New beginnings

It's been a rough few weeks adjusting back to America. Mike and I moved in together in PA where he is attending Penn State and finishing a degree in Biology before applying to Dental School. Our apartment is great and things with us are wonderful. The hard part for me is getting back into America- the pace of life, living in a new part of the country, trying to find a job, trying to make friends, figuring out where I am and where I want to go. The Peace Corps was an incredible experience but now I have to figure out how to translate my experience into what I want to do with the rest of my life. I know graduate school is in the near future and I'm trying to create these great plans but getting there is harder than I thought.

One of the big changes I made when I returned was cutting off my hair. I let it grow out the two years I was gone and decided I would again donate my hair to Locks of Love. You can see the difference between the following pictures. That's a lot of hair- yikes!





I'm still trying to find a job- one that may help me on my career path and not completely change it. Needless to say, there's not much work outside of the restaurant and retail industries in State College but I'm looking. It's weird being in a college town and not actually in college.

June 28, 2008

Today we went on our first outreach to Masaaka. We split into two groups and took people's medical problems, blood pressure, and personal information. I worked with Steven, Jude, Lara, and translator/Dr. Steven. We had a good time hiking in and out of the cornfields getting from house to house. We tried to buy hot peppers (think Cape Verdian piri piri) at one house and they gave us all they had drying in the sun for free. It was really neat for me to see something from Cape Verde all the way in Uganda.






During our outreach we ran into a girl with a high fever, headache and the vomitted in front of us. We all felt really bad for her and the seeming neglect from her family allowing her to lie in the sun in this condition.

Walking up the mountains was absolutely beautiful. It's weird being back. Very surreal.

June 28, 2008

Yesterday was a pretty incredible day. We spent the morning learning how to use blood pressure cuffs and to take eye exams.








In the afternoon we went to the vocational school that I helped build in 2003. It was really neat seeing the final result and the center being utilized. There was a little session where the director introduced the teachers and students, we gave our speeches and they sang and danced.

June 25, 2008

We're here in Buhkaweka, Uganda. Just getting here was quite an adventure. We spent a night in Dubai, the only time I'll ever be in the Emirates. We saw a large mall with an indoor ski slope, the famous sailboat shaped hotel that costs at minimum $2000 a night, and drove on the island shaped like a palm tree. I felt very uncomfortable being amongst all this money. The flight to Dubai was amazing--good service, good food, and the coolest tvs with hundreds of movies, tv shows and games to keep you entertained during the flight.





When we finally made it to Uganda the Tanzania group's counterpart had not arrived so we waited with them while they figured everything out. We then drove to Kampala to change money and went on to Mbale. We finally reached home around 12:30 am and our house is great. Its across the street from the old Crossroads house which is now being used to house a Peace Corps volunteer. We've got a sitting room, a room for the boys, and 2 1/2 rooms for the girls. Out back are our 2 holes. We woke up this morning and all got on boda-bodas--motorcycle taxis-- to the intersection and then got on a matatu to Mbale. We spent the day buying supplies for our house and now have a stove, dishes and food. We got back to Bukhaweka with electricity and cooked our first meal of rice and vegetables!

On the road again...

Yesterday's 50th anniversary celebration for Operation Crossroads Africa was awesome. There was a service in the morning that leaned a little on the religious side. There were some drummers who played music from West Africa, accompanied by dance, a gospel choir from a local high school, speakers from past Crossroads groups, and a few former Crossroad-ers who are now Reverends who said prayers and a litany. It payed tribute to Rev. Dr. Robinson, the founder of Crossroads. Afterwards we headed to the UN building for an incredible feast of food from all over Africa with 4 tables, buffet style, with food from each of the regions of Africa. There was crispy duck and zucchini from South Africa, Red Snapper and Yams from East Africa, Yassa chicken and jollof rice from West Africa, and Pecan Crusted Lamb and couscous from North Africa. There were also a variety of appetizers, drinks and desserts (including mango sorbet).

My good camera broke and I had to buy a new smaller one since I would have no picture taking ability. We leave in an hour for the airport going to Dubai. My group is "fighting" over who gets the window seat so they can see the palm tree shaped island as we fly over the country. We'll finally land at Entebbe on Tuesday and head off to our site near Mbale along with the other Uganda group (working with the FDNC and Samuel).

I'm getting more excited by the minute! I'll write more when I get to Uganda.

America

I'm back in America and getting here was a little difficult but I finally made it. I got back on June 7th and my stomach problems adusting to American enriched chemically altered food are now kicking in. Good thing I'll get to go through this again in about two weeks...

