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September 12
So I wrote an entire entry and then I had to re-login into google and lost
everything I wrote. Way to go Jules. Anyways, I¹m back in Maio and this past
week has been quite an experience.

Last weekend was the municipal festa in Vila bringing what seemed like half
of Praia to Maio and preventing me from getting a boat ticket until last
Thursday. It was a little intimidating with all these extra people but I had
a great time with Claudia, Manuela, and Dirce dancing to Ferra Gaita, eating
ice cream, and seeing old friends.

My new life in Calheta is taking a little getting used to and the ³fora²
lifestyle is definitely different from living in ³the big city.² I¹ve had my
friend/embregada and the 11-year old daughter of another friend at my house
about 6 or more hours a day and have felt a little like a babysitter at
times. I feel the need to entertain them which means we¹ve been playing a
lot of Uno, drawing pictures, taking walks, and going to the beach. This is
all great but having extra people in my house all the time is a bit much and
while I enjoy their company, I also need some privacy. I¹m still without a
fridge and stove, thanks Peace Corps, so I¹ve been eating a lot of toast and
salad this week. With extra people in my house during mealtime, it is
culturally appropriate to offer them food so I¹m essentially making food for
three which is okay but I rather not have to spend my money to provide them
dinner and snack everyday. I¹ve got to find a balance and something I am
comfortable with and as of now I have not yet reached it.

Another new thing in my life is getting a talking to because I¹m not sitting
in the road with everyone at night. I wasn¹t aware that sitting out with
everyone was the norm here so my 9:30 bedtime is getting dragged out until
closer to midnight each night.

Despite these challenges, I really am enjoying my life here. I¹ve been
invited to multiple people¹s houses for meals, gone to the beach with
friends and people I hadn¹t known well, sat and chatted with different
community members and overall feel like part of the community. Its nice to
have people invite you to a little festa at their house, to play football in
the ocean with 20 kids, and to go planting with my neighbors.

I talked to one of the women who weaves and am going to try to work with her
to do a workshop relating to business skills and helping sell her and other
women¹s products. I¹m also working with Djoi, who teaches music, to start a
small music school and get recorders for students to play. The CEJ has now
been converted into a radio station, firefighter headquarters and remains
only with the secretarial office and the computer lab. This should be
interesting. I think I¹m going to focus on working in Calheta as much as
possible. Tomorrow we have a meeting to discuss future classes and
activities and I am really looking forward to it.

This evening we there was live music and a dance put on by a local group in
Calheta called Os Tavares to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Its about
12:30 right now and I¹m exhausted so I am skipping the dancing part but the
music was great and it was really cool to see people I know up on stage
singing and playing guitar.

Sunday was fantastic. Ja and Dinora came over and we taught Ja how to play
Uno. He then proceeded to kick my butt with his new found Uno skills.
Elizabet and her brother Pascal came by to check out my broken toilet (the
knob broke and water won¹t enter which means I¹m doing manual flushing
jobs). While they were here Pascal fixed my stanchion so that my clothes
won¹t fall off. After lunch Dinora and I went over to Neusa¹s house (Nona)
to see her new baby, Bruna. She is really beautiful. We sat and chatted for
a bit and then Dinora, Ja and I went in the ocean before the community
meeting. Ja had one of those big innertubes like they have at water parks
and the three of us were flipping each other out of it. I showed up to the
community center a few minutes late for our meeting and no one showed up.
Great. So I rescheduled the meeting for Monday. I spent a few more hours
wandering around town with Dinora to visit other friends. Alice was at her
mom¹s house making pastels, which I have learned is her new profession. In
the evening I went to Claudia¹s for a grilhada and had my first grilled
buzio (conch). When I was over at the house earlier, we were making
Manuela¹s 2 yr old daughter Stella dance batuk and laughing hysterically.
She¹s too young to know that this making her dance business is for our own
entertainment but that¹s pretty much what it comes down to. At the grilhada,
I was the main spectacle as I kept getting put in front of the spotlight to
show off my terrible dancing skills. It was a lot of fun but I felt really
silly. There¹s this song whose lyrics are ³Tra tra, tra rabu tra² pretty
much over and over again for a long time which pretty much means ³bring your
tail² or ³shake your ass.² That was what we were singing and dancing to
pretty much all night. Once the grilhada ended we headed to the dance in my
neighborhood for an hour and I got some more awful pick up lines. Besides
the normal ³you are pretty,² I have gotten ³You are my Jesus, my savior,²
³You are the prettiest white girl who has ever come to Cape Verde,² and ³You
need to kiss/date/sleep with a Cape Verdian/fill in blank of person¹s name
and your boyfriend in America will never have to know.² Thank you men of
Cape Verde.

Monday was a little ridiculous. I went to Vila in the morning to run some
errands, came home at 11 and called my boss to see if my stove was coming.
It turns out they sent it Saturday and apparently he had left a message on
my phone which magically disappeared because when I checked my messages
there were none there. Anyways, I go back to Vila around 12, go to the
Camara to get a car to help me and am told there are no cars that can carry
a stove and fridge. Luckily this guy from Calheta works at the Camara and I
ask him if he knows anyone with a car and he hooks me up with a guy named
Pal, no joke, Pal, who comes to my rescue. I then get a ride down to the
pier from the Camara and am told that my stuff was sent ³to the Camara² and
not to my name and that the Camara must come down the pier and sign off and
pay the taxes on it before I can pick it up. By the time we get back to the
Camara its almost one o¹clock when the pier closes for lunch and the guy
from the Camara who has to go sign off is also on his way to lunch and tells
me to come back at 2. So I go to Stephanie¹s and eat cheeseburgers for lunch
(the one good thing that came out of this day) and go back to the Camara
around 2:30 because lets face it, they aren¹t really going to be back at 2.
And in reality, he didn¹t get back until 2:45 and when he actually got to
the pier at 2:55 it was closing for the day and they couldn¹t sign off. So
I¹m told to come back on Tuesday. I get home in a bad mood and clean up a
little while I wait for people to come to my make up meeting for the day
before. Two people show up, better than none, and I have them sign up for
class. We look through pictures, take pictures and they also get to learn
Uno. I¹m determined to teach everyone in Calheta how to play Uno. So far
we¹re up to 5 people. Anyways, they leave and Claudia and Manuela come to
sign up and sign up their friends and we look through photos and videos.
After they leave, Djoi and Jacinta come over to borrow DVDs and offer to
bring me coffee for breakfast. I love them. My landlord made dinner again
for me. She is so sweet and I feel like I owe her a month¹s worth of meals.
Everyone here has been so great to me in helping me get used to my life here
and solving my lack of stove and fridge problems.

Today the stove and fridge saga continued. I went to the Camara around 8:45
to speak with the guy who has to sign off for me and waited until 9:15 when
I had to leave for another meeting. This guy from the Red Cross was supposed
to meet me at 9:30 to write a letter to the Camara asking for use of the
Polivalente and speakers for an activity but he never showed. I gave up on
waiting at 10:30 and headed back to the Camara. The guy I needed to see was
right there when I arrived and he said everything was ready to go. So I
called up Pal and he met me at the pier where we loaded the stove and fridge
into his truck! He said he had some work to do in Vila and agreed to giving
me a call when he was heading back to Calheta. In the meantime, I met up
with Stephanie, checked Internet and had lunch at the Italian restaurant. I
got a ride back with another driver and am still waiting to hear from him.
At least I know that my stuff is on his truck and will be delivered today.
So I¹m now trying to plan out my first cooked meal in Calheta- lasagna or
chili or mashed potatoes. HmmŠ