Tuesday, December 12, 2006
This past weekend was pretty quiet. Sunday afternoon I taught violin and my student brought a guitar along and we spent about an hour after the lesson playing Christmas carol duets. It was pretty fun. We ended up with a small crowd of little boys who came to listen. That night our friends came over, one of them in particular was pretty drunk, and played with the puppies, and gave us a dance lesson. This dance lesson lasted for about 2 hours and was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, my dancing skills are pretty horrific so I kept getting, “no Julia, like this...”
Yesterday the roommate and I went to TACV to get tickets to Boa Vista for Christmas but soon learned that she can’t get away from school so I’m not going to waste the money when I’ll see everyone a few weeks later for IST.
This morning I got up to go to teach computers and found out that someone from Borreiro died this morning which translates into no class this week. So the driver who was going to take me to Borreiro drove me to a store to get a new phone charger. At some point yesterday the puppies got into my room and decided to chew through the old phone charger so that it is in two pieces. Thanks a lot Fubar and Gatsby. So the store doesn’t have any more chargers so now I have to wait for them to order one and in the meantime, my driver friend is going to try to connect the pieces together and make it work.
I’m now reaching my 6 month mark in being away from the states. I can’t tell if it feels like I’ve been gone for a long time or if I’ve just left. Every time I travel its different. When I studied in Senegal I would be back in the states by now. I guess knowing that I’m here for such a long period of time makes me not really think about the time passing. Right now I’m just really looking forward to Mike coming to visit and then I have IST to look forward to so things are good.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
After the English class yesterday I ended up talking with my counterpart and met up with another girl from the women’s group and a woman from the “alphatabetacao” which is a group that works with illiteracy. Between her group, the women, and Peace Corps we are going to put on a Christmas lunch party for the fishermen of Calheta because every year there are parties for children and old people but a lot of groups are neglected. This includes the fishermen. I couldn’t tell you all that much about their trade or how they are treated but I am happy to be working on projects when people are taking initiative so I am pretty excited.
So we agreed to meet this morning to talk to different organizations. So at 10 this morning we went to the Association of Fishermen, the Post Office, Telecom, the water place, the micro-credit office, Shell, TACV, and random people and asked them for financial help with our lunch. We got a lot of come back later or tomorrows but individual people were being very generous which was great.
I went to the bank this morning to see if my atm card had come in yet like I was told and I get there to wait 45 minutes and ended up getting a piece of paper with my pin number but no actual card. The guy tells me it will be here in 10 days. I never thought this would take so long.
So next week is going to be filled with parties. Tuesday is the fishermen party, Thursday we make cookies at the CEJ for my activity, Friday is a party for the people who work at the CEJ and Friday night is a party for the teachers at the high school which I’m getting to attend because everyone thinks that my roommate and I have to do everything together. Then Saturday is a huge party for all the children in Maio and Monday is Christmas. Too bad no one here celebrates Hanukkah. I think I’m going to invite people over to eat latkes and doughnuts this coming Friday.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
So this was probably the longest week I’ve had. I got a little cold/sore throat/loss of voice but I think its finally recovering. The fisherman party on Tuesday went really well. I left Vila at 9 am to help with preparations and didn’t get home until 7 at night. During the day I ran back and forth from different houses pretty much all day helping the boss lady make sure everything was on task and helped cook. I got to mix cake batter in a large bowl, cut and peel potatoes, and sprinkle cheese on top of pizzas. I finally realized how much work and how many people go into making a party happen in Cape Verde. At one house there were about 6 or 7 women making racoes (a type of fried dough with fish inside and covered in breadcrumbs), 10 cakes, pizza (this includes homemade dough), chicken with sauce, popcorn, and some other fried snack food. At the other house there were another half a dozen people making xeren (kind of like grits but less thinly ground), chicken with various sauces, vegetables- manioc, sweet potatoes, English potatoes, etc, rice, and kongo (type of beans). I orignially thought that the party was a lunch which of course meant that we wouldn’t start eating before 5. So by 2:30 I was starving and the family whose house was making the snack foods fed me lunch of rice, fries, and fish. By that point I didn’t want any of the snacks afterwards.
The whole festa was supposed to start at 2:30 but no one showed up until 4 (pretty typical). Once the actual program started, the head of the alfabatizacao and the micro credit organization came and spoke to the fisherman. Then the head of the fisherman association spoke and then I was forced up front to make a statement. I explained Peace Corps and then not knowing how to inspire the fisherman ended up making a fool out of myself and said “I like fish.” After the speeches a few people put on a skit which I didn’t fully understand but everyone laughed at. And then finally it was time for food. While we were eating I was asked for help in procurring a boat for one of the fishermen and was told that I was someone’s mudjer (woman). I think its absolutely ridiculous that people just sort of claim you and assume that’s cool with you. It was a little weird and he was drunk so I just kind of ignored it.
I don’t know how they knew but apparently everyone at the festa knew that I play the violin or “rebecca” as they call it, and brought one over for me to play. I can tell you this, by the time I leave here I better not be scared of playing in front of people because they put the instrument in my hands and crowded around me like a movie star or something. Since I don’t know how to play Cape Verdian music yet I played a few Christmas carols for them and they loved it. After playing other men proceeded to tell me that they like women who can play instruments- sorry buddy, I’m not interested. One woman invited me to play violin with her batuk (a type of traditional dance) group which could be really fun. It was a really great day and it made me so happy to be here.
Wednesday I went to Barreiro to teach computers and none of my students showed up. I was told that someone else died this week so that could be why or they just didn’t want to come. I got really frustrated that no one was coming to class so I didn’t go the rest of the week. I’m here for them so if they won’t make the effort to show up for something they asked for, I won’t go. In the afternoon I went over to the leader of the group for people with deficiencies’ house to help put together Christmas gifts from the Camara for all of the people on Maio who have deficiencies.
Thursday was another really rewarding day. I went with the woman from yesterday and a few guys from the CEJ and my favorite driver from the Camara to drive around the entire island to deliver the care packages. These consisted of a bag of powdered milk, a 2 liter bottle of soda (or sumol as they call it here), 4 packs of cookies, a pack of spaghetti, and 500 escudos. The smile on people’s faces when we brought them a gift was priceless and it felt really good to be giving to people who could use some extra cheer during the holidays. It also really opened my eyes to the extent of people with deficiencies on this island and how they are treated. Most of them stay inside the house all the time so you never see them but I did get to see that Maio has people in wheelchairs, people whose minds make them think like children, people who are deaf, people with lack of hearing, limbs, even what I presume is Down Syndrome. It was a wonderful experience for me and I hope that the Camara can do more to show the handicapped community that they are important and better integrate them into the community.
Friday was the day of festas. I was supposed to go to 3 but one was cancelled because a few fisherman from the community have not been seen in 2 days so there is a somber mood in the town. The CEJ festa was fun. I helped set up, which is just as important as the food itself. At every festa, the women spend like half an hour just putting things into dishes and arranging them on the table. The 10 o’clock start time for the festa was really the time to start arranging everything so we didn’t actually eat until 1. Can I get another, you know you are in Cape Verde when...? While I waited I went to see my friend who just returned home from having a baby and the baby. She is doing really well and her baby is so cute. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby that young before and he’s so little and has these cute little fingers and toes.
In the afternoon I went to Calheta for my English class party. The girls all brought the usual party foods and we had a good time singing Christmas songs in English and learning words about the holidays in English. One of my students made me couscous, one of my favorite foods here (its not like your couscous in the states but more like a dry cake made of the couscous flour stuff, potato puree, and cooked over water so it absorbs the water).
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
A bunch of updates
Monday, November 20, 2006
I finally started classes last week and hopefully I can keep up a routine. I had computer classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and they went alright. By Thursday I had a chalk board which makes things a little easier. Thursday there was a large group of girls who came and who had little experience with computers so after discussing what each part is and what it does we turned on the computers and tried our hands at Microsoft Paint. We really take computers for granted in the United States. I know I’ve been using one since elementary school and these high school aged girls have never touched a computer. I keep telling myself to be patient and it takes time to use the mouse and drag something across the screen. I think I’ll give them a little more Paint practice this week before we move on to Wordpad and practice with the keyboard. That’s going to be fun. On Friday, only 2 girls showed which was okay because we only have 2 computers and I could focus attention on them and let them practice for longer. I decided that I’m going to devote most of the class time to actually using the computers and practicing and less time explaining. It’s easier to show and have them play around and figure it out then to give each person their 2 minutes on the computer.
I had the first English class Friday afternoon and it was a lot less nerve wrecking than I had imagined. For a long time I’ve had this fear of getting up in front of the classroom but this time I felt a little more comfortable because I at least knew one of my students and I was teaching beginner English. A lot of the women are really shy about talking but I went around and made everyone practice individually with me. Friday night I went out with the Americans for pizza and was introduced to a few British guys who are here putting up a satellite for the American’s project. These Brits travel around 3 weeks every month installing and fixing satellites. I would love to be able to travel for a future job but that much traveling is a little extreme.
Yesterday I read a little War and Peace in the morning and in the afternoon my roommate and I went to the beach with the English teacher from Guinea and the Math teacher from Guinea. We checked out Ponta Preta where lots of kids were playing soccer and walking on the beach and we attempted to swim in the 15 foot waves. I stayed back towards the shore while my roommate and the math teacher were braving it. At one point I was standing in the water, less than knee deep, talking with a friend, and a wave comes up and completely knocks me off my feet. Of course everyone else has good balance and manages to stay above the water. At the same time, the ocean came up high enough on shore to drench all of our clothes and towels and almost take them back out to sea.
After our beach fun, we went to this guy’s house to pick up our puppies!!!! My puppy is all black with a white spot on his chest and his name is Captain Fubar. My roommate’s puppy is tan with a darker tan nose and his name (for the time being) is Gatsby. According to the Americans and my roommate, Captain Fubar is retarded because he kept falling over when he walks (but its really because he was tripping over his weird collar which is too small for his chubby legs). But he’s a great puppy except for the times when he relieves himself all over the house. I see why my parents never let me get a puppy growing up. I think my dad would have killed it after a day. After the puppies, we went to the French restaurant for a goodbye dinner for one of the Americans who leaves today.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
I didn’t end up going to Calheta today because my counterpart’s father died and when someone dies, pretty much the entire town shuts down. I wasn’t sure if we had class or not since I hadn’t heard from anyone but when I started walking to Calheta I saw pretty much every car on Maio packed full and driving towards Vila to the cemetery. I took that as a sign of no class for the day.
I had a lot of fun this evening. My roommate and I were invited to watch my counterpart who works at the camera and his band practice. It was a lot of fun watching them and I really enjoy Cape Verdian music. After the practice we all went to a place near by to eat grilled fish and hang out. It was really relaxing and a perfect evening.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving! While I really missed being home, waking up and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, cooking in the kitchen with my mom all day, my first Cape Verdian Thanksgiving was pretty good. A car was supposed to come pick me up to take me to Borreiro for computer class but it never showed so I didn’t end up going since walking would have taken an hour and a half and the chance of getting a car would take between 5 and 90 minutes. So I feel really bad for not showing up for computer class and I need to have a little talk with my counterpart who arranged the transport.
So I spent the morning prepping food for dinner- chopping potatoes, toasting and chopping bread, etc and took the puppies outside for a walk. A ton of kids came by on their way home from school and got the puppies all riled up.
In the afternoon I went on a hunt for onions and apples and succeeded with the onions but no apples were to be found since the boat has not yet come. So I have an apple pie crust sitting in my fridge and other ingredients out on the table while I wait for apples to come. So this years feast consisted of: lemon herb chicken (compliments of chef Stephanie), peas (also another Stephanie creation), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream for dessert. Our ex-pat friend and one of the Americans came over to partake and we ate until we felt ill. Or at least I felt ill.
I talked to my family who is all in Atlanta for Thanksgiving and it was really great to hear their voices. Especially since I never get to talk to my brother. Pretty much all I got from him this time was that he has a new girlfriend. Way to go champ!
Friday, November 24, 2006
After pretty much doing during the day I got ready to go to night one of the Municipal Festa for Figuera. Every town has its own Saint’s Day and this weekend is Figuera’s. What this really translates into is a large party where the entire island shows up. Cape Verdians sure know how to party. So we went to the polivalenti in Figuera to watch our friends (my quazi-counterpart, the dude “mos” that keeps hitting on my roommate despite the fact that he’s had a girlfriend for eight years, and the “best friend”) play music for the festa. Their group name, “the friends”, is a little ridiculous but they play pretty well. And for the first time since I’ve been in Maio, get ready for this, I was COLD! That’s right folks. It’s starting to cool down in the evenings which has been great. Its really nice to finally wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt. You have no idea how much I missed that feeling.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Day 2 of the festa. We rested up all day to get ready for the biggest night of Figuera Fest. We borrowed some films from our Portuguese teacher friend and I finally watched the Godfather for the first time. And I actually understood some of the Italian in the film after interacting with all the Italians here. Around 11 we got the last American to give us a ride to the festa. This time we saw practically the entire island. We ran into a ton of teachers and hung out with them for most of the night. They pretty much closed down these two main streets and lined up along the streets were tents, tables, snack cars, and lots of grills with skewers of chicken and pork. And of course everywhere you turned were bars with lots of beer. We seriously could have gotten trashed and not paid a dime for it since everyone kept trying to buy us drinks. We walked around for awhile with various people and then hit up the disco. It was so crowded this time. You could barely move. It kind of reminded me of being in a club in DC.
I danced the first dance with a random dude while the roommate danced with one of the teachers. Later in the night this same dude I danced with came up to me slightly drunker and demanded me to kiss him. I told him no and he asked why. Why do people always have to ask why when you say no here? Anyways, I told him I didn’t want to and I didn’t know him. His response to this was “I danced with you and I live in Vila.” I didn’t realize that qualified in knowing someone. During this same time, Math teacher #2 who wants to bang the Roommate was feeling up the Roommate’s ass as he felt his way around her back pocket to discover my cell phone. I didn’t realize it was necessary to caress the hiney in order to greet someone. Apparently his touchy-feelyness goes a long way.
My reaction was to dance only with people I knew for the remainder of the evening and I ended up dancing with Best Friend for most of the night. Towards the end of the night Best Friend was a little drunk and a little excited. That creeped me out and it was then time to leave.
Another highlight of the night was when they played “Move Bitch, Get Out The Way” at the disco. I’m sure everyone understood what the words of the song actually meant...
At one point in the night, Portuguese teacher friend #2 was hammered and dancing very whitely in the street with a chicken skewer half in his mouth.
By the time we got home it was 4 am and my shoes were covered in beer from the ground and I was ready to pass out.
