FuncaVida 2030

Resilience requires flexibility adapting to change.  This trip required a mighty dose of it.

When we arrived in San Ramon after a long journey, we really only knew the name of the organization of need that we would work with.  We knew the location and could gather some limited information online from their website.  We did not know the people, place, or problems they would like our team to consider.  Before we dive into those details, our team needs identity:

·     Four Construction Management students (James, Dan, Owen, and Grant)

·     One Environmental engineering student (Al)

·     One Architecture/Construction Management student (Jack)

·     Three Health Services Management (HSM) students (Destiny, Helen, Richlynn)

·     One Psychology/Leadership student (Jasmin)

·     Two Carlson School of Management students (Josh – Non-Profit Mgmt, Britney - Finance)

In addition to this motley crew, we had two Integrated Behavioral Health graduate students engaged in field study within other organizations of need in San Ramon and San Jose, the latter – ICRA CasAbierta – our local co-leader Fernanda’s place of employment serving the needs of bisexual and transgender immigrants and migrants. (See previous post Semicolon ; )

Over the two weeks of our trip, effectively two days were lost due to travel complications (see They Must Know What They Are Doing), and within the first week, an unprecedented four students succumbed to illness, largely gastrointestinal revenge.  The only things were we meaningfully able to accomplish was an interview with the founder and leader of FuncaVida, our client that serves people recovering from cancer, a site tour and presentation by CasAbierta, and a quick visit to the vacant site that was donated to FuncaVida that required consideration in whatever recommendations we delivered.  The balance of the week was devoted to the cultural immersion events and the weekend visit to Manuel Antonio National Park (See Tapestry).

The team visiting the offices and staff of FuncaVida

That left one week – less than 5 days! - with a presentation date of Friday at 1:30. The task?  

Analyze the organization, understand how they function, their financial picture, examine their current space and determine whether a future purchase option and remodel of their presently leased space, and consider ways in which their operations and delivery of health-related services match their mission and vision.

Lengthy information gathering interview with the Founder in the hostel

This was a monumentally tall order.  Publicly, Yvonne, my co-faculty leader, and I were coaching and encouraging the team.  Quietly, I was skeptical that we would be able to deliver the kind of robust response that we have had on past excursions.

My fears were unfounded.  Monday morning, following the weekend excursion to the beach, their brain cells kicked into overdrive.  The architecture/construction/environmental team field measured the existing building and also evaluated the vacant site.  The Health Services Management team divided the administrative and management functions and started research on ways to compare and contrast their operations with an eye toward recommendations for improvement, including as well as marketing and human resource management.  The business team evaluated the financials and fundraising capabilities along with the alignment of mission to services, seeking alternatives and improvements. And our Psychology student, fluent in Spanish, studied how the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step therapy principles could be recrafted and adapted to the organization.  With twice the time, this would be a large challenge.  With only 4.5 days, a very tall order.

They delivered – in a meaningfully robust way: in Spanish, in the local currency, and in the metric system, crafting a study – FuncaVida 2030 – delivered orally and by a professionally written proposal.

Presenting FuncaVida 2030

To be clear, these are college students.  They are learning, but also asking questions and pondering ideas.  In this particular case, FuncaVida’s finances are not terribly robust, operations lacked protocols and procedures, services were quite varied, and did not always support a verbose mission statement.  The existing facilities were not handicap accessible, and past improvements, so cherished by the founder, were perhaps not done in the most appropriate way.  Students were encouraged to present ideas that might challenge FuncaVida's status quo.  The organization was founded and continues to operate under the firm hand of its leader, a passionate cancer survivor with no succession plan, given her age.

It is never easy to challenge a strong-handed leadership model, but students were coached that they were consultants, first and foremost.  They come in, look around, research, make recommendations, and then leave, with their only hope that some of their ideas would resonate and stick – that is the best we can ever hope for.

