Pura Vida! A business trip into Costa Rica...

A month ago I had a change of pace from the Caribbean islands as far as my work travel goes.  I went to COSTA RICA!  My territory is only in the Caribbean, but I am on the international team with co-workers who cover Central and South America.  Daniel is my teammate who covers Costa Rica and Panama, and he organized a huge event, a “Milwaukee Blitz Week.”  Daniel, my manager, a teammate in Mexico, and I got to be in Costa Rica for 5 days, ‘blitzing’ the country with Milwaukee.  We worked with a big hardware store chain and wholesale distributor called Torneca, and together the Milwaukee and Torneca teams went all around the Costa Rican countryside visiting little hardware stores, construction companies and construction worksites with the purpose of building and bettering relationships, spreading the word of Milwaukee Tool’s new initiatives internationally, analyzing the market’s need and opportunity, and ultimately driving sales to meet goals.  This experience was so awesome and unlike any other I’ve had so far with this position.  I’m always bouncing around the islands to the small hardware stores, but my islands speak almost all English (a thick ‘island English’)… Costa Rica is a Latin country where they speak ALL SPANISH!  Todo en Español!  Those who know me, you know how big of a passion I have for the Latin culture and for speaking Spanish, so this was a great fit.  It was also a unique experience because I worked with a Torneca representative and got to experience being on a 3-way team:  Torneca, myself (representing Milwaukee), and the little hardware stores in the countryside of the country that Torneca attends to.  This was different because sometimes a store’s perception of and attitude toward a brand is defined by the relationship (good or bad) with the sales rep.  For many years Torneca has been representing Milwaukee Tool without Milwaukee Tool having its own reps in the countryside of Costa Rica, and they’ve been doing a great job, but nothing is flawless, and there are always some hiccups.  It was interesting to hear what some of these little hardware stores thought of Milwaukee just by what they’d heard, or by the way they were or were NOT cared for well in the past when being sold our tools.  There were a couple instances where I had to set some records straight about misconceptions on our tools and our objectives moving forward, but overall I collected really great data about a positive attitude for Milwaukee in Costa Rica.  I rode with the Torneca reps in their cars, and I got to see much of the Costa Rican countryside that I wouldn’t have seen if I was there on vacation.  We drove up in the mountains around San Jose (the capital) through Sarchi, Palmares, Atenas, Grecia, and Naranjo.   Interesting fact:  Naranjo is a region of Costa Rica with a lot of coffee plantations, and it is one of the places that Starbucks buys its coffee beans from internationally. 

Costa Rican countryside...everything is GREEN!

One of my days on the jobsites, I went with a Torneca rep named Gerardo to a couple of the big construction projects around San Jose.  I had to wear a hardhat and everything.  One of the companies in particular, Eliseo Vargas, is one of the biggest construction companies in Costa Rica, and I got to demonstrate to a few of the head guys the benefits of some of our new cordless tools, corded grinders, and also speak to Milwaukee’s commitment in Costa Rica moving forward.  A sidenote about power tools: the future of tools is a cordless tool, un inalámbrico.  There are electric tools that plug in and then there are tools that function from a battery that can be recharged.  Well, corded tools are less expensive, but less convenient.  Batteries are not cheap, but the benefits and longevity of a cordless tool with a high-quality Lithium-Ion battery far outweigh the higher cost.  Both on my islands and through much of Costa Rica, the higher cost associated is a huge barrier in getting the people to believe in and invest in cordless tools; so, this was something we really focused on through the week—educating the people on cordless tools, letting them touch and use the tools, and hopefully invest in what is better for business in the long-run.   In the middle of the week we had a huge Milwaukee Event from 7-11pm at night, where hardware store owners and construction company management came from all over the countryside to a Torneca store in San Jose for a big evening event promoting Milwaukee.  We had about 100 of our tools on display and demonstration areas to cut, grind and drill with the tools.  Torneca catered in food and drinks and hired the “best comedian in Costa Rica” to come and give a show.  Even though I speak pretty solid Spanish, I didn’t get many of the jokes and had to pull out some fake laughs.  A joke is never as funny if it’s not in your native language (that’s a fact) even if you understand the words being spoken.  It was packed and a valuable experience for me.   I didn’t sit down once…I just stood by the tool wall and talked Spanish about Milwaukee tools nonstop for 4 hours.  

At Ferreteria San Ramon up in the mountains...a loyal Milwaukee store!

At the jobsite in San Jose.

