Last night I had a nightmare...

Not that someone broke into my house and stole all my stuff at gunpoint; no, not that! I had a nightmare that my back-to-school supplies were haunting me. Perhaps it was brought on by this ad:

Here's an ad from the back of a bus (I can't believe esposo was able to take this while we were driving down the highway!) for a place that loans people money if they can't afford to buy school supplies. Kids here are required to wear uniforms to school, which consist of blue shirt, dark blue pants or skirt, black shoes and white socks, along with having to purchase the usual pencils, notebooks, etc. This is such an expense for some extremely not-well-off people that they simply cannot afford to send their kids to school at all. Besides my personal beliefs that school in general is a big waste of time, I think if the Costa Rican government is going to require that kids wear uniforms, they should provide them as well. At least to kids whose families fall below a certain income level. If you are interested in helping keep kids in jail school in Costa Rica, my friend Vicki over at the Fountains Guest House in Escazu is in touch with lots of charities that help lower-income kids and their families; give her a call and she'll be more than happy to let you know how to donate school supplies or uniforms. (Her place also serves as a drop-off point for items you want to donate to charity; I've taken quite a few boxes over to her house, and everything gets divvied up and sent to where it's most needed.)