Monday, Monday...

The importance of a good specification

I was standing over there by the tomatoes
And here he come
Running thru the pole beans, thru the fruits and vegetables
Ray Stevens

Earlier in the blogs, I mentioned that San Jose has just completed renovation of their terminal. This is a big step up, as you no longer have to walk across the tarmac in the rain to enter the main building.

Unfortunately, they did not plan any method of segregating arriving passengers from departing passengers, or international arrivals from domestic arrivals. The end result of this lack in the specifications, is that it is just possible to enter the country illegally – even by accident – and cause issues when trying to leave the country when missing a passport stamp.

This is bad.

Worse yet, it is possible for unscrupulous individuals to bring contraband from countries with less thorough security measures, and hand it off to someone boarding a flight to a country where security is tight. This handoff can happen inside the security perimeter, near where you actually board the plane.

The obvious solution? Segregate the arrivals, even if it means disembarking at one gate then moving the aircraft to another gate for boarding.

The Costa Rica solution? Have 10 people stand on the ramp leading to the plane and do a second physical search of carry on baggage and passengers before they board their plane.
On the Ramp.
As people are trying to board.
After they have put pens, documents, sunglasses, change and car keys back in their pockets for destination use.
Removing shoes and belts.
Can you see any problems???

Also, this means no liquids – that large bottle of water you purchased inside security? Throw it away…

Sigh...

Some things about Central America won’t be missed.

Sunday Continued

The trip home

Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again
-Willie Nelson

During this trip, my WIFI card died. While I had building access to the Technology Center, it was a simple matter to plug in an ethernet cable and blog to my heart’s content. However WIFI has become so cheap and prevalent, that it is virtually impossible to get an internet connection by any other means in hotels and airports.

So I have pent up blogging energy, and you are getting several posts together.

First, a couple pictures of friends. Here Zorida is saying goodbye to Dianne and I.


We are having a drink at the restaurant where she used to waitress – she now works as a cook at the restaurant across the street. Conversations are slow, as she speaks no English and we speak no Spanish, but between Dianne’s Spanish-English dictionary, and my electronic translator, and of course a pen and paper, we have deep discussions about life and culture.

We also have races to see who can translate faster. Dianne’s book requires less configuration changes, my translator can also say the word when my handwriting is not legible (most of the time).

We were not able to visit her home this trip, and she was disappointed because she has made some improvements while we were away. She made us promise to stay with her on our next visit. We will communicate by “snail mail” as she has no computer, or email.


Here is Napoleon (Napo for short), who has mixed feelings about us leaving. He can finally get his porch back without the funny speaking people on it, however they were pretty good at scratching that spot dogs have trouble reaching.

It’s a tough doggie call.


Finally, on the bus trip, Dianne decided to photograph the countryside. Her guardian angel with the twisted sense of humour intervened (ask her about it), however.

Every subject she wanted to capture was either spotted a bit too late, or the bus hit a bump, or once even a truck passed the window exactly as she pressed the shutter release.

End result? 37 completely useless photographs. I don’t think we ever laughed so hard.

Here’s one of the better ones…



I don't know either.

Sunday, November 27

Thinking about the future

You can travel on 10,000 miles, and still stay where you are – Harry Chapin


Our last full day in Cahuita, Ernesto and I finally found time to sit and talk, and start to plan for the future.

Back in 2006, when the original founder left the organization, a lot of US funding disappeared shortly afterward. The local group that the project transitioned to, while well intentioned, soon lost interest, as the ability to pay salaries decreased along with charitable funding, and before long, as people went to find paying jobs, records were in disarray.

When I got involved in 2008, Ernesto and I decided the best path forward was to create a new Costa Rican non-profit organization and effectively close the old organization by gifting the assets (about 50 computers) to the new organization.

I started finding computers to deploy, Ernesto ran the center, and we received some small funding from US charitable organizations, as well as the Cahuita community, to cover some salary, a couple part time helpers, electricity, phone, internet, and other building costs.

Late 2009, the US recession hit and by mid 2010 all US charitable funding had dried up. In fact, the most supportive organizations, funded no projects at all anywhere in 2011.

What does this mean? Well, the value of the project is well proven to the people of the Talamanca region, and it would be a huge step backwards to stop. Ernesto and his family have to eat, however, and shipping expenses continue to increase with the cost of fuel.

We decided that The Cahuita Technology center can be self sustaining by providing a local computer repair service, fee based internet access, and a slight increase to the cost of adult training. This is not an ideal answer, but a necessary one, I think.

We also need to find a way to get some help at the center. Right now, Ernesto is pretty much on his own. This means that if he needs to leave for any reason – to visit a school,
a doctor’s appointment, or if his daughter is sick, the center closes. And we all know the key to any successful business (non-profit or otherwise) is that it must be open when needed, or people simply find alternatives, and it won’t be self sustaining for long.

There are 13 formal requests from schools for computers, on a clipboard on the wall, totaling well over 100 machines, and only 5 functioning computers available to deploy, so I need to get this shipment on the road as soon as possible. Ernesto and I agreed to a series of regular discussions going forward, as well as producing some regular reports for folks that are interested.

It was a solidly productive meeting.

Afterwards, Dianne and I made rounds saying goodbye to old and new friends, and went off to pack for the bus trip to San Jose.