Kansas made in Costa Rica

I tell ya.

I am back in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Norval and Mike return to Halifax early tomorrow.

Today I am walking along, close to the condo. It’s really hot and I have just slogged up a hill, so I am walking slowly. A guy is sitting on a low wall. He is smoking. He looks at me, so I say, “buenas,” one of the many short forms of hello here. Some people say bueno. Some say buena.

The guy says, “bueno” and then he says, “hi,” so I say hi.

He says, “are you Kansas?”

I say, “uh-oh,” grimace and sort of clench my fingers, except more like the opposite—I do this as my physical version of Homer Simpson’s ‘d’oh‘—extend my fingers and lock them, a bit like that kid holding a grenade in the Diane Arbus photo.

The guy lives two doors down from where I am staying and has a Google Alert for Alajuela; thus this blog has come to his attention.

I just tell ya.

• Diane Arbus
• Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, 1962

This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2010.