Mike was really suprised to see me at the airport 3 days early and we had a great time in Winston with my family and friends. Lauren suprised us and took us to see a new musical about pirates! We also hung out with Ler, Adam and Daniel at the annual rib fest (yay bbq!).

I'm now in New York for Crossroads Orientation. I arrived Tuesday after a much delayed flight. Mike and Rick drove up Wednesday and we went into the city, drank way too many Long Island ice teas, and saw Spamalot. Very funny! Yesterday the participants arrived and we had day one of orientation. My group has 8 people (including me), mostly college students, one recent graduate, and one older woman. The majority of them are pre-med or work in the public health field. I'm really excited to start this next adventure with them and I think we are all looking forward to finally getting to Uganda.

Today is the Crossroads pinning ceremony where we are sworn in as the 2008 (50th anniversary) group of Crossroaders. Tomorrow is a big 50th anniversary celebration in the city and an African food feast at the UN.

That's about it for now. I'm going to indulge in some more Starbucks before our medical session this morning.

Ti logo...

The end of the road

So this is it. My official last day as a Peace Corps volunteer. These past few days have been exhausting and emotional. It took until last Friday to find out my plane ticket information and my boat to Praia ended up leaving at 3 am Friday morning. So much for that 24 hour rule. Needless to say I am exhausted.

I really hate saying goodbye. In the states I always like to replace it with "see you later" but who knows when I'll be back in Cape Verde. I would really like to return on vacation but that could be a long time from now.

My despedida passeo was a lot of fun. About 40 of us from Vila and Calheta went to Pao Seco for the day and cooked a ton of food. One of the guys found a star fish and gave it to me. Now I just worry that it will smell up my bag but its really cool.

I'm looking forward to going home but also really sad to leave the past two years of my life behind. Peace Corps was a dream for me. Something I envisioned doing for a very long time and now that these past two years have passed I'm kind of stuck in this place trying to figure out what is next. I mean sure I have the immediate plans, go home, go to Uganda, move in with Mike, find a job, but its not the same as working in a job that you love that takes you across the world and challenges everything you have ever known. I know I have learned so much from this experience, more than I realize and can eloquently express. And its hard to think back on the two years and generalize because everything was unique.

When they say that the Peace Corps is the "toughest job you'll ever love," its true. Despite the days that I wanted to give up and just leave or cried for hours over something silly, the experience is worth it. The people you meet are worth it. And the changes that you see in yourself are worth it.

Saying Goodbye

Two weeks left at site until its time to head back to Praia and on to the states. Saying goodbye is harder than I thought. There's the sheer number of people I need to "despede" and the stress of not forgetting anyone, despedida parties for one last fun time times 5, and making sure I leave project info with the correct people.

I went to visit a friend yesterday for her birthday and made plans with her to visit the "centro" where she works as a person that grows seedlings to be replanted somewhere else.

Today I visited another friend to learn how to make doughnuts to bring to our last women's meeting. While I was there she showed me a blue vibrator that was given to her by a friend from America. I was quite shocked to see a vibrator in Maio. I asked her if people here are accustomed to them or even knew what they were and she said no. She takes it out to show people at parties and have a laugh. Apparently her husband once found it and asked what it was for. So this is the impact of America on Cape Verde...

I spent this morning making a slide show to present at our last meeting. The women seemed to enjoy it, who doesn't like looking at pictures of themself and their friends? I then gave an impromto speech thanking them for the opportunity to work with them, encouraging them to continue when I leave and improve the lives of Calheta, and reminded them that the little activities that we do may not seem like much but all together add up and people do notice their impact. Silvia then spoke and was also encouraging them and thanked me for my contribution. I gave them a box of stuff (all our project proposals, contacts, forms for group organization, etc), pictures, left over materials from projects to keep and hopefully it will be useful in the future. I asked them what they wanted for the future of women in Calheta and as usual, most were too timid to say anything. Eventually one person spoke about having good leaders who will direct the group in the right direction. Another person said to include older people who have had lots of experience and can add more value to the group. We then danced batuk or rather I danced batuk and they laughed. I like when they laugh. Much better than the few tears that came, those few tears that I am trying to avoid that I know will eventually make their way out during an inconvenient time. But thats life, and part of saying goodbye.

People have been saying that tomorrow is a national holiday to mourn for the people that died in the earthquake in China. I don't know why that is a holiday here in Cape Verde.

I'm still in Praia waiting to get back to Maio. This past week was our COS conference (Close of Service) and it kind of makes leaving a little bit more real. It still hasn't really hit me that I'm going home in about 3 weeks and I'll no longer be a Peace Corps volunteer. The next few weeks are going to be pretty emotional saying goodbye to everyone who has been part of my life and trying to prepare myself to move on to the next stage in my life.

