Day 13.

Observations:

-Computer classes started today! I was very impressed by the girls' quick learning. The hardest thing for them so far has been controlling the mouse.

-My tica mom was telling me stories about a family she knows from Cuba. Their daughter had to get her wisdom teeth pulled without anesthetics. Apparently there is no soap available; all they use is lard.

-Quote: "Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving." --O. Henry

-Did you know that 7 million people die every year from hunger-related deaths? That's all of Seattle. Times about twelve. Think about that when my little brother asks for 30 Hour Famine donations this year.

-At this point, I'm starting to really know the girls, to see their character start to flesh out. I still have problems with names of course (Y, J, and G are all interchangeable, but can be pronounced differently. With names like Maryeling, Yani, Griselda, Yerania, and Jani that gets kinda tricky), but I feel like I can see who they are as people, not as people I'm trying to help. I think that's what people miss out on when they do short term mission trips for 10 or 12 days. They make good, but they don't necessarily make good friends.

-For the first time in my entire life, I actually used a bookmark. Usually I just use scraps of paper, but today I used a "Dumbledore's Army" bookmark that my Aunt Natalie gave me. It rocks.

-I didn't know it was possible to breast-feed and drive. Now I know.

-During lunch, a little girl (the adorable one in the black and white photo) found a piece of used gum on the sidewalk and was playing with it. I told her repeatedly to not do that, that it was dirty and had been in some one's mouth. She just kept pulling it apart while I kept saying "Throw it over there! Throw it away!" So then she threw it. Onto my plate of food.

-I still ate lunch today.

-Hannah

Day 12.

It took me three days to get these online...I hope they make up for the fact that I haven't posted all weekend.

-Hannah

PS If you want the full sized pics, let me know. I have them on a different site.

Day 9.

This life of mine is way too amazing to be true. Let me tell you all that happened today:

-I saw lots of cool things, such as: a Costa Rican version of Nick Jonas, a pair of Nike Air Force 1's (thought of you Double G), and a midget! Yup!
-Today was Katy's (the only girl I recognize from before) birthday, so Susie (a CFCI missionary who has been here for over 30 years) invited me to come into Carpio to celebrate early as a surprise. I met them at the clinic where Katy now works four mornings a week and we had some of "Susie's Chocolate Cake", a recipe that my mom uses a lot in the States. Last night I was writing Katy a little card and suddenly I had this image of one of our sleepovers when the two of us stayed up all night making hemp bracelets. So I stayed up all night last night making her a hemp bracelet.
-Another memory about that night with Katy: she helped set up the beds on the floor while I was taking a shower. I came out and she had put the sheets on top of the blankets -- she had never used sheets before.
-Later I started teaching Ana Virginia (a young woman from Pavas who also teaches classes at the Refuge) how to type. It was amazing how quickly she learned.
-I also taught a sixteen year old how to "borrow" in subtraction today.
-This morning I made the mistake of re-reading the goodbye letter my mom snuck into my backpack before I left. The first time I read it (in the airport a few hours after I had said goodbye), oceans were pouring out of my eyes. This time I held it together, but it's really starting to sink in...nine months is a long time.
-When I was leaving Anacortes, all I pictured was the hugs I'm going to get as soon as I return, all the good times I'm going to have next summer at the lake with friends and how senior year absolutely flew by (that was also nine months). Having said that though, today as I was walking through San Jose, I realized I still have a lot of Costa Rica ahead of me...a whole lot in fact. Between teaching, three to four hours daily in transit, and straining my brain just to communicate, I feel like every day has a week packed into it. I don't know if these nine months are going to "fly by" like I thought.
-With those thoughts in my head, I meandered into La Casona, a cespool of cheap souvenirs. I was searching for postcards when I recognized one of the vendor's faces--when we lived here for a year, my mom and I would come occasionally to get gifts for friends states-side and we struck up a conversation with this woman a few times. So I saw her today, asked her name, and said, "I'm sure you don't remember me, but I lived her six years ago with my family and I remember my mom and I talked with you a couple times." Her face brightened--she couldn't believe how tall I had grown, that I remembered her, etc. She asked, "Are you here working in La Carpio again?" It was so fantastic to have somewhat of a stranger recognize me after six long years and be so excited to see me. We talked for a while about all sorts of things (particularly how she wants me to find a boyfriend here, no matter how short he is) and our conversation ended with her saying these words: "If you ever need anything, anything at all, call me. I'm another tica mami for you." I almost started crying. Just this morning I was thinking about how much I missed my mom, and here God sent me another woman who was full of so much love. We hugged for a long time and I promised to return soon (plus she cut me a great deal on postcards).
-As if that wasn't enough, when I caught the bus from downtown to San Francisco, my realy tica mami was on the same bus as me! The odds of that are incredibly small. We talked about our days and I told her how I was missing home this morning, but then I ran into that woman and I realized how all these little miracles keep happening that perk me up and keep me hopeful. Her response? "Hannah, I think your parents are praying for you a lot."
-I think that's true.

