02/14/07
Happy Valentine’s Day! In the past week I have been told by two different men that having a boyfriend in the US and Cape Verde is acceptable and that the one in America does not have to know about the one in Cape Verde and that this is normal. Twice I have had to explain that 1- I am not interested in dating anyone other than my current boyfriend 2- dating 2 people at the same time is not acceptable or normal and just because one party does not know what is going on behind their back does not make it any more acceptable and 3- they have no chance in dating me. My roommate has been getting this sort of talk from people since we arrived but only recently have I really had to deal with it.

Ok, enough with that. What I really wanted to talk about is the festa in Calheta this past weekend. It was a lot of fun. Last Thursday I went to Calheta in the afternoon for the festa preparations which means all the women gather at the party house and inside the house girls are dancing with eachother, music blasting and a bunch of random dudes standing around watching. The older women are outside doing what they call “couchie” or “pila.” This is nothing dirty, it means to pound corn with a (very large) morter and pestal until it is the proper consistency for making cachupa and xeren. So I get to Calheta in the afternoon and head over where my students drag me into the dance house and I have ponche thrown in one hand and all the women are staring at me and encouraging me to dance. Well, I certainly got schooled. I know I am a horrible dancer, especially when it comes to Cape Verdian style dance so I went in knowing that everyone would be laughing and I would just make a fool out of myself and go with it. So I did. And then one of my student’s grandmothers, yes grandmother, comes up to me and physically moves my hips in the wild, free movement that everyone who lives here seems to have running through their blood. That’s when the laughing really started. Once she left my hips I tried to hide out in fear that she would come back to correct my dancing. Well, I got over it and got used to grandma’s dance lesson after awhile.

After getting hot from all the dancing I took a little break to learn how to pila. It looks pretty easy but apparently I’m not a good pila-er because after doing it for about 30 seconds the long stick thing was taken away from me and more ponche was thrown into my hands along with more cake than I’ve ever seen in my life. I went and visited a bunch of my students’ houses and witnessed a festa tradition (I think) of going after a guy with a rope, tying him up like cattle and taking him over to the festa where they then tied him to a tree and I think 3 people had to kiss him before he was able to be released. Around dusk, cacuchupa was ready and everyone in the town could just come by and eat for free.

I came back Friday evening and went to my counterpart’s house. Her daughter has a hair salon in her house and I had her wash and blow dry my hair. I was proud to be the first white person whose hair she had worked on and it felt so good to have my hair blow dried. Its another one of those things I take for granted in America. On a side note, since that Friday, I’ve been pulling out my mini travel hair dryer and putting it to use. We watched novella for an hour and then I went over to my violin student’s house and was taken around by his wife. We sat and ate pinchu (grilled pork skewers) outside a bar and a bunch of her friends came by to sit around and chat. Around 11 we walked back up to the party house where the primary school was leading a game to raise money for the school. I had never seen this game before but it was a really good idea. Feel free to use it for your own activities. They had a wooden bar stool with the numbers 1-6 painted on it. Then they had a die and a cup that were placed in the middle. Everyone would place 20 escudo on a number. They would role the die and whoever had the number that was rolled would win a prize. The prizes were cans of beans, cans of chickpeas, malta (this weird malt beverage), and juice. I thought it was a great idea. So after winning a juice it was time to go down to where the real dance party was taking place. I really lost track of time because the next time I checked my watch it was 2 am. I really enjoyed this dance because I actually knew people so I wasn’t feeling weird dancing with people. I still stuck with my dance only with people I know with the exception of siblings of the people I went there with.

