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Published: December 2nd 2005
How we came up with Costa Rica
But first, a quick aside - thank you everyone for you great outpouring of support after our first travel blog entry. It really shows us how lucky we are to have such great friends and family. Please keep the comments coming. On a technical note, it seems that the comments you post on the web-site need to be accepted by us before they appear for all to see. Even after our acceptance, they do not appear for a while (I am not sure how long it takes, but it is more than an hour and less than a day). Also, we are not notified that you have posted any comments so there is a chance we do not get around to checking for them right away. Do not let this discourage you - we enjoy reading your comments and I’m sure the other subscribers do, too.
Now, back to our story…
With the combination of motivations coalescing like a tropical depression over the gulf, our “let’s go do something” storm started to blow stronger. Oddly (or maybe it wasn’t so odd), as we went through the process of deciding that we wanted to do something and refining our ideas and even all the way up to today, it seems that there are messages coming from all over reinforcing our decision.
I really wish I had kept a list of what they were because they did come from all over and from the most unexpected of places - an article in the newspaper, the moral of a children’s book, even an inane television sit-com. I was just watching the movie “Madagascar” today and was struck by how it spoke to me. The message isn’t always the same or even straight forward, but the theme is consistent - life passes quickly, take your shot while you can, get out of your rut, follow your heart, don’t let the excuses get in your way, yada, yada, yada.
As is so usual in our sound bite culture, the mavens of Madison Avenue (or wherever Nike’s ad agency is) summed it up most succinctly (but without all the nuances): “Just do it!” On the other hand, our rabbi, Rabbi Schien, put it most eloquently in her Yom Kippur sermon (by that time we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do, but not all of the elements - namely renting out our house - had fallen into place). Although we know it wasn’t the case, we felt as if she were speaking directly to us. Life is precious. Don’t waste it.
With our brainstorms raging at category 3, ideas started washing ashore. These ranged from rent a Winnebago and drive around the US to sign up for another stint with the Jewish Volunteer Corps (JVC) (the organization that sent us to Belize) to live on a kibbutz to move to New Zealand (as inspired by the NPR story). We read
One Year Off, a book by the guy who was the force behind the
Day in the Life… coffee table books. He and his family (3 kids ranging from 11 to 2 or something like that) sold all their stuff and took a trip around the world.
As we sifted through these nebulous, pie-in-the sky daydreams, gradually we refined our ideas. Unlike the
Year Off family, we never really considered chucking everything - we were more on the sabbatical/hiatus plan. Early on, we decided that traveling around was not the path we wanted to take. The great experiences we had in Belize and London showed us that our greatest pleasures were from meeting people and being immersed in a new culture, not rushing around to see the tourist sights. Sometimes the best experiences are going to the supermarket or playing in a soccer game - just doing the regular things of life, but in different surroundings. In order to get this, you need to be in one place and have a reason for being there like school or a job that gives you an attachment to the community. Just traveling, even when you have friends you are visiting, doesn’t provide this.
Next, we thought it would be a great benefit if our kids could learn another language while they are young. We read that a person needs to learn a language by the time they are 7 years old or they will never have a “native” accent. (I don’t know how true that is, but I do know that I speak Spanish with a horrendous gringo accent. And Eliana has magically acquired the ability to switch into a native Boston accent.) Since I know Spanish fairly well and Dara has the basics down, it was natural for us to decide to head to a Spanish speaking country. Although it may be a bit of a rough transition, we thought (and are very hopeful that) Ari and Eliana will be able to pick up the new language quickly.
With these two realizations, Hurricane Bortman’s path started to take shape - either Spain or Latin America. Although we would have loved Spain, we had to rule it out as too expensive and little chance to work. With our sights moved to Latin America, Costa Rica really stood out - it is a stable democracy with great health care and education systems. They actually disbanded their army in the late 1940’s and invested their money in education - quite a contrast to the other countries in the region (or the hemisphere, or the world, for that matter). Buenos Aires and Santiago did cross our lips a few times, as did Guatemala and El Salvador (only because the JVC has projects there) but were not too seriously considered. Moreover, it seems universally accepted that Costa Rica is an absolutely beautiful country with terrain that includes beaches, jungles, mountains and volcanoes - much of it protected in national parks. We also have heard repeatedly that the people of Costa Rica (Ticos) are very friendly in general and really love children.
Another aspect of Costa Rica is that it is close enough to the United States that I could conceivably continue selling flowers. It is true that this could be seen as running counter to the get out of your rut, go live your life mantra that has been whistling in the wind. As I said before, I don’t think that selling flowers is a long-term career path for me. Is it an ok, short-term, “keep some money coming in while being flexible enough to live my life the way I want to” job?
For you philosophical/psychologist types, we can have a nice long discussion. Am I selling out the “go for your dream, follow your heart” vision or just keeping a safety blanket in case the vision turns into delusion? Am I not even giving the vision a chance because I am staying too attached to my safety blanket? I could go on and on but (this blog aside) I am not an essay test kind of guy given to deep pondering. (I prefer multiple choice.) Selling flowers is an easy way to keep some money coming in and shouldn’t preclude me (as long as I make a conscious effort) from investigating what else is out there in the world.
I have, however, digressed. Now that we have Costa Rica selected, our next installment will talk about what we did next in making this happen. Before I go, though, I would like to make an important note. Although these blogs might make it seem that Dara, the engineer, and I, a logical thinker, had set up a flow chart and were just following the if-then statements from one box to the next, that is not at all how it went.
Ideas were popping up, late nights were spent surfing the web chasing down these ideas - sometimes Dara was looking into something while I didn’t think it was a good idea and vice versa. Looking back on it, I don’t really know how we came up with what we did. Was it just luck, serendipity? I am a firm believer, however, that you make your own luck. I guess the benefit hindsight allows us to take all of our disparate thoughts and finally put our reasoning into an understandable format.
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Rabbi Susan Schein
non-member comment
Yes, I WAS speaking directly to YOU! ; )
Yes, I absolutely WAS speaking directly to YOU! Of course, I also was speaking to myself and to everyone else. Life IS precious. I'm so glad that you have chosen to embark on this amazing adventure. N'seeyah Tovah / Have a wonderful journey!