Ah the first few days of adjustment to a new culture, a new language, a new way of life! Beautiful, friendly Costa Ricans (known as las Ticas) have been kind and helpful with a stranger who has few skills in their language. I will include the most impressive to us in the following observations.
Email, which was to be my umbilicus to my colleagues and friends in the States, provided a tremendous challenge for me. The complexities of contracting an Internet account here in Costa Rica and being able to receive and send Email through my account in Cincinnati has been impenetrable to all until I met 19 year-old Juan Manual this afternoon in the lab. In 20 minutes or so (it WAS that difficult a problem), he was able to properly configure my computer, and now I can both receive AND send Email. (For about a week, I could only send to UC accounts!????) It follows the principle that the younger members of academia often have highly developed skills.
The weather is quite spectacular here. During the day, a bright, intense sun is moderated by mountain breezes to produce temperatures in the 70s. When we arise around 6:00, just before the sun rises, the skies are often cloudless, with cleared agricultural fields displayed in the morning light up the sides of the volcanic mountains. Clouds build during the day as the moist air from the Caribbean blows over the mountains, from which they trail like banners. Evenings are cool enough to make me glad I brought a wool shirt, and sleeping with the windows open requires a blanket.
Tican Cafe: Costa Rica is well known around the world for its excellent flavored coffees (some of which is grown in inter planted patches which provide some habitat for local wildlife). We have tried the Tican (Costa Rican) delicious way of making coffee: a fine cloth bag (bolsa) is suspended from a wire contraption over a pot. Grounds are put in the bag, and boiling water is poured over it. (We have notices that water boils at a significantly lower temp here (about 4200 feet elevation in the meseta central (central plateau)) and things take longer to cook. We bought tamales wrapped and tied in banana leaves at the local market (pulperia), which were quite good.
Nature of My Lab Activities: I am making progress in the lab, learning the ropes of isolating DNA from drawn blood, and preparing a batch of pure DNA from my own blood. My Spanish is improving bit by bit (poco a poco), and, although one senior member of the lab sternly says that everyone should only speak Spanish to me, the folks in the lab I am presently working in all speak some English, and are wonderful about both communicating in English and helping me with Spanish. The secretary calls me Dr. David over the PA system because Fankhauser is beyond the realm of possibility. (There is no local switchboard service to the labs).
Lab Personnel: Margarita over sees this particular lab, is responsible for recording the literally thousands of blood samples delivered for studies involving inherited Bipolar syndrome, genetic deafness, and schizophrenia. Andreas, a scientist of German birth and education, performs DNA extraction from patients with a Bipolar syndrome type I , and performs genetic analysis to identify which chromosome carries the BP gene, and the site on the chromosome where the trait is carried (where it "maps.") He has been my major guide this first portion of my stay. Juan Urruela is currently a Tican medical student and is learning the ropes with me. (I refer to the two of us as Dr. Cheech and Mr. Chong.) His aunt lives in Mondeverde, a "Mecca" to environmentalists from around the world for the beauty, diversity and ecological balance in this cloud forest. Tomorrow AM (5:00 AM to be precise...), he is taking his Aunt and Jill and me to meet the bus for the trip. Will be spending the weekend there.
Costa Rican Fear of theft: I have alluded to the way EVERY place is barred and padlocked. One person suggested that petty theft is considered sport by a certain class of people. The Lab where I am conducting research is located within a complex of buildings which comprise the major Costa Rican medical research institute, termed Cuidad de Investigacion. It is surrounded by barbed wire and large gates. Too enter or leave my building, a barred gate must be buzzed open. All this "to do" about locking puzzles me, because Ticans are wonderfully friendly, helpful and responsive on the street. Twice, as I was learning the currency, I have been given back excess cash which, in my ignorance, I had handed over when making a purchase.
Central Market: We are amazed by the Mercado Central--central market, once city block under roof, but with what seems like miles of narrow passageways between literally hundreds of tiny stalls. Got a yummy lunch there at a "Soda" (kind of lunch stand) for a pittance--my highlight was a "refresco" consisting of papaya, milk, a little sugar and ice, all blended into a delightfully frothy treat. Twice we have purchase fresh sea bass (corvina) which I have breaded and fried into a mouth-watering treat! Sweet, mild, tender--scrumptious!