Sarah's Visit

Sarah’s Visit
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Sarah arrived from Fogo on the boat and while we waited for the ticket guy to come to his post who showed up? Mike Major. It was quite a surprise although I know its not unexpected of him to show up on other islands. It was really great to have 2 more volunteers on our tiny little island. Sarah and I headed into Vila for some lunch at Peter’s along with Stephanie. After lunch we made it to Calheta, hung out a bit and went on a walk. We ran into Sabine and Michael at their house and they invited us in. We spent the rest of the evening at their place chatting, playing with their sun and drinking tea and wine. It was a great time. On the way home we stopped by Monica’s where I was told my puppy would be waiting. She is SO cute! I named her Strela (star) and she is about the size of my foot, white with a brown head and a brown spot right where her tail starts. Roxy is quite intrigued by her and has spent every moment possible biting her legs, tail, fill in body part and swatting at her. Strela will sometimes try to fight back and give her the meanest growl she can muster.

We woke up around 6 today and I took Strela for a walk in the hopes of her learning to use the bathroom outside of the house. So far she hasn’t really learned but its been less than 24 hours. We showered, made breakfast and headed to Morro for my computer class. Afterwards we headed to Vila to walk back to Calheta along the beach. We brought Strela along and she walked a good deal on the beach with us, tripping over her feet or our footsteps and taking nosedives into the sand. We switched off carrying her for awhile and the hot sun surely tired her out. Once we got passed Morro (beachside), we tried to find a trail to get to the main road and ended up spending a few hours going over homemade rock walls which block off people’s land until we finally hit the main road. By that time it was about 3 pm and we were tired and hungry. Mike made it to Calheta and met up with us and Sarah and I made spinach dip for our lunch while Mike went on a search for fish and bobra for our nights dinner. He swam while we rested and entertained the neighborhood children with photos from past Nhos Brinka activities and other Calheta events. Sarah made me a birthday cake and it was delicious! In the evening I wateched Mike descale and cut out the guts of the fish while we prepared the rest of the curry dish. It was so good!

Saturday
After spending last night making cookie dough, we woke up early and made Christmas cookies for the kids to decorate and eat today during Nhos Brinka. We got to the center without key and jump roped with the kids outside for about an hour. They were also doing handstands and crab walks and I think I broke my back trying to do a backbend. Man I used to be so much more flexible. What happened to me? We played pin the nose on Rudolf and afterwards I taught them the dreidal game which some kids got and others not so much. We ended the day with decorating cookies and they were actually pretty well behaved. Amazing!

In the afternoon we went on a walk and ended up at Sabine and Michael’s house, a German couple who live here, and spent a few hours chatting with them, drinking tea, and playing with their son. We made plans to come back the following day for pizza and to make Christmas cookies. OUr Sunday with them was great, the cookies turned out well, their son had a great time decorating them and we helped celebrate Sabine’s birthday in the afternoon with apple pie and chocolate cake. Sarah and I took a walk to a beach called Cadjetinha and watched boys cleaning fish on the rocks on the way.


Monday
Monday was deemed the “wasted day” because we head out to Vila and spent the day there until the boat came, went to the pier, and Sarah decided to stay a few more days. In the evening we went back home and made some killer fish tacos for dinner.

Tuesday
The next day we took our long promised walk to the dunas- my favorite spot on the island. The sand dunes or dunas are in the town Morrinho which is about 4 kilometers from Calheta and then another km or 2 from the town. We walked from one end of the dunes to the “oasis” in another part which consists of some random palm trees in the middle of the dunes. I like to think of it as being in some movie where they are trekking through the desert and see a mirage but in this case its really there. We stopped on the beach for a bit and snacked on beef jerkey (thanks mom!) as we watched the ocean.

In the afternoon we went to my computer class where I am teaching my students to create a table in Word. We ended the day watching the first part of Shrek III, I of course fell asleep so the second half would have to wait for the next day.

On Wednesday I was hearing rumors that the Thursday boat would be the last boat to and from Maio until an indefinite time so I called Peace Corps and was told to come since I would be helping with IST- In Service Training that following Monday. So Sarah, Stephanie, and I all got to ride the boat together. As much as I dislike Praia (its really not THAT bad, I’m just used to the pace of life in Maio), it was nice to see other volunteers and my host family before IST started.