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.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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.
Monday, February 05, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
New Year
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Yeah, I know its been awhile since I’ve written. I’ve been in a slump recently so I haven’t felt like really doing much at all. I had problems with transportation which turned into an enormous pain and then I was really frustrated with the youth center for not really holding any activities and not helping make my ideas turn into reality. They pretty much shot down my Global Youth Service Day project idea because one person was “busy” and the other was “uninterested.” I spoke with my counterpart at the Camara about my frustrations and we held a meeting for the employees at the youth center. So hopefully things will start picking up. I’m going to be teaching an art class (which really means I will be doing art projects with 8-11 year olds) and English classes for kids. By having more activities I didn’t necessarily mean me leading more activities but if this is what it takes to show them that more people need to be leading things then I’m happy to do it. They are talking about arranging chess, uril (like mancala), dominos, ping pong, and card tournaments but I’m a little skeptical as to if they’ll really happen. I have a meeting tonight about something with the CEJ but I’m not sure exactly what.
In good news, the Ambassador is coming to visit Maio and my roommate and I have been invited to some sort of activity/ceremony thing with the Africa Development Fund and the Ambassador. So that should be interesting. It will also be nice to chat with the Ambassador and his wife. If I remember correctly from swear in, this will be his first trip to Maio.
Wednesday, January 24
So last week I had a meeting with a person from the Camara who wants me to help with a project to keep girls from becoming promiscuous when all the tourists come to Maio. So we are going to work with the Red Cross and the girl’s group to plan activities, have speakers, etc about women’s issues, health, reproduction, volunteerism, etc. Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd. Unfortunately, both the person from the Camara and the Red Cross person are going out of town today so I’ll be starting this myself, not that I mind but I really want Cape Verdians to be doing the majority of the work since it is benefiting them. But, nevertheless I hope it all works out.
So I hit a new low today: a guy asked me to copy a dvd for him. He brought it in an envelope because he “doesn’t want people to talk.” Inside the envelope was a hard core porn film. I think I almost peed in my pants. Anyways, I was at the CEJ and was thinking this is ridiculous and there is no way I am going to copy a porn for someone, especially being at a youth center where we are supposed to be enriching the minds of the youth, not introducing them to hard core porn. Luckily the blank dvd didn’t have enough space anyway so I had even more reason not to make the dvd. Anyways, it was definitely a new experience here. Good thing the Ambassador didn’t walk in during the episode.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Happy Birthday Daniel! Sorry I haven’t written in awhile. Mike came to visit on the 28th and I just came back from Praia today after a little crazyness. I flew to Praia before he arrived and stayed with two other volunteers. I had fun getting ice cream and hanging out with them. I ran into a one of our trainers from PST and it was really interesting seeing him in a social setting outside from the usual professionalism that we get during PST. We eventually ended up at another volunteer’s house and hung out for awhile before my all nighter waiting for Mike’s flight to get in at 4 am. I ran into our Country Director at the airport as well as another volunteer who was returning from Christmas vacation. It really shows how small this country is when you run into 2 people you know at the airport.
So the next day we slept in and got a hotel. We pretty much slept all day and later went to the PC office where I got to introduce him to everyone and ran into yet more volunteers. I can see how the Praia people can get tired of playing host since there really always is someone in Praia for one reason or another.
The next day (Friday) we took a plane back to Maio and went straight to Calheta for English class. I was really glad Mike got to be there to see what I do at least for part of my work and I think he had a good time getting students to yell words back to him in English and learning a little kriolu from my counterpart. He tried his first moreia, eel, and a shot of grogue. During the visit to Maio we also managed to walk up on the pier where someone was dissecting a pufferfish that they had just caught. I asked them if they were going to eat it and was informed that they don’t eat pufferfish, they are just used for art.
New Years eve was pretty calm- watched a few movies and had some wine at midnight. The real party didn’t start until about 2:30 or 3 and we didn’t stay too long because my stomach was having issues. The roommate lasted at the festa until like 8 am. Anyways, the festa was on the beach under this big tent thing with a spread of food that included whole baby pigs, lobster, pizza, cake, sangria, and enough beer, ponche, grogue, and wine to get the US Marines drunk. They also had a big bonfire on the sand.
