crunch time

It’s crunch time in Costa Rica…actually, the spring months tend to be hectic no matter where we are posted. Our annual evaluations come due mid-May, a couple of weeks before the summer transfer season kicks off in earnest. Mercifully, we are not transferring posts this year, so can relax on that front. But the reprieve from packing and bureaucratic logistics wrangling comes with its own price. As colleagues go on long-term leave or training and prepare for their summer departures, both of us are dealing with staffing shortages in our respective offices. A close friend who had welcomed us on our arrival to Costa Rica a year-and-a-half ago recently completed his assignment and departed. Even though we’re staying put, reminders of the transient nature of our chosen careers and lifestyle abound.

mental dislocation

It’s been harder to find our groove with this assignment than our earlier Foreign Service postings, it seems. Somehow nearly half a year has gone by since our arrival in San Jose, and while we’ve gotten the kids settled into a routine with school and activities, it feels like the ground is still shifting under our feet quite a bit. 

back to the grind

It’s a bit unsettling how easily we slip into old routines and bad habits, how quickly after a vacation ends the omnipresent sense of exhaustion takes over.

early explorations

Like Manila, where we served before arriving in Costa Rica, San Jose is a gateway to a country of stunning beauty. Visitors to the Philippines minimize to the extent possible the time they spend in the congested capital before jetting off to myriad idyllic island destinations. Similarly, San Jose is an unremarkable city in a country bursting with wildlife that also boasts active volcanos, pristine cloud forests, and indescribably beautiful beaches. Unlike Manila, however, San Jose is small enough that one does not have to drive far to find hiking trails and get a taste of Costa Rica’s natural bounty.

welcome to the neighborhood

We’ve spilled a fair amount of ink recently on the challenges we’ve faced during our most recent international move. We are still working through some of them and we’ll write more about them, but we would also be remiss if we didn’t mention the warm welcome we received on arrival in Costa Rica and some of the high points of our first week at our new post.

little victories

Our first week in San Jose was a seesaw affair, as we waged a multi-front war on red tape, both foreign and domestic. While S ticked off administrative boxes on her check-in list at work, D explored banking options, attempted to acquire a local phone, and worked through the necessary steps to enable us to drive the car we had purchased from a departing colleague. There were victories and casualties on both sides of the battle. In some regards, we have made a lot of progress toward settling in. In other important respects, we still have quite a ways to go.

travel in the times of coronavirus

As the world marked the anniversary of COVID’s arrival with a mixture of profound sadness at the extent of its devastation and a glimmer of hope ushered in by the rapid development of vaccines, we’ve had more than a few occasions to reflect on the past year and how naive we all were at the outset. Remember how, before the world effectively shut down, the World Health Organization had advocated against travel restrictions, arguing that strict isolationism was not necessary and would be an ineffective way to stop the spread of the coronavirus? That did not prove to be a popular view, though by the time the debate played out in policy circles it hardly mattered. Travel ground to a halt but not fast or fully enough to prevent the outbreak from reaching pandemic proportions.

the final 48 hours

After three long weeks of slow-moving days that seemed to bleed into each other, our last few days in the Philippines were hectic as we scrambled to tie up loose ends and set our affairs in order. Finding someone to keep an eye on the apartment and serve as our proxy was easy, but we also had a few errands to run, which proved no easy feat in light of Manila’s enhanced community quarantine.

parting shots

From an early age, Munchkin exhibited a keen curiosity for photography – an interest we have nurtured, especially because it kept him engaged and occupied during our travels. Although he sometimes treated the camera as more of a handheld video game, he managed to produce quite a number of interesting shots on our trips to South Africa and Europe. It was also fascinating to see the things that attracted his attention closer to home during the year that we spent in the States.

a tale of two cities

A bird’s eye view of Manila offers a fascinating glimpse of life in this city. Open up Google Earth and zoom in on the Philippine capital, and you’ll see a warren of densely populated construction – a telltale sign of a crowded metropolis. In fact, Manila proper – with an estimated population of just under two million – is the world’s most densely populated city. There are more than 41,000 inhabitants for each square kilometer of Manila, which easily dwarfs the population density of Mumbai and Dhaka – the next two cities on the list – each of which boasts just over 28,000 residents per square kilometer.