Journal, February 7, 1977 PM

<Sofia and her younger sister came to visit me at CIGRAS today. They had come to the university to check on her sister’s grade on the entrance exam.> Apparently she didn’t do well enough. Her name was not on the list of those admitted. I’m sure a disproportionate number of the top scores on the exam are made by kids who went to the best (& most expensive) “colegios {high schools}.”

The Universidad de Costa Rica is largely a school for the children of the wealthy, from appearances. Anyway, the girls weren’t here very long and didn’t really seem to want to be introduced to everyone. Renán said he was sure they weren’t relatives of his because he didn’t have any relatives as good looking.

Friday evening I went with Ramón to see a man about a bed. The guy will make me a bed with headboard & cabinet for 650 Colones. That’s dirt cheap, but it won’t have a nice thick mattress on it. I plan to give him the go-ahead today. I can always buy the big mattress later if I think I need it.

<I helped paint the front of Sofia’s family’s house Saturday.> I spent from before 9 AM until almost 8 PM there. They fed me good & I didn’t work all that hard. I sure burned my arms though, painting in the hot sun in my T-shirt. <Sofia & I were wearing matching playfully loving moods, and it was a very pleasant day, all in all. Poor Sofia jumped off a chair & broke the bottle of paint thinner, so other family members went on a wild goose chase trying to find more so we could continue the job.>

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Yesterday we spent a mostly boring afternoon at the Campos Gonzalez home. <Boring primarily because Jaime {Olson} was off visiting and I was left with Pilar, Sofia and Marita.> They hadn’t been together for a good gab session in some time it seemed! We watched “El Chapolín Colorado” and “El Chavo del Ocho,” ate hamburgers with Pilar & Jaime, and went to a pretty dull mass.

<I recall that Sofia was in a talking mood all the time I was with her.> We were discussing drinking problems. <Her sister’s boyfriend has one.> Her father had one for about 2 months after his mother died. My father never drinks more than one drink at a sitting. It seemed I would start a sentence and she would go off on another 2-minute burst of family wisdom & gossip. I was developing a headache by the time I left her at her gate. <Her sister’s good old boyfriend had waited and gave me a ride as far as Heredia.>