Three Weeks...

It's now been three weeks that I have been in Costa Rica. Three weeks of positive experiences and pleasant surprises.

Tuesday's experiences and surprises were fairly typical.

A Wrong Turn

I had a 10:30 training session at the Pro Language office so decided to walk.

I had been told it was only a 20-30 minute walk. It probably would have been had I not taken a wrong turn.

Once I realized I was lost, I looked for a cab and almost instantly a cab pulled up beside me to discharge an existing customer.

When I got in and told the driver where I wanted to go, he didn't know where it was...but undeterred headed back into the traffic.

When he got to a large intersection...the one where I had turned...he asked some street vendors for directions.

Based on the unanimous agreement of these folks, he headed in the direction in which they pointed and literally within minutes, we arrived at my destination ...the very destination I would have reached by myself, had I kept going straight instead of turning.

No big deal...tomorrow when I walk to the office, I will not turn off the main road.

Mark & His Mother

After my training session, Mark Henker, the founder and Executive Director of Pro Language took me to the location where my first class was scheduled.

His mother who had dropped into the office joined us on the ride.

He and his mother were totally on top of current events, both locally and internationally. They explained what the outcome of the recent election would mean locally and internationally.

Among other things, they discussed the rationale and benefits of the country's decision decision to recognize mainland China instead of Taiwan.

While Mark was on his errands, his mother and I chatted about everything from learning Spanish to shopping at the West Edmonton Mall.

Without a doubt, Mark and his mother are two of the brightest people I have met in a very long time.

When we returned to the office, Mark suggested that because it was my first trip to a new class, that I leave early enough to allow an hour or so for being lost. (I hadn't told him about my morning experience.)

Majic

Following Mark's advice, I arrived at my class 1½ hours early.

No problem...I ran into Majic, an Iranian-born Canadian from Vancouver who is now living now living in Costa Rica. Majic took me under his wing and out for a late lunch (his).

Turns out that Majic is the entrepreneur's entrepreneur.

As near as I can tell, he is running 6 businesses, one of which is the Costa Rica Buy & Sell...a country-wide free newspaper filled with ads.

When he found out I am a writer, he offered...and I accepted...a free ad in the newspaper that comes out next Monday.

He is also working on another project and is very keen to talk about how I might be able to participate.

In all honesty I would never ever have anticipated connecting in Costa Rica with an Iranian-born Canadian from Vancouver.

2 MBAs

My first student is Gilbert who is the General Manager of a huge Honda-Fiat-Alpha Romeo dealership in San Jose.

He runs a 200-person operation and wants to improve his English so he can communicate better with his international suppliers.

Gilbert is one very bright man. He has two MBAs...one in marketing and one in finance and a whole bunch of other professional and continuous training.

The hardest part of working with Gilbert is seeing his frustration at struggling with basic English.

His determination to learn English will help keep me focused on helping him. It will also inspire me to work harder at learning Spanish.

Like Mark and his mother, Gilbert is one of the smartest people I have met in a very long time.

Add Majic and his entrepreneurial street smarts to the combination and you have four amazingly smart and competent people...in a third world country no less!

Lots of opportunity for this first-world canuck to learn.

And learning I am...virtually every day there is time to get lost and learn from the experience.

So far so good...next week's challenges: opening a bank account and getting a cell phone.