The students challenged FuncaVida to:

·     Adopt a new mission statement – a more concise statement of their objectives and purpose

·       Consider re-adjusting their fundraising model and provide the support needed to develop and implement a fundraising plan

·       Adopt ten proposed points of commitment and promise (the AA model adapted)

·       Adopt and strengthen operating procedures and protocols to allow the leader more time to engage with clients, making certain their providers are operating consistently

·       Consider not purchasing their existing building, but instead extend the lease and craft a new facility by 2030 at a lesser cost on the vacant donated site, demonstrated using a compare/contrast evaluation of both options, financially and from a design perspective.  Adopting a name of the vacant site – La Paz (Peace) – to build interest, identity and excitement

·       Consider a solar energy option for the new or remodeled facility

·       Adopt a succession plan to assure longevity of operation and continuing purpose in the future.

Ordinarily, we complete these presentations within 1 to 1.5 hours.  This one lasted 2.5 hours, including a robust question and answer period and some amazing “fly-through” architectural visuals for both sites that never fail to dazzle a client. Special “Most Valuable Player” status is accorded to Fernanda, for without her excellent translation skills over this time, their message may not have been properly received.  She loomed large.

Satisfaction following a great presentation: students, staff, and client teams

FuncaVida was demonstrably pleased, enormously appreciative, and indicated they would adopt some of the suggestions immediately, including the new mission statement and adaptation of the 10 principles suggestion with slight adjustment.

Pasando, viviendo y apoyandonos en una vida mas saluable mas alla del cancer

Having, living and supporting ourselves in a healthier life beyond cancer

So proud – Gopher proud - they nailed it!  They deserved the cloud forest canopy zip-line tour, and a final walk up the hill to take in a magnificent sunset!  Time to move on . . .

EPILOGUE:

The trip is over.  We arrived home as this is written, without one student.  Joe tested positive for COVID and is required to quarantine in San Jose for at least 10 days.  Symptoms are mild, and things could have been so much worse with others infected as well.  Better that it comes at the end of the journey, for Joe made great contributions to the team, accomplished most of his objectives, and demonstrated a sincere interest in the work of the undergraduates.  We wish you well in your isolation, Joe; at least you have a decent view out the window - and no snow!  

Semicolon ;

Consider the semicolon; it’s the oft-maligned punctuation that first appeared in an account of climbing Mount Aetna by one Aldus Manutius in 1494[i], much later than most of our typical punctuation marks.  From courtrooms to literary salons, it has been controversial ever since.  However, literati perhaps did not notice that the semicolon has taken on a new meaning beyond a pause connecting two sentences; it is now a metaphor for life itself.  This was my discovery on this particular study abroad trip, but permit a modest digression before we return to this odd little symbol. 

“All in life is connected,” as spoken earnestly by Fernanda Rojas-Ramirez.  This is her story.

Fernanda first connected with our study abroad program in 2017, about the time we integrated multiple academic programs within our college into a single study abroad mission, including Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH).  Still in college at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), she was brought into the program as a host for her particular connections to people and places students could study in San Ramon. 

2017

With an older sister by three years and a younger brother by seven, she learned early to be independent. As her mother doted on her infant brother, she became tired of always answering the perennial childhood questions about what words were that she taught Fernanda to read and write by age 5, with Cinderella her first book she still possesses.  A voracious reader and learner, she wears a small tattoo above her ankle that reflects continuous learning.  In high school, she was interested in sports, but not about athletics, rather about the athletes themselves.  She wanted to be a sportswriter, a journalist, to give them a voice as she sensed they needed a better support network.

Because she surreptitiously got her eyebrow pierced (by a friend) early in high school, her mother tried to pull her out of high school, but her counselor intervened and convinced her mother to keep her in school.  Fernanda did not have a close loving relationship with her mother, especially for this attempt to stifle her most ardent love: learning.  Nor was her father a part of her life; he was psychologically abusive to her mother, her sister and herself, and was incarcerated for four months for attempting murder upon them, laying out pictures of the three of them on a table, altar style, as if on display at their own funeral.  The only reason her death did not come by his hand was that he called in the threat to her mother as she was reporting the abuse to the (somewhat disbelieving) police, who heard the conversation and arrested him. 