Cape Verdians tend to use certain phrases a lot. Here’s a list of what you’ll often hear in Maio and translations:
Mos: dude
E normal: its normal- this one they like to use to describe anything we think is completely ridiculous including having more than one girlfriend at the same time
E ka sim e- isn’t it true
Vida de pobre e kansado: the poor life is tiring
fixe: cool
sabe: good
Sunday, November 26, 2006
After being up until 4 last night, I spent this morning sleeping, walking the puppies, sleeping, watching movies, and sleeping. In the afternoon I took Captain Fubar for a walk to the ocean and pier to get him some exercise and introduce him to the ocean. Just as I expected, as soon as I put him in the ocean he started crying and immediately ran up on the beach. For being such a good sport, I took him up to the pier to watch the fishermen (and see if any of them would donate bait that they weren’t using to feed Fubar). I was also looking for someone who was headed on the boat to Praia and had the peephole that Peace Corps sent to be installed in our door. So we ended up on the pier for 2 hours making friends with a fisherboy and watching him catch an eel. Fubar was the cutest thing in the world trying to chase a dying fish that was flopping around. Every time it flopped he jumped back. It was really cute. While on the pier I got a call from my APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director- ie my boss) who said he will be arriving on Monday
Luckily I found someone I knew from the group for helping people with deficiencies who was from Calheta and he helped me locate the guy with my peephole who just happened to be my counterpart’s brother. After retrieving my peephole, Fubar and I ran into our Hiace driving friend and got a ride home.
In the evening we walked around and ran into Math teacher #2 who felt up the roommate’s butt. This time he wrapped his arms around the Roommate like an octopus. Once I said that she “looked uncomfortable” he released his death grip and we went home.
Monday, November 27, 2006
I definitely am losing my mind. I woke up this morning early thinking I had computer class in Borreiro and I would have to prepare a lesson before 8:30 since using the Camara to drive me seemed like a bad idea since the past week was unreliable. So I ended up in a mild scurry to remember that it was Monday and I did not actually have a computer class today. Earlier in the weekend I ran into my tutoring student, Vespa, and found out that he was going to Praia so tutoring was out this week. So I spent the morning at the Casa de Juventude working on creating a typing lesson for my computer class.
I was on my way to Calheta for English class when I ran into the coordinator of the CEJ and was informed that another person from Calheta died and the class would again have to be postponed. On the way home I saw the funeral procession pass by my house. My boss’s plane got in late so we made plans to meet for tomorrow.
Since I had more free time I took Captain Fubar to the beach for a walk. I ran into the French guy and my friend’s brother and ended up chatting with them and playing with the puppy on the beach. I was also introduced to another Cape Verdian and a few Italians who actually spoke English and the 5 of us hung out for awhile. Once the sun was going down the Italians left and the Cape Verdians and I walked Fubar to the pier only to find it closed. But anyways, it was really nice to meet more new people and hang out with people my age.
Later the Roommate and I went to visit the English teacher/the teacher from Senegal/Math teacher #2 at their house and watch their tv. English teacher asked me if we are friends. I found that a bizarre question and said yes. I don’t know why he wouldn’t think we are friends. I also was told that they missed me and the roommate was jealous of my stellar looks and their longing to see me.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
This was probably one of the busiest days since I’ve been here. I woke up, mopped up the puppies’ messes while the Roommate walked them and typed up an activity for my computer class. I went to the CEJ around 8:30 to print it out only to learn that they are out of ink. So they told me to go to the Camara and print it there. The guy at the Camara was really nice and immediately let me take over his computer. But it took about half an hour to get the computer to recognize my pin drive. Once I finally opened the document the computer crashed and every time following proceeded to crash for the next 20 minutes. Eventually I got everything to print and I apologized profusely for my bad luck with the computer.
While I was at the Camara I ran into my friend who is president of the sports for people with deficiencies group and also has family in North Carolina and talked with her about the big event coming up. Every president of the Camara from every island is coming on Friday to Maio for some sort of meeting. She has the privledge, if you want to call it that, of organizing everything. So our English lesson tomorrow is probably out since she’s extremely busy. After our little soire, I found the guy at the Camara who arranges cars and talked to him about their lack of coming to get me last week. He put check marks on the piece of paper I had given him next to the times that they never showed. I guess these check marks mean that the cars will magically appear when I need them. Hmmm...
So my boss shows up with a Hiace and we head over to Borreiro for computer class. Three students showed up today and we practiced typing correctly and not hunting for keys with our pointer fingers. The first part of the activity that was supposed to take 5 minutes lasted the entire class. I really don’t know how to estimate how much time lesson plans will actually take. The ones that I think will be long, I breeze through, and others that should take a short period of time last forever. But its cool and I had fun moving fingers around when the pressed the keys with the wrong finger.
After Borreiro we went to the CEJ where my boss extensively interviewed the coordinator who told him I speak good Kriolu (I think she was just being nice) and talked about the drug and alcohol problem in Maio and upcoming projects. Apparently I am helping with something that just got approved but I have no idea what it is. Then we went to the Ministry of Education and met someone who works with the micro finance group that I still had been unable to get hold of. It turns out the president of the group is in Praia getting computers fixed because the bad electricity in Maio knocked out their computers and they lost all their programs. So once he gets back we’ll be having a meeting to make a plan. I’m really excited to finally be working with them.
As the usual part of the site visits, we were treated to lunch and today the French place actually had pork caramel which is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten, besides the tuna skewers.
After lunch we headed to Calheta to meet with my counterpart. When we got there, we visited her at her mother’s house where they are in mourning. It’s kind of like sitting shiva (a Jewish custom when someone dies). We went to the community center afterwards where some of my students were waiting for their English class. I wasn’t planning on having class but did a spur of the moment 30 minute review session of “How are you?” “What is your name?” “Where are you from?” etc. I also ran into the music teacher and made arrangements for our violin lesson on Sunday.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I just got out of a meeting with the president of the Camara and my APCD. He (APCD) is checking in on his flight plan for today since the chance of it being delayed is about 120%. Anyways, we had a little chat before I left and I’m going to be helping the micro-finance group sort of get themselves together. A lot of associations use them to save their money and they have money from different groups to give out as loans but its not being used, probably because people either don’t know it exists or are afraid they won’t be able to pay the place back. Anyways, the head of the place is also a passive person and he’ll be back shortly and I really look forward to getting things rolling. On top of that, I was informed that there may be some small business development work that I do later on which makes me kind of excited despite the fact that I know nothing about business. At least maybe this will help me decide if I want to go to business school when I get back.
In other good news, once my APCD took a look at my roommate’s and my beds, he said he could help us get newer, bigger ones. This makes me happy, especially since our mattresses are disgusting and probably have not been changed in the past 10 years. Plus, it will be nice for my sheets to finally fit on a regular sized bed instead of my twin bed.
Its funny how your mood can change really quickly here. So I got a ride from the Camara to Borreiro for my computer class but on the way back the driver never showed. I started walking back and was almost to the main road when a group of high school boys were dropped off and decided to make conversation with me. One of them started talking in French, the others in English. I explained to them that I am not a “sir” and the term “sir” is used only for men. They asked me for food and said they were hungry and I kind of snapped since I was a little upset that my driver didn’t show. I told them I was hungry too and I was in the same boat as them but I had to walk further. I was then asked for money to which I responded, “do I look like a bank?” I then went on to say that I am a volunteer here to help their and other people’s communities and asking for money is inappropriate. I was pretty upset after that incident.
s
So on my walk back, a different driver from the Camara drove by and said that my driver from earlier had gone to the airport and therefore hadn’t come to get me. It would have been nice if someone had called my cell phone or called someone in Borreiro to tell me this. Anyways, I was not happy when I got home.
Only 4 girls came to girl’s group today so we cancelled it for this week since the activity we had planned (about speaking up for yourself) involved role playing and people weren’t there so I went home and took Fubar for a walk. We went to the beach and he was conveniently placed in the ocean where he immediately became terrified and cold. The Cape Verdian solution was to rub sand all over him to dry him off. I think this idea is crap because now I have to deal with a sandy puppy.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
I can’t believe its already December. These weeks fly by. I guess the days sort of drag on at times but I’m now sort of feeling like I’m at home. I’m trying not to get too bothered by annoying things here like last Thursday when I waited for 30 at the Camara for them to give me a ride to Borreiro, which they said they would, and the car never came. It made me so mad. And I tried to get materials from the Camara for World AIDS Day which was last Friday but they never procured them. So, I had to improvise. I spent my own money on poster board and red crepe paper (I originally wanted a sheet and red paint) and cut out handprints for people to sign and put up on the poster in the shape of an AIDS ribbon. I also made little posters that were put up all around the CEJ with facts about HIV and AIDS or VIH and SIDA as they are called here. All of the presidents of Camaras in Cape Verde happened to be in Maio on Friday for a meeting and held it in a room above the CEJ so they told the coordinator, my counterpart, that the signs were really great. That made me happy. In the afternoon there was a big parade around all of Vila. All the students in primary school and at the liceo (high school) participated and carried signs and wore stickers. At the end of the parade they ended up in the Polivalenti with a speaker (the Maio doctor). I found out later that Calheta had their own parade that same afternoon.
Sunday I had my first violin lesson with the music teacher from Calheta. I thought it went really well. It was his first time playing a violin and he has a pretty good bow arm for a first timer and was able to draw the bow across the string and make a continuous note (note that I said note and not sound- most people kind of screech for awhile when they first start out- he played a genuine note). So after playing open strings and rhythms for an hour it was time for the women’s meeting. My counterpart laid down the line that she is not going to the forefront of the group and one of the younger girls is to become the leader. So we chose a new leader and all was good.
Yesterday our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and the Regional PCMO for all of West Africa came to Maio for a visit. It’s been fun showing them around and getting a few nice dinners.
Today has been interesting. This morning we got in the car to go to Borreiro and there was a dog sitting in front of the car. Apparently the driver didn’t see it because he proceeded to drive forward despite my yelling out “katxor, katxor” (dog, dog). Fortunately the dog did not die but I think he’s now a pirate dog now and has only one eye. His eye was all bleeding and gross and he kept crying really loud. It was really sad and I thought I would throw up.
Computer class went well. Today we learned how to type “e and I” with the correct fingers and then learned the functions of the keyboard and for those who have used computers, learned what the formatting bars do in Microsoft Word.
Lunch today was a farewell lunch with our Italian friend who made the most incredible food ever. He had these tomatoes stuffed with egg and some sort of sauce and tuna that was battered in breadcrumbs and cooked with tomato sauce and olives. For dessert he brought out orange cake and tangerines.
The ride to Calheta today was fun. There was a pig in a USAID food bag in the back of the truck with me and a bunch of men. I didn’t realize it was there until I saw something squirming. I guess the foul smell wasn’t just from people not using deoderant. When I got there, I found my counterpart sick with “gripe” (a cold) so she stayed away from class today. Today’s class went really well. We went over the present simple negative of “to be” which translates to “I am not, you are not, etc.” I checked everyone’s homework from last night and only one person had one question wrong. The entire class either cheated or is learning more than they show in class. It made me really proud. On the ride back I was sitting next to a lady with a 3 month old baby and a bucket of eel. When she got off in Morro she kind of just put the baby in my lap and for a minute I thought she was going to take off and leave me with a baby. It was kind of weird and I felt a little awkward with a baby thrown at me but I guess that’s the norm here. (Hey roommate- eh normal?)
December 8, 2006
Aah, the weekend is finally here. I got a ride to Borreiro and Calheta from the Camara which is a feat within itself. English class is going really well. After going around and telling people that what they wrote is correct, they were less timid in coming up to the board. On the ride back I met another woman who works with the Ministry of Education to help people in Calheta learn how to read. So we’re going to get our groups to work together on future projects.
Fubar is getting bigger. I want him to stay tiny. I gave him a bath last night and he hated me for it. But at least he’s clean and smells like green apples.
There’s been a few weird things happening here. A week ago or so the French restaurant closed because someone who either worked there or has some relation to the place tried to stab herself. Or at least that’s what we were told. And a few days ago my neighbor had to be taken away because “the ghost of someone who died got inside her and turned her into the devil.” What happened was she went to Praia without telling her husband or anyone and when she came back she went crazy and started yelling at everyone and breaking everything in the house including glass dishes and their television. So pretty much half of Vila was over in the neighborhood restraining her and getting her into a car to go to the hospital. When I got home today there was a crowd of women hanging out and lots of yelling. I bet the saga continues.
There is supposed to be live violin and a DJ tomorrow in Figuera and I really want to go. I’m excited to see some Cape Verdian violin playing.
I finally started classes last week and hopefully I can keep up a routine. I had computer classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and they went alright. By Thursday I had a chalk board which makes things a little easier. Thursday there was a large group of girls who came and who had little experience with computers so after discussing what each part is and what it does we turned on the computers and tried our hands at Microsoft Paint. We really take computers for granted in the United States. I know I’ve been using one since elementary school and these high school aged girls have never touched a computer. I keep telling myself to be patient and it takes time to use the mouse and drag something across the screen. I think I’ll give them a little more Paint practice this week before we move on to Wordpad and practice with the keyboard. That’s going to be fun. On Friday, only 2 girls showed which was okay because we only have 2 computers and I could focus attention on them and let them practice for longer. I decided that I’m going to devote most of the class time to actually using the computers and practicing and less time explaining. It’s easier to show and have them play around and figure it out then to give each person their 2 minutes on the computer.
I had the first English class Friday afternoon and it was a lot less nerve wrecking than I had imagined. For a long time I’ve had this fear of getting up in front of the classroom but this time I felt a little more comfortable because I at least knew one of my students and I was teaching beginner English. A lot of the women are really shy about talking but I went around and made everyone practice individually with me. Friday night I went out with the Americans for pizza and was introduced to a few British guys who are here putting up a satellite for the American’s project. These Brits travel around 3 weeks every month installing and fixing satellites. I would love to be able to travel for a future job but that much traveling is a little extreme.
Yesterday I read a little War and Peace in the morning and in the afternoon my roommate and I went to the beach with the English teacher from Guinea and the Math teacher from Guinea. We checked out Ponta Preta where lots of kids were playing soccer and walking on the beach and we attempted to swim in the 15 foot waves. I stayed back towards the shore while my roommate and the math teacher were braving it. At one point I was standing in the water, less than knee deep, talking with a friend, and a wave comes up and completely knocks me off my feet. Of course everyone else has good balance and manages to stay above the water. At the same time, the ocean came up high enough on shore to drench all of our clothes and towels and almost take them back out to sea.