The next few days we spent on a mission to get Mike’s plane ticket moved from Monday to Friday since the roommate and I had to go Praia on Friday for IST (In Service Training). Unfortunately it was full so no dice on that one. Instead we ended up buying boat tickets for Thursday and headed out on a 2 and a half hour boat ride to Praia.
The boat was pretty awful and rocky and the guy next to me was puking the entire way. I decided that my pirate fantasy will have to take place on dry land since I don’t think I could handle being in a boat for a long time, much less living at sea. I got a phone call from Peace Corps while I was on the boat telling me to take a boat to Praia because the planes weren’t going to be flying. I thought it was a little strange that someone would call me and tell me that when I had spoken with the same person the day before to let them know I was going to take a boat. So they got in touch with the roommate who was planning on the plane and she ended up having to take the later boat. Unfortunately for her, her motion sickness kicked in and we’ll just say she didn’t have the best ride over.
The next morning I get a call from Peace Corps saying that IST has been postponed because the sand storms coming from the Sahara are stopping flights from coming. So my roommate gets on the plane, an hour later, back to Maio and I decide to stay in Praia for the weekend with Mike. We ended up going to Sao Domingos to visit my host family and it was so wonderful to see them. I finally met the sister who studies in Dakar and she seems really nice. The 3 year old was so cute. He came up to me and gave me a big hug on my way to the house. My host mom was at the hospital with her niece, visiting from France, who had just had an allergic reaction to peanuts. I thought that was pretty funny considering my allergy. After she calmed down from the shot and meds she was really active and had fun playing with us. We met up with the volunteer that lives there and hung out for a bit. We also went on the hike I used to do during training and it brought back so many memories. I had such a good time. It was also fun watching Mike interact with my host mom and her trying to teach him kriolu. I and everyone else must have looked like him when we arrived- with the sort of deer caught in headlights, overwhelmed sort of look.
We spent Sunday in Praia getting some shopping done (with what was open since everything closes down on Sundays). It was kind of nice to walk through the Sucapira (a huge outdoor market) with only a few stands open and not a bazillion people. In the afternoon we learned that a few other volunteers were in town so we all met up for dinner.
I’m now back in Maio and getting things cracking. I taught English today and spoke with one of the weaving people about setting up a meeting to make plans for a project so hopefully we’ll be meeting by the end of the week to do something concrete. I also talked with my counterpart about getting the women together to make an activity plan for the next few months. So hopefully this week will be really productive. I ‘m going tomorrow to the micro-credit place to work on the brochure and power point presentation and the CEJ to figure out a plan for Youth Day and what sort of activities we can to in the center. I’m working on a project proposal to do a “what to do after high school” class sort of thing where we bring in professionals from different fields to talk to high school juniors and seniors and allow them to ask questions and get more information. Maybe it could be something done jointly with the high school. So I’m trying to keep myself motivated, especially after all the holidays and stuff that seemed to sort of slow down for a bit.
Yeah, I know its been awhile since I’ve written. I’ve been in a slump recently so I haven’t felt like really doing much at all. I had problems with transportation which turned into an enormous pain and then I was really frustrated with the youth center for not really holding any activities and not helping make my ideas turn into reality. They pretty much shot down my Global Youth Service Day project idea because one person was “busy” and the other was “uninterested.” I spoke with my counterpart at the Camara about my frustrations and we held a meeting for the employees at the youth center. So hopefully things will start picking up. I’m going to be teaching an art class (which really means I will be doing art projects with 8-11 year olds) and English classes for kids. By having more activities I didn’t necessarily mean me leading more activities but if this is what it takes to show them that more people need to be leading things then I’m happy to do it. They are talking about arranging chess, uril (like mancala), dominos, ping pong, and card tournaments but I’m a little skeptical as to if they’ll really happen. I have a meeting tonight about something with the CEJ but I’m not sure exactly what.
In good news, the Ambassador is coming to visit Maio and my roommate and I have been invited to some sort of activity/ceremony thing with the Africa Development Fund and the Ambassador. So that should be interesting. It will also be nice to chat with the Ambassador and his wife. If I remember correctly from swear in, this will be his first trip to Maio.
