Thursday - Trip with Minor

This morning I was supposed to try and get up early to play basketball with a group of guys from Habitat before work…so I set my alarm for 5:50…to get to a 6:15 am game…I know, absolutely insane…right? Well my alarm goes off, I look at it, pick it up, turn it off and roll right back over. I never should have committed to this last night. I tried to get up and splash some water on my face and put on my shorts…when I realized…this is not happening…If I can barely put on my shorts, how am I going to be awake enough and coordinated enough to play ball? I’m not…so I did the prudent thing and climbed back into bed…unfortunately I forgot to reset my alarm…so I got re-woken up at 8:15 (I usually arrive at work at 8 am) as Minor was calling about our trip to Sarapique today. SO I busted out of bed, took a 45 second shower, dressed in 2 minutes and was out the door racing to the taxi stand…taxi to work and I was there by 8:30…amazing. I got there so fast that I caught Minor by surprise as he had just made a cup of coffee…so I checked my email and had a cup of coffee myself, and we headed out of the office at 9.

First stop of the day was a visit to Heredia, near Minor’s house, where his old organization, an NGO called Fuprovi, was beginning a 165 house development. We got to the job site, met the foremen and were immediately handed a reflective orange safety vest and a hard hat: a good example for my construction site safety project. They were finishing the pavement for the road which wound around the complex, and had already installed many of the septic systems…and work on the houses was going to begin next week. Fuprovi is a similar organization to Habitat – but uses a different method of implementation, and is only based in Costa Rica. But they also attack the problem of substandard housing.

Back in Minors SUV and we went into Herredia to Minor’s favorite little soda, run by a Jamacian woman. Outstanding coffee and gallo pinto con huevos…and we discussed the London terrorist bombings and the G8 summit. Sent out a little prayer to our friends and family in England (my motherland) and was reminded of the feeling that has steered me into the Conflict Resolution field. I only hope that I can have a positive impact.

Now for the long drive of the day, up and over the mountains towards the Atlantic coast…my first time to the East of San Jose. A tunnel goes through the mountains after a long drive up on a well maintained, but curvy mountain road. On the other side the climate changes, and so does the vegetation…different plants, different colors, different leaves…and the climate is taken advantage of by all of the major fruit companies, Dole, DelMonte, Dos Pinos…as they all have huge banana, pineapple and other fruit plantations on the flat land once you descend from the mountains. We drive by the monoculture, and after a couple of hours we arrive at the tiny little town of Sarapique, where Fuprovi is working on a different project, with an alternative construction material, that Minor wants to explore for potential use by Habitat. It is called Fiber Cement and is basically a form of treated drywall, that is rot resistant, insect resistant, and lighter and in some cases cheaper then the traditional cement block construction methods. We toured various houses in different stages of completion, and then toured a mini workshop place (that is the beacon of efficiency down here) as they produce the finished wooden framing for the walls of these fiber cement houses. So mass production allows it to be much more efficient, and lets the organization complete projects on a much larger scale (this one was 65 homes) then habitat. Unfortunately, as we pulled off the highway and onto the dirt road towards the project, we heard a pop and Minor’s SUV started acting a little funny. When we stopped I looked under the vehicle and found out that he had blown the piping that carries the brake fluid to the front brakes…so after visiting the project, we headed straight to a mechanic (fortunately there was one right across the main highway from the dirt road to Sarapique). They took off the tires and went in search of replacement piping, as well as new brake pads…and the first try was unsuccessful, as the guy forgot to take the brakepads with him and came back with the wrong ones. When he returned a second time he reported that they didn’t have the correct parts…so after 2 hours of waiting Minor had them transfer all of the braking power to the back tires, put the front tire back on, and we were headed on the 2 hour journey home with minimal braking power. Fortunately we were headed uphill for most of the way, so gravity was our friend; but when we got through the tunnel and headed downhill back to SJ, we had to use 2nd gear a lot for the way to keep the SUV under control. Luckily we didn’t have any problems despite the ominous circumstances…though it did take us 3 hours to get home instead of 2 because we were being extra careful. Oh – 1 more thing…Minor got pulled over…if you can call it that. There are no real cops here in Costa Rica (just like there is no army); and the only thing they have is traffic enforcement…where a guy stands on the side of the road with a radar gun and waves at you if you are going to fast, and the wave means you have to pull over and talk to him. Minor did not succumb to the guy asking for a 3,000 colone bribe (about $7) to avoid the ticket, and instead made the guy write out a 10,000 colone (about $22 bucks) ticket to pay legitimately.

Finally the night ended with the Thursday night soccer game, though we only had 3 guys show up and had to take a player from the other team just to be able to play…Because there were less people there was more space on the field and that lead to more scoring opportunities, and more goals. I played both goalie and in the field today and we kept the un-beaten streak alive…though the winning streak ended in a 19-19 tie. What a long crazy day…just glad I went back to bed and didn’t try and play basketball that early…don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to that?