Why you must always wear your shoes inside in Costa Rica.

Do my feet need protection from the hundreds of microscopic ants crawling around the apartment? Maybe the brown recluse looking spider I found in the wall? Possibly the puddles of water from our leaky ceiling? Neigh. Our foe was a tad more shocking.

On day one we were given an electric stove. Since my incompetent American self couldn’t figure out how to turn on the gas for the gas stove, I resorted to what was just given to us. I plugged it in, cranked up the heat, and whipped out some chicken cold cuts. As I touched the chicken to the pan, I felt the chicken vibrating. Not only was the chicken vibrating, but my entire arm was. Just for good measure, I took the chicken off, and repeated the exact same steps. At this point I clearly realized I was being electrocuted through a piece of chicken, but I needed to do some good old-fashioned debugging. I turned the stove off and repeated. Same result. I unplugged the stove from the wall and repeated. No more vibration.

About an hour later, a maintenance guy shows up. In what little English he spoke, I explained that the stove electrocutes you when you use it. Without missing a beat, he asks if I were wearing shoes. I said no, of course not. Why would I wear shoes inside? Well in Costa Rica, you always ground yourself when dealing with electric appliances. This was a good enough solution for him, and therefor a good enough solution for me. Lesson learned.

Despite the horrific image I’ve painted in your head, our living conditions are actually pretty swell.

Until next time ✌️