Newsletter # 9

Bridges & More Newsletter # 9 January 20, 2008

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in San Josecito almost two weeks and in Costa Rica almost three. I stayed five days in San Jose visiting with Carlos and Cindi. Their apartment in San Pedro, the university section of San Jose, has become my transition place and I enjoy spending time with them and their almost 3-year-old Camila.

Here in San Josecito I find all our friends well and happy, enjoying the January vacation before school starts up again. The school has a fresh coat of paint; the salon is clean and our recycling barrels are neatly lined up and labeled for use; the signs Julie made last year add a homey sweetness to the already beautiful drive up our road.

The road itself has suffered during the rainy months from construction traffic, and now that most of the rains have stopped it’s time to get started on repair projects. The hardest part of these is always collecting the money. This year the biggest chunk will go to the placement of some huge culverts. They were provided by the municipality because it is, after all, a public road. But the municipality only paid for the culverts themselves. It has taken about a year to raise the money to have them trucked in and unloaded. Now they sit at odd angles along the side of the road awaiting placement—no doubt more money to be raised! I have not yet been present for any of the road committee meetings, so cannot report much beyond this, but will be attending the next one this Friday.

The church is much as it was when I left last year in August. The community itself has raised some more money toward finishing it and toward repaying loans. Bridges & More has donated $1500 which is currently being held by my dear friends and helpers, Ronny Duarte and Betriz Picado. North American community members James Lewis (don Jaime) and Richard Mattison are also working to collect funds. These are not directly available to be used at the discretion of the community. Instead they’re being put in escrow with a lawyer in San Jose who then is petitioned by the community to pay the hardware store in Uvita for supplies. But there are additional expenses that are not for materials: the community is getting help on certain parts of the construction from a contractor in Uvita, and he and his men must be paid. So Bridges & More donations will be used for these non-material expenses. Currently Ronny has drawn up a list of materials and is getting prices on them to submit to the Richard and the lawyer. Javier, the contractor, visited recently. I’m hoping we’ll see action soon!

Alvin Nunez and Guisella Lopez, whose boy Estiben will be starting school in February, are still concerned about the lack of a bridge. As I reported previously, the municipality is still planning to provide one, but there has been a holdup because the original plan of building a very small bridge that would accommodate only small vehicles is being questioned at some level of the cumbersome governmental hierarchy. Rumor has it that the central government is considering using this road through our little town as a main highway between Uvita and San Isidro. Currently traffic runs from San Isidro to Dominical, then along the coast to Uvita. The road between Dominical and San Isidro is crowded, insufficient, and dangerous.

Meanwhile development in Uvita down below us is exploding—it’s probably the fastest developing area of Costa Rica. Until recently this area was where you were told to go if you wanted to see what Costa Rica was like ten years ago. Now that rustic Costa Rica is lost here as it has been in virtually every other coastal community in the country. If our road is chosen to accommodate the traffic between Uvita and San Isidro, San Josecito as we know it will also be lost forever. We’re all hoping the government chooses a different road to use (there are a couple other candidates). Meanwhile, bridge construction has been held up, and Avin and Luis Nunez will need to undertake yet another trip to the municipality in Cortes to talk to the mayor. If nothing happens, Bridges & More may be back in the foot bridge business!

I’m happy to report that the Isidro Nunez family has reached an amicable agreement with neighbors in regards to easement access to the river-crossing that leads to their land. Isidro can now sell a section of his land to finance building a bridge. Depending on what happens with the main bridge, Bridges & More may be able to help with this. I personally am considering buying a strip of the land that would lead between the upper primary forest and the river in order to let it grow back to its natural state. This would provide a corridor of access to the river for monkeys, sloths, pumas, etc. This idea is still in the dream stage and will depend on Isidro agreeing to sell such a strip of land and my being able to raise the money! At this point I need to sell land before buying more.

Beatriz Picado has continued to enjoy growing organic vegetables in her “huerta,” and I’ve been fortunate to consume a few of them! She decided not to pursue selling to the distributor who markets in Dominical because the cost of gas is so high it’s not really practical to haul the stuff to him. Guisella is using the mud oven we constructed to make bread, and I enjoyed some of that too, in spite of my intention to stop eating white flour! It was sure good! She approached the owner of a local grocery in Uvita about selling her bread, but he doesn’t want to handle it because it’s preservative-free and has a short shelf-life. What I’m seeing as a current community need is a market-place in Uvita for locally grown produce and locally made items. Fortunately I bought a lot there before prices sky-rocketed. Now I’m imagining a community market-place, a sort of farmer’s market that will sell Tico products and serve as a coming together place for the Tico and Gringo communities. Once again, it’s in the dream stage, and will depend on my own financial resources, as it would be a conflict of interest to develop that property with Bridges & More money.

That’s all for now—Pura Vida!!! Elizabeth