Against her mother’s wishes (as she thought her to be chasing a boyfriend), she enrolled in the International Baccalaureate School in 2011, matriculating there by the official consent of her then 19-year old sister.  In Costa Rica, the IBS program is six years where high school is normally five.  Therein, she excelled, for the program was rich with research as a basis of learning.  Because of the research focus, and not the “box-checking” series of rote testing done by traditional high schools, Fernanda did not score as well on standardized tests as she was capable of, and thus did not get into the journalism program at the University of Costa Rica, part of a larger college of public relations and marketing.  Her test scores revealed she would be a good meteorologist, but when she discovered an abundant content of math and physics therein, she knew she needed something else, but not certain what that was to be.

She took a job at a clothing store while pursuing General Studies in 2013 and soon was a “floater” at any of their five stores on any given day, learning the art and management of selling.  Along the way, she met Johanna, a retired social worker who agreed to help her practice for the admission test to the University of Costa Rica, but with a condition.  Not requiring payment, she would work to help Fernanda pass the necessary exams that would get her past the college gates, where she could then choose her path.  The condition placed upon this mentorship was that Fernanda would have to pay it back by volunteering. She passed her exams easily, though her path was still not clear.  A skills assessment test taken at the time revealed she would be good at philology (study of words), a nurse, or a social worker.  Greatly influenced by Johanna’s own career and friendship, she chose social work – she believed it to be her calling.

Her remittance for Johanna’s efforts brought her to the Community Action Alliance (CAA), a non-profit organization primarily of ex-pat Americans dedicated toward local good works.  They sought to help the George Washington School obtain solar panels by helping to sell books in 2014.  Initially assigned to help out for only one day, she instead helped out for the entire event.  With a surplus of books remaining to be sold, she set up a way to sell the surplus online.  She soon found herself in charge of the CAA’s scholarship committee, a position she held for seven years and one that would lead her to meet Dustin Dresser, the host and former student of mine managing our local Study Abroad program.  She eventually became President of CAA, a position she held until just recently, all while going through her various academic achievements.

This determination paid off, not only by the networking accomplished but by the recognition of the bright star she was (is).  Her Education Committee of the CAA found out that her father had stolen her computer while she was away from home, and they paid for a new computer for her to start her program in Social Work at the UCR.  While there in 2017, she earned a scholarship to the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile for a special program of Specialization Studies in Social Work, easily admitted with fourteen letters of recommendation and as the only student, and a rare undergraduate from Central America, to earn this honor.  While in Santiago, she volunteered at a jail for teenagers, honing her ability to understand this age group.

Returning to Costa Rica to finish her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work in 2018, she enrolled in the Social Worker Licensing program that required she defend her chosen thesis on suicide prevention.  With her determination, she convinced a skeptical thesis committee of her research premise that suicide was not tied to any particular socio-economic class, but rather is determined by other social factors.  Her determined pursuit of her thesis resulted in a 500+ page tome entitled Suicide and youth: analysis of socialization processes as explanatory factors of the experience of suicidal ideation in a group of young people residing in the canton of Palmares, in the period 2019-2021, rich with qualitative interviews that delve deep into the reasons for suicide, leading her to discover ways of preventing it.  Whilst on my bicycle trip this past summer (2021), I listened to her thesis defense presentation with a mixture of pride and awe. Her thesis has received honor recognition from a university tribunal.  Further, while working on her thesis, she completed a diploma program in suicidology at the Universidad de Manizales in Colombia in 2020, receiving special recognition from the program.  The dedication of her thesis is translated as follows:

I dedicate this thesis to all the young people who have experienced suicidal ideation. This investigative process was a significant experience that gave me strength and hope to resist, feel and reflect from the affirmation of life. I dedicate myself to validate your experiences, meanings and feelings. From my humble position I hope to break the stigma and silence and facilitate awareness of the suicidal phenomenon. You are the yellow color of my life.

So why am I writing about her?  Because of her heart, because of her passion, because of her accomplishments.

She was going through much of this experience while also helping our program do its good work in San Ramon.  Every year since 2017 when she started as a 22-year old, we enjoyed many walks and talks where I learned about the beauty in her heart, the earnest need to care for others less fortunate, not just to care, but to truly learn about them. We have talked of her remarkable, unselfish commitment to not bear her own children but to adopt children to eventually form her family. We have touched base every year, and sometimes in-between, where on every occasion I have fed her with encouragement . . . and ice cream!  