They did a test run on the airport in Maio Wednesday but it failed to pass inspection which means we have another week of tinkering and then another test run. Hopefully I will be able to fly back to Praia for my COS and not take the boat.

Speaking of boats, here are some pictures from the Musteiru that sank:

Titanic x2

After the large boat which made regular trips between Maio and Praia, the Barlevento, sunk in April this week brings somewhat of a repeat. The Musteru, the Barlevento's replacement sunk on Monday on its way to Fogo. According to the gossip in the street, two large vehicles (with at least 6 wheels each) are now at the bottom of the Atlantic along with the rest of the cargo the ship was carrying. One of the Italians that Stephanie and I had previously eaten with in our English lesson days was on the boat moving to Fogo and lost everything he owned. And more recently, I heard that another volunteer was on the boat going to visit Fogo. As Lauren so ellequently puts it on her blog- this is the reason Peace Corps makes us where life jackets when traveling by boat.

With COS coming up next week this is unfortunate news for us on Maio where the airport is still not complete and our one large boat a week is again out of commission. Currently a 25 passenger fishing boat is coming to Maio about 3 times a week for emergencies and taking people to Praia but you can imagine how safe it feels to go on a small fishing boat when one of the two largest boats in Cape Verde sunk and the ocean has been really rough. Once again this creates more difficulties in planning our women's group trip to Fogo and about half of them have expressed their fear of going with all the Titanic-ing of the boats. Luckily there are a few other boats that go to Fogo but getting to and from Maio continues to be a challenge.

In other news I've spent this week getting ready to go to Praia and visiting with people. I've started giving away personal items and thinking about what I want to take back to America. My landlord is now the proud owner of a few pairs of pants and I've been giving out photos from past activites. I spent the morning yesterday with my counterparts kids painting sea urchins and shells that we collected on our passeo from May 1st. Then today I spent the morning in Morro visiting Bert and Miriama and saw the improvements on his grocery store. He's also got a Maio tourist website with info and pictures at . My computer class was again cancelled this afternoon because all the students went to go do campaign stuff, i.e. drive through other towns in the back of a large truck yelling out "viva" and waving flags. This also happens in Calheta about 2 or 3 times a night complete with honking horns and blasting loud music. So this is how people campaign in Cape Verde...

I'm really enjoying teaching the fishermen and I wish I had gotten to know them earlier on in my service. If Peace Corps sends more volunteers to Maio I hope they work with the fishermen. They make up an important part of the population on Maio and are underappreciated. In class they are very respectful and interested in learning which makes the class go very smoothly. I'm also learning a little about fish and fishing in Maio which is a fun bonus. I mainly like to ask them how the ocean is each day and when tuna is coming back and to explain the differences in fish.

COS conference is next week and I'm looking forward to it. I'm still waiting on my official approval from Peace Corps for my COS date but I'm trying to be patient. It's kind of like at the beginning applying to go and you feel like you wait forever until you finally get that invitation in the mail. Now I'm awaiting the okay from Washington for when I leave. Its one big cycle.

Campaign Season

Well, campaign season in Cape Verde has officially started and while Peace Corps Volunteers are restricted from politics, it is interesting to observe from afar. I live on one of the main roads in my town which is also the second largest on the island so there is a lot of movement. Since yesterday there have been cars going down the road blasting music and making announcements. Today's announcement was that at 6, there will be an assembly which of course is practically in front of my house. I took back roads to avoid the crowd as I came home from batuk practice. Anyways, the party that is doing their assembly today is playing music loudly and yelling into the microphone as people are playing with flags that they handed out and occasionally cheering. Children are arguing over who gets to play with the flag that one of them managed to get hold of. If elections were this exciting in America...

Oh, now everyone is yelling Viva. More on this later...

Yesterday I had one of those "never going to forget" moments. I was on my way to one of our clean ups and ran into one of the women who informed me of a silent march in Vila in memory of the kid that was murdered. So this took precedent over the cleanup and I got ready for the march instead. Most of the time Cape Verdians are very chatty people and if you've ever tried to teach a class or work with a group of people, you'd know how hard to get them to be quiet long enough to explain yourself or to let someone put in their opinion. Anyways, we piled into a few cars around 5 and head up to the school where the kid's classmates carried posters saying "Manu, even though you are dead, we will never forget you" and various slogans about the dangers of violence. Everyone was dressed in white shirts and jeans and we marched in complete silence from the school, down the hill, winding in and out each road of Vila until we reached the main road, then back up the opposite side of town until we reached the school again. It was such a moving march, complete silence from every participant. When we arrived at the school, we formed a circle and Manu's teacher made a short speech. One of the classmates presented her with a photo of Manu. Afterwards people cried, this beautiful sad sound coming from the mouths of people most affected. It almost sounds like a song, crying out "pamodi, pamodi, pamoidi" (why, why, why) and "n sta tchora pa bo" (I am crying for you). Sad and depressing but at the same time an incredibly beautiful moment. The entire ride back from Vila was in silence, people reflecting on what had just happened.

