An Engineer in Latin America
January 29th, 2008 fmorganA book I enjoyed growing up was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The story was about an engineer who finds himself back at the time of King Arthur and of course ends up looking like a magician to everyone. Sometimes I can relate.
It isn’t that people in Costa Rica are ignorant — far from it. But most people have no access to either libraries or the Internet for information. Aside from the schools and newspapers, everything is pretty much passed by word of mouth. The impact of this is hard to imagine.
For example, if I want to know what a venturi valve is, I can search on Google and find not only exactly how it works, but how to make one, with drawings and everything. Even though you may never have heard of a venturi valve before you read about it here, in a few minutes you can know all about it too.
Because of this ability to research (and the amount of data stuffed into my head from digging around the Internet), there is a “magical” quality that can get me in trouble at times. No, no one is going to burn me at the stake, but sometimes people don’t know when I am clueless.
There is a big difference between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. It takes a bit for people to realize that though I know very well the characteristics of wood and how it reacts to various forces, please don’t expect me to make a piece of furniture. My mind may be well educated, but my hands are as dumb as clubs.
This is very contrary to the culture here. If you understand the science behind something, you almost certainly must be incredibly practiced at doing it. Not so in a society as specialized as the USA. In the USA, you may well know how to design something without the ability to actually use the tools to build it. Among those who know me well, when I head for a shovel, somebody runs in front of me to do the job for me. I think they are a little worried about me.
The other day, I sat at lunch with some of our workers and explained the principles behind the aguaponics system that they are setting up for me (combining fish farming with hydroponics). They were fascinated and can’t wait to see it up and running. If I know Costa Ricans, if they see that it works well, there will be imitators and we will also see it evolve into something more appropriate to the resources and climate here.