Wednesday, January 24
So last week I had a meeting with a person from the Camara who wants me to help with a project to keep girls from becoming promiscuous when all the tourists come to Maio. So we are going to work with the Red Cross and the girl’s group to plan activities, have speakers, etc about women’s issues, health, reproduction, volunteerism, etc. Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd. Unfortunately, both the person from the Camara and the Red Cross person are going out of town today so I’ll be starting this myself, not that I mind but I really want Cape Verdians to be doing the majority of the work since it is benefiting them. But, nevertheless I hope it all works out.
So I hit a new low today: a guy asked me to copy a dvd for him. He brought it in an envelope because he “doesn’t want people to talk.” Inside the envelope was a hard core porn film. I think I almost peed in my pants. Anyways, I was at the CEJ and was thinking this is ridiculous and there is no way I am going to copy a porn for someone, especially being at a youth center where we are supposed to be enriching the minds of the youth, not introducing them to hard core porn. Luckily the blank dvd didn’t have enough space anyway so I had even more reason not to make the dvd. Anyways, it was definitely a new experience here. Good thing the Ambassador didn’t walk in during the episode.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Happy Birthday Daniel! Sorry I haven’t written in awhile. Mike came to visit on the 28th and I just came back from Praia today after a little crazyness. I flew to Praia before he arrived and stayed with two other volunteers. I had fun getting ice cream and hanging out with them. I ran into a one of our trainers from PST and it was really interesting seeing him in a social setting outside from the usual professionalism that we get during PST. We eventually ended up at another volunteer’s house and hung out for awhile before my all nighter waiting for Mike’s flight to get in at 4 am. I ran into our Country Director at the airport as well as another volunteer who was returning from Christmas vacation. It really shows how small this country is when you run into 2 people you know at the airport.
So the next day we slept in and got a hotel. We pretty much slept all day and later went to the PC office where I got to introduce him to everyone and ran into yet more volunteers. I can see how the Praia people can get tired of playing host since there really always is someone in Praia for one reason or another.
The next day (Friday) we took a plane back to Maio and went straight to Calheta for English class. I was really glad Mike got to be there to see what I do at least for part of my work and I think he had a good time getting students to yell words back to him in English and learning a little kriolu from my counterpart. He tried his first moreia, eel, and a shot of grogue. During the visit to Maio we also managed to walk up on the pier where someone was dissecting a pufferfish that they had just caught. I asked them if they were going to eat it and was informed that they don’t eat pufferfish, they are just used for art.
New Years eve was pretty calm- watched a few movies and had some wine at midnight. The real party didn’t start until about 2:30 or 3 and we didn’t stay too long because my stomach was having issues. The roommate lasted at the festa until like 8 am. Anyways, the festa was on the beach under this big tent thing with a spread of food that included whole baby pigs, lobster, pizza, cake, sangria, and enough beer, ponche, grogue, and wine to get the US Marines drunk. They also had a big bonfire on the sand.
The next few days we spent on a mission to get Mike’s plane ticket moved from Monday to Friday since the roommate and I had to go Praia on Friday for IST (In Service Training). Unfortunately it was full so no dice on that one. Instead we ended up buying boat tickets for Thursday and headed out on a 2 and a half hour boat ride to Praia.
The boat was pretty awful and rocky and the guy next to me was puking the entire way. I decided that my pirate fantasy will have to take place on dry land since I don’t think I could handle being in a boat for a long time, much less living at sea. I got a phone call from Peace Corps while I was on the boat telling me to take a boat to Praia because the planes weren’t going to be flying. I thought it was a little strange that someone would call me and tell me that when I had spoken with the same person the day before to let them know I was going to take a boat. So they got in touch with the roommate who was planning on the plane and she ended up having to take the later boat. Unfortunately for her, her motion sickness kicked in and we’ll just say she didn’t have the best ride over.
