20th Anniversary of the Escuela

Yesterday we were invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Escuela . . . and the unveiling of another donation from Fundacion Educar - but a little different one this time - an art piece called "Remembranzas de Tuetal Sur".  The story of a remarkable influence on the children of our village is told on the foundation web site.  But it would have to be a much bigger web site to tell the real story and it will be years before the real story plays out in the lives of children who were not held back by being poor.

The Educar Foundation (Maryland, USA)  is the brain child of Jim Locke who decided to help some kids in Costa Rica - today 1000's of kids have been touched by the work of the foundation.

Our small school was built 20 years ago thanks to the vision of a small group of residents who ignored the local school officials who thought the village would never amount to much.  They convinced a local farmer to part with some of his finca for a pittance so the kids of the village could go to a "local primary school".  They scraped a few hundred dollars (in colones of course) to build a school house.  The bathroom would have to wait.

By the time Jim Locke discovered the school it had a few classrooms, two bathrooms and about 250 kids in what most would agree a very poor neighborhood.  Like most everybody in Costa Rica, this didn't mean their kids were hungry but it did mean some parents often had little work and there wasn't a computer or a book to be seen in the neighborhood.

There was however something interesting going on at the school . . . situated between the Caja clinic (EBAIS as it is known in every village of Costa Rica) and the church.  3km or a mile or so down the road some of the kids were coming out of the bad barrio (known as the Infernillo by all around it) and showing up at school every morning in uniform.  There was and is a high rate of teen pregnancy and some families with big problems unable to provide supplies for their kids or an evening meal.  The school, Jim observed, despite the poor neighborhood and some questionable parents from the Infernillo was well disciplined.  The neighborhood was quite rural and yet somehow the school had managed to snag a full time psychologist (unheard of in rural schools) to help the troubled kids.  The neighborhood was known for youth problems and yet the kids in the school were polite and very well disciplined.  The neighborhood was dusty and unkempt but the school was spotless.
Today, the school is still spotless and orderly . . . there are over 350 kids, more bathrooms, a covered sports/assembly area, twice as many classrooms, a library well stocked with books, a computer room with 26 PC's and a trainer to maintain them and teach the kids.  Much of this came through the foundation and organized into a teaching tool by another remarkable individual . . . the director, Senor Humberto Soto.  Mr Soto leads an excellent team of teachers and assistants finding new ways every day to manage meager resources (such as a government allowance of 30 cents for lunch) into appetizing meals for the body and the brain.
The 20th Anniversary of the school had some unusual guests of honor - the business charge d'affaires, Peter Brennan, from the US Embassy who spoke about the strong connection between the US and Costa Rica.  Also invited was the artist who designed the statue, Ruth Moreno who engaged us with her tale of how the village is intertwined in her art piece.
The village is named after the Tuete bush a rather weedy looking thing that is constantly under threat from neighborhood gardeners who mistake it for the weedy thing it looks like.  Two Tuetes are known to be in protected captivity (as a result of these continued assaults on the village mascot) - one at the front of the school and the other in the Pura Vida gardens.  Maybe the school officials who originally ignored the pleas for a new school 20 years ago knew something about Tuetes?
The next step in the evolution of the village may be the addition of a sports field and perhaps a small road around it to create a village center (and perhaps slow down traffic at the school).  There is the beginnings of a plan . . . something that has made no progress in 10 years . . . and has no funding.  The village and the school may bring this forward?  A first step at "centering" the idea may have come at this 20th anniversary event - the arrival of the "Remembranzas" below (with "Mr Jim" as the staff and kids know him being interviewed at the ceremony):

On this day of the 20th anniversary there were a number of visitors who were surprised by what they found at this little primary school in a so called "poor village".  Our guests who come visit the school most weeks of the year bringing a book or maybe a bag of books for the library are also surprised by what they find.  Loud and clear the message goes out around the world that Costa Rica has achieved one of the highest literacy rates and then I explain . . . "they did it without books" (another tale on this subject is here: "what is literacy in Costa Rica?")

Well they are doing it without books in most schools here through the creativity of the teachers, the drive of some good directors, a pretty decent infrastructure and in a few cases the additional support of Fundacion Educar.  As Jim Locke puts it when asked "Why Costa Rica?"

He replies simply, "Costa Rica will do something with my investment."

You'll be welcomed too on your next visit.

"The Document"

This one was triggered by some grumbles about the advanced state of the bureaucracies of Costa Rica.