This week has been kind of depressing. On Thursday a kid from my town was murdered at the high school. This is the first murder like this that has ever happened on Maio so it makes the shock factor even higher. I didn't know him too well but I had talked to him once about helping him learn to market his crafts. He made jewelry out of coconut shells, in particular earrings and necklaces in the shape of flip flops. Apparently the event had to to with "thug issues." From all the talk in town, the kid was nice and always laughed it off when this group of boys tried to start something. There was a group of 5 of them that showed up at the school that night (or so the story goes) and one guy stabbed him in the neck and and he was dead less than 30 minutes later. It's really sad and makes me worry about the direction Maio is going.

I got a call from Mike today with more potentially bad news. He got a letter saying he may be called back to active military duty. I feel like he just got out and now they are talking about pulling him back. I really don't want him to go back to Iraq or Afghanistan. He's almost done with undergrad and has a plan for himself. And I am selfish and don't want him to be taken away from me for another year after we've been apart for 2 already.

So I'm sitting in my room sulking and avoiding the world at the moment. I guess drowning myself in work will at least keep me distracted for the moment..Sorry I'm in such a bad mood.

April showers..oh wait theres no rain here

Sorry it has been so long since I've written. Things have been a little crazy here. Our accounting workshop went really well, to the point where the women wanted the leader to do another weeks worth of talks. That all led up to our festa for the elderly for Cape Verdian women's day which went off really well. We made food and had traditional music and people were dancing. That same day was the cuchido for our big festa so there was corn pounding all afternoon and partying at night.

We are currently planning a trip to Fogo to meet with Sarah's women's group. We had thought to do it at the end of April but time and money constraints have postponed it and now it is scheduled for May. I'm really excited about this trip, although I don't know if I will go on it, but the women are really excited and I think it will give them a big motivation factor to continue their work. Since it is costly and money is difficult, we are doing a bunch of fund raising activities. Saturday we had an afternoon tea which went fantastically. We sold tickets ahead of time and made tea, coffee, and snacks. I was completely exhausted afterwards but it went really well.

Transport is again a big problem. The boat that usually comes to Maio sunk in the ocean coming to Praia from Fogo so we are down a boat. Lately one boat has been coming a week and I saw the little boat today but I don't know if its on a schedule. The airport is still being worked on- 9 months later- and it should be ready "soon."

I was in a car accident last week. I'm fine but it scared me. Some part of the steering wheel broke and the driver lost control of the car. We went over a barrier in the middle of the road then into the rocky nothingness area where we stopped. Luckily no one was hurt.

In good news, we now have diet coke and ground beef in Maio. This is a big step up in the food world. I mean we have Cadbury chocolate bars so it was only a matter of time.

Saturday night I played in a women's soccer game in Calheta and we won 1-0. After the game was my friend Neya's 31st birthday party. I spent most of the time playing with the kids and taking pictures. They (she and her sisters) just got electricity in their house and were really excited to be able to put music and lights for the party.

I started teaching computers to the literacy program and today I start teaching a fisherman's association. I didn't really want to teach more computers but I think its important for these specific groups so its a go.

Thats about it right now. COS conference is coming up next month. Its hard to believe our Peace Corps service is coming to a close. I'll try to post more in the next few weeks.

International Women's Day

Happy International Women’s Day/ Women’s month! I had a very interesting women’s day. Everyone came to my house around 11 and we got our posters, put on our ribbons and paraded around town. We didn’t have many participants and everyone kept giving us excuses for not participating. When we got back we cooked pizza, pastels, rissoes, and other popcorn and by the time it was all ready it was 3:30. So we head over to the place where we held the activity and set everything up and about 10 people other than our group show up. The association members were going on about why there was low turnout (we had put up posters around town, handed out individual invitations, and put it on the radio) and I was like, ok lets just get started. We played a “game” where you grab a part of a roll of string and say “I am a woman, I am…” or what you want to see happen for women and then throw it to the next person. I like doing this type of string game a lot. After the game, we read a poem about women, each person reading a line and then we talked about the association and our activities for the month. We ended talking about the history of Women’s Day and ate our snack. We get back to my house and clean up and then the novella (soap opera) of the evening starts.

