07/22/2013 First Visit to San Jose and Interviews for Project Placement

So unbelievably happy and grateful to be here in Costa Rica bonding with TICO 26! We've only been in country a week and already I feel like I've known some of these people for months. Yesterday we went San Jose for the first time and saw all the some of downtown. Some of the more beautiful buildings include the Teatro National, Museo National, Cathedral National among others.

                                                          The National Theater

The "Clinica Biblica" is the main hospital where we as volunteers get health care. I'm told it's as good as anything we have in the states and from what I've seen I can believe it. Costa Rica is one of the places that US expatriates go for "health tourism" (i.e. things we cannot afford in the US medical system.)

My wife and I are staying to Dona Flora (Dona is a way of expressing Mrs. in a professional setting) She reminds me a lot of my grandmother in the Philippines. She and Don Franklin have a beautiful family. This is her with two of her many grandchildren.

Today we are receiving interviews for site placement. It will be the first time we get to sit down and express what type of place we want to work in here in Costa Rica. Since my area is business development I'm hoping to get a place that has a lot of tourists and entrepreneurs who want to sell to those tourists. I hope to also get an opportunity to do micro-finance as it would be a good way to establish a career in small enterprise development.

Wish me luck!