Day 43.

Observations:

-Yesterday, I went downtown to run some errands with my tica mom before I went into Carpio. One of which was the purchase of a new umbrella (my two-dollar one has long since lost some spindles). Anyways, I felt like I was car shopping or something. The walls were lined with all sorts of umbrellas and the woman had me try out many styles and shapes. In the end, my tica mom persuaded me into getting a large, very sturdy one and she garunteed that I will never need another umbrella. Nor a billy club for that matter.
-The other day Sarita (a tica missionary who is fluent in Spanish and English) asked me to look at a math test she was giving her class. She couldn't figure out why her answers didn't match the book's. I showed her the few places early one where she mixed things up, and all was settled quickly. That's right though. I tought the teacher. Go ahead, call me Alex Dunlap.
-Mercado Central in downtown is essentially Pike Place Market, except with a lot more cockroaches.
-My host family and I watched "The Proposal" today in theaters. My ticket cost 1200 colones, or $2.03.
-I saw entire cow feet being sold. And a certain meat called "mondungo" (Sounds like a Harry Potter character, no?), which, my tica mom informed me, was cut up cow stomach. She assured me that she didn't eat it and advised me to not try it should the opportunity arise. I headed out to Carpio shortly after, and guess what they were serving at lunch?! I didn't eat it.
-This city is just that -- a city. On my bus ride to Carpio, I pass a block with a belly dancing parlor on one side and a Western themed store on the other. I love it here.
-Deep thought of the day: there is an incredible difference between confidence and pride. Pride is that thing you mount in your living room, the name you drop when you meet some one new, the way you hold your head. Confidence is none of those things. Confidence is the day you know another prize will be greater still, the opportunity you give to some one to prove who they are (including yourself), and the way you hold your heart in your hands. Pride is what you have done; confidence is what you can do. Pride is concrete, it is fact while confidence contains a hint of doubt -- a possibility that some thing can still go askew, but that chance is worth taking. Confidence needs faith.

-Hannah

Day 42.

Observations:

- Sunday night, I went to Melisa's house for her aunt's birthday party. There were people from all over the world and we ended up singing Happy Birthday in the following languages: Spanish, English, Korean, German, Dutch, and finally Portugeuse. Check out some pics:


- Katia, Melisa's younger sister who was 16 last time I saw her, has two years left of school until she becomes an orthodontist. She is still with Alonso, a young man who played bass at our church.


- Three of the people at the party heard I play volleyball and invited me to come play with them at the park on Sunday afternoons. I'm pumped!
- My girls were back to fight-mode...it made me so glad that I was never involved in high school drama.
- The girls in my more advanced typing class are getting really excited about making a newspaper.
- I woke up this morning and looked at all the pictures on my wall from this summer, and for the first time I didn't feel like they were all taken just yesterday. I'm realizing more and more that I've convinced myself that I left Anacortes on pause, that next summer everything is going to be the exact same. It's not. I know that.
- This is on my wall:

"Hope begins in the dark. You wait and watch and work. You don't give up."
-- Anne Lamott

--Hannah

Day 39.

Observations:

-Life is good.
-Wheelbarrows can be used as playpens.
-Lauren (another gringa missionary) and I stayed up making 52 sandwiches for her and Alanna's students field trip to the zoo today. Although Alanna was very nervous/stressed about the whole deal, everything worked out marvelously.
-Everyone really like mayonnaise here. Really. A lot.
-Yesterday I saw two GREAT old friends! Mileidy and Urania! They were visiting San José for a doctor's appointment and swung by Carpio. I also got to meet Mile's son, Dylan Steven. I have their phone numbers and I'm going to call them when my fam comes so we can all have a little reunion. :)
-I'm connecting more with Jeffry, the fifteen-year-old son of one of the cooks. We've been talking about all the fun we had as kids, about English (he knows a lot more than he lets on), and about how much I miss my brothers. I think that's why we're getting closer: he's just another little brother.
-Tonight I had another four hour long meeting in Carpio for camp in January. At the end, we were asked to get in partners and pray for each other, preferrably some one you don't really know. One young man named William (I remember him from six years ago) eagerly agreed to be my partner and I was a little hesistant. After countless cat calls daily, awkward conversations on the bus, and scary stories on the news every night, something inside me has become sadly wary of all latino men. However, as soon as he grabbed my hands and we started praying, I realized that he was there in that room for a reason and it had nothing to do with me. As our murmuring voices simultaneously filled the empty space between us (mine in English and his in Spanish), life filled my heart and I was overcome by how real this place is. Afterwards William thanked me for praying in English (I only did it because it's still hard for me to pray in Spanish). He said, "I like remembering that God knows every language we speak."