Almost everyone has left, my house is finally clean after a long day of cooking, frying pastels, and rolling out pizza dough. The left over cake and popcorn have been divided and the last few people are mopping the floor. One of them walks over to my large cardboard box by the door filled with sporting equipment for the neighborhood kids to play. At this juncture my backpack is sitting inside to make room for cooking from earlier. In my backpack the wallet containing our groups Women’s Day activity funds is wide open. The money inside is gone. I open my wallet, sitting closed in the backpack. My money is gone. The few women left start speculating who took it, most blaming the same person but at the same time being like I’m not saying so-and-so took it but … Anways, they go and get all the women that were in my house and we go back and forth for a few minutes, with each person retelling what they “saw” or whatever and then I make my speech telling them I don’t care who took the money but it is a lack of respect for me, for our group and I voluntarily came to Cape Verde, leave my family and friends to help them, to be a part of the community and I would never mess with things in their houses, take stuff that isn’t mine, etc. My heartfelt speech ended in a few tears from me and they were like, ok don’t cry, we get the point. There was some discussion as to what to do if the money is not recovered and it was decided that if the money wasn’t recovered by the next day at 9 am then I would call the police and file a report. Then we had another 10 minute discussion on what the police would do in this case and one woman went on about some sort of light that the police shine on your arm and if it was you, the light turns red and if it wasn’t, it turns green. I thought this was pretty hysterical but I kept from laughing. There was some discussion of the chocolate incident from when my parents were here in November. One person outed another on taking the chocolate and eating it. We talked about how to give the money to me: the person could come and give it to me directly, I won’t tell anyone who it is and it will be completely anonymous or they can slide it under my door if they don’t want anyone to know it was them. That idea was tested as we took paper and tried to slide it under the door and then put money in paper and did the same thing. It worked. The door idea was good to go if the thief wanted to give me the money through that method. Finally everyone left and I was alone again. I called Stephanie to give her the play by play and some dude she knows told her he can tell us who did it by morning. Yeah ok whatever. She told my counterpart in Vila that I was robbed and he was on his way to see if he could do anything to help.

Commercial break

Ten minutes later there’s a knock on my door. Oh good I think, the money is back. But no. Its just the person who was outed for the chocolate incident coming to clear her name and blame the person who outed her for eating the chocolate. I really am over the chocolate but they keep coming back to it. She doesn’t want to lose my trust and points out that she always asks for things and doesn’t take them (true) and if she finds money in the house or when washing clothes she always gives it to me (also true). But I tell her I want to trust her but when people talk and all say the same thing then you start believing maybe there is some truth to what they say. She leaves and I am again alone in the house.

Commercial break

I need to get out of my house and clear my head. I go to the roof to see if there’s a soccer game (there is) and I head out to watch soccer. The girls are playing tonight and I am excited to see the team I train with play. On the way to the game, who do I see but chocolate girl from the first meeting and chocolate girl who just left my house and her boyfriend. They are still talking about the chocolate incident and call me over to explain one more time. Ok, I’m done with chocolate for real. I tell them, this happened in November, I’m done with this and lets just move forward. I head over the game and girl #1 is like wait a second and slips my money into my pocket. So I have now recovered my money but the group’s money is still missing. I go into the Polivalente to watch the game and the girls win 3 to 0.

Commercial break.

The game ends and I walk home hand in hand with a neighborhood kid. A few minutes later there’s a knock on my door and its my counterpart and his friends and I give them a brief recall of the story. There’s really not much they can do about it so we go and get a few beers and they make me laugh. It meant a lot that they came all the way out to Calheta to make sure I was okay and they put a happy ending on the night.

Next day

No money was slipped under the door during the evening and I call one of the women to let her know the situation. She says she’s coming over and a few minutes later I let her in. She says its strange that she only gave back part of the money which means she only took some of it and someone else took the other part or she’s keeping it. Talking through it all, what we think happened is the girl that took the money took it in the morning while we were all cooking and in the afternoon when we brought all the pans and stuff back there were extra people running around my house and one of them may have taken the other money then. So I don’t know if we’ll get it back but we are holding a dance tonight which will at least replace what was stolen.

It makes me really upset that people would steal from me. Everyone here knows that if they ask for something I will do all I can to help them- even if I can’t provide them with stuff, I’ll try to find a group or person that can. So when I let people into my house and host things for them, why the need to take my stuff? There are certainly not going to be any more activities in my house after that because that one or two people who took the money lost my trust for everyone in the community.

Alas, life goes on, the money stolen is supposed to go for our party for the elderly on the 27th and will find money to pay for it even if it comes from everyone’s pockets. This won’t stop the group from doing projects and I’m still putting my all into them even, just not access to my house.