I returned on Saturday in the morning and found myself exhausted after not getting any sleep. When I walked into my counterpart’s house, she and her husband were back in his work room milking goats. It was my first goat milking experience and I was a little blown away. All I could think of was that Ben Stiller movie where they talked about milking a cat. But the most exciting part was that they had 2 baby goats and one even matched its mother! I love when animals match. I stayed at my counterpart’s house all day and chatted with her family, ate meals, and took naps. In the late afternoon she took me on a walk to show me parts of Calheta that I didn’t know. We started off walking down the main road towards Morrinho and she explained to me the land situation. There are all these different types of rocks that make a fence for a little while and then another type of rock will continue and then maybe a fence of brush. It turns out these mark peoples land. She and I had a really good conversation about tourism and how they thought it was good when people were first coming but are now skeptical because people are buying their land and then reselling it to other foreigners for higher prices. They don’t like that these people are being the middlemen in these deals and think that the Cape Verdians should be able to make the saleds themselves. So luckily her family’s and her husband’s family’s land have not been sold even though they get offers on it. But its sad to hear that a lot of people sell their land not because they really want to but because their financial situation is bad and living the next day is more important than keeping the land.

After chatting about land ownership I saw a public clothes washing thing that was left over from Portuguese rule. Its now overgrown with weeds and not in use but it made me think of the one in Sao Domingos where I would occasionally see people using the one that still existed there. We walked around the back of houses, instead of the main roads, and I saw some of the poorer neighborhoods. One guy had 2 turkeys, a male and a female. I was so excited to see turkeys. We also saw lot of baby goats and chickens in a place where I guess they breed them. Her father-in-law had set up this coral to breed animals and I guess sell them afterwards. I guess you could say her family is well connected in the community and is a driving force in small development projects. We talked a lot about money and happiness and how a lot of people here are poor but they are happy. I feel like this is a common trend all over the world. Money does not buy happiness as the cliché goes and as long as you have friends, family and can take joy in the little things in life you’ll go a lot farther than anyone with lots of money and no support system. We went by one house that belonged to a fishing family. All the men in the family fished, all the women cleaned, sold, etc the fish. And although they were poor, they always had different types of fish, they never went hungry and they celebrate festas like the best of them.

I head back to Vila around 10 because I was so tired and at that point there was no way I was going to be able to return to the dance. The next day I woke up sick (probably from the pork I had eaten all weekend). I was in bed pretty much for the next 2 days.

So the most exciting part of my Valentine’s Day (besides talking to Mike and my family) was that the owners of the restaurant where we ate dinner got a puppy. And it looks exactly like Fubar. I swear they come from the same family or something. But their puppy is a girl. So I told them the dogs will have to meet and will see if any romantic sparks fly and if so, we can create a breed of puppy since apparently all the dogs here have to breed with other random types so you have a bunch of different mutts running around.

02/21/07
Saturday was “Baptism Day” here in Maio. I think about 100 or more people were baptized at the big Catholic church in Vila in a 3 hour ceremony. All the parents and Godparents had first priority over the bench seats which left the rest of us to stand. This was my first baptism experience and I don’t know what it is like in the states but here it seemed a little chaotic. But the entire thing was such a sight. The day before I had asked my neighbor what I should wear and she said “pretty clothes.” I assumed this to mean that a skirt and blouse or usual “American church clothes” would be fine. And they were but when I got there, I realized that pretty much all the women were there wearing prom dresses. They all had their hair done and were dressed as if they were going to cocktail parties. I found it a little bizarre since we were at a church and it was their kids who were being baptized. They kids were a whole other story. Some of them wore white tunics and trousers and then you had these 1 year olds in fancy white dresses or miniature white suits. This was not to be complete without white rose (fake) headbands and lacy gloves. I don’t know about everyone else but when I was that young I probably would have been taking off gloves and fidgeting with everything. As could be expected, many of the children were frightened and crying throughout the service. I didn’t really understand what was going on but three Priest people went around a bunch of times making crosses on the babies’ heads, then with oil or something and then again and doing it on their chests. Then all the families lined up for the actual water part. I couldn’t see anything because everyone was standing and taking pictures and talking. When it was over I met up with some of my students/friends from Calheta and their newly baptized children. I went back with one family and we went around to different houses who were hosting baptism parties. I went to nine of them. And each house had a spread of pizza, popcorn, cake, pastels, toothpicks with olives/cheese/mini hotdogs, and beer and then brought out xeren, beans, some sort of meat and sauce creation and expected you to eat a full plate of food, drink beverages, etc. Well after party number one I stuck to soda since drinking 9 beers was not an acceptable option for me and limited myself to the first round of food, mainly sticking to popcorn and laughing at my friend when she offered me another plate of the main course. The whole thing was a lot of fun and I met a bunch of her family members, saw a bunch of students and felt really welcomed.