The next morning I get a call from Peace Corps saying that IST has been postponed because the sand storms coming from the Sahara are stopping flights from coming. So my roommate gets on the plane, an hour later, back to Maio and I decide to stay in Praia for the weekend with Mike. We ended up going to Sao Domingos to visit my host family and it was so wonderful to see them. I finally met the sister who studies in Dakar and she seems really nice. The 3 year old was so cute. He came up to me and gave me a big hug on my way to the house. My host mom was at the hospital with her niece, visiting from France, who had just had an allergic reaction to peanuts. I thought that was pretty funny considering my allergy. After she calmed down from the shot and meds she was really active and had fun playing with us. We met up with the volunteer that lives there and hung out for a bit. We also went on the hike I used to do during training and it brought back so many memories. I had such a good time. It was also fun watching Mike interact with my host mom and her trying to teach him kriolu. I and everyone else must have looked like him when we arrived- with the sort of deer caught in headlights, overwhelmed sort of look.
We spent Sunday in Praia getting some shopping done (with what was open since everything closes down on Sundays). It was kind of nice to walk through the Sucapira (a huge outdoor market) with only a few stands open and not a bazillion people. In the afternoon we learned that a few other volunteers were in town so we all met up for dinner.
I’m now back in Maio and getting things cracking. I taught English today and spoke with one of the weaving people about setting up a meeting to make plans for a project so hopefully we’ll be meeting by the end of the week to do something concrete. I also talked with my counterpart about getting the women together to make an activity plan for the next few months. So hopefully this week will be really productive. I ‘m going tomorrow to the micro-credit place to work on the brochure and power point presentation and the CEJ to figure out a plan for Youth Day and what sort of activities we can to in the center. I’m working on a project proposal to do a “what to do after high school” class sort of thing where we bring in professionals from different fields to talk to high school juniors and seniors and allow them to ask questions and get more information. Maybe it could be something done jointly with the high school. So I’m trying to keep myself motivated, especially after all the holidays and stuff that seemed to sort of slow down for a bit.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
This past weekend was pretty quiet. Sunday afternoon I taught violin and my student brought a guitar along and we spent about an hour after the lesson playing Christmas carol duets. It was pretty fun. We ended up with a small crowd of little boys who came to listen. That night our friends came over, one of them in particular was pretty drunk, and played with the puppies, and gave us a dance lesson. This dance lesson lasted for about 2 hours and was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, my dancing skills are pretty horrific so I kept getting, “no Julia, like this...”
Yesterday the roommate and I went to TACV to get tickets to Boa Vista for Christmas but soon learned that she can’t get away from school so I’m not going to waste the money when I’ll see everyone a few weeks later for IST.
This morning I got up to go to teach computers and found out that someone from Borreiro died this morning which translates into no class this week. So the driver who was going to take me to Borreiro drove me to a store to get a new phone charger. At some point yesterday the puppies got into my room and decided to chew through the old phone charger so that it is in two pieces. Thanks a lot Fubar and Gatsby. So the store doesn’t have any more chargers so now I have to wait for them to order one and in the meantime, my driver friend is going to try to connect the pieces together and make it work.
I’m now reaching my 6 month mark in being away from the states. I can’t tell if it feels like I’ve been gone for a long time or if I’ve just left. Every time I travel its different. When I studied in Senegal I would be back in the states by now. I guess knowing that I’m here for such a long period of time makes me not really think about the time passing. Right now I’m just really looking forward to Mike coming to visit and then I have IST to look forward to so things are good.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
After the English class yesterday I ended up talking with my counterpart and met up with another girl from the women’s group and a woman from the “alphatabetacao” which is a group that works with illiteracy. Between her group, the women, and Peace Corps we are going to put on a Christmas lunch party for the fishermen of Calheta because every year there are parties for children and old people but a lot of groups are neglected. This includes the fishermen. I couldn’t tell you all that much about their trade or how they are treated but I am happy to be working on projects when people are taking initiative so I am pretty excited.
So we agreed to meet this morning to talk to different organizations. So at 10 this morning we went to the Association of Fishermen, the Post Office, Telecom, the water place, the micro-credit office, Shell, TACV, and random people and asked them for financial help with our lunch. We got a lot of come back later or tomorrows but individual people were being very generous which was great.
I went to the bank this morning to see if my atm card had come in yet like I was told and I get there to wait 45 minutes and ended up getting a piece of paper with my pin number but no actual card. The guy tells me it will be here in 10 days. I never thought this would take so long.
