If I have two different \startMPcode ... \stopMPcode sections, is
there a way (perhaps it does this by default) to have the variables
stored in the first block available in the second block?  In pure
MetaPost, I can do

numeric a:=4;
beginfig(1);
   label(decimal(a),origin);
endfig;
beginfig(2);
   label(decimal(a),origin);
endfig;
end

and both figures have the value of 'a' available to them because 'a'
was defined before each figure.  What is the ConTeXt way of doing
this?


Do you mean something like this?

\starttext
\startMPpage
a := 4;
label(decimal a, origin);
\stopMPpage
\startMPpage
a := a+1;
label(decimal a, origin);
\stopMPpage
\stoptext

Regards, Bostjan