Sunday I went back to Calheta to do a beach cleanup at a beach called Pauda Seko (I think). This was the first time I actually felt like I was fulfilling my job as a “Community Development Mobilizer,” my official job as a Peace Corps volunteer. The Camara had asked me to talk with the women’s group and see if they would help out and I “mobilized” a group of about 15 people to come out for the cleanup. The Camara provided transportation and lunch and we had a good time at the beach cleaning up more broken glass than I’ve ever seen, eating “arrozada,” a mixture of rice, chicken, sausage, peas, carrots, peppers, onion and tomato, and practicing English with the candy Valentine’s hearts that my mom had mailed over. After the cleanup I gave a violin lesson to my star pupil and went back to Vila.

Yesterday was Carnaval and it was a lot better than what I had imagined. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but from all the talk leading up it sounded like I shouldn’t expect too much. I made a banner that hung on the main road where the judges sat for the parade. I think 3 or 4 groups participated in this parade- each had a “float” with the Carnaval queen from their town, lots of kids and adults dressed in costumes, and some form of music and dancing that were incorporated into their “marching” down the street. I and this other guy were in charge of the Calheta group so we spent a lot of time waiting for them to arrive and then keeping them separated from the other groups. There were some great costumes and some really weird ones. A lot of girls, probably 94% of them, had some sort of midriff shirt and a skirt that hardly covered their butt. I had my hair up in those childrens colorful hairbands with the balls on the ends of them and I sported a skirt made of colorful flags over my jean capris. There were two people with Scream masks, a guy dressed as a “Zulu” with crazy hair and shell jewelry and a skirt made of palm trees leaves, a guy with a fake machete stuck through his body, lots of men in dresses or skirts, and the most ridiculous- a guy in a thong who painted his entire body black—using oil. I wanted to go up to him and be like are you retarded? He then proceeded to ask someone for a cigarette and matches- good, lets catch your entire body on fire, that’s a great idea.

Unfortunately Calheta didn’t win but it was fun to see a bunch of people I know all dressed up- one of my students was the queen of Calheta’s group. The group from Morrinho won and their group by far was the largest and they had a pretty incredible float of a large turtle. After it was all over we were treated to dinner at the British guy’s restaurant.

