"I have so many recipes – all in my head – for typical food like tamales and olla de carne," Quesada told The Tico Times this week of her delicious repertoire. "I want to put them on the Internet just to see what happens."

After watching her four children grow up with computers and hearing them speak the cryptic words "Internet" and "e-mail," Quesada finally got her turn to see what it’s all about early this year, when the country’s first "Little Intelligent Community (LINCO)" arrived in San Marcos.

The product of former President José María Figueres’ Costa Rican Sustainable Development Foundation, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology (MIT) and a host of other universities and private-sector companies, the LINCO is a 20-foot steel shipping container converted into a compact, semi-portable, Internet café, computer lab, video conference center and medical clinic.

The unit is designed to be closed up tight and transported, if necessary, although its current installation on a newly landscaped lot donated by San Marcos’ Regional Agricultural Center is intended to be permanent.

LINCOs, manufactured entirely at the Costa Rican Technology Institute in the colonial capital of Cartago, bring state-of-the-art communications to rural communities that would normally be passed over by the information age.

San Marcos and the surrounding communities welcomed Figueres and other special guests Aug. 5 with music, food, exhibits of local production and performances by area school children for the unit’s official inauguration.

Topped by a futuristic-looking white awning, the LINCO sits like an alien invader amid the coffee-planted hillsides and rural greenery, but according to its on-site instructor, Karen Godínez, the community that was, at first, drawn only by the strange intruder’s curious appearance has since embraced the LINCO as its own.

Groups of students and adults receive basic computing classes at the LINCO, which is equipped with Internet-accessible computer terminals at one end and a television that will one day be used for video conferences on topics of community interest, such as diabetes, domestic violence and nutrition.

The other of end of the unit is equipped with a tiny medical clinic that will soon allow doctors in San José to communicate with their San Marcos patients, review medical files over the Internet, suggest treatments and prescribe medicines without having to physically travel to the community.

Internet communications and data transmission is possible via satellite, with a dish antenna installed on-site.

Quesada’s adult group was just beginning a course on the Internet and e-mail at press time. And Tarrazú coffee growers, who produce some of the world’s finest, high-elevation beans, were so inspired by the LINCO’s possibilities for world marketing that they now promote their high-quality crop on the Internet at www.tarrazucafe.com.

"From 40-50 people a day stop by to use the computers or learn how to use them," said Godínez, who has helped San Marcos residents of all ages discover what the LINCO can do since the unit’s arrival in January. "Some people, especially the groups of senior citizens, are sometimes fearful to touch the keyboard, but our idea is to let them discover it for themselves, without bogging them down with formal courses."

LINCO users receive a half-hour of free Internet access. Those who need more time pay ¢1,000 ($3) per hour. The center is open Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturdays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

"We’ve really learned a lot from building this first unit," admits LINCOs coordinator Juan Barrios. "We now know a lot more about how to adapt the unit to the community’s needs. For example, the people in San Marcos told us that they could really use a soil analyzer; this unit now has one."

Joining Figueres for the Aug. 5 inauguration was special guest Carlos Roberto Reina, who was president of Honduras during Figueres’ own 1994-98 term; MIT professor Alex Pentland; Costa Rican Technology Institute rector Alejandro Cruz, and community representatives.

Pentland, who has worked closely with Figueres’ foundation since 1998 to develop the LINCOs concept, took advantage of the event to donate $100,000 toward Costa Rica’s next LINCO, slated for the northern border-area community of San Joaquín de Cutris.

A third LINCO is planned for the Caribbean Zone, although no delivery date has yet been set. Pentland pledged MIT’s future support, which includes the visit of three MIT students, who will work in health and education projects in San Marcos.

"You’re going to be seeing more of us in the coming years," he said.

True to Figueres’ prediction, when he announced the Little Intelligent Communities concept in May 1999 (TT, May 7, 1999), the project has already generated international sales and interest.

The Dominican Republic has purchased five LINCOs. And Honduras’ Reina commented during his inaugural ceremony speech that he wouldn’t mind taking San Marcos’ LINCO home with him.

According to Barrios, each unit costs $80,000, including equipment and trained personnel.

Figueres hailed the project as vital to "closing the gaps" between industrialized and developing nations.

"Eighty percent of the world’s population has no access to technology," he told his inaugural audience. "And about half of that 80 percent has never even made a phone call. Projects like LINCOs will bring this technology to people who’ve never had it before."

For more information about the LINCOs program or the Costa Rican Sustainable Development Foundation, contact the foundation at Tel: 278-9002, Fax: 278-9005, e-mail: boletín@ entebbe.org, or visit Web sites: www.entebbe.org or www.lincos.net.