When I first began thinking about putting together some sort of fund raising activity to benefit the school in Tortuguero, I assumed that the only significant obstacle that would confront me would be the actual raising of money. Seemed logical to me at the time.
If a person’s goal is simply to raise money, what other problems could possibly crop up which would rival that one task? My initial e-mail to our guide in Tortuguero, Johnny, was filled with enthusiasm and ideas. It was not until about 5 weeks later when I finally heard back from Johnny and I understood the delay. He had obviously spent a lot of time trying to find someone who would translate my English into his Spanish. Because Johnny spoke English better than I, it was my assumption that, of course, he would read and write it as well. Wrong. This realization led to my search for someone who would translate my English response to Johnny into Spanish as I did not want to burden him yet again at his end.
After several months, Johnny put me in touch with the English writing Principal of the school, Omar, and letters were quickly exchanged. There came a point however when his letters stopped and it was some time later that he wrote me, informing me that he had only been temporary at Tortuguero and was now at another school a long distance away. A few months passed with me trying to find another contact in Tortuguero who could read and write English as I am totally illiterate when it comes to Spanish-God knows, I have enough trouble with English!
At long last, I received a letter from Roberto at the school... in Spanish. Seeking out someone who would be willing to devote a pretty fair amount of time translating my English to Spanish and Roberto’s Spanish to English, my brother in San Diego put me in touch with my newest best friend, Elmar. So long as I do not drive Elmar crazy with too many letters back and forth, it is my hope that he will remain interested and willing to do the translations for me. He has become an integral part of this entire project.
This is all new to me and I’m learning as I go. I keep thinking of the Beatles and a line from one of their songs which, as I recall, went, “Communications is the problem to the answer.” It has taken me nearly 40 years to finally understand what they meant.
