Certainly it's a beautiful country and the people whom I've met and interacted with are wonderful.

But in so many ways, exercising available options and making the small choices of life, like what and how much to eat, have been a continuing source of joy.

I was happy to find a couple of pairs of good quality casual slacks that were on sale for less than $6.00 each AND fit.

That happiness was enhanced when I found a neighbour lady who was able to shorten and hem the slacks for me for about $9.00 for both pairs.

Similarly when the shoulder strap on a recently purchased weekend size bag broke, with some effort, I found a man who was able to repair the strap, quickly and inexpensively.

What was truly gratifying was that all of these transactions, the purchase, alterations and repair were done in a combination of Spanish and sign-language.

Sure I could have chosen to buy slacks at Winners back in Toronto, had the slacks altered at the mall and given the bag away. These would have been easy, no-brainer decisions. But it was truly gratifying to find and exercise local options for those small choices.

Little Achievements

Certainly, our major accomplishments and successes make huge contributions to our happiness.

But so do the little achievements, like completing small transactions in a foreign language.

Throughout my life, I have been plagued by the consequences of default decisions. Those are the decisions that we simply let happen to us, instead of consciously making deliberate choices for specific reasons.

Thanks to the lady who shortened my slacks and the man who fixed my bag, I now know how gratifying it can be to make choices consciously and exercise options proactively, regardless of how small and relatively insignificant they may appear.

A good lesson, well learned. What a great souvenir of this wonderful country!

Reflection #2: Things That Are Different Can Work Quite Well

From a North American perspective, there are many aspects of life in Costa Rica that shouldn't work. But they do work...and work quite well.

300 Routes

Take the bus system for example.

There are more than 300 bus routes in Costa Rica. The government puts these routes up for tender by privately owned companies.

The routes are awarded to the companies whose tenders best meet defined criteria, which presumably include specific area to be served and fares.

As a result there are hundreds of companies operating thousands of buses in serving these routes.

For those of us accustomed to publicly owned municipal transportation systems and one huge private company—Greyhound--dominating the private sector, the patch-work quilt approach in Costa Rica seems chaotic. But in fact, it works quite well.

In the central valley, where the majority of the population lives, hundreds of buses carrying thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of passengers make their way to and from downtown San Jose every day.

In outlying communities such as Alajuela, Curridabat, Desamparados, Escazu, Guadalupe, San Francisco, Uruca and Zapote, these buses pick up passengers at unmarked stops or wherever the passengers flag down their buses.

The buses themselves range from the strictly utilitarian models such as the flat nose Bluebird buses that serve San Francisco to the spiffier late model Mercedes and Volvo units that serve upscale Uruca and Zapote.

In San Jose each route has its own unmarked spot on some unnamed street... somewhere in the downtown area.

Changing buses means paying full fare on the second, third, or perhaps even fourth bus to be taken. But that's OK...fares seldom go higher than 400 colones or about 75¢.

Outside The GAM

A similar situation exists outside the Gran Area Metropolitana (GAM), which is roughly the urban area surrounding San Jose, which in turn is most of the Central Valley.

One is that there are of course fewer long distance bus companies, which operate out of about 15 terminals scattered around San Jose.

The terminals range from the tired and old, dirty and dangerous 'Coca Cola' to the sleek and modern Gran Terminal Caribe.

Coca Cola, which is little more than a wide alleyway is the former Coca Cola bottling plant. At this terminal, which serves about a dozen companies, passengers routinely sit on their luggage to prevent it from being stolen.

When scheduling arrivals at Coca Cola, most people try to arrive during the daylight hours.

The danger factor may or may not decrease with the new presence of armed police officers. That of course depends upon the vigilance of the individual police officers and how long the increased police profile initiated by the new security minister remains in place.

The Gran Terminal Caribe is the cleanest and best bus terminal I have ever seen. It also serves about a dozen companies, all of which serve the Eastern part of Costa Rica.

The spotlessly clean terminal includes 3 separate food courts offering everything from North American fast food favourites to typical Costa Rican and Caribbean food.

