Libre Magazine

Huacas is a critical intersection in the northeast end of Guanacaste, Costa Rica’s beach province. To the left, Tamarindo, Costa Rica’s premier surf city, and to the right, Flamingo Beach, the playground for the rich and famous where many Hollywood celebrities own beach mansions. What not many people know, and even less care about, is that straight up North, lays the small town of Matapalo. Matapalo is a forgotten place that has remained immune to the steep progress and development its immediate neighbors have had in the last few years. The reason is simple… no important road goes through there… In other words, Matapalo is literally on the road to nowhere, so there is no real reason to ever go there… there is a soccer ground, a run-down chapel, a run-down school, an even more run-down pub and a very limited general store, but nothing more.

Enter Jim and Star – a Canadian couple who believed they could turn this town into something great. Their dream was very ambitious – to build a resort for retired Canadians, which would include a golf course, a five-star hotel and a virtual-medicine hospital (the first in Central America). For these purposes, they bought a lot of land on a cliff overlooking Pedregosa, a virgin beach where monkeys, oblivious to the very little human presence, still come down from the trees to play on the white sands. Pedregosa is the nearest beach to Matapalo, but is virtually inaccessible unless by 4×4.

As the project started to get developed, Jim and Star decided to invest in Matapalo and its people. They built a community center, donated musical instruments to the elementary school and opened the first free public-access computer lab in the country. This is where I came in, back in 1999.

I was brought in as Project Manager for the Matapalo computer lab. There was much to be done. First, we were able to find the perfect place - an abandoned annex in the local police station, right next to the town’s school. Then, we got a Canadian engineering company to send us their old computer equipment. We got a lot of useless junk, but in the end we were able to put together 10 working computers. All of these computers were different - some were 486’s and some 386’s, some had color monitors, some didn’t… the more advanced models had 32 MB of RAM and a hard drive of 100 MB… and there were only a couple of those. Due to space and memory constrains, we only managed to run Windows 3.1, and very early pre-office versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We also had PrintShop Deluxe, a wonderful little program called Banner and some games, like the very first version of Prince of Persia.

After the lab was set-up, we trained a few local people on how to use the computers and these programs. Most of them had never even touched a computer before, so we needed several sessions to get them to a decent level because these guys were going to run the lab. Luckily, Luke and Louise, another Canadian couple who were friends of Jim and Star, relocated to Matapalo and they took over the lab.

After a few months, we were invited back to Matapalo for the first big computer lab graduation… what an amazing sight that was… under Luke and Louise, the whole town had become computer literate one way or another… and that day they were all receiving certificates for different things… Imagine a 65 year old woman receiving an “Advanced Achievement on Prince of Persia” certificate… simply amazing. I set up a satellite conference so that several people in Canada, who had different degrees of involvement, could also attend the ceremony through the internet - the first Webcast ever in Guanacaste! Our guest of honor was the Costa Rican Minister for Science and Technology and one of the major Costa Rican TV channels even reported the whole thing on one of their prime news shows. What an amazing day that was!

Today, I go back to Matapalo for the first time in 8 years to attend Jim’s funeral. The town remains pretty much the same, except that now they have a couple of supermarkets and a few other things. The Pedregosa project has been in a stand still for a couple of years due to legal and financial trouble. Luke and Louise are still there running the computer lab in the same old place. Now, they have better workstations and internet access, and there is a plaque with my name on it acknowledging me as one of the founders of the lab. Still, Matapalo strives on… and today the whole town is in this little chapel to honor the life of someone who has really made a difference here… there will be a parade later on, the band will play, the kids will march… according to Jim’s wishes, there is going to be a big party with traditional dances, food and fun for everyone… then, we will all help plant a tree next to the community center and spread Jim’s ashes on the soccer ground… this is a loving tribute to a great man from a thankful town.

Not many people knew who Jim Sparrow was, and many people may not still have ever heard of the little town of Matapalo in Guanacaste, Costa Rica… but to those of us who were lucky enough to ever know him, this guy really made a difference in our lives… because of him, we are all better people today… I know I am.