After our beach fun, we went to this guy’s house to pick up our puppies!!!! My puppy is all black with a white spot on his chest and his name is Captain Fubar. My roommate’s puppy is tan with a darker tan nose and his name (for the time being) is Gatsby. According to the Americans and my roommate, Captain Fubar is retarded because he kept falling over when he walks (but its really because he was tripping over his weird collar which is too small for his chubby legs). But he’s a great puppy except for the times when he relieves himself all over the house. I see why my parents never let me get a puppy growing up. I think my dad would have killed it after a day. After the puppies, we went to the French restaurant for a goodbye dinner for one of the Americans who leaves today.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
I didn’t end up going to Calheta today because my counterpart’s father died and when someone dies, pretty much the entire town shuts down. I wasn’t sure if we had class or not since I hadn’t heard from anyone but when I started walking to Calheta I saw pretty much every car on Maio packed full and driving towards Vila to the cemetery. I took that as a sign of no class for the day.
I had a lot of fun this evening. My roommate and I were invited to watch my counterpart who works at the camera and his band practice. It was a lot of fun watching them and I really enjoy Cape Verdian music. After the practice we all went to a place near by to eat grilled fish and hang out. It was really relaxing and a perfect evening.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving! While I really missed being home, waking up and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, cooking in the kitchen with my mom all day, my first Cape Verdian Thanksgiving was pretty good. A car was supposed to come pick me up to take me to Borreiro for computer class but it never showed so I didn’t end up going since walking would have taken an hour and a half and the chance of getting a car would take between 5 and 90 minutes. So I feel really bad for not showing up for computer class and I need to have a little talk with my counterpart who arranged the transport.
So I spent the morning prepping food for dinner- chopping potatoes, toasting and chopping bread, etc and took the puppies outside for a walk. A ton of kids came by on their way home from school and got the puppies all riled up.
In the afternoon I went on a hunt for onions and apples and succeeded with the onions but no apples were to be found since the boat has not yet come. So I have an apple pie crust sitting in my fridge and other ingredients out on the table while I wait for apples to come. So this years feast consisted of: lemon herb chicken (compliments of chef Stephanie), peas (also another Stephanie creation), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream for dessert. Our ex-pat friend and one of the Americans came over to partake and we ate until we felt ill. Or at least I felt ill.
I talked to my family who is all in Atlanta for Thanksgiving and it was really great to hear their voices. Especially since I never get to talk to my brother. Pretty much all I got from him this time was that he has a new girlfriend. Way to go champ!
Friday, November 24, 2006
After pretty much doing during the day I got ready to go to night one of the Municipal Festa for Figuera. Every town has its own Saint’s Day and this weekend is Figuera’s. What this really translates into is a large party where the entire island shows up. Cape Verdians sure know how to party. So we went to the polivalenti in Figuera to watch our friends (my quazi-counterpart, the dude “mos” that keeps hitting on my roommate despite the fact that he’s had a girlfriend for eight years, and the “best friend”) play music for the festa. Their group name, “the friends”, is a little ridiculous but they play pretty well. And for the first time since I’ve been in Maio, get ready for this, I was COLD! That’s right folks. It’s starting to cool down in the evenings which has been great. Its really nice to finally wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt. You have no idea how much I missed that feeling.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Day 2 of the festa. We rested up all day to get ready for the biggest night of Figuera Fest. We borrowed some films from our Portuguese teacher friend and I finally watched the Godfather for the first time. And I actually understood some of the Italian in the film after interacting with all the Italians here. Around 11 we got the last American to give us a ride to the festa. This time we saw practically the entire island. We ran into a ton of teachers and hung out with them for most of the night. They pretty much closed down these two main streets and lined up along the streets were tents, tables, snack cars, and lots of grills with skewers of chicken and pork. And of course everywhere you turned were bars with lots of beer. We seriously could have gotten trashed and not paid a dime for it since everyone kept trying to buy us drinks. We walked around for awhile with various people and then hit up the disco. It was so crowded this time. You could barely move. It kind of reminded me of being in a club in DC.
I danced the first dance with a random dude while the roommate danced with one of the teachers. Later in the night this same dude I danced with came up to me slightly drunker and demanded me to kiss him. I told him no and he asked why. Why do people always have to ask why when you say no here? Anyways, I told him I didn’t want to and I didn’t know him. His response to this was “I danced with you and I live in Vila.” I didn’t realize that qualified in knowing someone. During this same time, Math teacher #2 who wants to bang the Roommate was feeling up the Roommate’s ass as he felt his way around her back pocket to discover my cell phone. I didn’t realize it was necessary to caress the hiney in order to greet someone. Apparently his touchy-feelyness goes a long way.
My reaction was to dance only with people I knew for the remainder of the evening and I ended up dancing with Best Friend for most of the night. Towards the end of the night Best Friend was a little drunk and a little excited. That creeped me out and it was then time to leave.
Another highlight of the night was when they played “Move Bitch, Get Out The Way” at the disco. I’m sure everyone understood what the words of the song actually meant...
At one point in the night, Portuguese teacher friend #2 was hammered and dancing very whitely in the street with a chicken skewer half in his mouth.
By the time we got home it was 4 am and my shoes were covered in beer from the ground and I was ready to pass out.
Cape Verdians tend to use certain phrases a lot. Here’s a list of what you’ll often hear in Maio and translations:
Mos: dude
E normal: its normal- this one they like to use to describe anything we think is completely ridiculous including having more than one girlfriend at the same time
E ka sim e- isn’t it true
Vida de pobre e kansado: the poor life is tiring
fixe: cool
sabe: good
Sunday, November 26, 2006
After being up until 4 last night, I spent this morning sleeping, walking the puppies, sleeping, watching movies, and sleeping. In the afternoon I took Captain Fubar for a walk to the ocean and pier to get him some exercise and introduce him to the ocean. Just as I expected, as soon as I put him in the ocean he started crying and immediately ran up on the beach. For being such a good sport, I took him up to the pier to watch the fishermen (and see if any of them would donate bait that they weren’t using to feed Fubar). I was also looking for someone who was headed on the boat to Praia and had the peephole that Peace Corps sent to be installed in our door. So we ended up on the pier for 2 hours making friends with a fisherboy and watching him catch an eel. Fubar was the cutest thing in the world trying to chase a dying fish that was flopping around. Every time it flopped he jumped back. It was really cute. While on the pier I got a call from my APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director- ie my boss) who said he will be arriving on Monday
Luckily I found someone I knew from the group for helping people with deficiencies who was from Calheta and he helped me locate the guy with my peephole who just happened to be my counterpart’s brother. After retrieving my peephole, Fubar and I ran into our Hiace driving friend and got a ride home.
In the evening we walked around and ran into Math teacher #2 who felt up the roommate’s butt. This time he wrapped his arms around the Roommate like an octopus. Once I said that she “looked uncomfortable” he released his death grip and we went home.
Monday, November 27, 2006
I definitely am losing my mind. I woke up this morning early thinking I had computer class in Borreiro and I would have to prepare a lesson before 8:30 since using the Camara to drive me seemed like a bad idea since the past week was unreliable. So I ended up in a mild scurry to remember that it was Monday and I did not actually have a computer class today. Earlier in the weekend I ran into my tutoring student, Vespa, and found out that he was going to Praia so tutoring was out this week. So I spent the morning at the Casa de Juventude working on creating a typing lesson for my computer class.
I was on my way to Calheta for English class when I ran into the coordinator of the CEJ and was informed that another person from Calheta died and the class would again have to be postponed. On the way home I saw the funeral procession pass by my house. My boss’s plane got in late so we made plans to meet for tomorrow.
Since I had more free time I took Captain Fubar to the beach for a walk. I ran into the French guy and my friend’s brother and ended up chatting with them and playing with the puppy on the beach. I was also introduced to another Cape Verdian and a few Italians who actually spoke English and the 5 of us hung out for awhile. Once the sun was going down the Italians left and the Cape Verdians and I walked Fubar to the pier only to find it closed. But anyways, it was really nice to meet more new people and hang out with people my age.
Later the Roommate and I went to visit the English teacher/the teacher from Senegal/Math teacher #2 at their house and watch their tv. English teacher asked me if we are friends. I found that a bizarre question and said yes. I don’t know why he wouldn’t think we are friends. I also was told that they missed me and the roommate was jealous of my stellar looks and their longing to see me.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
This was probably one of the busiest days since I’ve been here. I woke up, mopped up the puppies’ messes while the Roommate walked them and typed up an activity for my computer class. I went to the CEJ around 8:30 to print it out only to learn that they are out of ink. So they told me to go to the Camara and print it there. The guy at the Camara was really nice and immediately let me take over his computer. But it took about half an hour to get the computer to recognize my pin drive. Once I finally opened the document the computer crashed and every time following proceeded to crash for the next 20 minutes. Eventually I got everything to print and I apologized profusely for my bad luck with the computer.
While I was at the Camara I ran into my friend who is president of the sports for people with deficiencies group and also has family in North Carolina and talked with her about the big event coming up. Every president of the Camara from every island is coming on Friday to Maio for some sort of meeting. She has the privledge, if you want to call it that, of organizing everything. So our English lesson tomorrow is probably out since she’s extremely busy. After our little soire, I found the guy at the Camara who arranges cars and talked to him about their lack of coming to get me last week. He put check marks on the piece of paper I had given him next to the times that they never showed. I guess these check marks mean that the cars will magically appear when I need them. Hmmm...
So my boss shows up with a Hiace and we head over to Borreiro for computer class. Three students showed up today and we practiced typing correctly and not hunting for keys with our pointer fingers. The first part of the activity that was supposed to take 5 minutes lasted the entire class. I really don’t know how to estimate how much time lesson plans will actually take. The ones that I think will be long, I breeze through, and others that should take a short period of time last forever. But its cool and I had fun moving fingers around when the pressed the keys with the wrong finger.
After Borreiro we went to the CEJ where my boss extensively interviewed the coordinator who told him I speak good Kriolu (I think she was just being nice) and talked about the drug and alcohol problem in Maio and upcoming projects. Apparently I am helping with something that just got approved but I have no idea what it is. Then we went to the Ministry of Education and met someone who works with the micro finance group that I still had been unable to get hold of. It turns out the president of the group is in Praia getting computers fixed because the bad electricity in Maio knocked out their computers and they lost all their programs. So once he gets back we’ll be having a meeting to make a plan. I’m really excited to finally be working with them.
As the usual part of the site visits, we were treated to lunch and today the French place actually had pork caramel which is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten, besides the tuna skewers.
After lunch we headed to Calheta to meet with my counterpart. When we got there, we visited her at her mother’s house where they are in mourning. It’s kind of like sitting shiva (a Jewish custom when someone dies). We went to the community center afterwards where some of my students were waiting for their English class. I wasn’t planning on having class but did a spur of the moment 30 minute review session of “How are you?” “What is your name?” “Where are you from?” etc. I also ran into the music teacher and made arrangements for our violin lesson on Sunday.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I just got out of a meeting with the president of the Camara and my APCD. He (APCD) is checking in on his flight plan for today since the chance of it being delayed is about 120%. Anyways, we had a little chat before I left and I’m going to be helping the micro-finance group sort of get themselves together. A lot of associations use them to save their money and they have money from different groups to give out as loans but its not being used, probably because people either don’t know it exists or are afraid they won’t be able to pay the place back. Anyways, the head of the place is also a passive person and he’ll be back shortly and I really look forward to getting things rolling. On top of that, I was informed that there may be some small business development work that I do later on which makes me kind of excited despite the fact that I know nothing about business. At least maybe this will help me decide if I want to go to business school when I get back.
In other good news, once my APCD took a look at my roommate’s and my beds, he said he could help us get newer, bigger ones. This makes me happy, especially since our mattresses are disgusting and probably have not been changed in the past 10 years. Plus, it will be nice for my sheets to finally fit on a regular sized bed instead of my twin bed.
Its funny how your mood can change really quickly here. So I got a ride from the Camara to Borreiro for my computer class but on the way back the driver never showed. I started walking back and was almost to the main road when a group of high school boys were dropped off and decided to make conversation with me. One of them started talking in French, the others in English. I explained to them that I am not a “sir” and the term “sir” is used only for men. They asked me for food and said they were hungry and I kind of snapped since I was a little upset that my driver didn’t show. I told them I was hungry too and I was in the same boat as them but I had to walk further. I was then asked for money to which I responded, “do I look like a bank?” I then went on to say that I am a volunteer here to help their and other people’s communities and asking for money is inappropriate. I was pretty upset after that incident.
s
So on my walk back, a different driver from the Camara drove by and said that my driver from earlier had gone to the airport and therefore hadn’t come to get me. It would have been nice if someone had called my cell phone or called someone in Borreiro to tell me this. Anyways, I was not happy when I got home.
Only 4 girls came to girl’s group today so we cancelled it for this week since the activity we had planned (about speaking up for yourself) involved role playing and people weren’t there so I went home and took Fubar for a walk. We went to the beach and he was conveniently placed in the ocean where he immediately became terrified and cold. The Cape Verdian solution was to rub sand all over him to dry him off. I think this idea is crap because now I have to deal with a sandy puppy.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
I can’t believe its already December. These weeks fly by. I guess the days sort of drag on at times but I’m now sort of feeling like I’m at home. I’m trying not to get too bothered by annoying things here like last Thursday when I waited for 30 at the Camara for them to give me a ride to Borreiro, which they said they would, and the car never came. It made me so mad. And I tried to get materials from the Camara for World AIDS Day which was last Friday but they never procured them. So, I had to improvise. I spent my own money on poster board and red crepe paper (I originally wanted a sheet and red paint) and cut out handprints for people to sign and put up on the poster in the shape of an AIDS ribbon. I also made little posters that were put up all around the CEJ with facts about HIV and AIDS or VIH and SIDA as they are called here. All of the presidents of Camaras in Cape Verde happened to be in Maio on Friday for a meeting and held it in a room above the CEJ so they told the coordinator, my counterpart, that the signs were really great. That made me happy. In the afternoon there was a big parade around all of Vila. All the students in primary school and at the liceo (high school) participated and carried signs and wore stickers. At the end of the parade they ended up in the Polivalenti with a speaker (the Maio doctor). I found out later that Calheta had their own parade that same afternoon.
Sunday I had my first violin lesson with the music teacher from Calheta. I thought it went really well. It was his first time playing a violin and he has a pretty good bow arm for a first timer and was able to draw the bow across the string and make a continuous note (note that I said note and not sound- most people kind of screech for awhile when they first start out- he played a genuine note). So after playing open strings and rhythms for an hour it was time for the women’s meeting. My counterpart laid down the line that she is not going to the forefront of the group and one of the younger girls is to become the leader. So we chose a new leader and all was good.
Yesterday our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and the Regional PCMO for all of West Africa came to Maio for a visit. It’s been fun showing them around and getting a few nice dinners.
Today has been interesting. This morning we got in the car to go to Borreiro and there was a dog sitting in front of the car. Apparently the driver didn’t see it because he proceeded to drive forward despite my yelling out “katxor, katxor” (dog, dog). Fortunately the dog did not die but I think he’s now a pirate dog now and has only one eye. His eye was all bleeding and gross and he kept crying really loud. It was really sad and I thought I would throw up.
