It's a tough job.....

Starting up a corporation in Costa Rica has been a sacrifice. If, that is, you can define sacrifice as working hard to do something you really want to do. For me, walking out of the airport in San Jose felt like coming back home. I took a deep breath, just because here is one place that I can, switched to Spanish mode, and set about getting us to the other side of the country. Rob has written about the trip, the bus ride, and some of the events that have occurred in the past 48 hours since we arrived....

...so, let me introduce you to some of our new friends, and Geoff's neighbours. This is Sol on the left. She and her family are here from Venezuela, trying to make a new life for themselves away from the oppressive communist government. Apparently her Dad's skin is too dark, and he counts as "negro", making him for some reason undesirable. On the right is Grandma. We don't actually know what her real name is, but she is the grandmother of David's new friend Denny. Grandma hosted a rousing game of bingo around the pool last night. In Spanish, of course. We had so much fun, we are reconvening tonight in the rancho beside the pool for the playoffs. We have purchased bags of candy for prizes.
And this is Kayley. She is Denny's girlfriend from Sunday school. She is shy and quiet, and a lot of fun. And, as you can see, she is buried up to her neck in sand. Denny's family buried her, then found us on the beach and asked us to take a picture. They didn't tell us what they had done, and left the poor girl up to her neck in sand for 20 minutes while we ate, because it would be rude to interrupt our meal.

There is a possibility that you could come to a place like this and keep to yourself, never meeting any of the people that make Costa Rica what it is. It would be a sad and pointless trip in my opinion, but it could be done. For me, I prefer watching David playing volleyball in the pool with Sol's Dad, or darts with Sol, or snorkling with Denny to look for coral and shells. I prefer playing cards with Grandma and having political discussions in Spanglish with Sol's mother and Uncle.

To each his own, I guess. And now I have to run, they are waiting out on the pool deck for me to come and play cards. Hasta manana!