An Honest Man

The Greek philosopher Diogenes wandered around ancient Greece in daylight, carrying a lantern, and apparently searching for "an honest man". Ironically, he lived in Athens, Greece (also known as Atenas where we live in Costa Rica).

Today we met yet another of our Atena's honest people. I had a busy morning today. Withdrawing money from Banco de Costa Rica's ATM, then going into the bank to deposit money into our landlady's account to cover our rent for March. I also needed to recharge my cell phone with colones and then go and get groceries. So I had all sorts of things on my mind and wasn't paying close attention to a number of things.

Back home later this morning, I received a phone call from a fellow speaking only Spanish which rapidly became problematic. He wanted to speak to Deeana (my Spanish name), wanted to know if I lived in Vista Atenas and said many other things that were beyond my baby Spanish level. I put Lance on the phone, but he ran into the same trouble. We did manage to figure out that the caller would be at our house in one hour and left it at that.

An hour later, a white cab pulled up to our gate. Lance went out and the driver said he wanted to speak to Deeana. Out I went and the driver held up a small leather wallet wherein all my credit and bank cards reside, including my Costa Rican driver's license. I must have left it behind at the ATM.

I had no idea I had even lost it! This lovely gentleman did not even want to accept a reward from us and we literally had to force some reimbursement onto him. He went out of his way to locate me and drive his taxi to our house and then back to Atenas. With all that was going on, we neglected to get his business card and name. I want to send a thank you to him and his taxi company.

There are several taxi companies in Atenas ... the red taxis, the white taxis and I think there are blue ones.

Today could have turned very ugly when I discovered I had lost so much. Imagine trying to cancel and replace all those cards. I need a better system. One positive thing I had done, though, was to include a card in my wallet that had all kinds of important information on it ... telephone numbers, contact names, etc.

But one thing is for sure ... the Ticos are looking after us.

 

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