Computer class went well. Today we learned how to type “e and I” with the correct fingers and then learned the functions of the keyboard and for those who have used computers, learned what the formatting bars do in Microsoft Word.
Lunch today was a farewell lunch with our Italian friend who made the most incredible food ever. He had these tomatoes stuffed with egg and some sort of sauce and tuna that was battered in breadcrumbs and cooked with tomato sauce and olives. For dessert he brought out orange cake and tangerines.
The ride to Calheta today was fun. There was a pig in a USAID food bag in the back of the truck with me and a bunch of men. I didn’t realize it was there until I saw something squirming. I guess the foul smell wasn’t just from people not using deoderant. When I got there, I found my counterpart sick with “gripe” (a cold) so she stayed away from class today. Today’s class went really well. We went over the present simple negative of “to be” which translates to “I am not, you are not, etc.” I checked everyone’s homework from last night and only one person had one question wrong. The entire class either cheated or is learning more than they show in class. It made me really proud. On the ride back I was sitting next to a lady with a 3 month old baby and a bucket of eel. When she got off in Morro she kind of just put the baby in my lap and for a minute I thought she was going to take off and leave me with a baby. It was kind of weird and I felt a little awkward with a baby thrown at me but I guess that’s the norm here. (Hey roommate- eh normal?)
December 8, 2006
Aah, the weekend is finally here. I got a ride to Borreiro and Calheta from the Camara which is a feat within itself. English class is going really well. After going around and telling people that what they wrote is correct, they were less timid in coming up to the board. On the ride back I met another woman who works with the Ministry of Education to help people in Calheta learn how to read. So we’re going to get our groups to work together on future projects.
Fubar is getting bigger. I want him to stay tiny. I gave him a bath last night and he hated me for it. But at least he’s clean and smells like green apples.
There’s been a few weird things happening here. A week ago or so the French restaurant closed because someone who either worked there or has some relation to the place tried to stab herself. Or at least that’s what we were told. And a few days ago my neighbor had to be taken away because “the ghost of someone who died got inside her and turned her into the devil.” What happened was she went to Praia without telling her husband or anyone and when she came back she went crazy and started yelling at everyone and breaking everything in the house including glass dishes and their television. So pretty much half of Vila was over in the neighborhood restraining her and getting her into a car to go to the hospital. When I got home today there was a crowd of women hanging out and lots of yelling. I bet the saga continues.
There is supposed to be live violin and a DJ tomorrow in Figuera and I really want to go. I’m excited to see some Cape Verdian violin playing.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Right now I’m sitting in a sweltering hot room with an air condition that appears to not be functioning. I’m also sun burnt from our full day of activities as part of the training session we’ve had for the past four days. Today’s portion of the “sports for people with deficiencies” consisted of our group of 18 wearing bright red t-shirts (given to us by the man leading the formacao) and doing activities on the beach. We learned how to be resourceful and make a medicine ball out of a busted ball, water, sand, newspaper, plastic bags and tape. We also made stress balls out of sand and balloons and learned the secret to juggling. These were all things to use to help train people for sports. Also included in the day were those dreaded trust games where you have one person in the middle of a circle of people who is supposed to fall around and the people in the circle have to keep them up. I learned how to throw a javelin and a shot put and watched others try their skill at the discus. After snack time we played sitting volleyball and did activities in the ocean. It was pretty exhausting but I can’t complain after having spent the day playing on the beach.
So back to the sweltering room...After pretty much any sort of information session, class, etc, there is always a party with food and certificates passed out to honor your completion. After the electricity went out in the restaurant above the CEJ, we moved to our current location which is about 20 feet away from the CEJ and managed to keep electricity. We’ve been listening to the guy talk about paper work needed to make a project and have begun to form the association on Maio and decide who is in charge of what. They’re serving paella for dinner and then passing out certificates. So I am now officially certified as going through the class which pretty much means that I have a pretty piece of paper to decorate my room with.
Remember the blurb I wrote on the man asking why only women could come to the English class? Well today I was talking with a different man in Villa and explaining what I do, etc and he asked me why focus on women. This time I stood up for the women here and explained to him about the lack of opportunity for women in school, etc. Apparently all the men are now getting jealous that its the women who have banded together and are taking a stand for themselves. I don’t have any expectations on how things will change between men and women in Maio while I am here but I think this women’s group is getting more well known, at least in Calheta, and all of the women are getting really excited to do projects and have opportunities to learn things that they felt they didn’t have before. Even if I don’t accomplish anything really big while I’m here (which it seems a lot of people expect from me), I’m really proud to be working with a group of people who seem to really care about their community and their future and have taken the initiative to work for what they want.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Americans are back! Well, two of them anyway and its so great to see them again. Today was definitely a food day... We went to the Italian’s for lunch to celebrate the arrival of her husband. Later in the day we walked over to the soccer tournament across from the CEJ. A few of my roommate’s students were playing and its always fun to be out when the rest of the town is crowded around the “soccer field.”
We had heard a rumor that the Americans were coming back so we walked down to wear they are staying and alas, there they were! It was such a nice reunion. We went over to the British guy’s restaurant and celebrated with his new chocolate ice cream recipe which is the best one by far.
In a few minutes we are about to head over to one of my counterpart’s house for goat. I think I may be sick tomorrow after eating so much today.
Over the past two weeks 2 volunteers decided to ET or early terminate. Its really sad to see them go but I know they need to do what makes them happy. I’ve also heard that another volunteer is being medically separated which is also really depressing. I guess I always assumed some of our group would eventually ET but I wasn’t really sure when it would happen. Being the eternal optimist, I kind of hoped that everyone in our group would make it and show Peace Corps up but its not for everyone and I don’t want anyone to be where they don’t feel they should be. Leaving early is something that is on every volunteer’s mind at some point throughout their service. It is really hard being away from your friends, family, and your familiar surroundings and we definitely have our up and down days. Being in Cape Verde is a mixed blessing. We have certain elements of what we see back home- lights, faucets, refrigerators, Internet, sometimes even washing machines, but the electricity and water are inconsistent and it makes for an interesting time. The work part can also be frustrating because we are here to help and work at a job but a lot of the time it seems like the people here have everything covered and we question why they want us here to help. I understand how people would want to leave when they feel like they have nothing to do or could be doing the exact same thing back at home.
For the most part I’m happy here. I feel like I’m beginning to make friends, and once I start on my regular schedule next week, it will be nice to have a regular routine. One of the biggest frustrations for me as a “community mobilizer” volunteer is that I did not come in with a regular schedule. I need to have structure and I went about making it for myself. It’s taken a little while but I think the people and groups that I’m going to work with are ones that I really want to work with and will be happy helping with projects and classes. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve seen a need to work with the women and girls in this community and help them get access to more opportunities.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Saturday night was a lot of fun. Besides having food and drink thrown at us for hours, our friends also played guitar and sang Cape Verdian music. After our dinner we headed out to Figuera because “the discoteque in Figuera is better than the one in Vila.” In reality this meant, the are less people/ people that our friends that took us know well enough to tell their significant others that they took the American girls to a Disco. It was no where near as crowded as the one in Vila which was good because if all the men at the one in Vila were as drunk as the ones in Figuera, we would have had to fight off 5 times as many people who wanted to dance with us. It was nice to be there with people we know who could keep the staggering drunks away and it was a really nice time.
Yesterday evening was the women’s group meeting. I invited someone from the girls group in Borreiro to come talk about doing a joint project for the women to teach the girls to do weavings. We somehow got into conversation about the information sessions of people with deficiencies and that got a lot of people really wound up. These women were very opinionated on the topic and were pretty much all yelling at the same time for about 15 minutes.
When I got back we went to the Italian lady’s hotel to take a shower because we are all out of water and I think I’m the cleanest I’ve been in a long time. My hair is actually soft today. Yeah, I know, it a great feat...
This afternoon I was supposed to start my English classes in Calheta but apparently people have it stuck in their minds that class begins on Tuesday. I rode my bike most of the way to Calheta and then hitched a ride for the last few km with an Italian guy who was driving a friend home to Calheta. After learning that I would not actually be teaching today, I ended up going to a meeting at the primary school with my counterpart to meet a music teacher who wants to play violin with me. I think she gave him the impression that I am able to teach him how to play classical music and that I am available to help teach his students. It’s going to be interesting how this plays out because as I learned from the other night, Cape Verdians learn music notes as “do, re, mi...” and not as “a, b, c...” I also do not have any sheet music or music formed well enough in my memory to actually teach it to someone. Anyone know of any music organizations that would be willing to donate sheet music to teach with or maybe even a cheap violin so they/I can practice?
About 2 km into my ride home, my back tire sprung a leak, thank goodness for cobblestone roads...., and I ended up walking with the bike for a bit. Eventually a car came by and luckily I knew someone in it so they gave me a ride back to town.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Today was another crazy experience. Now that I’m really excited and ready to start my classes, they keep getting changed around on me. I woke up and walked to Borreiro (since the bikes out of commission) to teach computer classes and when I got there the center was empty. I figured that the kids were just late since that is not unusual here and turned on the computers to upload a typing program. Apparently my pin drive is too new for the Windows 98 computers and I was unable to even access the files on the drive. I tested my luck with the second computer which is even older and couldn’t even get the computer to boot up. This is going to be one heck of a computer class. Eventually one girl showed up and asked me if we had class today since the leader of their group failed to tell anyone I was starting this week. She said she would tell the others that we are starting this week so cross your fingers that tomorrow I will have a class. I ended up talking a bit with a woman who lives next to the center and an older woman who said that the girl I had spoken with about the class “belonged to her” so I’m going to assume it was her mom. I found a car back to Vila and met up with my roommate and another teacher who was hanging out at our house.
Since it was still early (early meaning before all the stores close for lunch) I went to the back to check on my bank card which has still not arrived. I ran into my counterpart from Calheta and was informed that she does not think that I should ride my bike to Borreiro because there are not many cars on that road and if something happened to me she would worry. I kind of felt like she was playing the mom role but it was nice of her to worry about me. Since my bike is out of commission for now, I guess I will ask the camara if they can hook me up with a car to Borreiro or I’ll try to hitch a ride like I did today. She also informed me that she had a meeting in Vila today right around the time we were supposed to start our English class so she wants to wait until the next class (scheduled on Friday) so she can be there and tell the people to be respectful and speak slowly since its sometimes difficult for me to understand Maio’s rapid fire Kriolu.
So between that and some drama going down at the Italians affecting our English tutoring sessions, I’m still waiting to actually start some of my classes.
Since I have a free afternoon today and lesson plans already made, I just started and finished reading John Edwards, “Four Trials.” I actually teared up for part of it which is probably what he wanted. But seriously, I really respect him as a person and in the back of my mind, I still want to see him run for President. Now that I’ve finished his book, I really want to read Elizabeth Edwards book, “Saving Graces.” If anyone wants to help me realize this goal, I will be indebted to you forever (or at least until I come back from Africa). My roommate just finished War and Peace and now its getting passed on to me. I feel like everyone in the Peace Corps plans on reading or brings War and Peace with them since we all know that we’ll have a lot of time on our hands.
Right now I’m sitting in a sweltering hot room with an air condition that appears to not be functioning. I’m also sun burnt from our full day of activities as part of the training session we’ve had for the past four days. Today’s portion of the “sports for people with deficiencies” consisted of our group of 18 wearing bright red t-shirts (given to us by the man leading the formacao) and doing activities on the beach. We learned how to be resourceful and make a medicine ball out of a busted ball, water, sand, newspaper, plastic bags and tape. We also made stress balls out of sand and balloons and learned the secret to juggling. These were all things to use to help train people for sports. Also included in the day were those dreaded trust games where you have one person in the middle of a circle of people who is supposed to fall around and the people in the circle have to keep them up. I learned how to throw a javelin and a shot put and watched others try their skill at the discus. After snack time we played sitting volleyball and did activities in the ocean. It was pretty exhausting but I can’t complain after having spent the day playing on the beach.
So back to the sweltering room...After pretty much any sort of information session, class, etc, there is always a party with food and certificates passed out to honor your completion. After the electricity went out in the restaurant above the CEJ, we moved to our current location which is about 20 feet away from the CEJ and managed to keep electricity. We’ve been listening to the guy talk about paper work needed to make a project and have begun to form the association on Maio and decide who is in charge of what. They’re serving paella for dinner and then passing out certificates. So I am now officially certified as going through the class which pretty much means that I have a pretty piece of paper to decorate my room with.
Remember the blurb I wrote on the man asking why only women could come to the English class? Well today I was talking with a different man in Villa and explaining what I do, etc and he asked me why focus on women. This time I stood up for the women here and explained to him about the lack of opportunity for women in school, etc. Apparently all the men are now getting jealous that its the women who have banded together and are taking a stand for themselves. I don’t have any expectations on how things will change between men and women in Maio while I am here but I think this women’s group is getting more well known, at least in Calheta, and all of the women are getting really excited to do projects and have opportunities to learn things that they felt they didn’t have before. Even if I don’t accomplish anything really big while I’m here (which it seems a lot of people expect from me), I’m really proud to be working with a group of people who seem to really care about their community and their future and have taken the initiative to work for what they want.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Americans are back! Well, two of them anyway and its so great to see them again. Today was definitely a food day... We went to the Italian’s for lunch to celebrate the arrival of her husband. Later in the day we walked over to the soccer tournament across from the CEJ. A few of my roommate’s students were playing and its always fun to be out when the rest of the town is crowded around the “soccer field.”
We had heard a rumor that the Americans were coming back so we walked down to wear they are staying and alas, there they were! It was such a nice reunion. We went over to the British guy’s restaurant and celebrated with his new chocolate ice cream recipe which is the best one by far.
In a few minutes we are about to head over to one of my counterpart’s house for goat. I think I may be sick tomorrow after eating so much today.
Over the past two weeks 2 volunteers decided to ET or early terminate. Its really sad to see them go but I know they need to do what makes them happy. I’ve also heard that another volunteer is being medically separated which is also really depressing. I guess I always assumed some of our group would eventually ET but I wasn’t really sure when it would happen. Being the eternal optimist, I kind of hoped that everyone in our group would make it and show Peace Corps up but its not for everyone and I don’t want anyone to be where they don’t feel they should be. Leaving early is something that is on every volunteer’s mind at some point throughout their service. It is really hard being away from your friends, family, and your familiar surroundings and we definitely have our up and down days. Being in Cape Verde is a mixed blessing. We have certain elements of what we see back home- lights, faucets, refrigerators, Internet, sometimes even washing machines, but the electricity and water are inconsistent and it makes for an interesting time. The work part can also be frustrating because we are here to help and work at a job but a lot of the time it seems like the people here have everything covered and we question why they want us here to help. I understand how people would want to leave when they feel like they have nothing to do or could be doing the exact same thing back at home.