-Hannah

Day 37.

Observations:

- The first time my girls used Microsoft Paint, over half of them drew one thing: a house. Not the kinds of houses here, but the kind of house that you see in suburban America.
- Speaking of my typing girls...today my new group (the one with the babies) had their first test. One girl, Keilin, the sixteen-year-old mother of one-year-old Christopher, did twice as well on her first test as any of the girls in the other class who have been at it for a month. Teaching makes me feel good.
- While at the Thursday meeting at the CFCI office, we prayed for a Costa Rican mission team that's headed to...*drum roll please*...YAKIMA! Crazy, no?
- This morning I bought a ginormous otter pop from a man on the street. It cost one two hundred colones and I gave him one thousand. He gave me eleven hundred in change back. I told him that was too much. The second time around he gave me seven hundred back. I had to talk him through basic math in order to get the correct change.
- Whenever I have children/siblings/nieces and nephews of my students in my computer class, I usually sit them on my lap while my girls work. Then I turn on the various screen savers and watch as the kids try to reach out and grab the floating 3-D objects.
- It's easy to make a ruler out of folded paper.

--Hannah

Day 36.

Observations:

- To use the oven here is incredibly spendy. Thus, everything is fried. At least that's what my tica mom says.
- I've been playing my ukulele / drawing more. I forgot how great creating things can be.
- Every time I thoroughly scrub my feet, everything that I thought was my Teva tan disappears down the drain.
- Alanna was in Honduras last week, renewing her visa and visiting a friend. She said that the whole country was poorer than La Carpio.
- One more week until October...how did that happen?!
- So I haven't really explained this, but Costa Ricans (aka ticos) are very racist against Nicaraguans. Roughly every other day some one will strike up a conversation with me on the bus. Whenever I say, "No I'm not here on vacation, I'm here working in La Carpio" a sort of grimace will pass over my new acquaintance's face. "Oh," I've heard people say, "there are lots of....Nicaraguans there." I think too that the ticos are embarrassed about La Carpio; it's not exactly something that you want foreigners to know exists in your country. I'm trying to imagine someone from Japan coming to visit the US and telling me that they went to work in the trailer parks of Sedro-Woolley. I'm sorry to say that my reaction would be the same as the ticos' I sit next to.

--Hannah

Day 35.

Observations:

- I saw more people smoking in Chicago than I've seen in San José.
-This morning my bus driver took a different route and I looked out my window to see Tin Jo! Tin Jo was the amazing Chinese restaurant my family and I went to for Thanksgiving. A lot of memories suddenly came flooding back.
- My host family tells me that if anyone tries and rob me, that whatever I do, I'm not supposed to scream. That's reassuring.
- There is no hot water here. The showers have electric heaters on the shower heads that make the water warm at just the right water pressure; they are called "widowmakers". And yes, all dishes are washed with cold water.
- A few of the tanktops I purchased before coming down here were a little big, but I told myself, "No matter, they'll shrink in the dryer." They don't have dryers here. Smart one, Hannah.
- My tico dad works in a laundry service. Many Sunday afternoons I wake up from a nap to the sound of him rifling through clothes hangers. More often than not I mistake it for my brothers plunging through buckets of legos.
- Many of the girls I work with can't continue on throughout high school because they don't have enough money to pay for the exams at the end of every year. They cost about $6 each.
- I started a new computer class today. It's hard to teach a girl how to type a, s, d, or f when their left arm is full of breast-feeding baby.
- While chatting with my friend Clara Hill on facebook (a sophomore at USC who is currently changing the world), I really realized what a great stepping stone this year is for me: I'm in a foreign country in a city that doesn't speak English, but I still have some one who cooks me meals and does my laundry. Some parts of the day I have to be extremely independent, but I still have a family. It's nice.
- I just had a great conversation with my tica mom, who told me that her mom didn't start wearing shoes until she was 16 years old.

-Hannah

Day 34.