So next week is going to be filled with parties. Tuesday is the fishermen party, Thursday we make cookies at the CEJ for my activity, Friday is a party for the people who work at the CEJ and Friday night is a party for the teachers at the high school which I’m getting to attend because everyone thinks that my roommate and I have to do everything together. Then Saturday is a huge party for all the children in Maio and Monday is Christmas. Too bad no one here celebrates Hanukkah. I think I’m going to invite people over to eat latkes and doughnuts this coming Friday.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
So this was probably the longest week I’ve had. I got a little cold/sore throat/loss of voice but I think its finally recovering. The fisherman party on Tuesday went really well. I left Vila at 9 am to help with preparations and didn’t get home until 7 at night. During the day I ran back and forth from different houses pretty much all day helping the boss lady make sure everything was on task and helped cook. I got to mix cake batter in a large bowl, cut and peel potatoes, and sprinkle cheese on top of pizzas. I finally realized how much work and how many people go into making a party happen in Cape Verde. At one house there were about 6 or 7 women making racoes (a type of fried dough with fish inside and covered in breadcrumbs), 10 cakes, pizza (this includes homemade dough), chicken with sauce, popcorn, and some other fried snack food. At the other house there were another half a dozen people making xeren (kind of like grits but less thinly ground), chicken with various sauces, vegetables- manioc, sweet potatoes, English potatoes, etc, rice, and kongo (type of beans). I orignially thought that the party was a lunch which of course meant that we wouldn’t start eating before 5. So by 2:30 I was starving and the family whose house was making the snack foods fed me lunch of rice, fries, and fish. By that point I didn’t want any of the snacks afterwards.
The whole festa was supposed to start at 2:30 but no one showed up until 4 (pretty typical). Once the actual program started, the head of the alfabatizacao and the micro credit organization came and spoke to the fisherman. Then the head of the fisherman association spoke and then I was forced up front to make a statement. I explained Peace Corps and then not knowing how to inspire the fisherman ended up making a fool out of myself and said “I like fish.” After the speeches a few people put on a skit which I didn’t fully understand but everyone laughed at. And then finally it was time for food. While we were eating I was asked for help in procurring a boat for one of the fishermen and was told that I was someone’s mudjer (woman). I think its absolutely ridiculous that people just sort of claim you and assume that’s cool with you. It was a little weird and he was drunk so I just kind of ignored it.
I don’t know how they knew but apparently everyone at the festa knew that I play the violin or “rebecca” as they call it, and brought one over for me to play. I can tell you this, by the time I leave here I better not be scared of playing in front of people because they put the instrument in my hands and crowded around me like a movie star or something. Since I don’t know how to play Cape Verdian music yet I played a few Christmas carols for them and they loved it. After playing other men proceeded to tell me that they like women who can play instruments- sorry buddy, I’m not interested. One woman invited me to play violin with her batuk (a type of traditional dance) group which could be really fun. It was a really great day and it made me so happy to be here.
Wednesday I went to Barreiro to teach computers and none of my students showed up. I was told that someone else died this week so that could be why or they just didn’t want to come. I got really frustrated that no one was coming to class so I didn’t go the rest of the week. I’m here for them so if they won’t make the effort to show up for something they asked for, I won’t go. In the afternoon I went over to the leader of the group for people with deficiencies’ house to help put together Christmas gifts from the Camara for all of the people on Maio who have deficiencies.
Thursday was another really rewarding day. I went with the woman from yesterday and a few guys from the CEJ and my favorite driver from the Camara to drive around the entire island to deliver the care packages. These consisted of a bag of powdered milk, a 2 liter bottle of soda (or sumol as they call it here), 4 packs of cookies, a pack of spaghetti, and 500 escudos. The smile on people’s faces when we brought them a gift was priceless and it felt really good to be giving to people who could use some extra cheer during the holidays. It also really opened my eyes to the extent of people with deficiencies on this island and how they are treated. Most of them stay inside the house all the time so you never see them but I did get to see that Maio has people in wheelchairs, people whose minds make them think like children, people who are deaf, people with lack of hearing, limbs, even what I presume is Down Syndrome. It was a wonderful experience for me and I hope that the Camara can do more to show the handicapped community that they are important and better integrate them into the community.