For the most part I’m happy here. I feel like I’m beginning to make friends, and once I start on my regular schedule next week, it will be nice to have a regular routine. One of the biggest frustrations for me as a “community mobilizer” volunteer is that I did not come in with a regular schedule. I need to have structure and I went about making it for myself. It’s taken a little while but I think the people and groups that I’m going to work with are ones that I really want to work with and will be happy helping with projects and classes. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve seen a need to work with the women and girls in this community and help them get access to more opportunities.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Saturday night was a lot of fun. Besides having food and drink thrown at us for hours, our friends also played guitar and sang Cape Verdian music. After our dinner we headed out to Figuera because “the discoteque in Figuera is better than the one in Vila.” In reality this meant, the are less people/ people that our friends that took us know well enough to tell their significant others that they took the American girls to a Disco. It was no where near as crowded as the one in Vila which was good because if all the men at the one in Vila were as drunk as the ones in Figuera, we would have had to fight off 5 times as many people who wanted to dance with us. It was nice to be there with people we know who could keep the staggering drunks away and it was a really nice time.
Yesterday evening was the women’s group meeting. I invited someone from the girls group in Borreiro to come talk about doing a joint project for the women to teach the girls to do weavings. We somehow got into conversation about the information sessions of people with deficiencies and that got a lot of people really wound up. These women were very opinionated on the topic and were pretty much all yelling at the same time for about 15 minutes.
When I got back we went to the Italian lady’s hotel to take a shower because we are all out of water and I think I’m the cleanest I’ve been in a long time. My hair is actually soft today. Yeah, I know, it a great feat...
This afternoon I was supposed to start my English classes in Calheta but apparently people have it stuck in their minds that class begins on Tuesday. I rode my bike most of the way to Calheta and then hitched a ride for the last few km with an Italian guy who was driving a friend home to Calheta. After learning that I would not actually be teaching today, I ended up going to a meeting at the primary school with my counterpart to meet a music teacher who wants to play violin with me. I think she gave him the impression that I am able to teach him how to play classical music and that I am available to help teach his students. It’s going to be interesting how this plays out because as I learned from the other night, Cape Verdians learn music notes as “do, re, mi...” and not as “a, b, c...” I also do not have any sheet music or music formed well enough in my memory to actually teach it to someone. Anyone know of any music organizations that would be willing to donate sheet music to teach with or maybe even a cheap violin so they/I can practice?
About 2 km into my ride home, my back tire sprung a leak, thank goodness for cobblestone roads...., and I ended up walking with the bike for a bit. Eventually a car came by and luckily I knew someone in it so they gave me a ride back to town.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Today was another crazy experience. Now that I’m really excited and ready to start my classes, they keep getting changed around on me. I woke up and walked to Borreiro (since the bikes out of commission) to teach computer classes and when I got there the center was empty. I figured that the kids were just late since that is not unusual here and turned on the computers to upload a typing program. Apparently my pin drive is too new for the Windows 98 computers and I was unable to even access the files on the drive. I tested my luck with the second computer which is even older and couldn’t even get the computer to boot up. This is going to be one heck of a computer class. Eventually one girl showed up and asked me if we had class today since the leader of their group failed to tell anyone I was starting this week. She said she would tell the others that we are starting this week so cross your fingers that tomorrow I will have a class. I ended up talking a bit with a woman who lives next to the center and an older woman who said that the girl I had spoken with about the class “belonged to her” so I’m going to assume it was her mom. I found a car back to Vila and met up with my roommate and another teacher who was hanging out at our house.
Since it was still early (early meaning before all the stores close for lunch) I went to the back to check on my bank card which has still not arrived. I ran into my counterpart from Calheta and was informed that she does not think that I should ride my bike to Borreiro because there are not many cars on that road and if something happened to me she would worry. I kind of felt like she was playing the mom role but it was nice of her to worry about me. Since my bike is out of commission for now, I guess I will ask the camara if they can hook me up with a car to Borreiro or I’ll try to hitch a ride like I did today. She also informed me that she had a meeting in Vila today right around the time we were supposed to start our English class so she wants to wait until the next class (scheduled on Friday) so she can be there and tell the people to be respectful and speak slowly since its sometimes difficult for me to understand Maio’s rapid fire Kriolu.
So between that and some drama going down at the Italians affecting our English tutoring sessions, I’m still waiting to actually start some of my classes.
Since I have a free afternoon today and lesson plans already made, I just started and finished reading John Edwards, “Four Trials.” I actually teared up for part of it which is probably what he wanted. But seriously, I really respect him as a person and in the back of my mind, I still want to see him run for President. Now that I’ve finished his book, I really want to read Elizabeth Edwards book, “Saving Graces.” If anyone wants to help me realize this goal, I will be indebted to you forever (or at least until I come back from Africa). My roommate just finished War and Peace and now its getting passed on to me. I feel like everyone in the Peace Corps plans on reading or brings War and Peace with them since we all know that we’ll have a lot of time on our hands.
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
So it was day three of the information sessions and today we learned
definitions of terms (deficiency, integration into the community, handicap,
etc). We made mock project proposals and went over what you do to make a
project. Tomorrow we¹re going to practice something on the beach. Im not
sure what, but we were told to bring a broken ball, a volleyball, volleyball
net, empty water bottles, rope, and a few other random things. Let¹s see
what happens.
My counterpart from Calheta told me some exciting news today. She wasn¹t
able to get hold of the girl who was going to tell the womens group that Im
not teaching this week so people ended up showing up. The exciting part is
that more than the initial 22 women showed up, just for the English class.
Word must be spreading about the group and it makes me happy. In addition to
that, a man from the town asked my counterpart why the class was just for
women and said it was unfair that men could not take part in the class. She
then stood up for the women and basically told him its not fair that men
have more opportunities, etc. I was really proud of her after hearing her
retell the story and I¹m getting more and more excited to work with these
women.
This afternoon we had our girls group meeting at the CEJ and it went really
well. Today¹s topic was Sex and Gender Roles. We did an activity where we
put the words ³masculine² and ³feminine² on the board and they had to tape
cards with phrases like ³clean the house,² ³gets good grades in school,²
and ³raises the family² under which one they thought does the action in Cape
Verde. Afterwards we discussed the cards and why they put them where.
Afterwards, we redid the activity but this time had them put the cards up by
what each sex is biologically capable of doing and then discussed. It was
really interesting to hear what the girls had to say: They put ³is able to
have more than one boyfriend/ girlfriend² under boys and it led to a
discussion about what would happen if there were an equal proportion of men
and women in the country and how to change the mentality of people. Next
week we discuss relationships with the opposite sex.
So the elections were yesterday and I really want to find out the results.
The electricity was out during lunch so we didn¹t get to use the internet. I
can only imagine how crazy it was a GW yesterday. Its so politically charged
and I miss that elections in DC are like watching the Superbowl elsewhere. I
know probably a dozen or so of my friends back at home were probably working
on campaigns or campaigning themselves.
I received a wonderful package in the mail today from my mom, a
³Thanksgiving in a bag² if you will, complete with recipes, pie crust, and
spices to make pumpkin pie. I¹m guessing there¹s pumpkin and French¹s fried
onion rings on the way!
The lock guy just left and we now have all our keys. Now its just getting a
peephole installedŠ
--
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Maio updates
Friday, October 27, 2006
So this week has been interesting. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. My
roommate and I went out to lunch to celebrate and partook in some amazing
fresh tuna, French fries, and ice cream. At night, some of our friends that
work in the camara/high school came over with a cake and wine. It was a
unique little festa since the electricity was out and all we had was candle
light.
Tuesday I brought the left over cake to the Casa de Juventude where everyone
was thrilled to polish it off.
Wednesday, we went to the Italians house for lunch and English lessons only
there were no English lessons. However, we did partake in pasta, pizza,
shrimp, mussels, and salad.
After lunch, we had the first girl¹s group meeting and it went really well.
Six girls showed up and we went through introductions and objectives of the
group. They all seemed happy to be there. After the meeting I received a
call from Peace Corps that my bike had arrived on the boat and I was to
report to the pier to get it. Of course I had no idea how you go about
finding a bike on a huge cargo ship so I asked about 20 people what to do
and they all pointed me in the right direction. Eventually I got my bike
only to find out that one of the wheels was slightly off track. I brought it
to the Italians and they fixed it for me. When I got home it was dark and we
headed back to the Italian¹s place to celebrate their housekeeper¹s
birthday. She¹s a really sweet lady from Calheta and we had fun eating more
pizza, tuna, and cake. After dinner there was a little dancing and more
chatter.
Thursday I went to work at the Casa de Juventude and a woman from the camara
came in to tell us about an upcoming program. I agreed to help with
something but I¹m not sure if its teaching a computer class or just helping
with activities. Anyways, its for a few days in November to bring awareness
to and have activities for people with mental and physical disabilities.
Today I walked into the Casa de Juventude was asked for information on AIDS
for a project someone is doing. I spent my morning typing information out in
English to later translate into Portuguese so she can understand it. Another
crazy day as usual.
This weekend I¹m teaching a computer class in Borreiro and trying to change
the days of my computer classes so I have free time on the weekends. I think
we might go picnic on the beach on Sunday which should be fun.
Telecom is putting in a new phone tower by the post office, ie, right
outside our house, and has taken to working at 7 am on the dot. Its really
loud and obnoxious and I really hope that they finish soon so I can sleep.
Other than that, things here are going well.
Ti logoŠ.
Sunday, October 29
The electricity has been on again off again for the past few weeks. When we
first arrived, it was pretty good but lately its been off more than on which
can be quite frustrating, especially when I want to use the Internet.
Today I had my first computer class in Borreiro. I think the bike ride there
and back about killed me. Its been years since I¹ve really been on a bike
and even though it was only 9 km each way I am exhausted. It took about an
hour to get there and 40 minutes to get back thanks to the hills. A few
cars passed and gave me thumbs up as I struggled up the hills. When I
arrived in Borreiro, a group of school girls all laughed at me in my stylish
bike helmet that I¹m obligated to wear. I don¹t mind wearing the helmet.
Knowing my clumsiness I¹ll probably fall off a lot while I¹m here and I¹m
sure the helmet will come in handy. As for my lack of sense of direction,
there¹s only one main road on the island so it¹s hard to get lost. I made it
there in one piece and on time to start the class. But now I¹m a little
sore from my first bike riding experience. If I keep this up, I¹ll be in
great shape by the time I return to America.
The class was supposed to start at 4 and no one showed up until 4:30 except
for a few boys who were admiring my bike. One class commenced, we spent the
30 minutes that I had left doing introductions, defining the computer and
talking about its components, and figuring out a better time to have class
since I would like to be able to do other things on my weekends. That part
took the most time and I still don¹t think its resolved, but the leader of
the group is collecting names and times for classes and it looks like I¹ll
be going there 3 mornings and an afternoon each week for classes. About 10
or 12 girls came and they ranged from having zero computer experience to 2
years. It should be interesting to see how the classes progress. I¹m looking
forward to it but I¹m also still trying to get over my fear of being in
front of the classroom.
Last night my roommate and I ran into one of the teachers and were invited
to his house to look through movies to borrow, He has quite a collection,
all probably illegally downloaded and sent to him in the mail. We¹re going
to watch 40 Year Old Virgin tonight after partaking in mango ice cream at
the British guy¹s restaurant. Tomorrow, we are going on a picnic at the
beach and I¹m really looking forward to getting some sun and swimming. The
beach we are going to is supposed to be a lot calmer than the one closest to
our house.
Wednesday, November 1
Monday, my roommate¹s boss comes to visit and we¹re looking forward to a few
days of good meals paid for of course by Peace Corps. It should be a fun
visit. I got word that one of the guys from the Canary Islands is back for
a few days and has invited us to dinner on Tuesday. I don¹t know if we¹ll go
since the APCD will be here but I have a feeling someone will show up at our
house again and we¹ll relive the ³come eat goat² experience. Also, since the
APCD will be here, he¹ll get to see the new house and we can finally move! I
can¹t wait to move into a quieter neighborhood and not have the ceiling fall
on me at night.
So I¹m trying to figure out my schedule and get into a schedule and if I
counted right, I¹ll be biking 144 km a week getting to and from Calheta and
Borreiro. That¹s about 86 miles a week and 4472 miles a year. Wow.
Sunday, November 5
We are finally in our new house! We moved last Wednesday which was also a
holiday in all of Cape Verde- All Saints Day which meant no school or work.
The new house is wonderful and I like it so much better than the old one
already. The electricity has started to work better too, thanks to a new
piece of equipment that I guess came on the plane last week.
This weekend has been pretty exciting. Saturday a few teachers came to
visit. One of them brought over a cake after my roommate convinced him that
that¹s what you do in America when someone moves to a new house. Another
teacher brought over coffee from Fogo. That night we went out to the French
restaurant with other people and stayed out way past my bedtime.
Today I rode my bike to Calheta for the women¹s meeting. It went really
well, we decided on hours and days for an English class and talked about
their ideas for the group. I¹m really looking forward to working with the
group but sort of dreading biking so much every day since my legs are really
sore from the journey. When I got back, I was informed that the slightly
overweight Italian stopped by in a Speedo to invite us to eat goat for
dinner. I can only imagine this guy standing in the middle of the street
yelling my roommates name and saying ³come eat goat.²
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
So the girl¹s group is having slight problems right now. The group that is
supposed to come on Mondays still hasn¹t shown. I¹m going to make a poster
to put up at the CEJ on the days of meetings so maybe people will better
remember or just show up. Yesterday afternoon I went to a meeting that I was
informed I was to attend, not knowing what it was about or anything. When I
arrived, I learned that it was an information session about the Paralympics
and their committee in Cape Verde and trying to get regional associations on
each island. Since the 7th and 8th are officially ³Day to recognize people
with deficiencies,² they chose this particular week to have sessions. So
instead of starting my computer and English classes this week, I am sitting
in sessions all morning learning about sport opportunities for people with
physical and mental disabilities and I guess later on, how to train them or
generating project ideas to do on Maio. It¹s really that these people are
addressed because like most places in the world, there is a stigma placed on
people who are not ³normal.² I found out from my counterpart (who is also
attending the meetings) that her sister is deaf and people treat her really
badly because of her disability. She also said that she is really bright and
does way more things than any person without a disability. Its good to hear
that there are some people who are supportive, but for the majority of
people, it seems like they may need a wake up call. I don¹t know much about
how they are treated in the school system or if they are allowed to go to
school, etc, but hopefully once these sessions are done, the people
attending will take initiative to work with the handicapped in sports and
other skills that will make them feel more integrated into society.