Observations:

-Christmas decorations are everywhere. That's what happens when you don't have Halloween or Thanksgiving.
-Apples are a delicacy.
-Today I saw a man reading on the bus! Apocalypse!
-Sometimes I like to pretend that all the mangy dogs in Carpio are actually animagi. Wow, I'm a nerd. And if you know what I'm talking about, that makes you a nerd too.
-One of my new students doesn't know how to write her own name. Learning to type is going to take its time.
-On Friday I'm going to start a weekly art class!
-When I was at Meli's house yesterday, I saw her pull out an iPhone. I couldn't believe it. SO many people here have them -- a girl brought one into the Refuge on Saturday. When I said this to Melisa, she laughed. "Oh no no no....this isn't a real one." She let me use it for a bit. Everything lagged, was rather pixely, and was in Chinese.
-Sometimes you can't see the motorcycles here and the motorcycles here never see you.
-The younger brother of one of my students refers to me as "Nona". I haven't the slightest idea why, but I like it.
-A lot of times, you can see more of a person's soul in a stare than in a smile.

-Hannah

Day 33.

Observations:

-This blog was meant to be something that my supporters would check in on from time to time to see where their money is going. More and more though, some one new tells me that they keep up with what I write daily. Not was I was expecting.
-Yesterday I had a meeting out in Carpio until around 8 pm. I've never been there that late (I was in a tica missionary's car, don't worry).
-After the meeting, as we were dropping off one of the girls who lives in Carpio, I saw Gretel -- another girl who I knew from six years ago. She's doing well and asked about my mom. Like so many girls in Carpio, she's pregnant.
-I also saw a drunk man loose control of his motorcycle, fall off, and lay unconscious in one of the grotesque ditches I've talked about. Immediately people from all around flocked to the scene and pulled him out, blood seeping from his forehead. No ambulance was called.
-Small town safety is something that's taken for granted.
-Street vendors here hawk like none other, shouting their goods until they sound like they've been smoking since exiting the womb. Yesterday though, I heard a woman singing. "Guaya bites!" she sang in almost a folkish lullaby, "Guaya bites! 100 colones for delicious guaya bites!" The city life is for me.
-Stores called "Ropa Americana y Italiana", literally translated "Italian and American clothes", are actually thrift stores.
-Another store I see every day is called "B*KUL <-- Pronto!" At first I was confused by this. "B. Kul <-- Quickly"? Then I realized something..."Be Cool Pronto!" Nice.
-When I was here as a twelve-year-old, unless the food in front of me was bread or fruit, I wouldn't eat it. After spending two weeks in Japan though, I've learned to try everything. As it turns out, I've fallen in love with almost every food I've taken a bite of. This may seem as a blessing, but I think I eat the equivalent of about five meals a day here. I need to work on that.
-Today I spent time with Melisa, the woman I ran into last week who was one of our dear friends who we had lots of trouble finding. She's doing very well and next week I'm going to her house for her aunt's birthday. -My parentals also wanted some pics of me with the people I work with. While I have been very hesitant about letting other people use my D90, one of my students, Griselda, got some good shots of me with Maria, the 3-year-old sister of another one of my students, Carla (the girl who wrote me the note).

-Yes. That is permanent marker on her teeth.

-Hannah

Day 31.

One BIG observation:

I realized something big today. As so many of my friends enter their senior year and as I begin filling out scholarships once again, I've been reminded more and more about my high school experience: the grades, the speeches, the awards. So much of who I am in Anacortes is defined by the number of times I've appeared in the newspaper. Here, I'm not producing things that are seen by an entire student body. I'm not playing in front of bleacher-fuls of loyal fans. No one knows about the trophies, the announcements, the film festivals...and you know what? They don't care.

In my computer class I give the girls some free time to write letters to family and friends (printing things makes them very excited). Usually they leave the name of the receiver for last because so often the letters are directed towards secret crushes. One girl was working diligently on a letter for the past week; I assumed it was to one of her boy interests. It wasn't. It was to me.

The people I encounter her (the other missionaries, my host family, the girls I work with) are all seeing the real Hannah -- the one who still struggles with Spanish, the one who spends too much time on facebook, the one who loses her patience. And they still love me. My greatest fear about graduating high school was that all my respect, all my friendships, that all happiness I had gained over the last four years would be locked away with my medals and headlines and plaques. The truth is that people don't need to know about any of those things -- they still want to be close to me.

I can't explain how peaceful that makes me feel.

Day 30.