2019

In 2020, we went swimming on the north beach of Manuel Antonio National Park, where she revealed she did not know how to swim.  I tried to teach her, to get her to float without sinking, to swim any possible stroke that felt natural. As I mentioned, she is a learner, and after my departure, she took up swimming lessons and now swims regularly.  She asked me to bring special shampoo for chlorine-infused hair – that is serious!   

2020

And we have talked about, and with, Aldo, her sweetheart, her friend, her supporter, about his patience as she continues to pursue her quest.  We spoke of plans, dreams, and love.  And on this particular trip, I enjoyed the company of both Aldo and Fernanda as we shared meals, a love of bicycling (at least Aldo anyway) as we toured parts of Costa Rica I had never before experienced.  I am eternally grateful to both of them.  All the while they nurtured my Spanish.

2022

Today, she works as a social worker in San Jose, with IRCA CasAbierta, an organization that assists and defends the rights of LGBT migrants and refugees as they integrate into Costa Rican society, tasked with, among other things, social research.

This brings me back to the semi-colon; I learned something on this recent visit, resulting from a breakfast discussion over the earrings worn by Fernanda, one a round disc, the other an apostrophe, and together: a semi-colon.  According to Project Semicolon, “a semicolon is used when an author could've chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you, and the sentence is your life.”

Fernanda is, in some way, a semi-colonic metaphor.  Her path is a series of phrases, all connected in some way, and never-ending.  She possesses “phrases” that speak simultaneously of love and compassion for people and their worlds. In a word, she is remarkable, and I am honored and proud to know her.

From my perspective, though, Fernanda is an exclamation point!

---

[i] Source: Watson, Cecelia, Semicolon; The Past Present and Future of a Misunderstood Mark, Ecco,  2019

Tapestry

The first week passed and we made seemingly little progress on our actual goal – delivering a comprehensive proposal to FuncaVida, a charitable organization focused on cancer survivorship due at the end of this second week.  We have to move quickly and thoroughly toward a Friday presentation. The transformation to "work mode" has begun with palpable intensity midway through the second week as this is written.

Have we still learned, though?  

Yes.  We learned about the culture and environment that is uniquely Costa Rica, which for these students is as important as the mission of serving an organization of need. We experienced "moments", a fleeting capture of images and experiences of the people, places, and things. Like a tapestry carefully woven, these moments help to frame the context, indeed the place, of our work here.  Following are pieces of those momentous threads woven into this experiential tapestry:

The visit to baho tejares never fails to have an impact on students.  Guided by a local resident, Pavel, we experience this impoverished community located in the 'low terrace' (baho) of the city.  Mostly, Nicaraguan immigrants that do not qualify for subsidized housing nearby, they have over the years merely constructed metal shacks with dirt floors.  As poor as it is (certainly by western and also local standards) it is still a community.  It lacks investment - the "park" is a wasteland.  There is one privately run, church-based community center that provides mostly childhood educational support.  Education is a ticket out of this barrio. But people still smile.

  

The fabric of the city is one of contrasts, even in the baho.  Buildings appear to fall apart, enclosed with whatever material could be salvaged, and present a mosaic of color and texture, especially against the new, sleek motorcycle, itself omnipresent and often very noisy and a critical means of cheap transportation.

In stark contrast, our visit to the center of bustling San Jose, the capital, seemed more familiar even if foreign, drawing comparisons to our own Twin Cities.  The brutality of the architecture, such as a government structure fronting one of the main plazas, stood in stark contrast to the old army barracks nearby, a colonial structure that now houses one of the national museums.  The army barracks were no longer necessary when President Jose Figueres Ferrer, a native son of San Ramon, abolished the army in 1948, favoring instead that the money saved be spent on education, as it remains so today.

In front of this colonial edifice stood a large glass sphere structure, within which was a hand-carved stone sphere - bolas de piedras -  believed to be of the Colombian period in coastal Costa Rica from 500 to 1500 BCE, and now recognized as a new national symbol of the country.

Whether in San Jose or San Ramon, the hard edges of steel walls and fences seem impenetrable except for the most delicate flowers along the sidewalks penetrating this toughness.  The proliferation of steel gates and all manner of secure barricades seems in stark contrast with the principle behind the abolition of the army, but nevertheless, crimes of theft are sadly still common.