Regardless of company or terminal, all long distance buses match...and in many cases exceed...Greyhound standards.

Tica buses, which operate on routes from San Jose to other Central American countries and Mexico are far superior to anything I have ever seen wearing the legendary greyhound logo.

Similarly, the bus that I took back from Manuel Antonio last week was cleaner and more comfortable than any Greyhound bus I have ever been on.

Regardless of which route or area buses serve, from my experience they share 3 characteristics:

1. The fares are very low.

Inside the GAM, fares range from about 25¢ about 75¢.
Outside the GAM the fare for a 4-hour bus ride is typically $5.00-$7.00.

2. They get passengers where they are going...usually on schedule.

It is not uncommon for drivers to take detours to avoid congestion.

3. The buses are litter-free

Every bus has a litter basket by the back door, where departing passengers deposit food wrappers and other debris from the journey.

As I said at the beginning, from a North American perspective, the crazy patch-work quilt of the Costa Rican bus system shouldn't work. But it does.

Not only does it work, it works very well.

If the purpose of a public bus system is move a large number of passengers, inexpensively and on schedule, the Costa Rican bus system achieves this purpose better than most North American public transportation systems.

The Costa Rican bus system is one of many examples of things that from a North American perspective simply should not work...but in fact work better than their North American counterparts.

The moral of the message:

just because something is different from what you are used to,
it does not not mean that it is not good and that it will not work.

Into The Home Stretch: Reflection #1

I am now into the home stretch of my Costa Rican Experience.

It's time to do some reflecting on the whole experience before heading back to Toronto on Saturday.

I'll be taking a direct Air Canada flight from San Jose to Toronto.

There is something immensely comforting about flying back to Canada on our national airline.

And the comfort level is even higher when the fare is the lowest available, even including flight arrangements with stop-overs in various US cities.

Options

Looking back, it seems that the best place to start reflecting is the series of posts before I left for Costa Rica.

On January 14, I wrote about the prospect of facing too many options, emphasizing teaching English.

If you have been following my blog, you know that I did get a job teaching business English. Although the required 4-month commitment ends on June 16, my last class was on May 31.

From a financial perspective, teaching English was less successful than I had hoped.

Based on my pre-departure research, I anticipated about 20 hours of teaching each week.

When I was hired, I was promised a minimum of 8 hours weekly (at an hourly rate of 4100 colones...or about $7.50, a good rate for an experienced teacher).

As it turned out, I'm not sure I ever had a full 8-hour week. Most were in the range of 0-4 hours of teaching.

It also turned out that each hour of teaching required about 1½ hours of preparation, travel and administrative time. This meant that each 2-hour class, for which I was paid about $15.00, consumed about 5 hours worth of time.

Thus, my effective hourly rate was about $3.00, which is what a maid in a 5-star Costa Rican hotel might earn.

However, financial and bus travel considerations aside, teaching was a very positive and rich learning experience.

Surprise #1

Two aspects of teaching that really surprised me.

Hired to teach business English in a third-world or developing country, I had expected the students to be roughly comparable to high school graduates.

I could not have been more mistaken.

My two students were among the brightest and most capable people I have ever met... anywhere.

One has two MBAs and runs a company with about 200 employees that generates about $25 million dollars in sales annually.

The other is an electrical engineer, about to start on his MBA, who is about half way towards his sales goal of $50 million for the current fiscal year.

On a daily basis, each of these individuals interacts in English, with other senior business executives from North & South America, Europe & Asia, sometimes with, and sometimes without, the assistance of interpreters.

Their success is in no way dependent upon their living and working in Costa Rica. Both would be equally successful anywhere in the corporate world.

Surprise #2

The second surprise was how woefully inadequate and inappropriate the teaching format and resources were.

As a perfect example of how to teach children, the proscribed approach was rich with 'say after me' repetitions, exercises, classroom drills, workbooks, quizzes and tests. Arghh!!

Published in 2006...in England no less...the text book is a magazine-comic book hybrid, probably most suited to junior high school students.