-Hannah

Day 8.

So today is Wednesday, exactly one week since I've arrived. Huzzah!

Observations:

-Today I taught 15 year olds how to add numbers bigger than nine.
-Haha...yesterday my tica mom told me that I'm the first guest they've had who doesn't take ridiculously long showers. Kudos mom and dad.
-Everyone! I forgot to tell you! Henry got his tortoise! If you want, you should go visit it. And go in our hot tub for me.
-I almost got hit by two motorcycles within five minutes. Cool.
-I've been seeing a lot of stuff I'd never expect here...pretty much everyone has cell phones (even in Carpio), a lot of ipods/mp3 players (even in Carpio), plenty of skateboarders (not at all in Carpio), and skinny jeans! I would've never thought there would be skinny jeans here, but they are worn by a lot of girls. And boys.
-My tica mami made us refresco (juice drink) de mango! I think I liked it better than chocolate milk, and that's really saying something.
-I just looked up Irazu Chicago online, a great Costa Rican restaurant that Kellie told me about near DePaul. Looks delish!
-Speaking of Chicago, I hear that I might have some friends joining me there next year... Yay Nik and Anders!
-As I was walking downtown today, I realized something. Less and less do I feel liked I'm "in Costa Rica", but more that I am "in San Jose". Really, this place is a city. It is not a complete reflection of the country because you don't see coffee trees everywhere and although life is relaxed, it's not as "Pura Vida" as the other half of the population that doesn't live in the capital. Truly, I live in an urban area and I'm beginning to really feel comfortable here. My neighborhood, ironically called La Pacifica (the Pacific) is absolutely delightful. I feel incredibly safe in my house, but I still see some crazy stuff when I'm walking to catch the Carpio bus--namely whole libraries of pirated DVDs or a transvestite or two. It's getting me geared up for Chicago.
-I had a little meeting with Kathy and Lauren, other women working in Carpio, and we were talking about missing home, etc. Lauren said that just now, after three months of being here, she finally feels at home with her host family and will just chat after dinner. I've been doing that since day one. There aren't words to describe how blessed I am to be in this house.
-While I was watching some of the siblings/kids of the girls I work with, I was playing with two boys--ten and five years old. A plane flew overhead and I asked them if they ever had been in a plane, or if they ever wanted to. The ten-year-old replied, "No, but we fly all the time!" And with that, the two of them thrust their arms behind their backs and ran full bore across the field, leaping into the air and landing in the thick grass, staring up at the sun. I missed that.
-Quote of the day: "A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for some one who might be thirsty." --G. Donald Gale

-Hannah

Day 7

Observations:

-I had my first dream about home last night. For some reason the entire graduating class of 2009 had to re-do graduation, but this time it was a giant Japanese dance. Don't ask me why. At the end though, I remember some one asking me what I've been up to this summer and I said, "Well, I've been in Costa Rica for the past week! I'm going back there for another eight months." When I woke up and opened my eyes, I saw my pink walls and photos of friends and couldn't believe I was already back here--I thought I still had a plane to catch.
-Just because a bus is green DOESN'T mean it's going to Carpio. I learned that the hard way this morning.
-Today I saw the first girl I recognized! Last week I had seen a boy (young man now I guess) named Mario who was incredibly brilliant at math and friends with my dad. He has a sister named Katy who I was pretty close with--she came and spent the night at my house a few times. Anyways, today when I went to the classes this morning, I saw her sitting at one of the tables! I asked her how her studies were going, and then I realized that she wasn't studying...she was teaching the class! She's finished high school and comes back to teach science classes. She also told me that her brother finished all four years of university.
-I have NO idea why I ever was nervous about driving in little Anacortes, WA.
-Costa Ricans eat their hot dogs with lettuce and an extremely heavy dosage of this pink sauce that I am not a particularly big fan of.
-They also have never seen times tables, the ones with all the boxes. That was exciting.

I'm going to go eat some dinner. Ciao!

-Hannah

Day 6.

