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.