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.