Friday was the day of festas. I was supposed to go to 3 but one was cancelled because a few fisherman from the community have not been seen in 2 days so there is a somber mood in the town. The CEJ festa was fun. I helped set up, which is just as important as the food itself. At every festa, the women spend like half an hour just putting things into dishes and arranging them on the table. The 10 o’clock start time for the festa was really the time to start arranging everything so we didn’t actually eat until 1. Can I get another, you know you are in Cape Verde when...? While I waited I went to see my friend who just returned home from having a baby and the baby. She is doing really well and her baby is so cute. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby that young before and he’s so little and has these cute little fingers and toes.
In the afternoon I went to Calheta for my English class party. The girls all brought the usual party foods and we had a good time singing Christmas songs in English and learning words about the holidays in English. One of my students made me couscous, one of my favorite foods here (its not like your couscous in the states but more like a dry cake made of the couscous flour stuff, potato puree, and cooked over water so it absorbs the water).
This past weekend was pretty quiet. Sunday afternoon I taught violin and my student brought a guitar along and we spent about an hour after the lesson playing Christmas carol duets. It was pretty fun. We ended up with a small crowd of little boys who came to listen. That night our friends came over, one of them in particular was pretty drunk, and played with the puppies, and gave us a dance lesson. This dance lesson lasted for about 2 hours and was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, my dancing skills are pretty horrific so I kept getting, “no Julia, like this...”
Yesterday the roommate and I went to TACV to get tickets to Boa Vista for Christmas but soon learned that she can’t get away from school so I’m not going to waste the money when I’ll see everyone a few weeks later for IST.
This morning I got up to go to teach computers and found out that someone from Borreiro died this morning which translates into no class this week. So the driver who was going to take me to Borreiro drove me to a store to get a new phone charger. At some point yesterday the puppies got into my room and decided to chew through the old phone charger so that it is in two pieces. Thanks a lot Fubar and Gatsby. So the store doesn’t have any more chargers so now I have to wait for them to order one and in the meantime, my driver friend is going to try to connect the pieces together and make it work.
I’m now reaching my 6 month mark in being away from the states. I can’t tell if it feels like I’ve been gone for a long time or if I’ve just left. Every time I travel its different. When I studied in Senegal I would be back in the states by now. I guess knowing that I’m here for such a long period of time makes me not really think about the time passing. Right now I’m just really looking forward to Mike coming to visit and then I have IST to look forward to so things are good.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
After the English class yesterday I ended up talking with my counterpart and met up with another girl from the women’s group and a woman from the “alphatabetacao” which is a group that works with illiteracy. Between her group, the women, and Peace Corps we are going to put on a Christmas lunch party for the fishermen of Calheta because every year there are parties for children and old people but a lot of groups are neglected. This includes the fishermen. I couldn’t tell you all that much about their trade or how they are treated but I am happy to be working on projects when people are taking initiative so I am pretty excited.
So we agreed to meet this morning to talk to different organizations. So at 10 this morning we went to the Association of Fishermen, the Post Office, Telecom, the water place, the micro-credit office, Shell, TACV, and random people and asked them for financial help with our lunch. We got a lot of come back later or tomorrows but individual people were being very generous which was great.
I went to the bank this morning to see if my atm card had come in yet like I was told and I get there to wait 45 minutes and ended up getting a piece of paper with my pin number but no actual card. The guy tells me it will be here in 10 days. I never thought this would take so long.