Observations:

-Last night Harry Potter 5 was on HBO. I watched it and teared up when Harry triumphs over Voldemort's possession and says, "You're the weak one. And you'll never know love,or friendship. And I feel sorry for you." Gets me every time.
-This morning I went to the Thursday morning devotional, where I saw a woman who told me that she is good friends with Melisa and that Melisa had talked about me! This woman, Noami, apparently spent some time living with Melisa's family (Noami is Peruvian, like the Castros) and is currently raising funds to go be a missionary in Mali for five years...!
-While at the meeting, I also ran into Joe Yoder, an American man from Ohio who did orientation with us six years ago. He was only planning to stay for three months at the time, but one thing led to another and now he lives here with his tica wife (who I met today).
-I had to run some errands today and went into Universal, downtown's equivalent of a Macy's. It's decent sized -- there's an escalator going up...but there's not one going down.
-Also, while looking around downtown, I found a few bookstores that sold English books! Alas...all the paperbacks were anywhere from $14-21. No wonder no one reads here.
-Waiting for the bus this morning, I watched a young woman holding a fistful of medicines give her nauseous five-year-old son a grape Fanta. I watched him vomit the purple liquid all over the sidewalk. The mother simply wiped his face on his sleeve and yanked him onto the bus in front of me.
-The number of blind people here is overwhelming. I can remember my dad commenting on how no one uses any sort of eye protection when doing construction (including while welding). I wonder what's going to happen to all the of us teens who blast our headphones into our brain; I know I'm one of them.
-Peanuts here are very, very expensive.
-Pandora (the music service) doesn't work here! The licenses don't cross borders past the US...I guess it's time I actually start living like a "missionary" and "sacrifice something".
-Today on the bus, I watched a father and son share a burrito. And a drink that they sipped out of a straw, the beverage sealed off in a knotted grocery bag.
-There are no street names here.
-There is a lot of barbed wire.

-Hannah

Day 29.

Observations:

-Whilst riding on the bus today, I saw a very tall man. As I was getting up to get off, I thought to myself, "Jee golly, he's almost as tall as the roof of the bus itse--" THUNK. I hit my head on the ceiling.
-I saw a fifty-year old man rocking an NSYNC shirt.
-My students are finally getting the hang of typing. There are still a couple who are having difficulties, but mostly that's just because they never come to class. I'm blown away by the progress that is being made though.
-In Costa Rica, all Catholic churches face east.
-San Jose was the third city in the world to have electricity.
-A lot can be learned while watching Costa Rican Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
-For having such an incredibly high literacy rate, almost no one reads in Costa Rica. It's incredibly disheartening. When my tica mom commented on how few clothes I brought, I said, "Well I had to have room for my books!" "Books?!" she retorted, "If I had to bring books, I'd just bring one: the Bible."
-Although my Spanish is holding up quite well, I still can't express myself like I would in English. I can't make jokes, I can't always find the right words...I feel like the girls don't really get to see my character. For that reason, actions and facial expressions are so much more important -- I have to be very careful how I respond to things. It makes me realizes how much we can convey without our vocal chords.
-Yesterday a seven-year-old boy fell into the river in La Carpio and drowned. This last weekend a seventeen-year-old was shot point blank in a bar. Some of the girls I teach knew both boys, and when I asked if many people die in La Carpio, she half-laughed a, "Yah, it seems like every weekend some one dies." For the rest of the community, life goes on. For two of them though, it doesn't.
-I made a movie. Watch it.



-Hannah

Day 26.

Observations:

-I HONESTLY WITNESSED A MIRACLE TODAY! So I was walking to my friend Dana's house, running a little late as usual (tico time). Anyways, as I was walking I saw two young woman getting out of their gated home, heading for a taxi. Nothing unusual about that. I glanced at one of them, the older one, and our eyes passed over each other's faces and locked -- it was Melisa!!! Melisa was our empleada (maid) that came with our first house when we lived here six years ago. That sounds much more condescending that it's supposed to be. Melisa's family is from Peru and we went to church with them for the entire 13 months we were here. While we visited four years ago, we tried to find them, but had no luck. Now, six years after I saw her last, I happen to live less than a block away from her! If I wasn't put with this family, if I wasn't going to Dana's, if I wasn't running late, none of this would have happened. MIRACLE!
-In other news, I started The Kite Runner last night. I finished it this morning. Read it if you haven't already.
-Last night my tica mom had a family gathering to pray for her brother (the doctors are giving him absolutely no hope now). We all ate dinner together, laughed, cried, prayed. For dessert, we all ate multi-colored marshmallows. No, there were no kids present.
-I talked more with Dana's gringo boyfriend's sister. This time it went much better (she's a big Harry Potter fan!), and I reminded her about how six months ago she absolutely hated everything here. Now she only dislikes it. Who knows, I said, maybe in three years she'll learn to love it.
-One more thing: today I got my nose pierced.