Those hard edges of the city melt away when driving through the "cloud forest", the rain forest we must cross from San Ramon to get to more distant adventures. Often covered by a cloud cap, the famous Arenal volcano presented itself to us for a brief moment following a far different view of the lush countryside from a raft on the Rio Balsa river, perhaps what we should refer to as "damp bonding"!

Photo credit: Richlyn P

So much of this cultural tapestry is woven by the people of Costa Rica.  They are quick with a smile, and certainly take notice of us "gringo's", often calling out "good morning" in recognition.  They are warm of personality, at least so many I have met over these past eight trips.  Even the traffic, often chaotic, seems friendly, with many horn "beeps" used to communicate in a friendly way with other vehicles, something that would be taken quite differently in the US.

  

This woman, living what is thought to be a squatters subsistence farm adjacent the bajo took pride in her humble home, adorned with the flowers that are abundant everywhere. We heard the story of her lone young cow who lost its mother following an attack by a stray dog, followed by long, slow death.  The young cow seemed fine in its small pasture, where students discovered its tongue to be like sandpaper.

Picture credit: Karen M.

Not this cow, though.  This sweetheart was enjoying the grass and sugarcane at Magdalena's farm.  Magdalena was the host mother to Dustin Dresser (our local host/organizer and a former student)  during his study abroad. She prepares a typical Costa Rican meal for us on her farm every year.  She is in her 80's and a great-grandmother.  Her hands still have the power and the magic of massage and touch to ameliorate a bout of stomach issues for Dustin as she provided a demonstration to students of her skill, causing Dustin to visually writhe in pain.  Yet he swore by the remedy, followed by a cocktail of water, the juice of a lemon, a bit of salt and sugar to cure the revenge he was feeling.

Magdalena's husband passed away shortly after our last visit two years ago, which made me wistful.  Though there are family members living on the farm, they have jobs more lucrative than farming, and so the farm, at least to me, looked a bit worse for wear.  The former coffee plantation on the hillside adjacent the house was now down to one plant.  Climate change has affected where coffee grows best, and while formerly fertile, it is no longer as productive as it once was and is now a grass for the cow.

Yet coffee still abounds as a major export, even though the pandemic and in particular labor shortages have created challenges for coffee plantations.  Here Julio (orange shirt), uncle to our co-host Fernanda, shows students how to harvest and grind coffee, and describes the incredibly low value of their labor just to fill the bottom of a basket for what may become your rainforest certified coffee from a major chain at a much larger price.

Much as coffee dominates the export market, so does sugar cane.  While visiting a traditional "trapiche", or cane processing facility, we observed how sugar cane is crushed for the juice, boiled in three consecutive vats, and fired by dried cane stalks.  The Arias Family processes the cane the traditional way not often seen today, in a remote village, even stoking the fire by hand with a forked stick (in the following image by a student).

The 6:00 AM morning walks are routine, and takes those hardy students to the various neighborhoods and remote country roads around San Ramon.  Whether catching the morning sun from the hilltop above our hostel, or descending into the next valley to its lowest point to discover a massive grove of bamboo, the treks reward with a glimpse into the active morning life of San Ramon, and even the afterlife when touring the peaceful, starkly white cemetery.

Our walks awaken the neighborhood dogs that abound, making us feel even more exposed.  We are perhaps spied upon behind curtains from all the ruckus, but many local walkers and runners take to the streets early morning with a kind smile. 

We discovered this wondrous-looking beehive, a wasps nest, on one of our walks, reminding us of the many creatures we saw when visiting Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the most visited parks in the country located on the Pacific coast.  

It is safe to say that nearly all, if not all the students bore witness to the shenanigans of the Capucin monkeys ( aka 'cappucinio'), strangely personable, a bit haunting, and definitely cunning.  Higher up in the forest canopy, a rare sloth family was seen, as were Squirrel monkeys and the mighty Howler monkeys.  A night walk in the forest is interesting, as we searched for creatures large and tiny with flashlights, drawn by the night noises they make.  There seem to be many species of toads and frogs, and it is possible to come across a large spider on our morning hilltop, or be serenaded by the dance of butterflies in their enclosed gardens:

Have we learned from weaving this tapestry?  If you, dear reader, have learned anything about Costa Rica or our trip, seen something you have never seen before, marveled in the people, places and environment presented here,  then just imagine what the students absorbed during their first week.

