Shannon Costello

Of course you all think the title means ‘lazy’ but it actually refers to the local sloth that lives on the plaza. Unfortunately I haven’t caught a glimpse of him yet, but I am really, really hoping. Dave saw him on the first day- he has pictures to prove it. I am [...]

Ok, here we go again. I know you will all think I do nothing but access the internet, but I am actually waiting for about half the team to finish what they are doing on other computers. Melanie and I are the only ones with bolivianos right now, so we need to be [...]

The first night was definitely the worst.  We were unable to stay up later than 6pm- we were soooo tired.  But then I woke up at 1 in the morning and had real trouble getting to sleep.  What is culture shock, anyway?  At that time I figured I could define it as “psychological trauma caused [...]

Well, here I am, seeing South America from an internet café at a cost of 3 Bolivianos per hour.  I get 7 bolivianos for every dollar.  I won´t dwell on the loooong plane flight, except to say that I met the most interesting people and had fun using Spanish to get through customs- not at [...]

In honor of this trip I spent time yesterday and today preparing this recipe.
Salteñas are the Bolivian version of empanadas, which come from Argentina. The story is that a woman from Salta, Argentina moved to Bolvia and made a version that was so good it is still a hit today. Mothers would send [...]

The starting salary for a first-year teacher in Howard County is somewhere around $40,000. In Bolivia teachers earn about $1000, a typical income. Of course some things cost less, but not always. In the late 90’s massive protests were sparked when the government’s attempt to grant control of the water system to [...]

I like language because it is so versatile, a fact I didn’t always appreciate. My adolescent mind couldn’t handle figurative meanings. But I see it now- there is so much more to what is said than the words by themselves should be able to convey. Interesting to think that even with that [...]