PSU Magazine Fall 1993

A keen sense ofcaring osta Rica is the jewel in the Latin American crown. Slightly smaller than the state of West Virginia, this beach– rimmed strip of lowland jungles and tropical rainforest- much of it preserved as National Parks-i split by a central spine of mountains that rise a high as 12,000 feet. Those mountains, along with its 93 percent literacy rate, history of neutrality, and stable democratic government, have earned the country the nickname, "the Switzerland of Latin America." But despite the country's riches, one thing most Costa Ricans have gone without is a tiny device many Americans take for granted: a hea ring aid. And despite the country's unusual– ly high incidence of hearing loss, affect- 14 PSU Magazine ing 15 -18 percent of the population, nowhere could you get an accurate hearing test. Enter James Maurer, emeritus profes– sor of audiology at Portland State University. Since his first visit to the country in 1972, Maurer has become virtually an unofficial United States emissary to Costa Rica fo r hear– ing techno logy. He' traveled to the country every two years, initially to investigate its population's higher-than– normal hearing losses, and later, to hepherd thou ands of dollars' worth of donated audiology equipment to help Costa Rica's hearing technology catch up with the rest of its infrastructure. Maurer's partnership with the country culminated last March, nearly 20 years after his first visit, when he and two colleagues laid the groundwork Costa Rica's unusually high incidence of hearing loss brought this emeritus professor of audiology to the country's aid. By Leslie Cole for an audiology clinic and hearing aid bank in Costa Rica' capital, San Jose– the country's first. Calling themselves "the three gringos," the Oregon experts escorted some $60,000 worth of hearing testing equip- including a two- ton acoustic testing chamber, to the capital city. Maurer will take a final trip, most likely this winter, to install the equipment at the clinic and train a staff of Costa Rican audiology technicians. As delighted a he is with the results of the partnership with a Central American country, the easy-go ing professor admits it's not work he active– ly solicited . Maurer has spent much of his 26 years at PSU researching hearing loss stemming from noise pollu tion , and back in the early '70s he was, as he tell it, "minding my own business in my office," when he got a call from