Observations:

-A girl next to me on the bus had an iPhone. Yes, an iPhone.
-I rode the bus back from Carpio all on my own! Big step!
-My everyday transportation costs exactly $1.24. I didn't spent any more today, not even on a delicious mamon chino (http://hisfault.com/wp-content/thumb-mc3.jpg). Yay me.
-I saw a basketball hoop in someone's carport for the first time.
-Out at the refuge, I met a woman named Brooke from Texas. She has been living here with her family for the last three years and she knows that they will be heading back to the states next summer so her son can start high school there. We had a good talk about missionary kids and readjusting to life in the US. I'm excited to talk with her more.
-King of Carrot Flowers, Pt.1 by Neutral Milk Hotel is a really good song, it makes me think of the kids I work with. You should check it out if you haven't. Thanks Mila.
-I have an official schedule now--Mon, Wed, and Fri I will teach typing classes from 10:30-12:00 and help out with math tutoring in the afternoons. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will watch the little kids of the girls who take classes from the Refuge.
-Here's a good Mother Theresa quote: "I hope you are not giving only your surplus. You must give what costs you, make a sacrifice, go without something you like, that your gift may have some value before God. Then you will be truly brothers and sisters to the poor who are deprived of even the things they need."

Today I was exhausted from getting up so early, so I'm going to hit the sack early. Buenas noches!

-Hannah

Day 5.

So I've decided that perhaps typing those novel-length entries isn't such a good idea...for my wrists and for your eyes. Thus, I've decided to condense everything into a list. Lists are good.

Yes? Yes. Bueno.

Observations:
-Interesting shirts, kind of like Japan. Namely one that said "I RECYCLE BOYS".
-Samuelitos (the world's best Colombian bakery) still exists! And is more delicious than ever!
-Rice Krispies cost $10 a box.
-People perform aerobics in the Centro Comercial del Sur parking lot on Saturday mornings. Ballers.
-I am never not full here.
-In Carpio, I have seen many boys who I recognize from six years ago. Aside from Valesqui, the daughter of one of the cooks, I have yet to see a single girl from before.
-Venezuela won Miss Universe for a second year in a row. I bet you anything Hugo Chavez had something to do with that.
-On Saturday I saw an eleven year old girl with green eyes, freckles, and red hair in La Carpio. Spanish comes out of mouths you would never expect.
-They have Toblerones here!
-I forgot how different the milk tastes. Or how they don't refridgerate it.
-One of these days I'm going to make my host family some chocolate chip cookies and milk shakes. But not at the same time.
-colocho = curly
-Grapes and apples are crazy expensive here.
-College isn't expensive at all--$600 a semester. And still so much of the population is uneducated.

Well, there are some facts for you. I'm gonna go sleep now.

-Hannah

Day 3.

Life just keeps getting better.

This morning I woke up to a feast that my tica mami had made me. I ate gallo pinto (rice and beans), a fried egg, a huge plate of pineapple, some bread from musmanni (the delicious bakery chain), and drank easily four glasses of delicious orange juice. Not from concentrate. And I can say that because she squeezed the oranges herself.

From there I ventured over to Alanna's house which is actually the house that my family lived in for two months when we first arrived here. It's amazing to have a friend from the states be here to share these experiences. We hopped the bus into downtown San Jose and then took the bus to La Carpio. All the stops are located in new places, so it's good to have Alanna with me to show me the way.

La Carpio has changed a lot since I was last here. I noticed many more shops and bakeries, and while there is still only one main paved road, there are many more sidewalks instead of the garbage-packed mudslides I was so used to. It seems that the are is more of a community now rather than just some scraps of metal filled with Nicaraguans.

I got to see so many people I haven't seen in ages....I was talking with two moms (Carmen and Lorena) who are now the cooks on the property. When we were here for a year, their children were some of my playmates and it's been great to talk with them. I walked right past the youngest girl, Valesqui, without even recognizing here! She was six years old while we were here and now she is twelve. It's crazy to think that she is now the age that I was when I was here before.

Also, I heard some absolutely crazy news. One of my best friends, Mileidy, had a baby! She now lives in Los Chiles right next to the Nicraguan border, but Lorena told me she has a six month old little boy. I really hope I get to see her at some point.

Now that I was caught up, I actually got to start working. First we did some volleyball drills with a group of girls for their PE class and then of course we played futbol. The whole time this group of about forty kids was gathered on the bottom field, all with instruments. I didn't know if they were from school or what exactly, but they had some sort of teacher who lead them in wonderfully organized chaos that was actually a lot of fun to dance to while we were playing. Apparently this happens a couple times a week, especially as September approaches before their Independence Day.

After playing for a while (something that got me very sweaty/tired), Carmen and Lorena fed us a delicious helping of some type of Nicaraguan dish that included masa dumplings and chicken....it was delicious.