Quick update

So much is going on right now. I just finished a 4 day workshop/tournament for 6 soccer teams in Vila- 4 guys teams and 2 girls teams. The doctor, a technician from the Camara, another girl on the “team” and I led 2 days of information on AIDS and HIV and had the teams make posters to put up in the Polivalente (soccer stadium) and gave them information on Scenarios of Africa (Africa wide contest to write 5 minute plays or songs that get played on tv between shows about AIDS). Then the next 2 days were soccer games with the posters up for people to see. There was a great turn out at the games- I only counted part of the stadium but my guess was between 200 and 300 people. We’re doing the same thing in March for basketball and handball teams and will modify it a bit- have a microphone in the stadium to talk about AIDS during the games, etc.

Once this is completed we’ll do something similar but for just girls and girls at risk and the information will be about early pregnancies because clearly that is a large problem here.

The women’s association is working on our March activities for International Women’s Day (March 8) and Cape Verdian Women’s Day (March 27). For the 8th, we are having a parade around town, then having a lunch with a speaker on women’s health and maybe women’s rights (if they are available) and the batuk group will dance. At night we are having a traditional dance with violin music (none of the dj and speakers zouk stuff) along with the Calheta Community Association who has been planning a lot of activities (this dance for example) leading up to our big festa on March 19th.

The 10-14th we are holding a women/girl’s soccer tournament. Then on the 15-17th we’re having someone come give a workshop on business skills- the importance of saving money, how to make a budget and balance it, etc. Then the 19th is our town’s big festa (Sao Jose) which means lots more activites (we started having night activities- soccer games, batuk groups, singers, dances, artisan street fairs, dance competitions- the end of February and they go until the big festa). The day of the festa people go to mass and then to the designated festa house where lots of women cook a ton of food for the entire community. I’ll probably be at the house helping cook. The 25th or 26th we’re (women’s group) having a speaker on drugs and alcohol and then on the 27th for Cape Verdian Women’s day we’ll have a party for the elderly. So my March is pretty full.

On top of that, I’m helping the micro-credit group with their big assembly which has so far been pushed back 3 weeks because we are waiting for one guy from Praia to come balance the budget and meet with the Directors of the group so that we can present it at the assembly. Right now its really frustrating because this guy’s house number, work number and cell phone are all disactivated. The guy in charge in Maio is going to Praia today to hunt the guy down and find out what’s going on. I have a feeling we’ll end up doing the assembly March 9 which will be exhausting after the stuff on the 8th and the women’s group is cooking for the assembly so they would not be too happy. But we’ll see.

In other news, I’ve started teaching again. I know I swore it off but I promised the group that combats illiteracy that I would teach them computers once the other classes ended so I’m now teaching a one hour computer class on Fridays. I figure one hour a week won’t kill me.

I’m working with the guy in Morro again. This time to plan a camping trip in May for 5 youth from each town. We’ll have speakers on issues facing youth, teambuilding games (my ropes corps activities if you will), painting schools that need repainting, sports, and night time activities planned by the kids. It’s still in the early stages but the planning team is going to start meeting soon and get things going.

I also might be going back to Fogo at the end of April. My women’s group is trying to plan a trip to share experiences with a women’s group in Fogo as well as see the island, do a joint project, and have a few speakers that can help benefit both groups. Sarah is meeting with a group of women to see if they are interested and if this is feasible to do. The women in Maio are really excited about the idea and actually they came up with it so its good to see them thinking towards the future.

More Santo Antao

Cova- We hiked from this crater to Paul.

Santo Antao

The view from Laurie and Leanna's balcony in Coculi

Music in the street in S. Vicente

Kathryn and me in front of the globe. Notice how big Cape Verde is.

Photos

Photos from Sal

Vacation and Carnival

Kathryn left yesterday after spending three weeks with me. I had a lot of fun with her and I hope she had a great time here.

After missing the boat to Praia on Monday because the only boat running was the 25 person fishing boat and they ran out of spots, I took the Wednesday boat and met Kathryn at the airport. We flew that afternoon to Sal and met Kyle at the Camara. Entering Sal was like entering another world. Our flight was all tourists and I don’t think I’ve seen that many white people in a long time. It was very surreal. We spent a couple hours in Espargos which is not as touristy (as Santa Maria) but the look and feel of the place still felt different. In the evening we went to Santa Maria to get Guiness and Strongbow and see this fantastical world that we hear Sal is known to be. It was pretty much a bunch of resorts that planted themselves in one town on the island and created their own little tourist world. I don’t know how good this is for Cape Verde but with this huge focus on bringing tourism, it seems right on plan. I felt a little uncomfortable being in this tourist zone, it didn’t feel like I was in Cape Verde anymore, but I am glad I got the opportunity to see it. We went back to Espargos for dinner and hung out with Kyle and some of his friends.