As it was once explained to me, the reason there seem to be so many bureaucracies is that often when a problem becomes insurmountable or intractable (words that mean exactly the same to a bureaucracy) then it is time to do something different! The solution may be to form a new bureaucracy to study and solve the problem. Unfortunately the new bureaucracy may be formed under or reporting to the bureaucracy that couldn't solve it the first time with perhaps members of the original bureaucracy hired in for the purpose committed to a new solution to the problem they couldn't previously fix. Hey that's just how someone explained it to me :-)

The bureaucracy though can be a great deal of fun . . . I'd publish the complete tale of our last experience getting a permit renewal except we are not DONE yet . . . we are missing a "required document".

We are also now missing one more piece of paper that essentially is a permission not to have the "required document" because the agency responsible does not know where it is. I believe part of the problem is that the Municipality is in a temporary building after the January earthquake and keep records now in places that are not accessible or not well known at least. Weirdly enough the 4th floor (where the records used to live) was the most damaged in the quake.

Before we can have such permission we need a document that proves we can legally represent the entity that needs the document. When we started the process we had such a document drawn up by our lawyer with lots of nice stamps on it. BUT this document was given already to the original agency who is granting the permit. Copies are no good (heck, no stamps) so we need to go to San Jose to get another one with proper stampage.

Since we have only been working on this for 5 weeks, I can't be sure we are done but I'm pretty certain we will be OK with the permission not to have "the document" we needed once we have the document that proves who we are and are thus worthy of such permission.

We reached this condition a few days ago. We had all this explained by the people on the Third Floor but now have to explain it all again to the people on the First Floor of the new temporary Muni building. We decided to take a break from the process after showing up in a line that said in Spanish, "no more than 3 tramites in this line". I said to my wife, there's no way this is less than 3 tramites jejeje (Spanglish for "hehehe chuckl chuckl"). At that moment the clock struck 5pm and all the Muni workers scurried for the time clock.

When we finally got to the right line a few days later at the Muni to ask for the letter that says they don't have the document, the desk person politely informed us we'd need to write them a letter to request the letter saying the document could not be produced.

So we left guffawing all the way home and made an important decision.  We'd go to the original agency and explain the story just recounted and try to get them to do without "the document".  Well, to our surprise it worked!

And you could not invent such scenarios (well actually Terry Gilliam did in "Brazil") :-)and then this is Costa Rica and not to be taken all too seriously eh?

p.s. little known factoid: it seems the huge new BCR migracion computer may be nothing more than a front end for a filing clerk who still retrieves the same old green folder . . .

"I thought I made an appointment by computer?"
"Yes you did. Good morning."
"Is there a problem?"
"Well yes, we can't find your file. Can you come back tomorrow?"

p.p.s.
Full employment . . .

"Sir, you are missing a stamp on the document." (the one that proves who we are)
"Do you need a stamp?"
"NO, you do."
"How much is it?
"300 colones." (or 60 cents US)
"Could we get it from you?"
"NO, you walk across the street to the old guy with the umbrella up against the metal railing."
"Can you point him out to me?
"Of course."

p.p.p.s.
Meet your neighbors . . .

"Can we wait here?"
"No, please sit over there. I will call you when I am ready."
Official has a stack of maybe 700 pages he is routing through and looks like he may get to us around the second coming. He seats us among a large crowd of applicants.
"How does he know which of us is next?"
Shrugs and sighs then opens very large book "For the Love of Insects" by the marvelous and empirical Thomas Eisner.
Some time later.
"OK, you are ready. Please go in this door."
"Hola Carlos, how are you! I never knew you worked here!"
(Carlos is our next door neighbor)

Plumbing in a developing country . . .

Here begins an item which will endeavor to trap the very brief collected wisdom of an amateur plumber in Costa Rica.  Let's start with the understanding that the very last thing on the planet that I want to know about is plumbing.

But whether you like it or not, usually late on a Friday evening the god of plumbing will take control of your weekend.

First a few actual quotes or situations to get the gist of the issue.

As my wife noted today, "the reason the houses in Costa Rica are all 1 story, is that it doesn't matter if something leaks."

A couple of years back we observed the following . . . it is better to have a pump man than a plumber! "30 minutes later it is pitch dark. Jose Andres shows up with a man who might be a plumber. I ask almost calmly, "Is this the plumber?". Jose Andres, without a hint of irony or sarcasm or any of those 1st world ways of dealing with weirdness replies, "No. He is my cousin. He knows about pumps."

Plumbing Lore Learned Last Week: before smashing a hole in the wall/floor/ceiling (or in the case of what happened last week all 3) . . . do try and discover which appliance is the source of the leak INSTEAD of listening to the guy with the hammer.

