Pato

My Rotary counselor´s name is Ronald Garcia Solano, but you can just call him Pato. That´s short for duck in English as in Daffy Duck. Here in tikolandia, as my professor likes to call Costa Rica, everyone has nicknames, sometimes endearing, but most of the time a name that plays off of some physical charateristic that the person has. For example if you are skinny, your nickname might be gorda (fatty). And usually the nicknames are used so frequently that the person´s real name is not known. So the lady down the block is named Macha (Blondie) and one of the director´s at school is named Gata (Cat) because she has green eyes. And on the phone, all you hear is mi amor, mi vida, mi cielo, (my love, my life, my sky).
My counselor works in the advertising business. He has been in the Rotary club for 15 years now. The Rotary Club has seen him through some very hard times. The commaraderie, the brotherhood as he likes to call it, is what Rotary is all about. He is currently the President of the Club in Alajuela, which has approximately 20 members. Some of the projects they have completed in the past have been making the sidewalks in their city accesible for wheelchairs, distributing school supplies to needy children, and establishing microloans to the poor who want to start their own businesses. Ronald is a connesieur(spelling)? in meats, loves to Barbeque. He drives a 4x4 jeep, which is great for avoiding all the potholes here, and he loves the local beer which is known as the Imperial. He lives with his mother and loves to babysit for his 2 nieces for whom he bought princess diaries with a locket and key. They sat down and taught me all the Spanish names of the Disney princesses(Snow White, Belle, Cinderella, etc). You never know when this information might come in handy. Don´t you love the picture of Pato with his apron that reads, ¨Boss of the BBQ¨.