Happy Valentine´s Day

Today I went with the people who work with Environment at the Camara to talk to kids at the Jardin Infantil (pre-school) about the environment and color pictures of turtles (Maio has an endangered species of turtle that they are trying to protect and keep people from eating- yes apparently turtle is delicious), clean streets(throw trash in containers) , animals in corals (keep animals away from houses since their feces, etc can make people sick- good thing there are wandering goats, chickens, cows and pigs on the street all the time), and plants being planted. We were supposed to go to Pedro Vaz for the triip but the teacher in charge of the Jardin was sick so then we headed to the next town, Alcatraz, where again the teacher was sick. We finally ended up in Figueira (two more towns over) and waited for an hour for lunch time to be over and did our activity with the kids. I was happily surprised to see that the Jardin in Figueira had toys and materials to do activities. The kids were really cute. Just from the coloring activity I learned a lot about the way they teach young kids here. So first of all, the kids that were there were between ages 2 and 5. We had these pictures for them to color, kind of like how you’d color a coloring book. I don’t know about you, but when I was between 2 and 5, I don’t think I was told that I needed to color a tree green and brown, a pig pink, the sky blue, a sun yellow, etc. Yes, those are the colors that are correct but I think in Ameriica at that age, you are encouraged to use your creativity and if you want to have a multi-colored turtle, a green sky, and a purple sun, you were encouraged. Here things are a little different. There were 3 other people who came from Vila, the teacher, and me. So they kept going around and making sure that the kids were coloring each thing the proper color. Then, on top of that (remember these kids are between the ages of 2 and 5), they were supervised on coloring in the lines. Ok, I know that coloring in the lines should be expected of maybe 10 year olds but there is a big difference between a 5 year old and a 10 year old. And then, after they finished coloring, they were told to write their names, ages, and Figueira on their papers. I don’t think I knew how to write my name at age 5, especially in a straight line without writing at least one letter backwards. So the teacher (and “helpers”) went around with an eraser and erased letters when the kids didn’t have them lined up with the others. Oh, and did I mention they were all writing in cursive. I don’t think I learned cursive until at least the 3rd or 4th grade. So I had a good experience but I think there might be a little bit of unnecessary pressure put on these kids at such an early age. I don’t know if this is specifically a Cape Verdian thing or came from Portugal’s education system but it is very different from what I grew up with. Tomorrow, I’m helping again but we’re going to a different town. Over the next few weeks, we’ll go to every Jardin in Maio to talk about the environment and color our pictures.

Happy Valentine´s Day

Today I went with the people who work with Environment at the Camara to talk to kids at the Jardin Infantil (pre-school) about the environment and color pictures of turtles (Maio has an endangered species of turtle that they are trying to protect and keep people from eating- yes apparently turtle is delicious), clean streets(throw trash in containers) , animals in corals (keep animals away from houses since their feces, etc can make people sick- good thing there are wandering goats, chickens, cows and pigs on the street all the time), and plants being planted. We were supposed to go to Pedro Vaz for the triip but the teacher in charge of the Jardin was sick so then we headed to the next town, Alcatraz, where again the teacher was sick. We finally ended up in Figueira (two more towns over) and waited for an hour for lunch time to be over and did our activity with the kids. I was happily surprised to see that the Jardin in Figueira had toys and materials to do activities. The kids were really cute. Just from the coloring activity I learned a lot about the way they teach young kids here. So first of all, the kids that were there were between ages 2 and 5. We had these pictures for them to color, kind of like how you’d color a coloring book. I don’t know about you, but when I was between 2 and 5, I don’t think I was told that I needed to color a tree green and brown, a pig pink, the sky blue, a sun yellow, etc. Yes, those are the colors that are correct but I think in Ameriica at that age, you are encouraged to use your creativity and if you want to have a multi-colored turtle, a green sky, and a purple sun, you were encouraged. Here things are a little different. There were 3 other people who came from Vila, the teacher, and me. So they kept going around and making sure that the kids were coloring each thing the proper color. Then, on top of that (remember these kids are between the ages of 2 and 5), they were supervised on coloring in the lines. Ok, I know that coloring in the lines should be expected of maybe 10 year olds but there is a big difference between a 5 year old and a 10 year old. And then, after they finished coloring, they were told to write their names, ages, and Figueira on their papers. I don’t think I knew how to write my name at age 5, especially in a straight line without writing at least one letter backwards. So the teacher (and “helpers”) went around with an eraser and erased letters when the kids didn’t have them lined up with the others. Oh, and did I mention they were all writing in cursive. I don’t think I learned cursive until at least the 3rd or 4th grade. So I had a good experience but I think there might be a little bit of unnecessary pressure put on these kids at such an early age. I don’t know if this is specifically a Cape Verdian thing or came from Portugal’s education system but it is very different from what I grew up with. Tomorrow, I’m helping again but we’re going to a different town. Over the next few weeks, we’ll go to every Jardin in Maio to talk about the environment and color our pictures.