The next morning we flew out to Sao Vicente. There were definitely places I recognized from the time I was there in college but I didn’t remember the city being as organized as it was. Kat and I met up with Nadia and her boyfriend and walked around Mindelo. We went through their “sucapira” market which I did remember from the end of my trip in 2004. Kat and I sat down at a café for toasta- which would become Kat’s favorite food (ham and cheese toasted in a sandwich). I liked S. Vicente a lot more than Praia. After all the robbery stories that come from there, I actually felt safer than I do in Praia and the place is so much cleaner. The layout of the city is walkable which was nice on my wallet. We saw the school, English Unlimited, that Casey, Nick, and David started and it looks great. We went out to dinner with Casey and Nadia at this great schwarma/pizza place.

Friday we took the Catamaran to Santo Antao. I’ve never felt sick on a boat in Cape Verde until this one. It felt like we were jumping in and out of the water and since it is enclosed there was no fresh air coming in. The boat was awful and I will never take one again. I was so excited to finally get back to Santo Antao. It was less green than in 04 but it was still as impressive and beautiful. We took a car to Ribeira Grande, called Provacao by the locals, and met up with Rhonda before getting a car to Coculi, our destination for the evening. Coculi is beautiful, surrounded by mountains. Leanna and Laurie live near the new high school, where Laurie teaches, and the view from their balcony is spectacular. We hung out for a bit at there house and then walked to Daron’s to Joao Alfanso. The view was great and the walk was realy nice until you get to the big hill that leads to his house which is inside of the school. You pretty much walk up a mountain for about 20 mintues to get there. When we finally reached the top we met up with Daron and half of the kids in the school who were inquiring as to which of us is his pequena (girlfriend). I happily nominated Kathryn for the position. We joked around with the kids for a bit, although we had some trouble understanding each other’s Creole. The Creole from Santo Antao is very different from anywhere else on Cape Verde and if they spoke slow I could understand most of what they were saying and quite a few people understood me. So it wasn’t too bad until the rapid fire talking and all the bizots and chopping off words and using n to mean ka. Anyways, we headed back to Coculi before nightfall and were treated to a wonderful eggplant parmesan courtesy of the Coculi girls. After dinner we played Scrabble, the first out of what would become almost routine in our travels.

The next day we took a car up to Cova, a large crater filled with agriculture and began our descent to Paul. I was so happy to do this hike. The first part of the hike was all up hill going around the crater until we reached a point at the top where you overlook the crater on one side and the descent to Paul on the other. Looking down you see this snaky road amidst a forest of green. Absolutely beautiful. We made our way down and stopped at Alfred’s restaurant, this Austrian guy who makes his own grogues, ponches, cheese, and foods. We had the cheese platter which I’ve heard about from other volunteers and it was as good as they all say. After our snack we saw Paul by the ocean, where I was in 04 and took a car back to Provacao. That evening we made chicken enchiladas, played more Scrabble and planned out our next day’s adventure.

Sunday we brought Daron with us again and decided to hike from Ponta do Sol to Cha de Igreja. Ponta do Sol is a pretty town along the ocean. We stopped by Mike’s and caught up with him before making our five hour journey to Caley’s. The walk was all up hill and down hill, never flat, as you wind up and down mountains along the coast of the island. We went through a bunch of small towns chatting with people and taking photos as we made our trek. Again, very beautiful and quite a wake up call for my out of shape, living at sea level body. When we made it to Cha de Igreja in the evening we hung out with Caley, made dinner, and passed out.

Monday we headed back in the 6 am car to Porto Novo where we took the regular boat back to S. Vicente. Kathryn and I relaxed and did laundry at Nadia’s while she was in class and spent the afternoon Chinese loja hopping. We had a great dinner at some fancy restaurant where they served real calamari and steak. It was pretty sweet. After dinner we met up with the other Americans and saw music in the street. I think there were more people in that one street than live on all of Maio. Crazy.

The next day we took the plane back to Praia and checked on boat tickets to Fogo. We had just missed a boat and there wouldn’t be one until the end of the week so we opted for the plane option. That still left us a few nights in Santiago so we left Praia and spent the evening in Assomada with Courtney, Nick and Brian. I finally got to introduce Kathryn to the infamous caparinhas at the Brazilian restaurant. The next day we went to Boca Doce- I felt like I was back at PST where Callie and I frequented for their coffee and pastries. It was market day so we walked around the market, got Kathryn some malageta peppers and checked out the random bedong clothing. We lunched with Nick and Brian and then head out to Sao Domingos to visit my host family.