Enough about work.  Let’s back up to the weekend before that.  I worked in Costa Rica a Monday – Friday, but I was able to book my ticket a few days early and spend the prior weekend on the island to explore a little.  I flew in on a Friday afternoon and met up with my new Costa Rican friend, Freddy.  A friend of mine from living in Dallas, Ashley, told me about a good friend she had in Costa Rica who might want to hang out during my free weekend.  Through Ashley and Facebook, I connected with Freddy O’Connor.  Now, you’re probably picturing a red-headed, freckled boy from Ireland, but Freddy is full Costa Rican.  You sort of pronounce his name with a Latin accent: ‘Fray-dee Oh-coe-nore.’   Anyway, I trusted Ashley and she trusted Freddy, so he picked me up from the airport and brought me to a safe hotel/hostel in Alajuela, Costa Rica, where I stayed for 3 nights before I had to transfer to the Marriott in San Jose when work started on Monday.  As many of you know, I’m a big SALSA dancer now…I learned in Dallas and dance a lot in Miami with the Latin scene, and Freddy knew of a couple great places to dance, so we went to a traditional Costa Rican restaurant and went dancing the first night.  They eat a lot of rice and beans, but something else I fell in love with in Costa Rica is ceviche!  I’m not even sure what it is, and I know it differs in every country (originally from Peru), but it’s like a raw white fish that sits ‘marinating’ in lime/lemon juice all night, and they serve it chilled in a small cocktail dish with cilantro, onion, etc.  I loved it!  I had it four times in my eight days there, and I only got sick once from it…   The dancing in Costa Rica was great!  They dance something called cumbia…and I thought I knew how to dance cumbia from the Mexican influence in Dallas, but there are all sorts of cumbia styles.  Costa Rican cumbia involves not only turning and spinning, but JUMPING!  They do these little hop steps for part of the basic move, and I was really bad at it the one time I tried, but it was interesting to watch…looked almost like a jumping workout that you’d do in basketball practice!  On Saturday we drove around the area and tried to see one of the many volcanoes in Costa Rica – Vulcan Poas.  The drive was BEAUTIFUL.  I’ve never been anywhere that’s more green than Costa Rica.  There’s so much rainforest, and the people really know how to take care of it by recycling, promoting eco-tourism, etc.  Unfortunately it was too foggy to get up to the volcano, but the drive was nice, and we ended up stopping at a waterfall.  There is so much more to do in Costa Rica – volcanoes, natural springs, hiking, ziplining, beaches, etc., but I decided I need to fly down there and just spend at least a week exploring someday.  I also went to Café Britt, a coffee manufacturer who buys all of its beans from suppliers around the Costa Rican countryside, and I sampled more coffee than I’ve ever had in my life.  The BEST part about the coffee tour, though, was the chocolate-covered coffee beans that they make.  I had some great conversations with the workers in the gift shop, and they recommended to me some great Costa Rican salsa and cumbia music that I’m listening to now as I type. 

Typical Costa Rican dinner: fried plantains, rice, chicken, black beans, salsa, vegetables.

That's Freddy - looking up at La Paz Waterfall

Catarata La Paz (Peace Waterfall)!

 

Sunday, my last day of freedom before work: I spent it with some CAM (Central American Ministries) missionaries who my missionary friend from Dallas hooked me up with.  Before leaving for Costa Rica, I was commenting to my Dallas missionary friend, Stephen, that I had to check a huge bag on my flight to take a few hammer drills down for work purposes, but that I’d have extra space in the bag.  He suggested that I get in touch with a mission team down in CR and see if they needed me to bring anything.  So, through Stephen, I got in touch with Alejandro and Daniel, two Costa Rican CAM missionaries.  They suggested that I bring some school supplies for the Sunday school at their church.  So, I packed a huge suitcase full of Milwaukee hammer drills, notebooks, and pencils.  I met up with the missionary brothers, Daniel and Alejandro, and also their significant others, and we went to church together in the morning and just spent time together in fellowship for the afternoon.  The Sunday school wasn’t aware that I was bringing anything, but they ended up needing to use some of the supplies I had brought on that same day, so that was really awesome to be a vessel to bring what they needed!  I don’t mean to say there aren’t school supplies in Costa Rica, but they are more expensive and mission churches don’t exactly roll in the dough.  I’ve never been on a major mission trip or anything, so it was great to be able to do something small and see how grateful people can be.  It was humbling.  Spending time with Alejandro, his wife Lory, and the others was really great to just share together in good conversation about our travels, our countries’ similarities/differences, how God is working in our lives and the lives of others, laughing about my Spanish accent and their English accents, etc.  As I keep them in my prayers and stay thankful for having met them briefly, I know that when I go back down there someday, whether for work or leisure or both, I will meet up with them again. 