This afternoon, our landlord proxy (the landlord lives in Praia), came over
to fix my roommate¹s light. She¹ll be happy when she comes home to find it
working. A carpenter is supposed to also come by to change our locks
because there¹s a problem with the main door- you can get locked out if you
don¹t turn the key the right way.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
So this week has been interesting. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. My
roommate and I went out to lunch to celebrate and partook in some amazing
fresh tuna, French fries, and ice cream. At night, some of our friends that
work in the camara/high school came over with a cake and wine. It was a
unique little festa since the electricity was out and all we had was candle
light.
Tuesday I brought the left over cake to the Casa de Juventude where everyone
was thrilled to polish it off.
Wednesday, we went to the Italians house for lunch and English lessons only
there were no English lessons. However, we did partake in pasta, pizza,
shrimp, mussels, and salad.
After lunch, we had the first girl¹s group meeting and it went really well.
Six girls showed up and we went through introductions and objectives of the
group. They all seemed happy to be there. After the meeting I received a
call from Peace Corps that my bike had arrived on the boat and I was to
report to the pier to get it. Of course I had no idea how you go about
finding a bike on a huge cargo ship so I asked about 20 people what to do
and they all pointed me in the right direction. Eventually I got my bike
only to find out that one of the wheels was slightly off track. I brought it
to the Italians and they fixed it for me. When I got home it was dark and we
headed back to the Italian¹s place to celebrate their housekeeper¹s
birthday. She¹s a really sweet lady from Calheta and we had fun eating more
pizza, tuna, and cake. After dinner there was a little dancing and more
chatter.
Thursday I went to work at the Casa de Juventude and a woman from the camara
came in to tell us about an upcoming program. I agreed to help with
something but I¹m not sure if its teaching a computer class or just helping
with activities. Anyways, its for a few days in November to bring awareness
to and have activities for people with mental and physical disabilities.
Today I walked into the Casa de Juventude was asked for information on AIDS
for a project someone is doing. I spent my morning typing information out in
English to later translate into Portuguese so she can understand it. Another
crazy day as usual.
This weekend I¹m teaching a computer class in Borreiro and trying to change
the days of my computer classes so I have free time on the weekends. I think
we might go picnic on the beach on Sunday which should be fun.
Telecom is putting in a new phone tower by the post office, ie, right
outside our house, and has taken to working at 7 am on the dot. Its really
loud and obnoxious and I really hope that they finish soon so I can sleep.
Other than that, things here are going well.
Ti logoŠ.
The electricity has been on again off again for the past few weeks. When we
first arrived, it was pretty good but lately its been off more than on which
can be quite frustrating, especially when I want to use the Internet.
Today I had my first computer class in Borreiro. I think the bike ride there
and back about killed me. Its been years since I¹ve really been on a bike
and even though it was only 9 km each way I am exhausted. It took about an
hour to get there and 40 minutes to get back thanks to the hills. A few
cars passed and gave me thumbs up as I struggled up the hills. When I
arrived in Borreiro, a group of school girls all laughed at me in my stylish
bike helmet that I¹m obligated to wear. I don¹t mind wearing the helmet.
Knowing my clumsiness I¹ll probably fall off a lot while I¹m here and I¹m
sure the helmet will come in handy. As for my lack of sense of direction,
there¹s only one main road on the island so it¹s hard to get lost. I made it
there in one piece and on time to start the class. But now I¹m a little
sore from my first bike riding experience. If I keep this up, I¹ll be in
great shape by the time I return to America.
The class was supposed to start at 4 and no one showed up until 4:30 except
for a few boys who were admiring my bike. One class commenced, we spent the
30 minutes that I had left doing introductions, defining the computer and
talking about its components, and figuring out a better time to have class
since I would like to be able to do other things on my weekends. That part
took the most time and I still don¹t think its resolved, but the leader of
the group is collecting names and times for classes and it looks like I¹ll
be going there 3 mornings and an afternoon each week for classes. About 10
or 12 girls came and they ranged from having zero computer experience to 2
years. It should be interesting to see how the classes progress. I¹m looking
forward to it but I¹m also still trying to get over my fear of being in
front of the classroom.
Last night my roommate and I ran into one of the teachers and were invited
to his house to look through movies to borrow, He has quite a collection,
all probably illegally downloaded and sent to him in the mail. We¹re going
to watch 40 Year Old Virgin tonight after partaking in mango ice cream at
the British guy¹s restaurant. Tomorrow, we are going on a picnic at the
beach and I¹m really looking forward to getting some sun and swimming. The
beach we are going to is supposed to be a lot calmer than the one closest to
our house.
Monday, my roommate¹s boss comes to visit and we¹re looking forward to a few
days of good meals paid for of course by Peace Corps. It should be a fun
visit. I got word that one of the guys from the Canary Islands is back for
a few days and has invited us to dinner on Tuesday. I don¹t know if we¹ll go
since the APCD will be here but I have a feeling someone will show up at our
house again and we¹ll relive the ³come eat goat² experience. Also, since the
APCD will be here, he¹ll get to see the new house and we can finally move! I
can¹t wait to move into a quieter neighborhood and not have the ceiling fall
on me at night.
So I¹m trying to figure out my schedule and get into a schedule and if I
counted right, I¹ll be biking 144 km a week getting to and from Calheta and
Borreiro. That¹s about 86 miles a week and 4472 miles a year. Wow.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Fin de Semana
The weekend was pretty bland. I had stomach problems pretty much every day- we’ve come to the conclusion that its because our water level is really low and there’s built up sediment on the bottom of our barrel. I’m going to guess that no amount of boiling and filtering can get out all of the bad stuff found in the water. We’re still waiting for more water to come, we’ve been waiting about a week for city water. Our tank still has water but we were told not to drink water that comes from our tank. So we will wait. Our neighbor came over to help us figure out if our water was turned off (we had a little flooding problem the previous week from too much water coming and had to turn off the water) and he said it was on. So now we are still waiting for more water.
Saturday night we were invited to dinner at the place where the Americans are staying. The woman who runs the place is really nice and we’re going to be teaching English to one of her employees. Anyways, back to dinner. It was amazing. They made crustini topped with green olives, onions, and olive oil. Then the pasta course was gnocchi with a pesto sauce and then they brought out goat and potatoes. It was delicious.
Sunday was the usual beach day. It was actually overcast on Sunday and not too hot so I took a nice little nap on the beach. We were going to play poker at night but it got late so we sat around and chatted and ate our buy-ins(homemade coffee ice cream for me and my roommate, powdered doughnuts and cheese-its from the Americans) instead of actually playing.
Travel Problems
The Americans gave me a lift to Calheta for our meeting on Monday. I went down to meet them at one of the Italian restaurants and sat with them while they finished their 3-course meal of lasagna, skewers with green pepper, onion, meat and sausage, and French fries. We got in the truck around 3 to head over and I was warned that the truck had broken down on their way back for lunch earlier. We drove a total of about 100 yards before the truck broke down again. It started smelling bad and then smoking- the Americans said the radiator was broken or something. Anyways, so we stood on the street for a few minutes and a nice guy with a truck said that he’d come back in a few minutes and take me to Calheta. Before he returned I got a ride from the other half of the American group- their boss and inspectors came by in another truck and delivered me to my destination. Really, getting anywhere here is an adventure. I’m looking forward to getting my Peace Corps issued bicycle so that I can get around the island more easily.
Women’s Group Meeting- 10.09.06 4:00 pm
We had the first women’s group meeting on Monday. I was under the impression that the group had already been established and doing activities and wanted me to help them better organize, etc but during the meeting I realized that this was the first time they all sat down together to formally talk about their group. Despite my confusion and lack of speaking ability (more about that later), I think the meeting overall went pretty well. My counterpart explained who I was, my training with Peace Corps and our counterpart conference and then had me talk about what I am going to do with them and the group. There was a lot of confusion and need for clarification about what they will be doing and I explained to them that I am here to help them with the group and that it is up to them to decide what sort of activities they want to do and what they think are the most important things they want to learn and do. I said that I am only here for 2 years and I just arrived in Maio and they have lived here for their entire lives and will remain here after I leave so it is important that they run the shots on the group and I am here for support and help in teaching for finding people to come in and teach how to do things. By the end of the meeting, I think they decided to meet again next week and each of them will bring 2 or 3 friends to make the group bigger (there were about 10 women total that showed up) along with ideas of what they want to learn and the priorities. From what I gathered, a lot of them want to learn language (English and French) as well as computers.
After the meeting I talked with my counterpart and another women in the group about projects that they want to see happen. The woman from the group is one of the women who makes the amazing woven bags and she said that she would like to have a workshop or training session so that all of the women in Calheta who are interested can also learn to make the bags. This way they can increase the amount of bags made, teach the women a new skill, and provide another form of income in a country where work is hard to find. I told her that I would bring a sample project proposal when I return to Calheta so that she can use it as a basis for writing up one for her project. I also want to help her advertise the bags. I’m going to take pictures of the bags, the women making them, and send them out to help advertise. Eventually, after we learn computers, I hope that the women can set up a website to advertise their bags and information about what they do. I’m also going to try to contact 10,000 Villages and a few other places that may be able to help advertise them.
I learned that the focus on learning language directly correlates to the tourism build up in Maio. I’m not exactly sure how the tourism will come to Maio but the government of Cape Verde is investing a lot in building up tourism and Calheta would probably be one of the places tourists would come visit when they are in Maio because of the bags and because there are a few Germans, Italians, and people from the UK who are building homes and resort like places for tourists. The beaches in Calheta are also nice and apparently the waves are calmer than they are in Vila. Regardless, pretty much all of the women want to learn English and French because they are “the most common international languages” and they want to be able to interact with tourists. So, I might be teaching English to the women and looking for someone to teach French.
We also talked about going to see some of the women’s groups in Santiago to show the women how other organizations run and how to set themselves up to function as an official entity. It’s still really early, we just had the first meeting, but the women seem really motivated and excited to start doing projects. I would love to eventually have a large conference for small women’s groups to come together, share ideas, and have skills workshops on things like micro-credit, using computers, and language. I feel really positively about this group and I really hope that they continue to be motivated and can get a lot done while I am here and after I leave.
The rollercoaster of emotions
No mail for me today- we went to the post office this morning and my roommate received her cookbook and about 15 Newsweeks from Peace Corps but mine haven’t come in yet. We took laundry over to the lady who does our laundry. Its about 5 USD for a load of laundry and a load here is pretty much as much as we can fit into a basin so the two of us get 2 weeks of clothes washed for about $2.50 a piece. That’s much cheaper than washing them in the coin machines in the states. I’m excited to have clean clothes again, I think I sweat through them at an abnormally fast pace, go figure. So the day started out great and I was on a high from my meeting yesterday. Then things went a little downhill.
I got to work at the CEJ and was told that I needed to learn Kriolu better because someone thought I didn’t understand what she was saying. I did understand what she said but she wasn’t very clear in what she was asking me to do. The way some words translate in Kriolu are very unspecific- for example, people sometimes refer to things as “that thing” instead of saying specifically the name of the object or like what happened today, saying “its below” when what is meant is “its on the bottom shelf of the cabinet in my office.” Words also have double meanings. The word “txeu” means both “enough” and “too much.” So sometimes it can be confusing. Anyways, it was a low blow being told I need to learn better. I know I need to improve on my language but having it directly spat in my face kinda shot me down.
10.20.06
So I guess there’s a lot to update you all on now. The past few weeks have been interesting to say the least. The Internet at the CEJ has been down—they originally said it was because there was a problem with the connection, then they said they hadn’t paid the bill (which is pretty common here), and then Telecom came to look at the computers and the latest news is that we need a new phone line. So who knows when it will return. The electricity has also been having some serious problems. Our nights this week have been pretty restless since every time the electricity oges out, the generator for all of the phones in Maio is conveniently located right outside my window and as you can imagine, its pretty loud. Between that and the lack of air flow in my room, its been hard to get a good night’s sleep.
Don’t forget to teach others how to fish…
Last Saturday I went to a town called Borreio (around the south of the island) to see how the girls group in their town functions. I’m now going to be helping their group in preparation for their municipal holiday in December and help with other activities. For the holiday (which is about 2 or 3 weeks long), they’ll have soccer tournaments, show films on HIV/AIDS, have a big party for the town, and arrange other activities. They want me to teach basic computers to the group so I’m now going to be going there every Saturday and Sunday to teach computers. This should be an adventure. I went to the center where the classes will be held on Monday with the CEJ to take inventory of what they actually have. It turns out that 2 of the 4 computers actually work (one of them only has a monitor) and they both are on different operating systems (Windows 97 and 98). I read in an old Newsweek (which I finally received from Peace Corps on Wednesday) that Microsoft now will not help with any problems on their system that are less current than XP so I’m ready for these computers to crash and burn on me. Add 20+ students to the mix and one teacher who has never really taught computers and you get one heck of an experience.
The group also wanted me to help design a t-shirt, get the t-shirts, and help them secure school supplies. I had to explain to them that Peace Corps does not give out money to groups- we are not a donation fund, and I certainly did not have money to buy them all t-shirts. With that being said, I went home and made a design on my trusty computer using all the possible skill I have in creating an image using the draw function in Microsoft Word to find out the next day that they have an emblem that they would like to use in addition. I learned my lesson that day. After scanning the emblem into the computer and being asked to take this hand drawn emblem and replicate it with my fine art skills, I wasted about 4 hours being frustrated with my handy dandy “draw function” in MS Word when they had me take my original design and paste it on top of the hand drawn emblem. I felt like all the work I had done trying to replicate the original drawing had been wasted but I learned my lesson. I will never again try to make something for someone and will instead guide them through it until it is what they are trying to make. I felt taken advantage of and I did not like it one bit. It definitely put a spoiler on the day but I’m not going to let it get to me.
Why I Should Not Be Allowed within a mile of a kitchen knife…
So the other night we wanted to cook dinner for the Americans because they are leaving in a few days. For this night’s feast, we procured some beef straight from the slaughtered cow, fresh vegetables from the boat, rice, and our British friend’s recipe for chocolate ice cream. We were on track until the freezer and I got in a fight. Because we lose electricity so often, the freezer will melt and then when the electricity returns, it will refreeze with all the nasty icy stuff. You’ve all seen what happens when stuff freezes and then refreezes. So anyways, in order to get the container with the ice cream in it into the freezer we needed to get rid of some of the build up. Instead of being a sane person and letting the freezer defrost (which I have been told is the correct thing to do—sorry Mike), I took a knife and started stabbing the ice in the freezer to break it up. In doing this, I hit a part of the freezer where the air is kept in that makes the freezer freeze and in turn released the air and killed the freezer. Way to go Jules. So now we are waiting for the technician to come back and take our fridge to wherever it is that they take it and repair the freezer. All of our fridge and freezer stuff is now split up between the houses of a few of our friends here.
