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.

No Military...But An Army Of Security

One of the most well known and highly features of Costa Rica is the 50-year old decision to abolish the military force.

Costa Rica maintains small forces capable of law enforcement and foreign peacekeeping, but has no permanent standing army.

It is however, mistake to assume that just because there is no official military presence, there are no military-type features in the country.

Sure there are no statutes honouring war heroes. Whatever pomp and ceremony takes place, does so without the help of military bands and platoons of marching soldiers.

Forces Of Law Enforcement

But as for these 'small forces capable of law enforcement'...they seem huge to me.

In the San Jose area there are 3 police forces that somehow share jurisdiction: federal police, San Jose municipal police and the transit police.

I'm sure that these 3 police forces have clearly defined mandates, but they all have one thing in common. Regardless of what they do, they are all fully armed and outfitted in bullet proof vests and similar protective gear.

Every corner in downtown San Jose seems to have at least one...usually more...group of 2-10 officers, just hanging around, fully armed and protected. Armed and protected against what, I'm not totally sure.

These official police officers are just the tip of the security pyramid.

Wanna Be Police Officers

Next in line are the private security officers...possibly 'wanna be' police officers. This group is also huge in number, well armed and well protected.

These officers, mostly men, guard banks and commercial buildings like office buildings and shopping centres. And yes, they are also fully armed and protected, probably against the notorious and lawless Venezuelans. I once saw one of these guards carrying a machine gun outside a shopping centre. Actually that was quite funny. Not far from this machine gun totin' security guard, was a pistol packing security guard popping wheelies on his bicycle.

Next are the uniformed, but mostly unarmed, security guards watching over such businesses as pharmacies, convenience and grocery stores, pet shops, restaurants, parking lots and so on.

Community Security Guards

And speaking of parking lots, there are also a variety of community security guards. This group includes those guys who get themselves reflective vests, often from street vendors, and help drivers find parking...either on the street or in street-side parking lots.

In return for watching over the cars while the drivers are off doing something else, they expect and usually receive a tip of some kind.

Not to be ignored is the guy who armed with a billy club, rides his bicycle around the neighborhood during daylight hours. Presumably he is performing some kind of security function. And so is the guy who rides his bike in the same neighborhood, blasting his whistle in front of selected houses...houses whose owners have paid him to do his 'night patrol'.

Come to think of it, who needs a military force?

The alternative army of security seems to have taken its place.

Doors Closing...A New Door Opening

It's been another interesting week.

A couple of doors closed...and a new door opened wider & sooner than the newly closed doors.

The Door That I Closed Myself

Last month I agreed to work on a new website focusing on Costa Rica real estate.

My rationale was to develop a really good SBI real estate website to be used as a model for real estate agents.

At the time, the person with whom I was to develop the site agreed with this rationale.

However, last Saturday it seems that comments from some of his friends stimulated him to change his vision for the site, turning it into a power-sell website.

Since that was most definitely what I had signed on for, I decided that there were other and better uses for my time so I pulled out.

But not before my work served as an excellent refresher course on SBI site building.

I made several improvements to my own site that I would not have made without the short stint on the new site. And traffic to my site has been increasing by approximately 3% each day this week.

By closing this door, I will have about 10 more hours each week to use for other things.

A Door Slammed Shut

For reasons that have yet to be explained, on Wednesday, one of my business English students canceled his remaining classes.

While I will miss working with him, I will definitely not miss the twice weekly rides on the Leon XIII bus to get to his office.

The first third of this bus route is through one of the dirtiest and roughest areas I have ever seen.

There seem to be as many homeless people lounging and lying on the sidewalk as there are street vendors, almost shoulder to shoulder, loudly promoting whatever they are selling. Maybe I should say shouter to shouter.

No more Leon XIII bus rides...no regrets.

And the loss of these four hours of teaching also generates another 10 hours or so each week that I can use other things.

A New Door...Wide Open

When I knew that I would be pulling out of the other website, I started to prioritize the 8-10 tasks that had in mind for my own website.

This led to the realization that, as usual, writing more content was priority #1.

This is turn led a list of 13 new pages, which at the time I decided I could finish by the end of the month.

I had written one and a bit of another when I learned about the cancellation of the classes.

Long story short, yesterday I uploaded 4 new pages of really good content to my website.

And as an added bonus, these pages also offer the opportunity of a new e-book. But that will have to wait...I still have priorities 2-10, below top priority content to finish off.

I continue to be absolutely amazed at the number of exciting new opportunities that flow through newly opened doors.

And what's even more unbelievable is that the time to pursue these new opportunities has been made available as a result of other doors closing.

Life's funny that way....but in the best of all possible ways.