One of my 2 suitcases, full of power tools for work and school supplies for the church.

The CAM Missionaries I hung out with (Alejandro and Daniel) and their wives.

I can’t end this blog post without speaking a little to culture and also the Spanish language differences in Costa Rica.  Freddy was awesome to talk to about all of this and go with to local restaurants.  As you know, I’m ALL about the local, cultural experience—trying new foods and learning about the language differences.  Obviously, the language is Spanish, but I’m talking about the accent that they use in Costa Rica versus in Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, etc.  This kind of thing fascinates me. 

FOOD: So, besides eating ceviche, Freddy and I stopped for breakfast at a small, local place in the mountains called Dona Mayela, where I tried a typical Costa Rican breakfast: gallo pinto (rice mixed with beans, cilantro, and spices), eggs (cooked in pan from chickens…you know…), and my favorite – una chorreada!  A chorreada is like an amazing pancake x10!  It’s made of corn, and is flat and sweet and cooked in a pan.  You can put whip cream (a Costa Rican whip cream equivalent…Natilla) on it…I would have preferred peanut butter or Nutella, but the chorreada was amazing.  Now, if you’re not a sweet-tooth like me, you might not like it.  I also had some of the freshest juices I’ve ever had in Costa Rica.  There are juices (called ‘naturales’) made of fruits I’ve never heard of – guanabana, maracuya, mamey, etc. 

 

CULTURAL FACTS: People from Costa Rica are called Costa Ricans, but they’re also called ‘Ticos’ or ‘Ticas.’  In fact, anything or anyone Costa Rican can be Tico/Tica.  For example, the paragraph you just read was explaining typical comida tica.  I went to tico restaurants, met a lot of Ticos, tried dancing cumbia tica, etc.  I would frequently say throughout the week when people asked me if I liked Costa Rica, “Si!  Ya me he puesto en media Tica!” (I’ve already become half-Costa Rican!).  They also use a key phrase in Costa Rica – ‘Pura Vida.’  This literally means ‘pure life,’ but can translate as many, many, many things.  For example, when greeting someone in the morning, one person says “Buenos Dias” and the other says “Pura Vida”…meaning hello.  You can say Pura Vida instead of Gracias (thank you), Pura Vida instead of Que Pasa (what’s up?), Pura Vida instead of a word for ‘cool!’…etc.  Another difference in the Costa Rican Spanish is the words for ‘you’re welcome.’  Typically in Spanish, this is ‘de nada,’ but in Costa Rica they say ‘con gusto,’ which literally translates at ‘with pleasure.’  I must say, it grew on me and sounds much more pleasant!  

‘TICO’ SPANISH: A final language difference I’ll explain is the way they DO NOT roll their ‘R’s.’  As you know, when saying the Spanish word for car – ‘carro,’ your tongue is supposed to roll, but they don’t in Costa Rica!  At first it sounded to me like they were saying it wrong – like a bunch of silly Americans attempting to speak Spanish.  But, that’s how they pronounce most of the R’s…just as we would in English…whether it’s a double ‘rr’ or a single ‘r.’ One of my secrets: as much in love as I am with the Latin culture and Spanish language, and as much as I tried when living in Spain and also taking phonetics and linguistics classes in college, I could NEVER learn to properly roll my R’s….so I fit right in!

Overall, my 9 days in Costa Rica were amazing.  The country was beautiful and so much different than the Caribbean islands.  You can tell it’s not a small island, but rather a developed country with more amenities, a faster pace of living (not the fast American pace, but not the pokey island pace), a really friendly and open-minded people, and a welcoming attitude for foreigners interested in their country.  Seriously, Costa Rica is extremely advanced.  While they have no army, they invest heavily in education, and it shows with their literacy rate over 95%...which is better than the U.S.  They are still classified as a third world country, but many, many young people attend a university and unemployment isn’t as bad as it is in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.  And for me, just having everything in Spanish and spending 9 straight days speaking Spanish and even doing business in Spanish was AWESOME.  I truly have been blessed with a passion for the language and culture.  It was rewarding to spend time with local people like Freddy and the CAM missionaries, who openly invested time and energy in me and helping me learn more about their country.  It’s something to be proud of.  Thanks for reading, guys!  Pura Vida!