-Hannah

Day 25.

Observations:

-While walking downtown, I saw a Rocket Power backpack. It was one of the few times in my life that I have been genuinely jealous of a material item.
-Also while walking downtown, I almost get full on pegged by two pigeons as they flew above everyone's heads (aka where my face is).
-For the first time, I broke down and bought a chocolate milk. While it wasn't as good as in the States, it was better than the white milk/cocoa powder/sugar combination my tica mom made me last week.
-I'm trying really hard to not say "home" when referring to the US. I want this to feel like home.
-Where ever I am in this city, I feel like I'm walking around in an oxymoron: there is so much garbage, but there is also so much green. Sure it's the rainy season so every plant grows at about 15 cm a minute, but really -- this place is filthy and breath-taking.
-So far, I haven't found a road sign that hasn't been bent/graffitied/plowed over by a car.
-Father, here's a little inverse equation for you (I think that's what it's called):

How much Western influence a tico has = 1 / amount of gel in their hair

-Alanna and I were discussing how we see a lot of homeless people in our neighborhood (an upper-middleclass suburb) but we have yet to see one in La Carpio.
-In Costa Rica, almost every three blocks you will see a "Pulperia" or a little Mom and Pop version of 711 -- mostly just candies, cookies, and frozen treats. Whenever I'm dying from heat in Carpio (close to every day), I buy a little 100 colones helado (a 17 cent "ice cream") that consists of milk, sugar, and usually some sort of flavor...be that coconut, syrup, or smashed up chocolate cookies, all frozen in a tied off sandwich bag. Like a lot of the thing sold in pulperias, it's cheap and it takes a long time to eat.
-On the buses, senior citizens have cards that they give to the driver who then writes down their information before he hands them back. The driving system is sound, but it's those kinds of tedious things that remind me I'm not somewhere that has up to date technology.
-Last night while I was putting my umbrella away, I impaled my hand. While it isn't too bad, I've never experienced that much pain when I used my hand sanatizer today.
-I'm going to leave you with some pictures of one of the niece's of a girl I teach. When I asked her what the red marks were on her neck, she told me "that's where my mom burned me." What a world we live in.

-Hannah

Day 23.

Observations:

-Today I made Funfetti cake mix cookies for a "Día Del Niño" celebration we're having on Saturday. Those are yummy cookies.
-I'm getting really good at French-braiding my own hair.
-WE BEAT LA CONNER! Congrats AHS girls volleyball!
-As I ran this morning, I passed by a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk. Carefully, I crossed the road so as to not disturb him. I felt an uncanny parallelism to the story of the good samaritan. I was not the good samaritan.
-A couple days ago, a young boy had an pet iguana he was toting around. When I asked him what the pet's name was, he coyly responded "igual-que-usted" or "the-same-as-yours." Clever.
-Right now I'm re-reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God". There are so many nutrients I'm gaining from that book now that I'm digesting it for a second time.
-Yesterday someone dropped off a box of four kittens to the property, hoping to find homes for them. When I brought my camera today to take pictures of the little creatures, they all had already been given away.
-Tomorrow we're going to play kickball with the girls for PE. We'll see how that goes.
-My tica mom's brother is suffering from pancreatic cancer and the doctors aren't giving him much longer...please pray for his healthy and peace for my tica mami.
-Tonight, while I was making cookies at another missionary's house, I had the opportunity to call my parents using an internet phone service. It was the first time I'd talked to them in three weeks. It was something I needed.
-As soon as I hung up from talking to my mother, I returned to the living room to see that the movie "Bella" was on TV. If you haven't seen that movie, you should -- it's something very special to my mom and my myself.
-Here's a quote that my dear friend Elisabeth Raff showed me:

"At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities."
-- Jean Houston

-Hannah

Day 21

Observations:

