Add it up

Okay, so I will start the blog with some good news from The Ciudad. I went to the bank today to transfer some funds to my account back at home, and the friendly woman who handles transfers greeted me warmly. I was able to do the entire transaction in Spanish understanding everything she said, and she even expressed concern that I was leaving for good (because I was transferring so much money). It was so sweet. AND my entire banking experience only took 30 minutes (even with today being social security payday in CR). All of this was very good news.

And you, guessed it, there is also bad news. The bad news is that I have to add another category to the misery index this week: Number of my students who were incarcerated this week: 1. Yes, just when I thought life in CR couldn't get any crazier, I found out yesterday that two of the African students from the University had been arrested in San Jose for walking while black...er...I mean...not carrying their passport on them. Now, I know it's the law in Costa Rica for foreigners to carry thier passport on them at all times. But I can't blame these two for not taking their passports into San Jose. One gentleman is from Nigeria and the other from Cameroon. If they had their passports lost or stolen, the closest Nigerian embassy is in Mexico, and I'm pretty sure the closest Cameroonian embassy is in the U.S. So, getting the passports replaced in time for them to fly home next week would be, in a word, impossible.

So, if we add it up, the maladies affecting my students and me in just the past two months have included: one person who got robbed, went crazy and got robbed again (the last two in my presence), one person who got robbed by a pair of con artists, one person who was robbed on the way to the beach. And one person who was arrested and put into jail. And I had to be rehydrated via IV at the local rip off (hospital cima).

All I can say is: 3 days to Boston.