Letters to Kylee. 

Kylee writes her sister all the time, she loves, and misses her very much. 

Here are two letters Sister Hancock wrote to Kylee.

Dear Kylee,

Thank you so so so much for the Email. It made me so happy! I miss you so much. Mom tells me your growing up so fast, I can’t wait to see how much you’ve grown. You asked me a couple questions so I will now answer them! You asked me how I wipe without toilet paper--well this is how. They fill up a bucket near the toilet, and then I scoop some water out of it, and splash. My hands usually smell afterward, so I make sure I wash my hands twice. Sometimes the Philippinos come out of the bathroom without washing their hands, so I’m wondering if they know a trick that I haven’t figured out yet.

I sleep on the floor on a tiny mattress. I don’t use blankets because its so HOT here. The biggest bug I’ve seen was a spider the size of dads hand. It crawled next to me while I was teaching a lesson, and I screamed “Ano ba lyan! pinatay ito!” which means -what is that! Kill it! Everyone laughed, but no one did anything about the spider. So I kept my eye on him the rest of the time.
I eat rice the most. We eat rice with everything. It is like their bread. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, always RICE! My favorite food is actually one of my least favorite foods. Let me explain. There is this sauce called Mang Tomas. Its sweet and delicious, so I put it on everything. Well one night I was eating dinner with this family and they asked me if I tried banana ketchup yet. I said “yes, I don’t like banana ketchup but I like mango ketchup. The family and my companion was really confused, they told me they didn’t have mango ketchup here. I said yes you do, Mang Tomas. Everyone burst into laughter, and told me that Mang Tomas was the brand name, and that it was actually liver sauce. How would you feel if your delicious mango ketchup was actually made of liver? I still like liver sauce, but I really dislike livers.

I just got a new companion today. She is one of my housemates I had before. Her name is sister Batacan. It is now just her and I living in our house. She barely knows any English, and I barely know any tagalog.

You asked where we buy groceries, and this is probably the most different thing abut the Philippines‘. If you go to a groceries store all youwill see is aisles and aisles of junk food. If you want fruits and vegetable and meat you go to the palengke. There’s whats called the dry market and at wet market. The dry market is where people are selling the fruits and vegetables they have grown, and the wet market is where you buy the fish people caught or the pigs and chickens they just killed. There is a reason why its called the “wet” market and that because there is blood and water all over the tables, animals hanging around and it smells awful. When you want part of the animal, they will cut it off and give it to you. Bone, skim, and fat---everything. When they cook the animal and fish they cook everything. Sister Batacans favorite parts are pig fat and fish heads. I just stick to the meat part.

There are some girls you age in the ward. One is named Charlotte. Her and I have become good friends. She teaches me tagalog words, and sometimes Bicol words. You would have so much fun here. There are kids everywhere, always running around outside, and they LOVE Americans. Whenever I walk by they always follow me, so whenever we go house to house, I will look behind me and there will 20 or so kids giggling. Sometimes they will come up to me and pet my skin, and say “puti!” which means white. They love white skin, and they never have seen it before.

Anyway I love you so much, and share this letter with Shay, and tell her I love her too. The church is true, read the scriptures.

Much love,

Sister Hancock