We hung out with Emily while we waited for my family to get back from work and when we got back to the house no one was there so we went to the next best place, Ka’s kiosk. We were informed that my mom had gone to Praia but she would be back soon so we hung out with Ka and Lu and Luis while we waited for the family’s return. Once everyone was back Freddy, Luis, Kathryn and I played with blocks while Anita marinated fish to grill for dinner. We pulled out glow sticks, a present from Kathryn and decorated the boys in them and headed back to the kiosk to grill dinner. After dinner we hung out with Alex, one of the trainers from PST and some of his friends.

The next day we flew out to Fogo and met up with half of the volunteers at Lauren’s house. We hung out for the morning, saw S. Filipe, and headed out to Sarah’s in Cova Figueira. We made lasagna for dinner, played Scrabble and saw some of her friends. The next day we decided to be lazy and laid around and Scrabbled while Sarah was at work. In the evening we visited more of her friends, played with a baseball, and braided hair.

Saturday, Kathryn, Lauren and I headed to Cha das Caldeiras and met up with Mel, Sam, Jacob, and his friend Jeff. We walked around a bit and Mel showed us their recycled art project. We hung out at the Cooperativa for a bit and listened to live music and pretty much just hung out with everyone in the evening.

We woke up Sunday with climbing the volcano in mind and Kathryn, Mel and I headed out around 11. We deviated from the path for most of the climb which led to me pretty much thinking I was going to fall off the volcano. But we made it, Mel was a very good guide and did not let me die, thanks Mel, and when we reached the bottom, almost at the trail, I fell on a rock and received my battle wounds. Way to go Jules. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, drinking lots of water, and we made a fabulous dinner complete with apple pie.

Monday we flew back to Praia and stayed with Emily for the night before getting our boat back to Maio on Tuesday morning. The boat ride wasn’t too bad and we were invited by the boat people to come sit with them up where they steer. We saw all the cool machines and stuff and they explained how they worked. Even cooler- we saw dolphins!

It was so nice to get back to Maio after all the traveling and see my people again. Kathryn proceeded to be sick for the next two days but by Thursday she was ready to go again.

Saturday Kathryn and I led Nhos Brinka and the kids were really excited to have their program back. We taught them a game called four corners and then kickball. Towards the end of the game they seemed to really understand it. Afterwards we took them to the Polivalente where we tried to organize 5 on 5 soccer but it was a little caotic. Eventually my friend showed up and he was really good with handling the kids and playing referee for the soccer games. That afternoon a bunch of people came over for Carnival prep. We made a bunch of pom poms out of plastic bags, wrist decorations out of toilet paper rolls and green paper and made things to go on people’s heads.

Sunday I took Kathryn to the sand dunes in Morrinho and we had a blast. We both got some sun, I did a little reading, and we played with my puppy. When we came back we heard that there would be a dance that evening but when we showed up at 11 the place was dead.

Monday we spend the morning running errands in Vila- paying bills, making photocopies, etc. We got Kathryn on her boat and it was sad having to say goodbye after a wonderful three weeks with her. Once I got back to Calheta in the afternoon I helped with more Carnival prep. We glued blue and white fabric over shoes that would be worn by the dancers on Tuesday. In the evening I went to the house where the sewing was being done and saw the outfits and helped figure out where to put embellishments on our queen’s dress. The entire group had practice at 10 so I was in the street watching along with some friends.

The next morning I slept in and helped get everyone dressed for Carnival. Our theme was the forest, ocean and culture- things that make up Calheta. We had one part of the group dressed as “trees” in green and brown, followed by a float with plants that were being watered with a huge watering can, a guy who was really milking a goat on the float, and women pounding corn and cooking. Then followed the ocean sequence with the group wearing all blue with the pom poms in their hands and then a group in all white. Following them was our second float which carried our queen who was dressed as a mermaid. This float had two huge dolphins and lots of shells. Following them was the drum line and then our third float with a large conductors stand with Djon pretending to conduct an orchestra and below him a boat with a movable sail, a guy looking out with binoculars, a fisherman who would pull up a fish and then hack at it with a knife and a guy trying to get a motor to start in the back of the boat. Walking alongside the float were men dressed as sailors. It was great. Our group made it to Vila around 5 and the parade started. There were small individual groups and then the large groups from different zones. This year only Calheta and Morro participated. Morro’s theme was Peace and they had a float with a giant world that actually spun and another with a giant dove. They were pretty impressive but Calheta received the better marks from the judges and we won for the first time ever! When we got back to Calheta there was shouting in the streets and everyone was celebrating our win.