Happy Valentine´s Day

Today I went with the people who work with Environment at the Camara to talk to kids at the Jardin Infantil (pre-school) about the environment and color pictures of turtles (Maio has an endangered species of turtle that they are trying to protect and keep people from eating- yes apparently turtle is delicious), clean streets(throw trash in containers) , animals in corals (keep animals away from houses since their feces, etc can make people sick- good thing there are wandering goats, chickens, cows and pigs on the street all the time), and plants being planted. We were supposed to go to Pedro Vaz for the triip but the teacher in charge of the Jardin was sick so then we headed to the next town, Alcatraz, where again the teacher was sick. We finally ended up in Figueira (two more towns over) and waited for an hour for lunch time to be over and did our activity with the kids. I was happily surprised to see that the Jardin in Figueira had toys and materials to do activities. The kids were really cute. Just from the coloring activity I learned a lot about the way they teach young kids here. So first of all, the kids that were there were between ages 2 and 5. We had these pictures for them to color, kind of like how you’d color a coloring book. I don’t know about you, but when I was between 2 and 5, I don’t think I was told that I needed to color a tree green and brown, a pig pink, the sky blue, a sun yellow, etc. Yes, those are the colors that are correct but I think in Ameriica at that age, you are encouraged to use your creativity and if you want to have a multi-colored turtle, a green sky, and a purple sun, you were encouraged. Here things are a little different. There were 3 other people who came from Vila, the teacher, and me. So they kept going around and making sure that the kids were coloring each thing the proper color. Then, on top of that (remember these kids are between the ages of 2 and 5), they were supervised on coloring in the lines. Ok, I know that coloring in the lines should be expected of maybe 10 year olds but there is a big difference between a 5 year old and a 10 year old. And then, after they finished coloring, they were told to write their names, ages, and Figueira on their papers. I don’t think I knew how to write my name at age 5, especially in a straight line without writing at least one letter backwards. So the teacher (and “helpers”) went around with an eraser and erased letters when the kids didn’t have them lined up with the others. Oh, and did I mention they were all writing in cursive. I don’t think I learned cursive until at least the 3rd or 4th grade. So I had a good experience but I think there might be a little bit of unnecessary pressure put on these kids at such an early age. I don’t know if this is specifically a Cape Verdian thing or came from Portugal’s education system but it is very different from what I grew up with. Tomorrow, I’m helping again but we’re going to a different town. Over the next few weeks, we’ll go to every Jardin in Maio to talk about the environment and color our pictures.

I came to the realization that the people that work at the Casa de Juventude (youth center) are not motivated and do nothing but there’s not much I can do about it. I had all these plans for activities and events and they either got shot down or no one would help and they would fail. And I don’t want to do projects on my own- that’s not my job and doing their jobs for them is not my job either, so it’s really frustrating. So I had someone from the Camara (the local government who is in charge of the center) come talk to them and sort of rat them out so after the meeting things seemed better for like a day, I am supposed to start an art class for kids on Feb 5 but as of last week, no one had signed up for it and no one from the Casa de Juventude had followed up with the school. Now I know I can go and follow up but they are the ones who want me to do the class and if they want me to do it, then they can set it up, since none of them are giving any classes or doing anything. Pretty much it’s these 3 people sitting around and watching TV all day. And then they have class in the afternoon so no one is there to even keep the place open unless I have free time but like I said, my job is not to fill in for their jobs. That’s not why the Peace Corps wants me here. There are also plenty of people in Maio with no work and I feel like the people who are currently working there could easily be replaced. But it’s also really political so who gets put in charge is sort of politically motivated and not necessarily what is best for the island.

I met with someone else at the Camara last week who is super motivated and one of the most incredible people I have met here. It turns out she used to work at the Casa de Juventude for like 6 years and when she was there it was super organized and they constantly had events and people running in and out. She told me about a program they had Saturday mornings called “nhos brinka” which means “we play” in kriolu. So we are going to restart it next Saturday and hopefully I can get the real employees to help out. We’ll have different activities in each room and the kids will rotate after awhile. I’m going to do Valentine’s cookie decorations with the sprinkles my mom mailed. Oh, if you have a few free minutes, can you investigate those bright colored parachutes for me and where they can be ordered from? I really want to get one to do activities here.