On any given day as you meander around the potholes on the way up to the hotel you will likely see one or two small fountain like events where a steady stream of water spouts into the air from the side of the road.  On closer inspection, if you are not in a hurry, you might meander over to observe the event.   You will notice that the 2 inch metal mains water pipe has sprung a leak.  The usual solution in our neighborhood is to find a rock and lay it on the pipe so you no longer get sprayed as you go by.

One day, perhaps it was the first day of a new municipal water engineer (nobody knows who did it or nobody is talking) decided to fix the problem.  Someone once observed that, maybe 1/2 the municipal water in Costa Rica is lost to such leaks.  Of course nobody really knows that either, speculation and gossip are the order of the day in the local 'hood, never data.

Anyway, the local "engineer" started fixing the Big Pipe over a few days . . . shutting off the mains water periodically as they worked on a section.  Apparently as more and more of the pipe got fixed the pressure in the neighborhood increased and one by one leaks started appearing in many houses squirting out of odd places.  Complaints started pouring in and the work soon stopped.

Which is why to this day, if you walk outside the Pura Vida Hotel, you'll see a big rock sitting on top of a large metal pipe and a constant flow of water which drops into our drainage ditch at the side of the road, that runs under the fence down by the Katydid Casita, that fills up a small dam with perfect water and is pumped into the garden during the dry season for irrigation.  And yet another reason why you don't really need plumbers in Costa Rica.
In process entry . . .

Proper Discrimination

The average CEO of a US company now earns 400 times that of the average worker (depending on the survey you read). The average US worker is paid $15 an hour.

A recent diatribe in our local English language rag (AM Costa Rica) has some gringo ranting about the price differences charged by a tour for gringos and local Costa Rican nationals.

Not sure if he is aware of this but the starting monthly teacher salary is about $365 or about $3 an hour and a street cop who has been around awhile will be paid a little over $600.

Yes there is discrimination here and you'll find it in every National Park - as a visitor you will pay $10 for the park and a local will pay less than $3. And in some places local kids will get in free. Costa Rica has managed to protect more than 27% of its country for national parks and reserves for future generations to enjoy. Gringo visitors can afford it (IMHO) and just remember you are indeed subsidizing the visit of some Costa Rican child who one day will try and protect the same park you are visiting today.

For more information on how the parks got started you should snag a copy of "The Quetzal and the Macaw" by David Rains Wallace.

Costa Rican Bugs . . . the Golden Orb

The last 2 months new Golden Orb momas have appeared in many corners of the garden of the Pura Vida Hotel . . . the moma is quite large and makes impressively grand webs . . . one or two tiny tiny males are often found on a web near by waiting their turn. After sex, I am told though I have not observed this, the tiny male may sometimes leave a leg behind to distract moma while he makes his escape.

Snagged this pic this morning while searching for our lost plumber to discuss the finer points of a plumbing aberration he created a couple of years ago.

This one was sunning itself this morning by the Katydid Casita
and here's a wicki link for more info . This spider has caught and devoured small birds in some countries but here is sits on very large webs collecting moths and wasps.

Escuela Tales . . . on video

This video shows just a little of one of the local schools, Escuela Tuetal Sur - the director is Humberto Soto, the counselor is Juan Vargas and the school this month celebrates its 20th anniversary. Of particular note is that about half of this school was built thanks to the generous support of Fundacion Educar, a US based foundation managed locally in Alajuela. Thanks to Mark and Amy, the videographers from Karmalized Pictures, for donating this video for the school . . . waytogo Amy and Mark, muchas gracias!

Book donations have helped and if you want to help the kids in some way we hope you will consider bringing one book or 10 books if you are visiting Costa Rica. The best books are in Spanish for younger kids but if you have atlases, dictionaries, nature books or reference works in English they work well too. Things for pre-school or kindergarten kids are really helpful as they have nothing much at all.

Here are a few ways you can do this.

If you are visiting Costa Rica and passing through the main International Airport in Alajuela, stop by the taxi booth at the arrivals exit of the airport. Give the books you bring in a box or bag labeled "Pura Vida Hotel/Tuetal Phone:2430-2929 for Escuela Tuetal Sur" tell the booth that the "hotel pays" and they will taxi the box to the hotel and we will take them to the school that week.

If you are visiting and staying at the Pura Vida Hotel (just up the road from the Escuela Tuetal Sur) leave the books with the hotel on your visit. If you like you can schedule a visit at the school (350 kids) and the staff and children would love to show you around.

If you have computer donations (in particular, any unused older Windoze laptops) or computer supplies they will be donated to the Escuela Poasito (which was destroyed in the
January 2009 6.2 earthquake and has now been rebuilt). This school (250 kids) is not far from Poas Volcano and makes a great visit when you are at Poas, but do let us schedule it for you so as not to interrupt the kids too much.