The accompanying CD even includes pop songs with sing-along lyrics printed in the book. I know that karaoke is the favourite bar activity here (yet another reason to avoid bars!!) but this is totally ridiculous.

Lots of people in the world of ESL seem blissfully ignorant of the reality of Andragogy (the art and science of helping adults learn): helping adults learn is a lot different than teaching children.

As often happens, a totally unrelated conversation offered a possible insight into the use of inappropriate teaching resources.

Being Grateful

Last Thursday, in conversation with Anita, the hostess of the Casa Buena Vista where I was staying, she told me about Steven Segal's offer to help the Costa Rica police with their martial arts training.

From there it was a short step to the arrogance that many foreigners display in their offers of assistance to third world or developing countries such as Costa Rica.

Anita, herself a foreigner and also a 35-year resident of CR, said many foreigners think that they are smarter and more qualified than Costa Ricans.

She suggested that this mindset leads them to believe that Costa Ricans should be grateful for whatever help comes their way.

I confess that as a foreigner this was my mindset when I started teaching English.

Happily, my first class with my first student put an end to it.

Not everyone in Costa Rica...or other developing countries for that matter...is a smiling souvenir-seller.

A New Option

The world of adult education is rich with alternative approaches to helping adults learn English.

One of the best would be coaching...not structured classroom teaching. And online, on demand...not in person, in structured classes.

Hmmmm...now there is an interesting new business opportunity to ponder on Saturday's flight.

My Costa Rican “Kitchen”

Last Saturday, there was a problem with the fridge in what passes for a kitchen that I can use.

On Sunday, when the Internet was up I reported the problem to my landlady's daughter, who is the only family member who speaks and writes English.

Our exchange of emails tells almost the whole story.

In my email with the subject line “...and now the fridge isn't working”, I said:


"It has been a very frustrating week here.

"For most of the week, my Internet connection down and then up...down and then up. It was down all day Thursday.

"Since I had no classes last week, I planned to spend most of my time working online on my website.

"Unfortunately, with the Internet going down as often as it did, instead of having 5 productive days, I might have had the equivalent of 2-3 productive days.

"Yesterday, I noticed water around the bottom of the fridge. After I cleaned up the water, I checked the fridge...it was not working. Not even cool to the touch.

"As I write this the Internet is down again. I will have to wait until it is back up before I can even save this message let alone send it.

"Fortunately the coffee maker is still working.

"Yes...it has indeed been a very frustrating week."

Her response:

"Regarding the internet probably is a problem with the company provider, the frigde my mom is going to chek it."

To which I replied:

"The problem with the fridge is the latest and least of the problems with the 'kitchen'.

"I was happy to have the kitchen included as part of the room rental. I had hoped to prepare some meals here. Unfortunately that opportunity did not unfold as hoped.

"With no proper food storage, apart from the fridge, there is no place to store food without attracting ants. Invariably, Whenever I have left food sealed in plastic anywhere in the kitchen, within a couple of hours, it has been totally covered with ants, so I had to throw it out.

"As regards the hot plate, I can only turn one element half way before the breaker switch cuts off. So doing my own cooking is not an option.

"The coffee pot works fairly well. However, a few weeks ago, I heard a loud crack in the kitchen. When I went in to investigate, I saw that the coffee pot...which was sitting where I had always left it had cracked. So I went looking for a replacement and found one that seems to work well.

"So the problem with the fridge was, as I say, the most recent issues with the cooking arrangements. (Your brother was just here and seems to have fixed the problem)."

The fridge problem has now been fixed...sort of.

The extension cord into which the fridge is plugged has been replaced with one that makes me thankful the kitchen is isolated a room made of solid concrete, separated from my room by another room made of solid concrete.

And now with the replacement extension cord, the coffee maker working by itself is enough to trip the breaker switch. I now stay by the coffee maker to reset the breaker switch.

But yes the fridge does work. The last time I got something out of it...everything was frozen solid.

Frustration-->Earthquake-->Feeling Good!!

Without a doubt, this past week has been very frustrating.