So that same woman from the Camara, a guy from the Red Cross, and I are putting together a girl’s group to talk about women’s issues, health, sex, etc. No one has really showed up yet but hopefully with more advertising we’ll get a good crowd to do some activities.

I’m also working with a micro-credit and savings group that gives out loans for development projects. I’m helping create a brochure to give out to people to teach about savings and credit and how to utilize it as well as a presentation that can be repeated all over the island. I went to a meeting for the directors on Friday and I know have a better understanding of what is to come.

My absolute favorite work is still with the women’s group in Calheta. English class is going well and the past two Saturdays we’ve been doing beach cleanups. They have both been successful and each time people have offered to make us food or buy us drinks afterwards for doing such a good project for the community. I think its really been empowering the women and I love watching them feed off of each other. They’ve been bringing their kids to the clean ups too and I love seeing the kids take part. The violin lessons are also going well. I’m teaching 3 men in Calheta to play violin although its kind of hard since I’ve never really taught beginners and they learn do read music differently than we do in America, ie they learn do re mi fa so la ti…instead of a b c d e f g. But it has been a lot of fun and I get the chance to play the violin which makes me happy. They are also teaching me to play the guitar.

Life here really has its ups and downs. When they say PC is the “toughest job you’ll ever love” I don’t think they mean tough as in the actual work is hard but a culmination of where we live, dealing with frustrations in the community, and when people pass off significant problems as “cultural” aspects of their lives. For example, there is a huge problem at the high school with teachers having relationships with students. Some of these students are at least 18 but from what I understand, there are definitely some fourteen year olds getting involved with teachers. And the best friend of the director’s daughter just happens to be one of them. And does the director do anything about it? No. And if anyone says something to the director she might have a talk with the teachers but then all the teachers will know who said something and make that person’s life miserable. People here know what’s going on, they know this is happening but no one will do anything about it. And if the director said something, they would all act surprised and just go on with their lives because apparently this is a “cultural” thing. But how can you call sleeping with underage students a “cultural” thing. I’d call it rape, even though the kids are most likely consenting and probably starting the relationships because its “buzz off” (cool) to be with a teacher. So I’m glad I don’t have to deal with this everyday but since I know, I feel that not doing anything about it is also saying that it’s okay.

I think maybe I’m becoming numb to things here or maybe I’m just understanding the lifestyle a little more. Yesterday the new volunteer from France, came with me to the beach clean up in Calheta. The women picked up trash and then put it into piles along the beach and started burning it. New volunteer became really angry that they were burning the trash. Now, I’m not a huge environmental person (I care about the environment but I’m not about to go campaigning and refusing to use certain products) but I do know that burning trash is not really the best environmentally friendly solution but it Maio, it is the only solution. The new volunteer,just being here for a week, doesn’t yet know all the Cape Verdian systems, including the fact that the government burns trash as their way to dispose of it (hey, its better than throwing it in the ocean). Anyways, I tried to calm her down and explain that even though burning the trash may be bad for the environment, these women are motivated to clean their beaches to make them safer for kids, keep animals from eating toxic stuff, etc and that throwing the trash in a bin would only lead to it being carried away to Vila in order to be burned, so they could go ahead and burn it or send it away to be burned. Another woman who lives in Calheta (a German woman who teaches French at the high school) also explained it. After awhile, Sandra felt pretty bad about getting angry with the women and apologized for her behavior. Sabine and her husband told us to let them know when we are doing another beach clean up and they will make pizza for everyone. Apparently they clean the beach a lot and sometimes even pay people to do it. I’m hoping we can keep the beach clean up as a weekly or monthly tradition. It’s a great way to bring everyone together and lots of kids come to help out too.