-So I've been here for 3 weeks. Yup.
-This morning I decided to go for a little run at 5:30. The last time I ran was at the Skagit Senior Game. Yes, that was in March, thanks for asking.
-As soon as I got home I fell asleep for the two hours before I had to head out to work.
-Before work though, I managed to put my hair in two french braids! I think that's the most independent I've felt this whole trip.
-My host sister just told me I shouldn't shower for another hour because I just ate dinner. I guess showers are considered swimming here.
-I love listening to music I forgot exists.
-Today I helped a girl with English for a good hour and a half. She is sixteen-years-old and was breast-feeding her one-year-old son the whole time.
-Almost every day on the bus, some one will come on pedaling scrunchies, caramels, key chains...anything to make a few extra colones. Many of the people share messages about drug-addicted pasts and how the power of God has turned their life around, how all of their profits were going towards cures for cancer (something no one actually believes). Usually they're lucky to make two or three hundred colones (a little less than 50 cents). Today though was different. A man stood up half way through the bus ride and said that he worked for the handicapped services, promoting the production of wheelchair ramps and access for people who can't walk. Instead of asking for money, he simply said that he was going to pass out a candy to every person in the bus. I watched as almost every single person on that bus (including myself) game him a handful of change. It's amazing to see how when one person gives, other people give in return.
-I have a book recommendation for you all. It's called "The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World". It's a collection of 12 essays on current world issues. One of my favorites was on clean water and it was by Dan Haseltine, the lead singer of Jars of Clay. Another great one was on HIV/AIDS by Jenna Lee, a Whitworth graduate (I know my mother reads this). The final essay (consequently my favorite) was about poverty and written by Cranford Joseph Coulter. Here's some of my favorite passages:

"The idea that giving to the poor is giving to God can be found throughout the Bible. It should be noted that nowhere does it mention giving only to those poor who are deserving or worthy, or those who are poor through no fault of their own. No. Giving is an act of mercy. What is mercy? It is when one is spared the negative consequences of one's misbehavior. The poor are not presumed to be innocent, nor are we to judge them to be guilty. When we are confronted by them, we are given an opportunity to respond as we would hope God would respond to us in our poverty...
Every human being starts his or her life with wonderful potential and hope. Each person is a unique, unrepeatable reflection of the glory of God, made in His image. This is true, whether he or she is homeless, addicted, in prison, shopping at the local grocery store, or singing next to you in choir. Each one was once a beautiful baby in some one's arms...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: 'We need to relate to people less according to what they do or omit to do, and more according to what they have suffered.'...
Divorce has become so common and so easy. It's no big thing to throw a spouse out of the picture -- why can't I just walk away from a brother or a sister who is difficult or messy, or a mom or dad who is needy, or a son or daughter who has issues? Don't I deserve to be happy? Life would be so much easier without them. The first and most important element of the cure for homelessness is to love God--let Him help you love your family. Be a home-builder. Be the ounce of prevention. Then lover your neighbor. We have seen an eighty-three-year-old woman living on the streets for the last few months. She has no children. Why has no neighbor taken her in? That's the way it used to be done. She would be some one's Aunt Margaret and live in Bobby's old room. This is not a radical concept.
When I service the people on the street, I am not there to preach to them. I don't make them sit or stand through a message and a song before we serve the food. These people are not rats, and the food is not bait. The sharing of food and clothing is not just a means to gather a crowd to evangelize. If I do that, it would be a con, not love...
...pray this simple prayer: 'Lord, let me see what it is that you love about each person I meet.' It is powerful. But I warn you, be prepared to have your heart broken."

-Hannah

Day 20

Observations:

-Not having a social life every night is actually really magnificent.
-"Estampillas tradicionales" (traditional stamps) actually means collector stamps. Good to know that now.
-While looked out my bus window (something I do for nearly 3 hours every day), I watched as a couple said goodbye to each other. The woman crossed her husband, at the end touching his lips with her hand and then kissing him. I thought it was the perfect example of God's love flowing into a relationship. And very romantic as well.
-Sometimes when I walk downtown, I like to watch people's arms swing. Everyone carries their backpack/bag tucked under one arm to prevent theft, and the other swings to compensate. It's like every person is a clock.
-In Anacortes, you can tell who is a tourist by who uses an umbrella. Here, you can tell who is a tourist by who doesn't use an umbrella.
-I decided to keep count today: I saw 17 women wearing tube tops on my way to La Carpio.
-One of my most difficult but also brightest students confided in me today that she has the opportunity to go back to regular high school. She started crying and said she wants to return, but she doesn't want to leave the Refuge. I didn't know what to tell her.