This pic is from the recent inauguration of the new school (the other school up at Poasito near Poas Volcano . . . Randal Luna, the school counselor is speaking and seated behind the quizzical stars of the moment are Minster Garnier, the head of education and Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica.  to the right of the President but just off camera is the directora and driver of the school, Sonia Barrantes (in the photo below thanking the farmer who donated the land for the new school).

If you are visiting ANYWHERE else in Costa Rica, contact your hotel and ask them if you can help with something for their closest public escuela (primary school) or colegio (high school).

Costa Rican Adventues . . . The last Oxcart "Factory"

Every month we try to get out and about and visit something interesting in our adopted home of Costa Rica. This time it started inauspiciously but finished perfectly.

Your Driver/Guide
Some months ago we had asked our long time driver/guide Sterling to concoct a tour of disappearing Costa Rica for guests with, like us, an interest in history. Our goal was not merely to provide a new tour but at the same time find new ways to support some of the old traditions. Perhaps some additional revenue for some ancient craftsmen might keep them in business for another generation for future visitors to learn about ancient crafts.

Another Tradition
Probably one of the greatest success stories in Costa Rica for the revival and development of an old tradition are the indigenous Borucans and their mask carving and painting in the southern zone of Costa Rica.

A Day Trip
But we needed something that would work as a day trip from the Pura Vida Hotel which began inauspiciously with the following conversation. I called up our trusty guide one morning i knew him to be free and said, "OK we're ready for the trip to the Trapiche." After a moments hesitation on the other end of the phone Sterling replies, "Um it's closed." "Ugh, too late!".

Fortunately there are 1 or 2 more "Trapiches" with public access not far from the hotel so off we went. NOTE: we'll get to the unique Trapiche later. The trip started with our English speaking guide, Sterling, picking us up after breakfast and taking us along the back route of picturesque villages and coffee
plantations to Sarchi, a 35 minute journey from the Pura Vida Hotel.

The Living Museum Tour Kicks into Gear
On the way we did a brief visit to the old metal church of Grecia (inaccurately attributed to a bad delivery destined for Greece) then on to the nicely tidy church at Sarchi, the artisan capital of Costa Rica.

Sarchi, Capital of Everything Wood
Sarchi is known for it's lovely hand painted ox carts for tourists, wood works, rocking chair makers as well as being the center of most other furniture making in Costa Rica. It is also home to what I have to refer to as "the living museum" of Elloy Alfaro and Sons.

Sarchi is a model of success when it comes to Costa Rican villages. Painted bridges, clean and well organized, souvenir stores, a nice church and so on. In the old days the oxcart was the only means of travel other than horseback along the muddy and deeply rutted trail from the central valley to the only port of the country.

Oxcart Breakdowns
On their first night out of San Jose the oxcarts had need of repairs and Sarchi was a 1 day oxcart ride from San Jose . . . and thus began the evolution of Sarchi into todays picturesque and "well to do" town of wood artisans.

Sarchi
Sarchi is really 2 towns Sarchi Norte and Sarchi Sur but you'll not know which one you are in . . . we made our way to the church, the center of nearly all Costa Rican towns. This now has an enormous oxcart in front but we had come not to tour but to visit with perhaps the last oxcart builder in Costa Rica.

Eloy Alfaro y Hijos
You feel like you should be tying up your horse or ox at the front "door" of the Alfaros oxcart "factory" rather than stepping out of a shiny 2009 Toyota Hiace. As you peer into the unlit rooms (unlit except for sunshine pouring through many "openings") You are reminded of Victorian era factory photographs.

Rubber Belts
Everything and I mean everything is in some way connected to a rubber belt or a wheel or a mechanical gear.
It is a fully equipped machine shop in every way except one. There is no electricity.

100% Green!
A long steel pole runs all the way down the shop connected to belts and gears and machinery for cutting, milling, shaving, grinding etc etc.  This pole leads back to a giant waterwheel driven by a rather small stream which has been diverted into a sluice that runs over the top of the water wheel.

Installed in 1923, rebuilt in 1934 and 1965!
An impressive brass plate shows this wheel was installed in 1923.  There is an "off switch" of course.  You pull on this wooden pole which diverts the water off the wheel and the whole shop grinds literally to a halt!

A family business
The Alfaro workshop is a family business and is headed up by two brothers Uriel and Fernando both now in their 70's. They are very happy to show you around and introduce you to everything going on in this busy place. Downstairs they make the wooden oxcart wheels including the steel hubs.  Their workshop though focused on the old arts of oxcart making in fact needs to stay afloat with other kinds of woodwork.