The startup that lets you shop Costa Rican small businesseses – from anywhere

Posted on by stanleyobando

Last week I was thrilled to attend a presentation by the Costa Rican startup Local Keeps. Founded by Costa Rican-born Galit Flasterstein and her husband Eric Scharf, Local Keeps is an online store that allows small Costa Rican businesses to sell their wares to customers anywhere in the world.

I’ve interacted with a number of Costa Rican artisans and small business owners in the past and heard, “Ah, I’d love to sell online someday, but I have no idea how” – so I immediately understood that Local Keeps is filling a very necessary role for its “makers,” as it calls its product creators. Two of the makers joined Galit to speak to visitors from Travel with Ann and other students at Personalized Spanish in Trés Rios on Friday: natural cosmetics creator Adriana García and fruit jewelry genius Rosa Montealegre. Rosa is pictured below with her husband, Juan.

Yup, I said fruit jewelry, which has to be seen to be believed (and you can see it here): Rosa and her now 11-person team collect unsold fruit from farmer’s market and create incredible pieces from shaved mango seeds, dried banana slices and other things you could never have imagined as bright, gorgeous rings and necklaces. Meanwhile, Adriana, a one-woman show, whips up lotions and sugar scrubs that smell good enough to eat.

Galit explained that the mission of Local Keeps is not just to sell the work of these entrepreneurs, but also to help them grow. They give each entrepreneur a professional photo shoot and access to the resulting images, and are organizing regular get-togethers so that the companies can exchange ideas and receive support.

Going to the post office in Costa Rica is not exactly the easiest process, so I’ve often opted for U.S. online merchants when buying presents for someone back home – which is a shame, given the insane number of high-quality artisans and producers here in Costa Rica. It’s a relief to know I can just hop online and support them while getting the gift delivered anywhere. This post might sound like an infomercial, but that’s just how excited I am that someone is making this possible for Costa Rican microbusinesses and fans of Costa Rica from around the world! Thanks, Local Keeps. I can’t wait to see you grow.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter). 

 

 

Beauty in midair

Posted on by stanleyobando

On this Friday, I have only one thing to say: thank you, Susan Jackson, for capturing these amazing images!

You can follow Susan and learn more about her community’s incredible work to protect sea turtles on the Nicoya Peninsula here.

Enjoy the first weekend of the new decade!

Day 22: Finally, a happiness hack for your toilet

Posted on by stanleyobando

Should every toilet in the world have a poem posted in front of it, to enrich those stolen moments in a hectic day? The answer, my friends, is yes. Yes they should. Are your toilets so adorned? What are you waiting for? Break out your favorites, draw odd looks from your family and colleagues, and create a little respite for yourself every so often.

That’s really the extent of this hack. However, I hope you’ll read “Purple,” the poem that got me thinking about this: I found it posted in a bathroom at the University for Peace through the Global Poetry Project. It’s a humdinger (so is “Blue,” referenced below) now printed out and stuck on my daughter’s bathroom wall, as our own “reminder to lay yourself open and sparkle.”

Purple, by Katharine Zaun

After Carl Phillips’ “Blue” 

As in the skin of plums,
purple-black falling from the tree
in our backyard. Teardrops
heavy with ripeness,
branches like lashes
letting go. Theirs is the midnight
glow of the cosmos. A swirl of dark
that signals history, or destiny.
Inside, a red purple that matched my blood,
and I ate greedily, consuming myself.
I haven’t found any like them since.

This is the purple-blue
of violets, the same as the suede
cowboy boots my aunt gave me
at seven; crushed fabric
a luscious embodiment of little girl dreams. A duplicate mood
found in the geometric middle
of a geode that sat on my shelf
at twelve and sparkled; a reminder
to lay yourself open and sparkle.

In that room, a painting
by another aunt
with a purple the color of kings
and forgiveness – a likely combination.
The women around me
forever granting forgiveness,
not forgetting.
This is the man-made purple
that leans no closer
to red than to blue; the one I avoid in favor
of deep purple daydreams of plums and the cosmos.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter).