This is a long post. The first part, email from our intrepid travelers, is important reading. The rest is of sketchy value.

Many, many people have asked me what Matt meant by Hil’s harassment.
I asked Hil if I could post her response, which was in an email she sent to Peter:

Go for it. definitely post it. a lot of people have been asking both of us what he meant by that. it really is such a societal thing, and i don’t know whether i should blame myself for being the odd one out here, or them for making it uncomfortable, or something else, or in between. ee! so many possibilities!

your brother and i have been talking about it a bunch, yes. i knew you’d be interested, and i figured the blog could use a better explanation.

matt and i are going to leon tomorrow morning, so maybe we’ll email again tonight but otherwise, don’t be worried if you don’t hear from us till monday.

i was really homesick until matt and i figured out that the best way to be ok is to just keep busy. its helping. and the weekend will go by quickly and then we’ll be more than halfway done.

i can only imagine how much sleep you’re losing. i email my dad and talk to him about once a week, and he seems fine. i know i would be freaking out all the time. maybe next year we’ll do something else. or i will. i think going to a place where i didn’t speak the language contributed the most to being a little lonely. cuz normally if i went to someplace with english speakers, i would try to make friends. but here i’m worried about messing up (i know i shouldn’t be like that friend of yours, but i’m self conscious is all!). my favorite parts of the day/week are when we hang out with david or roberto, the 19 and 21 yr olds of matt’s family. david is the best. we went out with him last night to a restaurant and he obviously tries really hard to a) have us understand him and b) him understand us. its really fun. we just hang out, talk about differences in the states, all that good stuff.

much love, and i’ll talk to you soon, Hilary

The attention thing is ok. i’m mostly used to it. although the other day a guy gave me a high five, held onto my hand, wouldn’t let go, was speaking fast (about the revolution, i think), asked me where i lived, took my other hand, asked me if i wanted him to walk me home, and when i said no thanks he took my hands, kissed the tops of both of them, kissed my cheek, called me bella (pretty), linda (pretty), and moreno (brown haired. yes, weird). as i walked the block to my house i reflected that that is solely the way they show happiness and affection. in the states that would’ve happened by someone smiling or, if they were confident, asking you for a drink. as it is, they’re more abrupt, in-your-face about it. but its all well-intentioned. that guy had no intention to hurt me or scare me. that’s just how i take it, its how I have been programmed to respond to how HE has been programmed. society does some funny things to you, mostly fucked up things at that.

my main problem is not being able to have complicated conversations with people, because i cant communicate a lot of my thoughts in spanish. the lawyers that were staying at my house had to leave because mike’s father in seattle had a heart attack. but i was REALLY sad when they left, because they were people i could have really great conversations with. matt’s a wonderful person, but we know exactly what the other person is thinking, meaning its like having a conversation with myself. before mike left he said he wished he could stay so we could teach him how to save the world. i wanted to cry.

well, off i go. much love, Hilary

***************

Matt,

There are too many Dave Princes’ on the internet. Give me a clue about
which one.

Chris is slowly getting better about catching flying tools. I found that it really helps if I first warn him that something is coming.

You’re going to Leon, we’re going to Boothbay, we’re going to have Lobster, and you are going to have….?

Love

Dad

Dave Prince, singer, sung at the olympics, i think i saw him in a movie as well…..
Haha, for a baseball player I bet he can’t catch a hack saw. Give it a try and tell me how it goes.
Hmm… what am i going to have in leon? No idea, for sure a hot shower and a swim. I miss boothbay, good old memories.. who did we bring there? Zack? maybe.

Oh, by the way, dont warn about the saw…

Peace
Mateo

***************

The second part of English Lessons.

“No, Chris, we DONE GOOD!”

“We did well. What did you get in English?”

Like I have a clue what my high school English grades were.

“I did well. But this isn’t about grades or good grammar it’s talkin’ tough. Construction tough. It’s not, we did wellllllll (I raised my voice and strung out the word well . It’s we DID GOOD! (I tried to lower my voice to Matt’s level, but failed.) You see, we did well is feminine and we did good is masculine.”

Chris hesitates for a moment and then asks, “Are there masculine and feminine power tools?”

“Let’s see, the gun that blasts nails into concrete is obviously masculine.” I scanned our workbench but saw only manly tools. “They are all masculine tools….except for maybe the combination square.”

I see. That’s because it’s used for drawing, right?”

“And here’s another thing, Christopher. You see that woman over there driving the steam roller back and forth, flattening the newly laid tennis courts?”

“Yeah, is there something wrong with that?”

“In my day…but that’s a lesson for another day.”

***************

Diane warned me that I shouldn’t post this next bit (yeah, she simply shook her head when I read her the tools-have-genders thing) without the permission of the main character. Chris and I both say, pshaw. But in deference to my wife’s wisdom; I’ll keep it anonymous.

A friend of Chris’s slammed his finger in his car door (beware Honda owners), felt the pain, but walked, “About three feet,” before he looked down at his hand and saw that he had amputated his right index finger from the nail up. He ambled back to his car, retrieved his finger tip from the crease where the door closes, and then went to the hospital to see if it could be reattached.

“It turns out they can sew on larger parts, but nothing so small. There is no arterial blood.”

I’ve had some experience with amputations (Chris now calls us brothers), and A. I cried like a baby, and B. I didn’t finish the cabinet I was building before hurrying to the hospital. This comparison to Chris’s friend comes to mind: An early settler is planting crops with his family. Indians attack killing his family but leaving him unscathed. The sun sets, he walks back to his house, sits down for dinner and wonders where his family is.