Where I live and work

As I have mentioned before, I live in an area of San Jose called Cedros. I'm about 20 minutes from Central San Jose by bus, which is pretty much the only way I can get there. I tried to find Cedros on a map, and I failed pretty hard. I did find the neighboring areas, and thought maybe I could mark where I live, but no such luck. It turns out that street names on maps make matters much worse when you are used to navigating by landmarks.

Anyway, I live on the calle ancho 400 m east of the Perimercado (a grocery store). Calle ancho means "wide street" and it is the name given to any street that looks like mine - a very wide T-intersection. I live in an apartment complex with 7 condominios, which each have two bedrooms, a bathroom, small kitchen - all off of the living area. I'm in mine all by myself, now that Amanda has gone home, which is fine, albeit a bit lonely occasionally. So I leave my door open, and Luz comes by almost every night to play UNO with me. We use the game to work on her english skills - what color is the card, what number.

The UBL is two blocks (200 m) east of my apartment. I walk up the main road, and then turn in at the UBL's driveway, which is very steep. The UBL consists of the main building, with offices, classrooms, and the library, the guard house, student dormitories, la casa de miliones (which is also a classroom/meeting space) and the big chapel. The rest of campus is green space, including a spot where many of the students play soccer, and a small meditation garden.

I spend most of my time in the library, which covers about half of the second floor. I have finished several projects already, but my current project is probably the most interesting, and will certainly last me quite some time. I am scanning in images from the "Latin American Evangelist," a magazine begun in the early 1920s which chronicles the missionary work of a wide variety of reformed tradtions in Latin America, under the auspices of the LAEC (Latin American Evangelists Conference(?)). The UBL was begun by the LAEC, though it was originally named the Instituto Biblico, or Bible Institute. It started as a women's school, but quickly began to educate men as well as women. The images I am scanning are all from the Instituto, pictures of teachers, students, and buildings. Alongside these images are the chronicles of the LAEC, which are fascinating. Operating in a very Catholic context, it was very common for priests to threaten violence to the missionaries (envangelistos), and for the converted people to be ostracized in their communities. The LAEC also ran a hosipital - the Hospital Biblico, a childrens' home, and several churches. There was an article written after part of the board of LAEC went to Morocco. The article spent quite a while discussing the evils of the veil, and how it was a shameful thing, and wouldn't the women be better off if they were christian? Up until the last, it could have been taken nearly word for word from an article written today. It has been fascinating to read them as I search for images, and has really brought home the conflict and divide between Catholics and reformed traditions (or as they say here, Catholics and Christians). Wow. Okay, sorry about that history of mission work in Latin America jaunt.  And for the painful grammar of the last bit.