Category: Wildlife

I’m noticing that most birds (with exceptions of course) tend to land in a tree on a limb that is surrounded by other limbs and thus I assume that they purposefully find a “safe spot” out of the reach of possible predators. And in the case of this White-winged Dove (my gallery link) in a Nance Tree, they also make themselves difficult to photograph! 🙂 Or at least the kind of open and posed photo on a clean limb humans like to see. Maybe you could call it “Nature’s Security.” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Sad Loss of a Young Tico Friend

And of course 38 is young to me! 🙂 Yeison went by “Jason” with his English-speaking friends and was one of two, then 12 years younger, guys assigned to me to “practice” my Spanish and as would probably be expected, he practiced more English than I did Spanish, 🙂 but that was okay.

After that first year I saw him only occasionally and he continued to be like too many of his generation of males here, not wanting to work or not keeping a job for long (it seems to me). With his good English, he tried 3 different U.S. Call Center jobs here in Costa Rica and hated all of them, none lasting long. He tried working in A/C Sales for an uncle in Jaco, but “that didn’t work out,” he said. Then off and on jobs as a security guard which he was at my bank when he died last month. During his off and on work he married and had a cute little baby boy, but was not sufficiently supporting his family and she divorced him and he was ordered to pay the equivalent of $400 per month child support and had become quite depressed with the difficulty of that (for him) and seldom getting to see the child.

Last month he walked out on the Atenas railroad bridge (highest in the country) and jumped off into the deep rocky canyon of the Rio Grande River. He was reported missing and not found for two days, and then by the Red Cross Ambulance Service after someone called to report seeing a body in the bottom of the canyon. The official government report of his death is here: https://crhoy.com/nacionales/encuentran-en-rio-el-hombre-de-joven-desaparecido-en-atenas/

My Blog Post Search for my mentions of Jason Quesada

It was mostly during those first 2 to 4 years when I was with him, often as a needed translator then, or at the beginning treating him to a Star Wars movie (his 1st) as the only blog post showing a photo of him (below). But the idea is that in those early years here in CR, he was a part of my life and I deeply regret that I was not able do anything to stop his suicide. He is just one example of the difficulties of being poor in this world, sometimes living a hopeless life. And of course he brought some of his problems on himself (lack of ambition, education and good work ethics), but the popular lifestyles and systems of this world (highly American-influenced) also have some blame. It saddens me to lose a friend who gave up on living in this hectic, crazy world. He was a believer and I put faith in the verse from Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” I don’t understand, but hope that he is close to God now.

Jason in my life 2015-2018 . . .

• February 10, 2020 “Country Lane Birds & More!” just mentioned the 2018 hike with Jason
• October 19, 2018 “DiosArte”
• July 8, 2018 “The Birthday that Won’t Go Away!” (Jason brought me a birthday cake!)
• April 13, 2018 “Thanks to Nashville First Adults for Bringing Rain!” Jason made the group photo in this blog post about my friends from Nashville here on a mission trip
• January 6, 2018 “Finishing the country road walk today . . .”
• August 26, 2017 “NORMAL! NORMAL! — Mi Aventura Médica”
• August 23, 2017 “Spending the Night in Hospital”
• June 2, 2017 “No Angiogram Today”
• May 18, 2017 “Fern Haiku & My Simple Life”
• July 8, 2016 “After Much Effort – I’m Insured Again”
• December 23, 2015 “VIP Star Wars in Costa Rica!”