-Hannah

Day 19

Observations:

-Rain = Fun.
-I really really really don't want to have kids for a really really really long time.
-Giving people things gives me a rush.
-Apparently both peace signs and five pointed stars (like the ones your second grade teacher drew all over your spelling tests) are considered satanic symbols here. So is pikachu.
-Last night was the big Costa Rica vs. Mexico soccer game and Costa Rica sadly lost 3-0. Watching my tica sister and her fiance react to the game was more entertaining than watching the game itself.

-My address is

Srta. Hannah Holtgeerts

CPCI-Costa Rica
Apdo. 509-2350
San José, COSTA RICA, Cent. America.

-Please send me a letter!

-Here, I go to a straight up mega-church. There are four services and usually my host parents and I either go to the 8 or 10 o'clock ones. In the early morning it's about half full, but at the 10 o'clock it's hard to find a seat, unless you go up to the huge balcony. Every week the music team changes so that as many people as possible have a chance to lead and so far, ever Sunday I've been there I've heard some one different speak. The first Sunday I understood a solid 95% of the message, last week I understood maybe 15% and today I'd say I could grasp a good 75%. It all depends on what kind of vocabulary the speakers use. Today though, I heard one phrase that really stuck with me. The pastor talked about "famous" Christians. He said if you ask Christians today who has been the greatest Christian of all time, Catholics might say Mother Theresa, Pentacostals might say Benny Hinn, and Evangalicals might say Billy Graham. What did Jesus say? "I tell you the truth: among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist." (Matthew 11:11) The speaker went on to describe how so many of these "super christians" today are not at all like John the Baptist. He used this line: "En el mundo Cristiano hoy, tenemos muchas estrellas por que faltamos el sol." This means "In the Christian world today, we have many 'stars' because we're missing the sun." When I thought of this in English, I realized that "sun" could also be "Son." Languages are an amazing gift that God gave us.

-Hannah

Day 17.

Observations:

-Gringos are loud and talk a lot.

-Alanna (another gringa missionary with CFCI and one of my best friends from Tall Timber Family Camp) was playing a game of concentration with the ten-year-old brother of one of the girls at the refuge. They were taking turns listing off Spanish names (ie Jose, Maria, etc). I approached just as the boy paused and thought for a moment, and then exclaimed "Gorda!" Apparently "Fat woman" is considered a legit name here.

-Have you ever realized how many names/countries end with the letter A? Think about it.

-In La Carpio today, I saw a man carrying around a boa constrictor.

-I also saw Ani, a girl who I knew from six years ago. She's studying in some sort of technical school with her husband.

-When people meet me, this is usually how the conversation goes:

Them: Como se llama? What's your name?

Me: Hannah.

Them: Cuantos años tiene? How old are you?

Me: 18.

Them: Tiene hijos? Do you have any children?

Me: No.

Them: Esta casada? Are you married?

Me: No.

Them: Oh.

-Today I had two girls ask me what "Mai hohm" meant. "Mai hohm?" I asked, very confused. "Si! Mai hohm!" They yelled, expecting me to spit out a Spanish translation. "De que estan hablando? What are you talking about?" I asked. At this, the two of them started dancing, singing a very butchered version of the Black Eyed Peas "My Humps". Yah.

-People have already started putting up Christmas decorations here.

-Hannah

Day 16

Observations:

-Last time we were here, La Carpio had one paved road. Now I've seen maybe six or so (so far).
-As I was riding the bus home today, I heard the Spanish version of "You'll be in my heart" from the movie Tarzan. Nothing like hearing Phil Collins sing Spanish.
-I've been having a bit of a problem forgetting to turn off lights in my house...if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can solve this problem, let me know.
-I drink way more soda and watch way more TV here than I ever did in the States.
-CFCI sent me an email about the support I've raised so far. I am absolutely blown away by the people of Anacortes -- thank you family, friends, neighbors, and everyone in between. I could never do this without you!
-During math class, one of my sweetest students commented on how much she liked my bracelet. I returned the compliment, telling her that hers was beautiful as well. With that, she slipped it off her wrist and put it onto mine.
-I've decided I really really really am a city girl. If any of you reading this ever entered my room in the States, you saw a plethora of pictures, poems, cut-outs from National Geographics, letters, scribbles, and attempts at masterpieces. I told myself that my wall were plastered from top to bottom because I was trying to bring as much of the world into my little bubble called Anacortes. Now, I just look around me and am overwhelmed by the colors, struggles, emotions...and it's not just things I see. It's things I smell, things I hear, things I taste and touch. Although not all of it is pleasant and there are many things I wouldn't mind forgetting, everything here is so raw. It's real.
-I hope Chicago is the same way.
-Yesterday while I was looking out the window on the bus, I watched diseases ferment in the drainage ditches on the side of the road in Carpio. Just as I was considering how nauseous the grotesque water must be at its own contents, I saw two kids dropping leaves into the flowing filth, racing each other. Then, just before the little boats passed onto the next block, the young girl and boy plunged their hand in, snatching up their makeshift toys and running back to the beginning to start all over again. Here's the thing: they were genuinely happy.