Then it was time for a sort of study hall in the afternoon. Luckily my math skills came in handy as I worked with a group of girls who were in sixth grade and struggling with fractions. The twist? These girls are in between 15 and 21, and two of them had kids of their own, one of which was four years old. A lot of these girls are just that--girls. They have fun, they play sports, they like to tease and love being hugged, They can barely complete a multiplication table and struggle with reading. At the same time though, they have their own families. Many of them are married, already have their own children, or have some on the way. It's such a struggle that they deal with. On one hand they want to live out the childhood they never got, but at the same it's too late because they have already been assigned the roll of parents.

Tomorrow I am going to go into San Jose in the morning with Alanna to get some things I need for my room, and then we will travel into La Carpio to help with the girls' program in the afternoon. From what I understand, I will be having my own group of girls ages 12 to 13 who I will meet with every Saturday. We will play together, pray together, and grow together in these next nine months. It's incredible to see how this is actually happening!

I need to get some sleep and don't expect these blog entries to be this long and this frequent...up until now I have been very hesitant to use my camera and so I must document what happens in writing. I think next week I'm going to start toting my camera around.

Bendeciones,
Hannah

Day 2.

I have never ever done anything in my life that has ever felt this right.

This morning I went to the devotional at the CFCI office and got to see people that I hadn´t even thought about in years. We had a little celebration for Mother´s Day that happened here last Saturday--it started with a delicious breakfast with tortillas, vegetables, beans and cheese, and some fantastic shiskabobs that had wonderful fruit and one big ol´ marshmallow. Then we sang some songs, Don Oracio (the Argentinian pastor who baptized Luke while we were here last) shared a message about Hannah from the Bible, and finally we concluded with various games including bingo! It was just grand.

There I got to talk to Dana, a girl who is going to be a sophomore at Sojourn. She is Don Oracio´s daughter and I can remember us playing together when I was here as a twelve-year-old. Now she speaks great English and is incredibly interested in studying in the United States, particularly her senior year. I think that´s something that I really want to see happen.

From there I said goodbye to Kellie, Orlando, and Luquitas as they call him and headed over to La Pacifica, my new home for the next nine months. It´s fun to see parks and houses that I remember from our first house here which is only a couple blocks away.

My host family is incredible and already I can tell saying goodbye to them is going to be impossible. Dona Beatriz is the mother and spunky leader of the clan and her husband comes home late in the evenings from his work where he owns his own laundrymat. They have three children, Marco the oldest who just got married two weeks ago, Raquel who is an electrical engineer, and Laura who is studying to become a preschool teacher and will be gettied married in March. Already they have invited me to go with them to Panama City for Christmas, something I am incredibly excited about.

Tomorrow I will be going to La Carpio for the first time and can´t wait to see all the changes I´ve heard about.

Bueno, I need to get to sleep, but I just wanted to let you all know that I feel very safe here and that everything is magnificent. I have already smiled tremendously countless times from the amount of love directed towards me and I´ve only been here for one day. Wow.

-Hannah

PS I meant to type this earlier, but last night when I was with Orlando and Kellie, they decided that it would be best if I spent the night in Orlando´s parents´house because they had an extra room instead of me sleeping on the Alvarez´s couch. So, just like that, Orlando walked me down and asked if I could stay--he didn´t ask the week before, the day before, he didn´t even call ahead. He just showed up and they welcomed me into their home and I had quite possibly the best sleep I have ever experienced. I also woke up and didn´t know where I was. :)

Day 1.

I'm here. In Costa Rica. Yes.
Last night I said my tearful goodbyes at the airport to my friends the Traftons, to Mila, and to my family. Then I flew out of SeaTac at 11:45, landed in Houston at around 6:00 (where I saw a Fox News Channel Official Store--only in Texas), left that place at 9:05 and landed in Costa Rica a little after twelve. Everything went incredibly smoothly, I made it through customs all by myself, and nothing was lost/stolen.
Once I got here, Kellie O'Connell Alvarez picked me up with her one year old son Lucas who is far too cute to actually exist. I am staying with them tonight and going to the CFCI devotional in the morning, then I will be meeting my host family and moving in tomorrow at around noon.
Today I also went to the movies and saw Ice Age 3 (sort of...mostly I slept). My ticket cost a little over two dollars! It hurts to think about how much I've spent in the last month on movie tickets in the states.
On the topic of money, the exchange rate is currently at 590 colones to the US dollar. When we were here for a year, it was about 400. And we think our economy is going down.
Before I go to sleep, I just want to express how amazing it is to be back here. I've used this analogy before, but I feel like Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia. It's as if I've returned to this magical land and it's hard to truly know what is the real world: home or here. Or if the truth is that here IS home.
-Hannah