What they have learned to guide them to finish the second week strong, is to work hard, play hard (sleep well . . . maybe), and to enjoy the moment as one team.  Perhaps this is the best lesson of all.

This, a Pura Vida tapestry!

They Must Know What They Are Doing

 January 1^st, 2022 was to be the day we boarded our plane for a multi-leg journey to Costa Rica – by “we” I refer to myself, my students, and teaching colleague meeting up at Minneapolis St Paul Airport (MSP) two hours early for a rather leisurely 11:30ish departure for Chicago, then direct to San Jose, Costa Rica.

We all finally arrived – separately – at nearly 4:00pm on January 3^rd – some 54 hours later, and not all with their luggage, scattered at the various points of deposit along our tortured path.

The long-laid plans of our return post-COVID two years hence to San Ramon for our winter-break Study Abroad started to become unraveled when our Whatsapp group message board ignited on December 31 with the somewhat unbelievable message that our leisurely flight to Chicago was delayed nearly 23hours.  This was perhaps a mixed blessing because this gave us all an extra day at home – New Year’s Day – spent in my case of many hours re-booking a flight path that was now entirely and completely busted.  Extra time to pack, chill or shovel snow, for it was also this day that the Midwest – and Chicago particularly – experienced snowy weather as well.  We hunkered, and with the new flight plan logged in, we would meet at 8:30 on January 2^nd at the airport for this long-delayed flight, and then finish the trip from Chicago to Houston, and then to San Jose.  And additional leg.

Somehow, we all managed to meet at the check-in counter where we were checked in as a group.  Relatively smooth sailing, though our bags were tagged with handwritten tags and a small bar code, rather than the traditional bar code sticky strip favored by all major airlines.  They must know what they are doing.

Anxious to go, we await our departure

Smooth guidance through security brought us all to Gate E5, where we waited for departure.  The plane was there. Gate agents there.  Pilots there.  And two flights of the same number were leaving from this gate – one originally scheduled for January 1^st, and the other scheduled for January 2^nd.  Seems odd, and they made continuous announcements that our flight would load first. They must know what they are doing.

Except it didn’t load.  The flight was missing one crew member so it could not fly. It was canceled, plane ready at the gate.  Meanwhile, people were frantically shifting to empty seats on this second flight, which now looked like it was boarding.  In the meantime, I am working with the gate agent, Zak, who said our best bet was to fly on this other flight, and he issued us 15 boarding passes – on standby – and to proceed down the concourse 2 gates to E7.  I approached that gate agent to confirm that there were available seats, and she said “I only have 4 seats available.”  Damn.  It seemed that in this evolving vortex we were inexorably getting drawn into meant we needed to split the group – just go, whoever can, and make progress one leg at a time was my thinking.  My colleague Yvonne, led this breakaway group and got on board this second flight with 5 seats. 

The rest of us returned to Gate 5, now mostly empty except for Zak still studying his computer.  We waited there while I worked with Zak for over an hour as he tried to find a way to get the rest of our group of ten re-booked.  We were still at MSP airport, seeing that plane still at the gate, all quiet, its luggage since offloaded.  In the meantime, we were getting messages from our breakaway group that their plane was now delayed, first for a frozen door that required maintenance to free (it was damn cold that morning), and then, having backed away and starting to leave, it returned to the gate because it was slightly overweight and someone and their stuff was necessary to offload.  Luckily, not one of us, but a jump-seated employee.  This drama continued as the time for our breakaway group to actually make their connection in Chicago to Houston was now in serious doubt. But as mentioned, they must know what they are doing.   