Women’s Group update
Since the first women’s meeting, the women have met one other time, this time without me, to discuss their priorities as a group. My counterpart said that the women who were at the first meeting were very excited to be working with me and for the second meeting they all brought friends and there was a total of 22 women who showed! So they discussed their priorities which are the following:
1. To learn English (and French) to be able to communicate with tourists (apparently everyone in Maio has this vision of the entire world flooding into Maio by the thousands to visit from the way they all talk about it)
2. To learn how to do a project
3. The 8 women who make the bags want to get funding to teach more women how to use their looms and make bags.
4. To have a large meeting with other women’s groups from other islands to share ideas, etc
5. To build a hair salon and train other women to do hair (this one is really my counterparts wish because her daughter owns a salon and she has no materials for it)
So anyways, I’m going to meet with them Sunday to discuss what hours I am available to teach English and work out a regularly scheduled meeting plan. Last night, my counterpart invited my roommate, the Americans, and me to her house for lobster and drinks. The Americans passed by her house on the way to work everyday and I think she wanted some interaction with our fascinating culture. The lobster was amazing and anyone who visits me will be invited to go eat some. While we were there, we told my counterpart that we have a neighbor who’s son’s name is “praia di mar” which translates to “beach.” We always here them yelling to Praia di Mar to come for lunch or go run an errand and have been thinking there’s no way someone named their kid that. Well, the entire situation was clarified by my counterpart. Apparently, this kid was swimming in the ocean one day and almost drowned so his family now calls him “Praia di Mar” as a nickname. It’s a pretty sick joke if you ask me. It’s be like calling a cancer survivor “Cigarette.” I don’t if I’m missing something here but the whole thing is pretty strange to me.
After a candle lit lobster dinner (thanks to the electricity being off once again), we head back to Vila and hit up the British guy’s restaurant for some ice cream. Since the Americans were leaving the next day, we had to help them partake in their last share of the best ice cream on Maio. I’m really fascinated by the owner of the restaurant and his job. He and his crew dig up ships and excavate them. He showed us photos from a long time ago of a ship they found off the coast of Cape Verde which ended up belonging to the US Navy. They found old bottles that look like what you see Captain Jack Sparrow drinking from in Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s really fascinating and there’s talk of a new project for him to work on. I’d be really interested in seeing what they find.
This morning I woke up and the Americans came by to say goodbye. This was especially exciting because they left us a plethora of American treats including goldfish crackers, wheat thins, cheese its, chewy granola bars, trail mix, dried fruit, drink mix, rice crispy treats, Monopoly, Risk, Poker, horseshoes, a Frisbee, and a variety of sunscreens, bug sprays, soaps, and other odds and ends. Yes, today we were spoiled rotten- its like Christmas/Hanukkah and it was great. But it is really sad to see our friends go and we will miss them a lot.
Today must be my lucky day because after lunch, we went to check the mail and I had 3 packages from my mom, a packet of letters from my World Wise school, and a letter from one of my good friends. I was so excited. My mom’s packages included my birthday present (thanks Mom and Dad), the new Chris Thile cd (☺), shorts, and crystal light mix. It was great. And I was so excited to hear back from my school in the states. It made me really excited and I can’t wait to continue corresponding with them.
This weekend I’m finishing up plans for the first girl’s group meeting which is on Monday and preparing lesson plans for teaching English and Computers.
Ti logo….
The weekend was pretty bland. I had stomach problems pretty much every day- we’ve come to the conclusion that its because our water level is really low and there’s built up sediment on the bottom of our barrel. I’m going to guess that no amount of boiling and filtering can get out all of the bad stuff found in the water. We’re still waiting for more water to come, we’ve been waiting about a week for city water. Our tank still has water but we were told not to drink water that comes from our tank. So we will wait. Our neighbor came over to help us figure out if our water was turned off (we had a little flooding problem the previous week from too much water coming and had to turn off the water) and he said it was on. So now we are still waiting for more water.
Saturday night we were invited to dinner at the place where the Americans are staying. The woman who runs the place is really nice and we’re going to be teaching English to one of her employees. Anyways, back to dinner. It was amazing. They made crustini topped with green olives, onions, and olive oil. Then the pasta course was gnocchi with a pesto sauce and then they brought out goat and potatoes. It was delicious.
Sunday was the usual beach day. It was actually overcast on Sunday and not too hot so I took a nice little nap on the beach. We were going to play poker at night but it got late so we sat around and chatted and ate our buy-ins(homemade coffee ice cream for me and my roommate, powdered doughnuts and cheese-its from the Americans) instead of actually playing.
Travel Problems
The Americans gave me a lift to Calheta for our meeting on Monday. I went down to meet them at one of the Italian restaurants and sat with them while they finished their 3-course meal of lasagna, skewers with green pepper, onion, meat and sausage, and French fries. We got in the truck around 3 to head over and I was warned that the truck had broken down on their way back for lunch earlier. We drove a total of about 100 yards before the truck broke down again. It started smelling bad and then smoking- the Americans said the radiator was broken or something. Anyways, so we stood on the street for a few minutes and a nice guy with a truck said that he’d come back in a few minutes and take me to Calheta. Before he returned I got a ride from the other half of the American group- their boss and inspectors came by in another truck and delivered me to my destination. Really, getting anywhere here is an adventure. I’m looking forward to getting my Peace Corps issued bicycle so that I can get around the island more easily.
Women’s Group Meeting- 10.09.06 4:00 pm
We had the first women’s group meeting on Monday. I was under the impression that the group had already been established and doing activities and wanted me to help them better organize, etc but during the meeting I realized that this was the first time they all sat down together to formally talk about their group. Despite my confusion and lack of speaking ability (more about that later), I think the meeting overall went pretty well. My counterpart explained who I was, my training with Peace Corps and our counterpart conference and then had me talk about what I am going to do with them and the group. There was a lot of confusion and need for clarification about what they will be doing and I explained to them that I am here to help them with the group and that it is up to them to decide what sort of activities they want to do and what they think are the most important things they want to learn and do. I said that I am only here for 2 years and I just arrived in Maio and they have lived here for their entire lives and will remain here after I leave so it is important that they run the shots on the group and I am here for support and help in teaching for finding people to come in and teach how to do things. By the end of the meeting, I think they decided to meet again next week and each of them will bring 2 or 3 friends to make the group bigger (there were about 10 women total that showed up) along with ideas of what they want to learn and the priorities. From what I gathered, a lot of them want to learn language (English and French) as well as computers.
After the meeting I talked with my counterpart and another women in the group about projects that they want to see happen. The woman from the group is one of the women who makes the amazing woven bags and she said that she would like to have a workshop or training session so that all of the women in Calheta who are interested can also learn to make the bags. This way they can increase the amount of bags made, teach the women a new skill, and provide another form of income in a country where work is hard to find. I told her that I would bring a sample project proposal when I return to Calheta so that she can use it as a basis for writing up one for her project. I also want to help her advertise the bags. I’m going to take pictures of the bags, the women making them, and send them out to help advertise. Eventually, after we learn computers, I hope that the women can set up a website to advertise their bags and information about what they do. I’m also going to try to contact 10,000 Villages and a few other places that may be able to help advertise them.
I learned that the focus on learning language directly correlates to the tourism build up in Maio. I’m not exactly sure how the tourism will come to Maio but the government of Cape Verde is investing a lot in building up tourism and Calheta would probably be one of the places tourists would come visit when they are in Maio because of the bags and because there are a few Germans, Italians, and people from the UK who are building homes and resort like places for tourists. The beaches in Calheta are also nice and apparently the waves are calmer than they are in Vila. Regardless, pretty much all of the women want to learn English and French because they are “the most common international languages” and they want to be able to interact with tourists. So, I might be teaching English to the women and looking for someone to teach French.
We also talked about going to see some of the women’s groups in Santiago to show the women how other organizations run and how to set themselves up to function as an official entity. It’s still really early, we just had the first meeting, but the women seem really motivated and excited to start doing projects. I would love to eventually have a large conference for small women’s groups to come together, share ideas, and have skills workshops on things like micro-credit, using computers, and language. I feel really positively about this group and I really hope that they continue to be motivated and can get a lot done while I am here and after I leave.
The rollercoaster of emotions
No mail for me today- we went to the post office this morning and my roommate received her cookbook and about 15 Newsweeks from Peace Corps but mine haven’t come in yet. We took laundry over to the lady who does our laundry. Its about 5 USD for a load of laundry and a load here is pretty much as much as we can fit into a basin so the two of us get 2 weeks of clothes washed for about $2.50 a piece. That’s much cheaper than washing them in the coin machines in the states. I’m excited to have clean clothes again, I think I sweat through them at an abnormally fast pace, go figure. So the day started out great and I was on a high from my meeting yesterday. Then things went a little downhill.
I got to work at the CEJ and was told that I needed to learn Kriolu better because someone thought I didn’t understand what she was saying. I did understand what she said but she wasn’t very clear in what she was asking me to do. The way some words translate in Kriolu are very unspecific- for example, people sometimes refer to things as “that thing” instead of saying specifically the name of the object or like what happened today, saying “its below” when what is meant is “its on the bottom shelf of the cabinet in my office.” Words also have double meanings. The word “txeu” means both “enough” and “too much.” So sometimes it can be confusing. Anyways, it was a low blow being told I need to learn better. I know I need to improve on my language but having it directly spat in my face kinda shot me down.
10.20.06
So I guess there’s a lot to update you all on now. The past few weeks have been interesting to say the least. The Internet at the CEJ has been down—they originally said it was because there was a problem with the connection, then they said they hadn’t paid the bill (which is pretty common here), and then Telecom came to look at the computers and the latest news is that we need a new phone line. So who knows when it will return. The electricity has also been having some serious problems. Our nights this week have been pretty restless since every time the electricity oges out, the generator for all of the phones in Maio is conveniently located right outside my window and as you can imagine, its pretty loud. Between that and the lack of air flow in my room, its been hard to get a good night’s sleep.
Don’t forget to teach others how to fish…
Last Saturday I went to a town called Borreio (around the south of the island) to see how the girls group in their town functions. I’m now going to be helping their group in preparation for their municipal holiday in December and help with other activities. For the holiday (which is about 2 or 3 weeks long), they’ll have soccer tournaments, show films on HIV/AIDS, have a big party for the town, and arrange other activities. They want me to teach basic computers to the group so I’m now going to be going there every Saturday and Sunday to teach computers. This should be an adventure. I went to the center where the classes will be held on Monday with the CEJ to take inventory of what they actually have. It turns out that 2 of the 4 computers actually work (one of them only has a monitor) and they both are on different operating systems (Windows 97 and 98). I read in an old Newsweek (which I finally received from Peace Corps on Wednesday) that Microsoft now will not help with any problems on their system that are less current than XP so I’m ready for these computers to crash and burn on me. Add 20+ students to the mix and one teacher who has never really taught computers and you get one heck of an experience.
The group also wanted me to help design a t-shirt, get the t-shirts, and help them secure school supplies. I had to explain to them that Peace Corps does not give out money to groups- we are not a donation fund, and I certainly did not have money to buy them all t-shirts. With that being said, I went home and made a design on my trusty computer using all the possible skill I have in creating an image using the draw function in Microsoft Word to find out the next day that they have an emblem that they would like to use in addition. I learned my lesson that day. After scanning the emblem into the computer and being asked to take this hand drawn emblem and replicate it with my fine art skills, I wasted about 4 hours being frustrated with my handy dandy “draw function” in MS Word when they had me take my original design and paste it on top of the hand drawn emblem. I felt like all the work I had done trying to replicate the original drawing had been wasted but I learned my lesson. I will never again try to make something for someone and will instead guide them through it until it is what they are trying to make. I felt taken advantage of and I did not like it one bit. It definitely put a spoiler on the day but I’m not going to let it get to me.
Why I Should Not Be Allowed within a mile of a kitchen knife…
So the other night we wanted to cook dinner for the Americans because they are leaving in a few days. For this night’s feast, we procured some beef straight from the slaughtered cow, fresh vegetables from the boat, rice, and our British friend’s recipe for chocolate ice cream. We were on track until the freezer and I got in a fight. Because we lose electricity so often, the freezer will melt and then when the electricity returns, it will refreeze with all the nasty icy stuff. You’ve all seen what happens when stuff freezes and then refreezes. So anyways, in order to get the container with the ice cream in it into the freezer we needed to get rid of some of the build up. Instead of being a sane person and letting the freezer defrost (which I have been told is the correct thing to do—sorry Mike), I took a knife and started stabbing the ice in the freezer to break it up. In doing this, I hit a part of the freezer where the air is kept in that makes the freezer freeze and in turn released the air and killed the freezer. Way to go Jules. So now we are waiting for the technician to come back and take our fridge to wherever it is that they take it and repair the freezer. All of our fridge and freezer stuff is now split up between the houses of a few of our friends here.
Women’s Group update
Since the first women’s meeting, the women have met one other time, this time without me, to discuss their priorities as a group. My counterpart said that the women who were at the first meeting were very excited to be working with me and for the second meeting they all brought friends and there was a total of 22 women who showed! So they discussed their priorities which are the following:
1. To learn English (and French) to be able to communicate with tourists (apparently everyone in Maio has this vision of the entire world flooding into Maio by the thousands to visit from the way they all talk about it)
2. To learn how to do a project
3. The 8 women who make the bags want to get funding to teach more women how to use their looms and make bags.
4. To have a large meeting with other women’s groups from other islands to share ideas, etc
5. To build a hair salon and train other women to do hair (this one is really my counterparts wish because her daughter owns a salon and she has no materials for it)
So anyways, I’m going to meet with them Sunday to discuss what hours I am available to teach English and work out a regularly scheduled meeting plan. Last night, my counterpart invited my roommate, the Americans, and me to her house for lobster and drinks. The Americans passed by her house on the way to work everyday and I think she wanted some interaction with our fascinating culture. The lobster was amazing and anyone who visits me will be invited to go eat some. While we were there, we told my counterpart that we have a neighbor who’s son’s name is “praia di mar” which translates to “beach.” We always here them yelling to Praia di Mar to come for lunch or go run an errand and have been thinking there’s no way someone named their kid that. Well, the entire situation was clarified by my counterpart. Apparently, this kid was swimming in the ocean one day and almost drowned so his family now calls him “Praia di Mar” as a nickname. It’s a pretty sick joke if you ask me. It’s be like calling a cancer survivor “Cigarette.” I don’t if I’m missing something here but the whole thing is pretty strange to me.
After a candle lit lobster dinner (thanks to the electricity being off once again), we head back to Vila and hit up the British guy’s restaurant for some ice cream. Since the Americans were leaving the next day, we had to help them partake in their last share of the best ice cream on Maio. I’m really fascinated by the owner of the restaurant and his job. He and his crew dig up ships and excavate them. He showed us photos from a long time ago of a ship they found off the coast of Cape Verde which ended up belonging to the US Navy. They found old bottles that look like what you see Captain Jack Sparrow drinking from in Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s really fascinating and there’s talk of a new project for him to work on. I’d be really interested in seeing what they find.