However, at the same time, it has also been very interesting.

It will not surprise me in the least that in 2-3 months when I look back at the week, it could well turn out to be one of my most significant weeks...ever.

Over the past four months, I have become increasingly Internet-dependent.

Certainly, I use the Internet to maintain my website. But it is also my link to the outside world both here in Costa Rica, back in Canada and any other places that the people at igoogle deem fit to tell me about.

I have neither a telephone nor a radio.

When a new tenant moved in next door, I gave him the TV that is included with my room. The only time that I watched TV was when a friend was visiting and we watched a soccer game that would determine the Championship of a Dutch national soccer league. One of players on the team that ultimately won is from Costa Rica. Much cheering in the neighborhood! But I digress.

Being as dependent upon the Internet as I am, when it is down, as it often is, until Thursday my reaction was one of anger and frustration.

Without going into detail, Thursday was either the high point or the low point of my frustration.

Midway through Thursday afternoon, I realized that I was driving myself crazy constantly checking to see if the connection had been restored. So I made a list of things that could do without the Internet.

This turned out to be quite lengthy list of options.

I was working offline on one of these options when the earthquake in Quepos (67 km south west of San Jose) struck at 4:16. To me it was just a tremour...found out the next day that it was serious earthquake.

But then things started to get really weird.

About half an hour after the tremour, I started to feel chilled. So I went to bed and got right under the covers. From feeling chilly I started to feel waves of warmth, which in turn felt like waves of energy.

I enjoyed this sensation for as long as it lasted. When I got up the Internet was back so I finished what I had been working on, when last online.

On Friday, even though the frustrations continued...2 interpersonal issues presented themselves...I felt really good.

I don't think that my feeling good was as much the thrill of new challenges to met as it was the confidence that the issues were resolvable.

On Saturday, 2 new issues arose that needed to be addressed.

Once again, notwithstanding the appearance of these new issues, I felt and continue to feel really, really good.

Not only can I not explain my physical sensation...not just a self-talk driven mindset...of feeling good, I am not even going to try.

I plan to ride the wave and enjoy it.

My 100 Km Costa Rican Diet

Working from home this week.

My remaining student is sales manager for Central America, which includes those seven countries between but not including Mexico and Colombia.

This week he is off touring Central America with his boss.

So we have postponed his classes this week to next week. Have I mentioned how unpredictable teaching business English can be?

With no classes this week, I did not have to do the bus trek to and through San Jose. That's the good news.

Costa Rican Cooking

The bad news was the prospect of eating all of my meals here in San Francisco de dos Rios.

Commonly available Costa Rican cooking is high in carbs, fat, rice, beans and boredom.

Last Saturday, in the neighborhood park, I was cluelessly watching a soccer game and mindlessly watching shoppers loaded with fresh produce from the farmers' market in the park.

I found myself wishing I had decent cooking facilities so that I could truly enjoy the fabulous in the market.

Obviously, I could do something with this great produce...but a full week's work of meals using only a hot plate?

The Banana/100 Km Diet

As I was glancing at the stacks of bananas on the vendors' tables, the idea occurred to me that I could use one of our family favourites as the basis for my 100 km diet.

As it turned out I have a copy of the so-called banana diet with me...so that is the basis for my 100 km diet.

I am now half way though the process. What a great experience!

I've only made 2 changes to the diet.

I've added coffee, because it is big part of Costa Rica culture....and it's also damn good. How good is it? I have not seen a single Starbucks anywhere in CR. What I can see is coffee plantations from my street. How local is that?

And instead of apples, I am using pineapple.

The local produce is absolutely awesome.

The banana and oranges would never find themselves in North American stores...they just aren't pretty enough. And I have never, ever tasted anything like the pineapple I had yesterday.

Counting today's meals of salad and lean meat, the total cost so far is about $8.00, with about $2.00 more required for Thursday and Friday.

But the taste experience...priceless.

Moving forward, I have a great alternative to the traditional Costa Rican diet.

Maybe I can even avoid the ever-present rice & beans.