Shannon Costello

This is one of Shannon Hale’s two adult novels, both of which are pretty good.  (The other one is Austenland.) Interestingly enough, both deal with females fantasizing about their favorite male actor.  In this case, the woman (a devout Mormon with four kids) actually meets her favorite actor.  The book offers an answer to the [...]

For me it was a wildly unusual juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, of color, of nature and civilization, of language, of political views, and well, it seems just about anything.  And yet I bet there were more similarities than differences.

Prices in bolivianos, sometimes informally known as pesos. The exchange rate was about 7 bolivianos for $1
1 for 4 small pastries (2 spinach, 2 chicken)
150 for 4 books
40 for dinner at a decent restaurant
3 for an hour of internet access
20 for breakfast (salteña and hot chocolate)
3 for a postcard
7.50 to mail a postcard or [...]

Just use Spanish prononciation.
Nisqasniykita sonqoypi waqaychoni ama contrayquipi juchallykunaypaj.
En mi corazón he guardado tus dichos para no pecar contra ti.
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
I keep hearing the pastor talk about the opposite- ¨No he guardado tus dichos, entonces pequé…¨ [...]

So I think that before this trip I would have billed myself as, say, 70% introverted and 30% extroverted. But on this trip I behaved as if I were 90% extroverted, which puzzled and shocked me.
I am concluding that I am a lot more extroverted than I thought. How could I have missed [...]

People have asked some good hard questions, and I don’t really have a lot of answers. Was this really a missions trip or just a medical trip? How helpful was it? What will you do differently as a result of this trip?
I’m still feeling a little fuzzy…and it was weird [...]

Total patients seen: 409 (70 children, 339 adult)
Minor procedures: 44
Major surgeries: 34
Hearing aids fitted: 20
New professions of faith: 15

You can see most of the pictures from my trip here.