My boss tries his first coconut, a guy buys me a chocolate milk, Melissa comes to St. Thomas, the threat from the car rental lady, and I’m brought to tears during a flight conversation with an elderly woman dying of 2 cancers ...

Howdy y’all,

I hope I haven’t already overwhelmed and/or bored you with my long-winded title above.  That’s a lot of random stuff, but I wasn’t sure how to sum it up into one theme.  These stories are from different weeks of travel to different places.  I will tackle them one-by-one.

Starting with the least-exciting: my boss has his first coconut.  We were in St. Thomas, walking out of a hardware store, and there was a coconut stand.  My boss had never tried one, so I boldly said “Dave, do you want to try a coconut?  I’ll buy you one – you HAVE to try it!”  Knowing my boss and his tunnel-focus on work (which isn’t a bad thing…he’s a good boss and an extremely successful Milwaukee Tool manager… but c’mon – we are on tropical islands every week… try a blazin’ coconut!), I figured he wouldn’t want to, but I convinced him.  He liked it, and I even got him to pose with the coconut man in a photo for PROOF!   Yes, we’re there to work, but when you skip lunch and have a nutritious coconut opportunity right next to you, you gotta seize that opportunity.  I say it in Spanish because that’s how it sounds best: Hay que aprovechar! He liked the coconut but wasn’t able to finish all of the water (it’s not milk) inside, so we got in the car and he put it by his feet to take back to the hotel.  Well, with me driving and dodging the inevitable potholes on the island roads, he got a sock-full of coconut water by the time we got back to the Marriott, but I think (and hope) he still thought the experience was worth it. 

A guy buys me a chocolate milk:  Some of you may have seen this story on Facebook weeks ago, but I have to blog about it, too.  St. Thomas is my most-visited island, and I always stay at the Marriott when I’m there.  St. Thomas is also where I stay when I need to go to the other U.S. Virgin Islands (St. John and St. Croix), so I’ve gotten to know a couple of the employees at the Marriott.  There are a few restaurants/bars in the Marriott resort, so one night I decided to leave the loneliness of my hotel room and bring my laptop to the lobby bar to work on emails down there and chat with one of my Marriott friends, Brian.  I wasn’t about to drink, but I had to order something since I was sitting at the lobby bar, so I had Brian make me chocolate milk (which I frequently request at dinners when traveling…maybe because I’m from the Dairy State).  Well, I was sitting at the end of the bar working on my laptop with an empty glass in front of me.  A gentleman sitting on the couches behind me must have seen this as an opportunity, so this guy (I don’t even know his name…let’s call him Fulanito) walks up and says to Bartender Brian “Give me 2 more Heinekens, and then another of whatever she’s drinking” as he points to me.  I said “No, no I’m good, thanks.”  He insisted, so Bartender Brian, with a smile on his face, went about making me another chocolate milk!  (he had to add Hershey’s syrup to white milk).  You can imagine the look on Fulanito’s face when a chocolate milk was placed in front of me and then put on his bar tab.  HAHA!  He looked at the milk and looked at me and I smiled and said “I’m just drinking milk.”  He said “I don’t think I’ve ever bought a chocolate milk for anyone before” and walked away.  HAHA!  It was funny, and whatever his ulterior motives were to buying this girl a drink, it was gonna take an infinite amount of milks! 

Wisconsin friend visits: back in March, before the chocolate milk incident, my Wisconsin friend, Melissa, spent her Veterinary School Spring Break with me.  We went to St. Thomas and St. Croix (staying at the Marriott in St. Thomas), and she found out that I actually DO work when I’m in tropical paradise!  Melissa, can you please vouch for me- I actually DO work on these islands!  She’ll tell you that yes, while I’m in sunny Paradise, I still put in many hours driving around to hardware stores and sitting at my computer.   She was able to do a lot of relaxing, and she made a few friends, but I think she may have gotten a bit lonely, too, with me being gone 8 hours/day like a typical job demands.  Nevertheless, I know she enjoyed it, spent time in the ocean, went scuba-diving (legitimate scuba-diving…she’s certified and everything), and even trespassed over a fence on the Marriott grounds to go down by the surf when it was low-tide to find numerous exo-skeletons of crabs to take home.  She’s very intelligent and reads more than anyone I know and is also fascinated with wildlife, even if it’s an exoskeleton of a crab; therefore, we had to preserve those fragile exoskeletons for the remainder of her trip as if our lives depended on it.  Count on Melissa, the animal and nature-loving adventurist (with no sense of rules) to jump the boardwalk at the hotel and go down by the prohibited area of the beach on the rocks and find exoskeletons of crabs and other little creatures …. I think that she now has them on display in her college apartment as a pretty neat souvenir from the Caribbean, so that’s cool J.  Her gaping mouth at the landscape and the blue waters on the drive from the airport to the hotel on the first day reminded me that most people don’t see this natural beauty much (or at all) in their lifetimes…I need to remember to sit back, take a deep breath of ocean air, and be thankful for this job, regardless of the inconsistencies and instabilities (and aging) it brings on (Traveling 100% of the time for your job is not all lollipops and roses).  It helped me remember that I am in some of the most beautiful places on earth…appreciate it! Right, Melissa?  (She’s known me for almost 10 years and knows that I tend to be a bit too uptight and stressed…but I’m getting better, right?)