This morning I woke up and the Americans came by to say goodbye. This was especially exciting because they left us a plethora of American treats including goldfish crackers, wheat thins, cheese its, chewy granola bars, trail mix, dried fruit, drink mix, rice crispy treats, Monopoly, Risk, Poker, horseshoes, a Frisbee, and a variety of sunscreens, bug sprays, soaps, and other odds and ends. Yes, today we were spoiled rotten- its like Christmas/Hanukkah and it was great. But it is really sad to see our friends go and we will miss them a lot.
Today must be my lucky day because after lunch, we went to check the mail and I had 3 packages from my mom, a packet of letters from my World Wise school, and a letter from one of my good friends. I was so excited. My mom’s packages included my birthday present (thanks Mom and Dad), the new Chris Thile cd (☺), shorts, and crystal light mix. It was great. And I was so excited to hear back from my school in the states. It made me really excited and I can’t wait to continue corresponding with them.
This weekend I’m finishing up plans for the first girl’s group meeting which is on Monday and preparing lesson plans for teaching English and Computers.
Ti logo….
More excitement from Maio
Fin de Semana
The weekend was pretty bland. I had stomach problems pretty much every day-
we¹ve come to the conclusion that its because our water level is really low
and there¹s built up sediment on the bottom of our barrel. I¹m going to
guess that no amount of boiling and filtering can get out all of the bad
stuff found in the water. We¹re still waiting for more water to come, we¹ve
been waiting about a week for city water. Our tank still has water but we
were told not to drink water that comes from our tank. So we will wait. Our
neighbor came over to help us figure out if our water was turned off (we had
a little flooding problem the previous week from too much water coming and
had to turn off the water) and he said it was on. So now we are still
waiting for more water.
Saturday night we were invited to dinner at the place where the Americans
are staying. The woman who runs the place is really nice and we¹re going to
be teaching English to one of her employees. Anyways, back to dinner. It was
amazing. They made crustini topped with green olives, onions, and olive oil.
Then the pasta course was gnocchi with a pesto sauce and then they brought
out goat and potatoes. It was delicious.
Sunday was the usual beach day. It was actually overcast on Sunday and not
too hot so I took a nice little nap on the beach. We were going to play
poker at night but it got late so we sat around and chatted and ate our
buy-ins(homemade coffee ice cream for me and my roommate, powdered doughnuts
and cheese-its from the Americans) instead of actually playing.
Travel Problems
The Americans gave me a lift to Calheta for our meeting on Monday. I went
down to meet them at one of the Italian restaurants and sat with them while
they finished their 3-course meal of lasagna, skewers with green pepper,
onion, meat and sausage, and French fries. We got in the truck around 3 to
head over and I was warned that the truck had broken down on their way back
for lunch earlier. We drove a total of about 100 yards before the truck
broke down again. It started smelling bad and then smoking- the Americans
said the radiator was broken or something. Anyways, so we stood on the
street for a few minutes and a nice guy with a truck said that he¹d come
back in a few minutes and take me to Calheta. Before he returned I got a
ride from the other half of the American group- their boss and inspectors
came by in another truck and delivered me to my destination. Really, getting
anywhere here is an adventure. I¹m looking forward to getting my Peace Corps
issued bicycle so that I can get around the island more easily.
Women¹s Group Meeting- 10.09.06 4:00 pm
We had the first women¹s group meeting on Monday. I was under the
impression that the group had already been established and doing activities
and wanted me to help them better organize, etc but during the meeting I
realized that this was the first time they all sat down together to formally
talk about their group. Despite my confusion and lack of speaking ability
(more about that later), I think the meeting overall went pretty well. My
counterpart explained who I was, my training with Peace Corps and our
counterpart conference and then had me talk about what I am going to do with
them and the group. There was a lot of confusion and need for clarification
about what they will be doing and I explained to them that I am here to help
them with the group and that it is up to them to decide what sort of
activities they want to do and what they think are the most important things
they want to learn and do. I said that I am only here for 2 years and I just
arrived in Maio and they have lived here for their entire lives and will
remain here after I leave so it is important that they run the shots on the
group and I am here for support and help in teaching for finding people to
come in and teach how to do things. By the end of the meeting, I think they
decided to meet again next week and each of them will bring 2 or 3 friends
to make the group bigger (there were about 10 women total that showed up)
along with ideas of what they want to learn and the priorities. From what I
gathered, a lot of them want to learn language (English and French) as well
as computers.
After the meeting I talked with my counterpart and another women in the
group about projects that they want to see happen. The woman from the group
is one of the women who makes the amazing woven bags and she said that she
would like to have a workshop or training session so that all of the women
in Calheta who are interested can also learn to make the bags. This way they
can increase the amount of bags made, teach the women a new skill, and
provide another form of income in a country where work is hard to find. I
told her that I would bring a sample project proposal when I return to
Calheta so that she can use it as a basis for writing up one for her
project. I also want to help her advertise the bags. I¹m going to take
pictures of the bags, the women making them, and send them out to help
advertise. Eventually, after we learn computers, I hope that the women can
set up a website to advertise their bags and information about what they do.
I¹m also going to try to contact 10,000 Villages and a few other places that
may be able to help advertise them.
I learned that the focus on learning language directly correlates to the
tourism build up in Maio. I¹m not exactly sure how the tourism will come to
Maio but the government of Cape Verde is investing a lot in building up
tourism and Calheta would probably be one of the places tourists would come
visit when they are in Maio because of the bags and because there are a few
Germans, Italians, and people from the UK who are building homes and resort
like places for tourists. The beaches in Calheta are also nice and
apparently the waves are calmer than they are in Vila. Regardless, pretty
much all of the women want to learn English and French because they are ³the
most common international languages² and they want to be able to interact
with tourists. So, I might be teaching English to the women and looking for
someone to teach French.
We also talked about going to see some of the women¹s groups in Santiago to
show the women how other organizations run and how to set themselves up to
function as an official entity. It¹s still really early, we just had the
first meeting, but the women seem really motivated and excited to start
doing projects. I would love to eventually have a large conference for small
women¹s groups to come together, share ideas, and have skills workshops on
things like micro-credit, using computers, and language. I feel really
positively about this group and I really hope that they continue to be
motivated and can get a lot done while I am here and after I leave.
The rollercoaster of emotions
No mail for me today- we went to the post office this morning and my
roommate received her cookbook and about 15 Newsweeks from Peace Corps but
mine haven¹t come in yet. We took laundry over to the lady who does our
laundry. Its about 5 USD for a load of laundry and a load here is pretty
much as much as we can fit into a basin so the two of us get 2 weeks of
clothes washed for about $2.50 a piece. That¹s much cheaper than washing
them in the coin machines in the states. I¹m excited to have clean clothes
again, I think I sweat through them at an abnormally fast pace, go figure.
So the day started out great and I was on a high from my meeting yesterday.
Then things went a little downhill.
I got to work at the CEJ and was told that I needed to learn Kriolu better
because someone thought I didn¹t understand what she was saying. I did
understand what she said but she wasn¹t very clear in what she was asking me
to do. The way some words translate in Kriolu are very unspecific- for
example, people sometimes refer to things as ³that thing² instead of saying
specifically the name of the object or like what happened today, saying ³its
below² when what is meant is ³its on the bottom shelf of the cabinet in my
office.² Words also have double meanings. The word ³txeu² means both
³enough² and ³too much.² So sometimes it can be confusing. Anyways, it was a
low blow being told I need to learn better. I know I need to improve on my
language but having it directly spat in my face kinda shot me down.
10.20.06
So I guess there¹s a lot to update you all on now. The past few weeks have
been interesting to say the least. The Internet at the CEJ has been
down‹they originally said it was because there was a problem with the
connection, then they said they hadn¹t paid the bill (which is pretty common
here), and then Telecom came to look at the computers and the latest news is
that we need a new phone line. So who knows when it will return. The
electricity has also been having some serious problems. Our nights this week
have been pretty restless since every time the electricity oges out, the
generator for all of the phones in Maio is conveniently located right
outside my window and as you can imagine, its pretty loud. Between that and
the lack of air flow in my room, its been hard to get a good night¹s sleep.
Don¹t forget to teach others how to fishŠ
Last Saturday I went to a town called Borreio (around the south of the
island) to see how the girls group in their town functions. I¹m now going
to be helping their group in preparation for their municipal holiday in
December and help with other activities. For the holiday (which is about 2
or 3 weeks long), they¹ll have soccer tournaments, show films on HIV/AIDS,
have a big party for the town, and arrange other activities. They want me to
teach basic computers to the group so I¹m now going to be going there every
Saturday and Sunday to teach computers. This should be an adventure. I went
to the center where the classes will be held on Monday with the CEJ to take
inventory of what they actually have. It turns out that 2 of the 4 computers
actually work (one of them only has a monitor) and they both are on
different operating systems (Windows 97 and 98). I read in an old Newsweek
(which I finally received from Peace Corps on Wednesday) that Microsoft now
will not help with any problems on their system that are less current than
XP so I¹m ready for these computers to crash and burn on me. Add 20+
students to the mix and one teacher who has never really taught computers
and you get one heck of an experience.
The group also wanted me to help design a t-shirt, get the t-shirts, and
help them secure school supplies. I had to explain to them that Peace Corps
does not give out money to groups- we are not a donation fund, and I
certainly did not have money to buy them all t-shirts. With that being said,
I went home and made a design on my trusty computer using all the possible
skill I have in creating an image using the draw function in Microsoft Word
to find out the next day that they have an emblem that they would like to
use in addition. I learned my lesson that day. After scanning the emblem
into the computer and being asked to take this hand drawn emblem and
replicate it with my fine art skills, I wasted about 4 hours being
frustrated with my handy dandy ³draw function² in MS Word when they had me
take my original design and paste it on top of the hand drawn emblem. I felt
like all the work I had done trying to replicate the original drawing had
been wasted but I learned my lesson. I will never again try to make
something for someone and will instead guide them through it until it is
what they are trying to make. I felt taken advantage of and I did not like
it one bit. It definitely put a spoiler on the day but I¹m not going to let
it get to me.
Why I Should Not Be Allowed within a mile of a kitchen knifeŠ
So the other night we wanted to cook dinner for the Americans because they
are leaving in a few days. For this night¹s feast, we procured some beef
straight from the slaughtered cow, fresh vegetables from the boat, rice, and
our British friend¹s recipe for chocolate ice cream. We were on track until
the freezer and I got in a fight. Because we lose electricity so often, the
freezer will melt and then when the electricity returns, it will refreeze
with all the nasty icy stuff. You¹ve all seen what happens when stuff
freezes and then refreezes. So anyways, in order to get the container with
the ice cream in it into the freezer we needed to get rid of some of the
build up. Instead of being a sane person and letting the freezer defrost
(which I have been told is the correct thing to do‹sorry Mike), I took a
knife and started stabbing the ice in the freezer to break it up. In doing
this, I hit a part of the freezer where the air is kept in that makes the
freezer freeze and in turn released the air and killed the freezer. Way to
go Jules. So now we are waiting for the technician to come back and take our
fridge to wherever it is that they take it and repair the freezer. All of
our fridge and freezer stuff is now split up between the houses of a few of
our friends here.
Women¹s Group update
Since the first women¹s meeting, the women have met one other time, this
time without me, to discuss their priorities as a group. My counterpart said
that the women who were at the first meeting were very excited to be working
with me and for the second meeting they all brought friends and there was a
total of 22 women who showed! So they discussed their priorities which are
the following:
1. To learn English (and French) to be able to communicate with tourists
(apparently everyone in Maio has this vision of the entire world flooding
into Maio by the thousands to visit from the way they all talk about it)
2. To learn how to do a project
3. The 8 women who make the bags want to get funding to teach more women how
to use their looms and make bags.
4. To have a large meeting with other women¹s groups from other islands to
share ideas, etc
5. To build a hair salon and train other women to do hair (this one is
really my counterparts wish because her daughter owns a salon and she has no
materials for it)
So anyways, I¹m going to meet with them Sunday to discuss what hours I am
available to teach English and work out a regularly scheduled meeting plan.
Last night, my counterpart invited my roommate, the Americans, and me to her
house for lobster and drinks. The Americans passed by her house on the way
to work everyday and I think she wanted some interaction with our
fascinating culture. The lobster was amazing and anyone who visits me will
be invited to go eat some. While we were there, we told my counterpart that
we have a neighbor who¹s son¹s name is ³praia di mar² which translates to
³beach.² We always here them yelling to Praia di Mar to come for lunch or go
run an errand and have been thinking there¹s no way someone named their kid
that. Well, the entire situation was clarified by my counterpart.
Apparently, this kid was swimming in the ocean one day and almost drowned so
his family now calls him ³Praia di Mar² as a nickname. It¹s a pretty sick
joke if you ask me. It¹s be like calling a cancer survivor ³Cigarette.² I
don¹t if I¹m missing something here but the whole thing is pretty strange to
me.
After a candle lit lobster dinner (thanks to the electricity being off once
again), we head back to Vila and hit up the British guy¹s restaurant for
some ice cream. Since the Americans were leaving the next day, we had to
help them partake in their last share of the best ice cream on Maio. I¹m
really fascinated by the owner of the restaurant and his job. He and his
crew dig up ships and excavate them. He showed us photos from a long time
ago of a ship they found off the coast of Cape Verde which ended up
belonging to the US Navy. They found old bottles that look like what you see
Captain Jack Sparrow drinking from in Pirates of the Caribbean. It¹s really
fascinating and there¹s talk of a new project for him to work on. I¹d be
really interested in seeing what they find.
This morning I woke up and the Americans came by to say goodbye. This was
especially exciting because they left us a plethora of American treats
including goldfish crackers, wheat thins, cheese its, chewy granola bars,
trail mix, dried fruit, drink mix, rice crispy treats, Monopoly, Risk,
Poker, horseshoes, a Frisbee, and a variety of sunscreens, bug sprays,
soaps, and other odds and ends. Yes, today we were spoiled rotten- its like
Christmas/Hanukkah and it was great. But it is really sad to see our friends
go and we will miss them a lot.
Today must be my lucky day because after lunch, we went to check the mail
and I had 3 packages from my mom, a packet of letters from my World Wise
school, and a letter from one of my good friends. I was so excited. My mom¹s
packages included my birthday present (thanks Mom and Dad), the new Chris
Thile cd (J), shorts, and crystal light mix. It was great. And I was so
excited to hear back from my school in the states. It made me really excited
and I can¹t wait to continue corresponding with them.
This weekend I¹m finishing up plans for the first girl¹s group meeting which
is on Monday and preparing lesson plans for teaching English and Computers.
Ti logoŠ.
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