This past week has really thrown me off time wise. Tuesday was International Workers Day which means a day off of work in Cape Verde and then yesterday was Dia de Santa Cruz. So work has pretty much been on a day, off a day and I keep thinking its Monday, but its really Friday.

Last weekend I went to a meeting for high school students at the Red Cross to talk to them about the Red Cross and start up a student volunteer group. I thought it went really well and the man in charge is a great contact to have. He’s lived in the states for awhile and is now here in charge of the youth program for all of Cape Verde. After the session, I sat down with him and a friend from Morro who helps with activities and we sketched out a plan including a beach clean up, activities for Red Cross Day (May 8th), and for the next few weeks.

Monday the women’s group had our monthly birthday party where we also planned out activities for the month of May. We’ll be doing a beach cleanup this Sunday and for even more incentive, one of the teachers at the high school who lives in Calheta is making pizza for snack. In a few weeks, we’re going to have a HIV+ speaker come speak in Calheta to the group and general community. I’m also going to lead a session on project design and management. Part of my computer class will add to this but we haven’t started Microsoft Word yet so it may be a little while before we get to letter writing.

Tuesday, for International Workers Day, practically everyone in Vila left to go on passeo to a beach somewhere else on the island. The Casa de Juventude arranged a group to go to a beach called Ponta Caixe which is at the northern tip of the island. It was an incredible day. We had to wake up unbelievably early to meet everyone at 6:30 and of course no one shows up for another hour. We packed the back of this huge truck and headed out armed with footballs, fishing poles, food, beverages and guitars. When we arrived we all laid out our stuff, pulled out the guitars and breakfast was prepared. The roommate and I spent a significant amount of time playing with my counterpart’s children and throwing around the football which in Cape Verde is called a “brute ball.” After hanging out a bit, my friend and I went on a walk to see the other beaches in the area and get some exercise. One beach was really rocky, covered in shells, trash washed up from the ocean and dolphin skeletons from when they beach themselves in the summer. It was strange seeing so many and I took a few bones as souvenirs. Ok, its really not that creepy. Then we hit this beautiful white sandy beach called Praia Real but it had these creepy sea creatures on it that kind of looked like slugs. Someone told us they are called agua vive which means live water but I don’t know what they are in English. They were pretty disgusting looking.

We got back just in time for lunch- xeren, kongo, and grilled pork and fish (freshly caught that morning) and basted ourselves in the sun that finely decided to come out. A while later we pulled out a soccer ball and started up a game in the sand which was awesome. There were a mixture of little kids, people my age, and a bunch of older guys. After the game I was chatting with someone when we saw a shark in the water. These crazy guys that we are with decide its a good idea to try to catch the shark so they go out towards it with a fishing pole and use fish heads as bait. Luckily the shark wasn’t lured by the fish head and no one was attacked by a shark. We got back around 6:30 singing happily in the car along the way. The whole experience was so much fun and I look forward to these weekend passeos that everyone does in the summer.

Wednesday, felt like Monday again and work was not productive since we all knew we’d have the next day off. May 3 was the day that Maio was discovered but a few years back the president of the Camara decided to change the festival to celebrate until September 8 but they still get May 3 as a holiday. There was some sort of mass by a cross near the salt pans but I skipped the activities and relaxed at home.

That’s been my week in a nutshell. Have a great weekend!