Hermana Anne Tolman: : Week 54

Well kids, what can I say? MUCH has happened since last week but I´m at a loss at what I should say. I´m feeling... awkward? writing this email? But I´m very happy and peaceful. I´m living my truest dream.

The rundown is: San Blas is a strange and wondrous land. I love it.

I traveled here with a bunch of elders and one of them mega threw up in the car ride through the mountains. It was memorable and fun? Then all those Elders plus me and my companion and the other companionship of sisters that was here waiting for me with my companion all got stranded here for 2 days and it was wild to have 8 missionaries on this very small island (Carti Tupile). They only had the clothes they were wearing and rice bags full of food for the other islands so by the end of it they all basically just had beards and smelled bad.

My companion is Hna Lopez from Guatemala. She´s a fun and powerful lady.

This place is very unlike the Panama I was in a week ago so I kind of feel like I´m starting my mission all over again but I´m not even mad. We spend most of our time teaching Seminary and Institute, cleaning and putting creams on peoples very shocking wounds and then singing to them, and reading the Book of Mormon with people. (The majority of the people here are already members of the church cause they´re high key Lamanites and already believe that a man in white came down from heaven and chose 12 men but then 3 of them didn't die).

The people here are very superstitious and believe in lots of crazy things so I decided that maybe every week I´ll be fun and tell you one of them and also a phrase I´ve learned in their dialect (called Dule-Gaya).

This week we went to visit someone and we saw that they´d put a bunch of these huge smelly leaves around one of the hammocks in their hut, so we asked what it was and they told us that one of their daughters had ´developed´ (she got her first period or is going through puberty? something like that) So when that happens the family has to make food for the whole island for a week and she has to sleep with the big leaves around her hammock. And then a bunch of the older women on the Island come and bathe her with ocean water and paint her skin black with this dye that comes from the middle of a fruit, and then they cut her hair and have to hold a chicha fuerte (involving much alcohol for all except the girl) for the whole island (cause if they don't then the island government fines them and supposedly their spirits will be punished when they die?).

Also my phrase that I´m getting really good at is asking people what their name is and saying what my name is.
Igi be nuga? = What's your name?
and then you say anuga _____ to say my name is _____.

Also wait I have a crazy miracle to share too that happened this morning:

We were walking to the church to teach seminary and I hear someone call my name. We turned around and saw this guy that I knew from Arraijan (the zone I was in for like 7 and a half months) but he wasn't from the ward I was in. I visited him two separate times on divisions and said hi to him at church sometimes cause his ward met in the same chapel. Anyways the other hermanas in Arraijan had placed a baptismal date with him for Jan 1st. Supposedly he was baptized here in San Blas when he was younger but they lost his registro, so the Hermanas invited him to be rebaptized but he had doubts and said he wanted to go back to San Blas to make sure it was really lost and not just in the office in Carti Tupile. I hadn't heard more about him until this morning and turns out he never got baptized cause he was convinced his baptismal registry was here on the Island. So immedietly we were like ¨Hey, lets go look for your baptismal registry right now!¨ so he came with us and we looked everywhere we could think of for it and bam, it wasn't there so we were like ¨ok soooo, wanna get baptized?¨ and he was like ¨well. yeah.¨

So yeah he's getting baptized on Sunday along with another girl, if the medicine man will let her leave her house.

Have a great week I love you alllll
Hermana Tolman

Mom's notes from the phone call:

This is like living in Adventureland at Disneyland or the Polynesian Cultural Center, with a myriad of cultural activities to participate in every day, like husking coconuts, learning how to cook the native food, making crafts, etc.
Most adult Kuna are church members but don't come to church on Sunday. The majority of church-goers are children. Only one member of the branch leadership attended and conducted sacrament meeting, one man was available to bless the sacrament, and one deacon was available to pass it. Hermanas Tolman and Lopez gave the two talks and Tolman led the music.
Most adult Kuna do not speak Spanish. They speak their native language of Dule-Gaya. They also wear traditional clothing. Most youth speak Spanish because they move back and forth from the city and wear modern clothes.
Missionaries use river water (from a hole in the back yard?) for laundry, dishes, and showering. They buy bottled water for cooking and drinking. They buy it at a little shop run by the island leader who plays western music. When it rains, the rain water can also be used for cooking and drinking.
There are actually few trees on Carti Tupile. The palm trees and white sand beaches are on other nearby islands.
Although most residents live in stick huts with blankets covering the walls, the missionaries are fortunate to live in a cement 2-story house with one light bulb and no running water. The outdoor bathroom consists of two wood blocks over a sand pit. This is where they "shower" (basically pour cups of water on their heads) and pee. If they need to go #2 then they walk to the church bathroom which is over the ocean. The beds are hammocks that are amazingly comfortable. Anne sleeps soundly all night long, except when she needs to venture out to the sand pit.
There is an LDS chapel on Carti Tupile with electricity, internet, and a nicer bathroom consisting of a hole over the ocean. The brightly colored tropical fish swarm in to eat the droppings!
There is one Kuna man who prefers to wear women's traditional clothing.
It takes about 5 minutes to walk from one side of the island to the other.
There are no alligators on the island since it is a little too far from the mainland. There are many birds, bats, crabs, cats, and dogs.
It is hot in the daytime but delightfully cool at night. Anne finally gets to enjoy wearing long sleeves, long pants, and blankets. She also finally gets to wear sandals 24/7 instead of rain boots.
The missionaries have very little structure or supervision. There are no zone meetings or conferences to attend. Daily indicator numbers are reported through text and any baptismal interviews are conducted over the phone. A Kuna lady does their laundry so on P-day, once the little bit of shopping is done, they can nap and have more time for writing emails and calling home.
Unless they are invited to eat with a family, the missionaries do their own food prep using nonperishable food that they brought with them in rice bags at the beginning of the transfer (lots of cup-o-noodles, canned food, pop tarts, etc.- a dream for Hermana Tolman who hasn't had that kind of food in a long time!)

A quick video demonstrating how you can see both ends of the island from our house

Some cool birds we always see that remind me of kites

A video that shows how small and close together the Carti Islands are

A sea creature in a chip bag. It was alive and squirming!

Every Saturday is Tarde de Cocoa (Cocoa Day) for the island kids. We prepare the cocoa and blow a conch shell to summon the kids. They come running with their own cups and when the cocoa is handed out, we put on a movie for them.

Sharing Prince of Egypt with them

Rosa making avena (kind of like watery oatmeal) for all the kids on the island. Not my picture but it's a common occurance so I felt like I should include it.

Did some service helping an old kuna lady cook her plantains over a fire. She didn't speak a WORD of Spanish but she seemed happy to accept our help and explain something to us in her dialect.