Letter, October 28, 1976

Hi folks,

I got a new set of emergency phone numbers in Washington for you to call when something grave happens, or when I haven’t written in two months or more {I included the phone numbers on a separate sheet of paper}.

Bruce wrote me that it snowed in Stevens Point {Wisconsin} around October 18 or 19 – that’s incredible. I hope it isn’t too hard of a winter, since I still hope to come home for Christmas. I have a new Peace Corps assignment in Costa Rica for a year, and will leave here for there November 13, but I also have made a plane reservation from Costa Rica to Madison {Wisconsin} for December 10. If I can work it out, I will take my 30 days special leave then. I have already talked with one of my new bosses, and he said he thought it could be arranged, so I am hopeful.

<Sofia and I will buy an engagement ring some time in the latter part of November.> That is if we don’t change our minds when we see each other again.

Right now I’m busy getting all my possessions together to fly down to Costa Rica the 13th. Yesterday afternoon I rode my bike from Peace Corps office out to where I live in Santa Tecla (about 13 kilometers) in rush-hour traffic. Two buses nearly ran me off the road. They don’t believe in watching out for the vulnerable one here, you watch out for yourself.

I want to give you my new Costa Rican address so you can send your next letter to me there:

    Dean Jefferson
    a/c Cuerpo de Paz
    Apartado Postal 1266
    San Jose, Costa Rica
    Centro America

The 26th {of October} I sent a package home by land mail with some books and Christmas gifts. You’ll know it when it arrives because I sent them in a big bamboo basket. Hope it arrives intact! I hope it makes it by Christmas this year; I sent it even earlier than last year. With luck I’ll be home when it gets there also.

The long dry season is starting here & it’s already too dusty for me. I’ll be glad to get down to Costa Rica where it is still raining.

A headline in today’s paper (not front page) said Ford was sure of winning the {United States presidential} election. He said he was going to do a “Truman”. I suppose you’ll know the winner when you get this. In the national papers here they tend to give Ford most of the coverage, considering him the official party candidate since he is the incumbent. Here the elections to be held next spring are already decided! General Carlos Humberto Romero of PCN {Partido de Conciliación Nacional or National Conciliation Party} will be duly elected unless there is a coup. The opposition parties have no candidate(s) yet.

As ever,

Dean