Day 212.

Today, I...

saw a mini Harley Davidson...with training wheels.

missed my WPC family. Good thing the Mathis clan are coming tomorrow! I'm so excited to see them, show them Costa Rica, and show them off to Costa Ricans.

realized I am going to miss running into people on the street. It's inevitable in Anacortes, and I'm getting to the point where I can't walk the main drag of Carpio without having to stop and chat with a student, a mother, or a child. I don't know if that's going to happen in Chicago.

learned that I do not care for mondongo -- cow intestine.

smiled when I played Heads Up 7Up with my students. It was the second time we've ever played it and when I announced that's what we'd do for the last fifteen minutes, one of the roughest, most intimidating girls let out a yelp and laughed "Si! Eso es BUENISIMO! Yes! That's SO GREAT!"

--Hannah

PS I haven't really put up any deep chunks of writing for you all to chew on, so I'm going to post an excerpt from a recent scholarship essay I cranked out. Hope you get something out of it and spit some feedback my way.

The bigger my world is, the smaller my problems are. I have always known this, whether my world was enlarged by cracking open an unread book, migrating to another lunch table, or traversing to far-off lands via the Discovery channel. After spending the last seven months teaching in La Carpio, a slum settlement in Costa Rica's capital, my world has grown exponentially and my problems suddenly seem so empty in comparison.
One of the greatest life lessons my students have nurtured into my being is that every worry can be transformed into a prayer of thanksgiving. Why did I have melt downs when homework piled up? That only meant people were pushing me to my full potential. Why did I dread three hour practices? They were precious moments to treasure with my teammates. Why did I get angry when people expected so much of me? It was obvious that they were confident in my abilities. The girls I teach approach life this way. Why get worked up about a failed test? You already know more than yesterday. Why worry about going hungry? That only means you must be satisfied now. Why be anxious about your child's future? They are in your arms today. Obviously they do not all think like this, just as not all Americans are stressed-out worry hounds. It is just another shift in my perspective.
Perspective: such an underestimated word. I spent my high school years building an empire of extracurricular wealth -- I entered film festivals, won art contests, earned such titles as "captain", "president", and "headmistress". But where has that gotten me now? Can I cook? No. Can I do my own laundry? Barely. The girls I work with know how many fistfuls of rice can feed a family, but they still count on their fingers. We’re on this planet to teach each other.
My workplace in La Carpio (appropriately named “The Refuge”) is a sanctuary of small steps and stress-less smiles, so different from the competition-driven culture awaiting me in my own country. Having said that, I want to clarify something: cynicism is just as dangerous as ignorance. Why fawn over another society when you can change your own? The people here have stories that have woven their way into mine—I want to reach out so that other strands can be added to this cord. It is by telling these compelling life stories that I plan to enlighten others of the miracle I have discovered: human emotion.
Feelings cannot be explained like math or logic. People have discovered what's inside the sun, the physics of flight, how the rain returns to the ocean and back again, but no one knows why we laugh, where disappointment comes from, or how love happens. There is an infinite chasm between science and passion...but there is also a bridge: art. Right now you are looking at pixels and plastic, concrete things you can touch. Language twists this into something complex, stirs something inside of us that we can only feel. Paintings are nothing more than pigment on parchment, but the colors swell before our eyes until tears swim there too. I believe film is the strongest of them all — it is nothing more than sound waves and photons, but it is capable of filling us with sorrow, igniting us with hope, and even moving us to action.
The young people of La Carpio have never applauded for one of my departmental awards or shouted my jersey number in a packed-out gym. Speaking in a second language has stripped me of my charisma and there is no school television program to showcase my latest creative production; Costa Rica has taken away everything I am proud of. It has humbled me. It has made me realize that people believe in me not because of my abilities, but because I enable their own. Teaching, showing, expanding...these are things I will do for the rest of my life. My films will not just excite or inspire, rather they will act as mirrors reflecting what the viewers themselves are capable of. I will share people's stories, making our world family a little bigger and maybe, just maybe, our problems will all seem a little smaller.