The threat of the St. Maarten car rental lady:  I walked into the car rental place in St. Maarten, and it was my 3^rd time there, and the intimidating lady at the counter recognized me.  She was kind of grumpy the first couple times I was there, so I was sure to be perky and friendly right back to her.  She took my credit card, verified my reservation, and said to the assistant “Give her a good one.”  You’re wondering as you read right now “it’s a rental car place..aren’t they all ‘good’ cars?”  Well, no they’re not! Haha.  As I mentioned in earlier blog posts..there’s a different standard than the U.S., so I’ve rented cars the size of roller skates, cars that don’t lock, and cars that sound like they’ll putter out on every uphill.  With that said, it’s a good thing this lady likes me enough to give me a ‘good’ one.  Maybe trying another car rental place besides the company named ‘Budget’ would help, too.  This was my 3^rd time to St. Maarten but my first time to the hotel I had reservations for, so I asked her how to get there.  She told me it was 2 minutes down the road, back on the other side of the airport.  She continued to say “after the airport it will be on your left.  You cannot miss it.  If you do you get a spanking.  It be that easy.”  Haha!  A spanking??  I laughed and said it had been many years since I’d had one of those, but they always hurt.  Upon returning the car 3 days later, I was sure to tell her I easily found the hotel and that she wouldn’t need to get out her paddle.  The rest of the week went well. 

Flight convo with Nancy – dying of liver and pancreatic cancer: I sat by an elderly woman on a flight in early June. I was traveling home to Green Bay and we boarded from my layover in Detroit to head up to Green Bay.  This woman looked to be traveling alone, but looked to be my grandmother’s age – around 75.  She said hi and seemed to know what she was doing (where to put her bag, not to recline the seat, or listen her her ipod (haha) until reaching a certain altitude, etc.  She looked like she had done this before.  Her name is Nancy, and during our 1 hour conversation, I found out she was coming from Detroit like she does once per month, getting a trial drug that is being tested to replace chemo.  Nancy is dying from both pancreatic and liver cancer.  She was given up to 6 months to live – 9 months ago.  She has grown children and grandchildren in Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin.  She talked of being a snow-bird who, for the past 40 years, traveled to Florida to escape 6 months of Wisconsin winters, and her last trip was this past year since both her and her husband’s health are fading.  She spoke of the orange groves her son manages down there and how she didn’t know if she’d make it back.  She travels to Detroit once per month for an experimental drug…after all, with a 6-month diagnosis, there’s not much to lose.  Her daughter lives in Detroit so she stays with her and gets to see the grandchildren for that one week/month, and then she lives in Wisconsin for the other 3 weeks of the month – driving herself to and from the Green Bay airport, 90 miles south of the small Wisconsin town she’s from.  She didn’t get choked up when talking about this because I’m sure she’s told her story before, but I got kinda teary-eyed! L She was such a blessing to sit by.  We talked the whole 60-minute flight about our lives, and I told her she was a strong-willed woman with a determined mind and a loving heart.  I took her hands and prayed with her…prayed for strength and also for acceptance of the timing of everything in this life – including the end of it.  While her story was sad, to never know when you’ll go, it was also REFRESHING…REFRESHING to hear her speak of how she knows how much she’s blessed with…her children, her grandchildren, the ability to still golf, the support of family and friends and her local church.  She said she has so many people praying for her, and that was strength for her.  Nancy – I am praying for you, too!  What a blessing to sit by you on our little flight to Green Bay.  

Thanks for reading!!  I have more adventures to share for next time...my allergic reaction in Barbados, my food poisoning in St. Kitts, and some happy stuff too.  Have a great weekend everybody :)