Costa Rican Don’t Throw Things Away, They Fix It

This is a short story but has a long  meaning.  I was in Alajuela one day and spotted a sign “Watch Repair- Don’t despair” “We fix them all”   I had a watch which was very dear to me and it had stopped running and I had taken it to a repair shop in the states.  They said the battery had corroded the insides of the watch and it was hopeless.  The watch was so pretty.  Had a gold plated stretch band and around the face were clusters of diamonds.  Well, they were real diamonds but to me they were just as pretty.  So with much saddness I gave up.  Until I spotted that sign!

I hurried into the repair shop and pulled my watch from my purse.  The watch repairman took into his small hands, opened it up and it looked  awful inside,  corroded indeed.  But he smiled and said,  “Leave it with me a few days.”

I returned after five days and the watch repairman was still smiling.  He handed me the watch and I could hear it ticking and sure enough telling me the correct time of 10:15 a.m.  I felt so lucky and told him in my limited Spanish.  Muchas Gracias!

So I had my  beautiful watch back and working and it cost me only $10.

Repair shops of all kinds still exist in Costa Rica.  Somewhere there is someone who can fix most anything.