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I fired Maid #5 today. I'm getting pretty good at it now. Let's call her Dani. Dani was fired for stealing, just like the last four. She's worked for me for about a year and a half. I found her through a friend, Lori, who's employed her for 8 years. Eight years… I thought I couldn't miss with this recommendation.
Dani worked two 5-hour days a week for Lori, the same for me. We paid her close to $5/hour, not including vacation days, CAJA (national health care) and aguinaldo [ah-gwi-NAL-dough, Christmas bonus). We gave her clothes, told her to . . . → Read More About Culturally Confusing
A woman wrote to me recently about buying a house in Key West. Once she found out I live in Costa Rica, she wrote this:
I have a question since you are living in Costa Rica. This is where my husband originally wanted to get a home. We had even started to look when we were told there is a really bad problem with people stealing and/or homesteading your property if you left it to go anywhere. Have you found this to be true? Linda
Hi Linda,
That is all true. When we leave to . . . → Read More About Squatters
"In America, you'll get food to eat. Don't have to run through the jungle and scuff up your feet. You'll just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day. It's great to be an American." – from Sail Away, Randy Newman's clever slave-trade ditty
All true, so far. We're here in the good ole U.S. of A. Hal's mom was not well (she's better now), Spirit Air had tickets for $250 each = a good time to see what's up here. I guess the USA is still the same… but . . . → Read More About In America
James has a company called Costa Rica Patrol. I wrote to him asking about his self-defense classes and also to see if he would come to our house, advise us on our household security measures. He is coming… looking forward to hearing what he says.
In this video, he is teaching the Belen fuerza pública [FWAIR-sa, strong; POO-blee-kah, public] [which is, by the way, the only armed force in the country] some pretty standard techniques. Seems they are graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Policía [s-QUAY-la, school; nah-see-oh-NALL, national; day, of; poe-lee-SEE-ah, police] without knowing . . . → Read More About Self Defense Training & Another Perspective
After all the hullaballoo about armed robberies, thefts, etc… Well, it’s all pretty depressing but you can’t dwell on it if you are going to live here. Like you can’t dwell on loss of civil liberties and working the first six months of your year to pay your share of taxes if you are going to live in the U.S. For now, we prefer here, guns ‘n all.
I also saw three movies recently that make my little problems seem insignificant. About a month ago, I watched Ghosts of Abu Ghraib on HBO. I didn’t want to sit . . . → Read More About Laptop Security
Over the past couple of days, there has been lots of discussion about my friend’s break-in and crime in particular on the Costa Rica Living Group board. If you are thinking of moving here, I recommend joining. Lots of good info from people who live here now. So far, no one is moving out and no one seems to have changed their plans to move here. That’s encouraging – we are not alone in that assessment.
One of the members – who I’ve met and who has given me great advice – . . . → Read More About Discussions With Other Expats on The Break-In
Jacqueline’s pistol-whipping break-in, along with everything else I wrote about yesterday, is upsetting our apple cart. Not to mention today’s A.M. Costa Rica article about how the I.R.S. is "helping" Costa Rica redefine it’s income tax laws. Because, you know, the U.S. is the expert when it comes to owning its citizens. Apparently, Costa Rica sees this as a good thing.
Back in the discussion of the surprise dollar devaluation against the colón, I totally skipped reporting on the inflation rate. El pais [pie-EESE, country] says it’s 10%. My pocketbook – and those of other expats . . . → Read More About Knee-Jerk Reactions
Ok, this is ridiculous. I’m having a flood of anti-Costa Rica experiences. Maybe if I get them out of my system, this rock in my gut will disappear.
IN THE NEWS. Don Oscar seems hellbent on getting Costa Rica into the 21st century. Only I don’t approve of the way he’s going about it. I don’t know why he didn’t think to ask me first, but he didn’t.
On the plus side, he’s fixing the roads – lots of painting activity, new timed streetlights in downtown San José, spending millions making the center of downtown into a paved . . . → Read More About Back Down
When I printed the Tico Times story on the theft in Jacó, I had not read the A.M. Costa Rica report (scroll down to the second page) which gives more detail. The ENTIRE story, if you will.
So the thieves got to make death threats to the couple, no money was returned, a few items reportedly recovered were actually not recovered… it sounds like the whole recovery process was a joke. Couple made to wait around several hours while nothing was accomplished. Add in a little sexual harassment to complete the package… And to top it all off, . . . → Read More About OK. This Is Slightly Worse.
This Tico Times story illustrates the only reason I would leave Costa Rica. Petty theft is rampant here and there is no consequence. None. As in zero. Unless spending one night in the slammer is considered a consequence. It’s clearly not a deterrent.
I’m not afraid of petty theft – we had plenty of that in Key West. Plenty of that everywhere. But if it got violent, if armed robbery escalated here – there is some but even then it’s rarely violent – but if it escalated and there were still no consequence, I couldn’t live with that. . . . → Read More About The Worst Thing About Costa Rica:
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