-Hannah

Day 15.

Observations:

-As I was walking downtown today, I listened in anguish as a clearly mentally-unstable man continuously punched a metal door, screaming after every hit. I also watched as a man washed himself in a public fountain. Finally, I saw a homeless woman pick something from her matted hair and then proceed to eat it.

-The dogs here lay around on the street without moving and quite often I have a feeling they're no longer alive. The same goes for some of the people I've seen.

-This evening I hung out with Dana (an Argentinean girl who goes to the same school I did when I was here), along with her gringo boyfriend and his sister. I was reminded so clearly of everything stereotypical of a MK (missionary kid). Mainly the "I hate Costa Rica/I hate Latinos/I hate Spanish and refuse to learn it" attitude. At one point I stood up and yelled, "You are in a Latino's home! Your parents are here to help them! So many people would give anything to have the opportunity that you do to learn another language. Twenty years from now you are going to look back on this with such regret. These people are beautiful, this place is beautiful, this language is beautiful -- why do you try so hard to find the ugliness in everything? The only thing that ends up looking bad is you."

-Okay, I didn't really say that. But I thought it. And maybe one day I will share bits and pieces of it with the MKs I come across.

-I can now say I've seen a Costa Rican albino. That was cool.

-While I was talking with my tica mom about the whole missionary kid thing, she said something that really stuck in my brain. She told me, "Hannah, there is a saying here: 'Dios no tiene nietos' (God doesn't have grandchildren). We are all sons and daughters of God and the only way our children can be related to him is directly, not through us parents." Think about that.

-Hannah

Day 14

Observations:

-This morning, on the bus, I was in lazy mode. I'm starting to find a routine and am afraid it's turning into monotony. I tried waking myself up, but it didn't really work.
-I bought stamps today, and in doing so, helped an American woman send some packages back to the States. She was from Louisiana and didn't speak Spanish and in the hour and a half it took to talk to at least seven different postal workers, we found out that we were both raised Presbyterians and both had our parents as high school teachers. I told her I was going to be in Costa Rica for nine months. She told me she had just spent three years in the Middle East working for the military. That woke me up.
-The group of girls I work with during computer classes I also work with in the afternoons, mostly doing math. These girls are taking their exams in May, not October like every one else. We've become some what of a tight-knit group and have been playing lots of educational games I make up on the spot. They're not always the most fun, but they're better than just doing workbooks.
-I've seen this sign all over town: "Einstein was a refugee." I forgot that.
-When I was in Japan, I saw three pregnant woman in the whole two weeks I was there. Today I saw three pregnant women on the same block.
-A lot of the little supermarkets are called "Mini Supermercados" or just "Mini Supers". Say it: Mini Super. Now say it with a Latino accent: "Meenee Soopehr". Nice.
-Sarah (the woman I met at the post office) wanted me to thank my parents asap for making me bilingual. Thanks guys.
-I eat rice and beans every day. Three times a day.
-Sufjan Stevens and Matt Kearney have been making me very excited about my future (they both have songs called "Chicago" and are two of the main reasons I want to go to DePaul...bahaha.)
-A little while back we had a competition with some 8-12 year old girls. The prize for the winners was a black ball-point pen, like the ones you get at the bank. They loved them.
-I don't know if I've said this already, but I'm going to be a camp counselor for five twelve-year-old girls in January. We're going to Roblealto, a camp I went to when I was 12 with the Carpio kids. Now a lot of the boys who were at the camp with me are going to be counselors as well.
-In one of my mom's emails, she asked how I was dealing with the whole "being tall" thing down here. Truth be told, I've had more people call me "Hannah Montana" than comment on my height. Honestly, I'd rather be called "Giant American Troll" than Hannah Montana.
-Oh well.

-Hannah