Meanwhile, Zak worked some kind of magic.  He rebooked us on a previously unscheduled flight – presumably, a clean-up flight for all the stranded for around 7:00pm, gave us a few meal vouchers, and told us we would stay over in Chicago with a hotel voucher and regain our flight path with a 6:00 AM flight on January 3^rd.  OK, we can do that, let’s join our breakaways, perhaps in Chicago if they missed their connection.  I thanked Zak generously with a fist bump

We spent all of January 2^nd at MSP airport – seems implausible really, stranded in your hometown!  All we could really do was hang around, absorbing the waning sun, and hear the tale of our breakaway group running ferociously for their next gate after landing in Chicago, and making it in the nick of time!  They were on their way to Houston while we ate airport food at MSP, compliments of United.

Almost magically, it seemed, we boarded our plane for Chicago, with a crew, and arrived an hour later.   But we had a nagging feeling that in the pell-mell rush of the schedule delays and quick changes, our luggage would become the victim.  We were advised by Zak to locate our luggage in Chicago and check-in anew in the morning.  So, we proceeded to wait about an hour (we were experienced “waiters” by now!) and finally the lost baggage claim agent, Lauren, began to source our 10 pieces of luggage. I was concerned as he peered through his thick glasses, mumbling, sorting, studying, and really not saying too much, that bad news was pending.  However, he did manage to locate the luggage “in the system” and “not to worry, it was already checked through to our final destination and will be there when we arrive”.  They must know what they are doing.  And he gave us our hotel vouchers.  We thanked him generously.

So then one of our students stepped up and arranged the hotel reservation for us, and we had to wait perhaps another hour before we finally caught the shuttle to the hotel some 30 minutes away from the airport.  We could get about 4 hours of napping at the hotel for a 3:00 AM wake-up call to catch our 6:00 AM flight.

The wake-up call was quite early, but we were all ready and anxious to knock off another leg – at least get closer, after all, we were only in Chicago for all the time it has taken!  O’Hare is a quieter place but still bustling with security at 4:00am when we arrived.  We managed the long walk to our gate with ease, and a few even managed to snag some McDonalds as the only vendor open on our concourse at that time.  And we waited – and watched.  Gate agents – check.  Flight attendants – check.  On-time departure posted on the board, but soon followed by an announcement that the flight would be delayed 45 minutes for lack of a pilot (though he was on his way somewhere).  Now our Houston to San Jose flight connection was in serious jeopardy, as that delay would give us but 2 minutes to make the trek to E concourse, the international wing.  With all confidence, they boarded us anyway.  They must know what they are doing.

Now this tale is getting a bit long, with an extraordinary measure of redundancy. So let’s cut quickly to the finish line.

The missing pilot?  Showed up with only about a 35-minute delay, and stepped on the gas, apparently flying above the filed intention, and pulled off landing 7 minutes early.  We easily made our connection to the Costa Rican flight, with crew, with a pilot, and best of all – WITH US!

The breakway crew arrived in San Jose, with no luggage, and had to file lost luggage claims, and arrived at our hostel around 2:00 AM, an hour before the rest of us got up.  We arrived on time, managed immigration in Costa Rica with only minor health-pass hiccups, and then hoped that our luggage would actually be there.  Eight of ten pieces made it. Nuts!

We met up with Dustin Dresser, our host, who made his second run to the airport, and we all joined up at Hostel Sabana for pizza by 4:00.  The last of the lost luggage arrived at 5:30am, January 4^th.

PERSPECTIVE

We found ourselves in the eye of a perfect storm – unprecedented challenges for the airline industry.  The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported on January 4^th that:

·       Airlines canceled 8,000 flights between January 1^st and January 3^rd, roughly 10% of all flights

·       The reasons were weather, staffing shortages and late calls in sick due to the Omicron strain

·       There are 9% fewer employees than were employed at this same time in 2019

·       And for our flight, 171 ground personnel did not show up for work the date of our departure.

While there are critics out there that would argue the airlines bear considerable responsibility for this mess, I am not inclined to go along with that sentiment.  These are unprecedented, even historic times.  I am not sure that there are many people who could step into this challenging situation and effect a better result than a 10% reduction in flights, much less get our baggage to us, in an environment marred by toxic idiots punching passengers and crew because they can’t be patient.  It is sad.

They do know what they are doing.  Zak and Lauren, and all the crewmates they work with at United enabled our arrival.  They worked hard, and deserve every bit of our appreciation.