So next week is going to be filled with parties. Tuesday is the fishermen party, Thursday we make cookies at the CEJ for my activity, Friday is a party for the people who work at the CEJ and Friday night is a party for the teachers at the high school which I’m getting to attend because everyone thinks that my roommate and I have to do everything together. Then Saturday is a huge party for all the children in Maio and Monday is Christmas. Too bad no one here celebrates Hanukkah. I think I’m going to invite people over to eat latkes and doughnuts this coming Friday.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
So this was probably the longest week I’ve had. I got a little cold/sore throat/loss of voice but I think its finally recovering. The fisherman party on Tuesday went really well. I left Vila at 9 am to help with preparations and didn’t get home until 7 at night. During the day I ran back and forth from different houses pretty much all day helping the boss lady make sure everything was on task and helped cook. I got to mix cake batter in a large bowl, cut and peel potatoes, and sprinkle cheese on top of pizzas. I finally realized how much work and how many people go into making a party happen in Cape Verde. At one house there were about 6 or 7 women making racoes (a type of fried dough with fish inside and covered in breadcrumbs), 10 cakes, pizza (this includes homemade dough), chicken with sauce, popcorn, and some other fried snack food. At the other house there were another half a dozen people making xeren (kind of like grits but less thinly ground), chicken with various sauces, vegetables- manioc, sweet potatoes, English potatoes, etc, rice, and kongo (type of beans). I orignially thought that the party was a lunch which of course meant that we wouldn’t start eating before 5. So by 2:30 I was starving and the family whose house was making the snack foods fed me lunch of rice, fries, and fish. By that point I didn’t want any of the snacks afterwards.
The whole festa was supposed to start at 2:30 but no one showed up until 4 (pretty typical). Once the actual program started, the head of the alfabatizacao and the micro credit organization came and spoke to the fisherman. Then the head of the fisherman association spoke and then I was forced up front to make a statement. I explained Peace Corps and then not knowing how to inspire the fisherman ended up making a fool out of myself and said “I like fish.” After the speeches a few people put on a skit which I didn’t fully understand but everyone laughed at. And then finally it was time for food. While we were eating I was asked for help in procurring a boat for one of the fishermen and was told that I was someone’s mudjer (woman). I think its absolutely ridiculous that people just sort of claim you and assume that’s cool with you. It was a little weird and he was drunk so I just kind of ignored it.
I don’t know how they knew but apparently everyone at the festa knew that I play the violin or “rebecca” as they call it, and brought one over for me to play. I can tell you this, by the time I leave here I better not be scared of playing in front of people because they put the instrument in my hands and crowded around me like a movie star or something. Since I don’t know how to play Cape Verdian music yet I played a few Christmas carols for them and they loved it. After playing other men proceeded to tell me that they like women who can play instruments- sorry buddy, I’m not interested. One woman invited me to play violin with her batuk (a type of traditional dance) group which could be really fun. It was a really great day and it made me so happy to be here.
Wednesday I went to Barreiro to teach computers and none of my students showed up. I was told that someone else died this week so that could be why or they just didn’t want to come. I got really frustrated that no one was coming to class so I didn’t go the rest of the week. I’m here for them so if they won’t make the effort to show up for something they asked for, I won’t go. In the afternoon I went over to the leader of the group for people with deficiencies’ house to help put together Christmas gifts from the Camara for all of the people on Maio who have deficiencies.
Thursday was another really rewarding day. I went with the woman from yesterday and a few guys from the CEJ and my favorite driver from the Camara to drive around the entire island to deliver the care packages. These consisted of a bag of powdered milk, a 2 liter bottle of soda (or sumol as they call it here), 4 packs of cookies, a pack of spaghetti, and 500 escudos. The smile on people’s faces when we brought them a gift was priceless and it felt really good to be giving to people who could use some extra cheer during the holidays. It also really opened my eyes to the extent of people with deficiencies on this island and how they are treated. Most of them stay inside the house all the time so you never see them but I did get to see that Maio has people in wheelchairs, people whose minds make them think like children, people who are deaf, people with lack of hearing, limbs, even what I presume is Down Syndrome. It was a wonderful experience for me and I hope that the Camara can do more to show the handicapped community that they are important and better integrate them into the community.
Friday was the day of festas. I was supposed to go to 3 but one was cancelled because a few fisherman from the community have not been seen in 2 days so there is a somber mood in the town. The CEJ festa was fun. I helped set up, which is just as important as the food itself. At every festa, the women spend like half an hour just putting things into dishes and arranging them on the table. The 10 o’clock start time for the festa was really the time to start arranging everything so we didn’t actually eat until 1. Can I get another, you know you are in Cape Verde when...? While I waited I went to see my friend who just returned home from having a baby and the baby. She is doing really well and her baby is so cute. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby that young before and he’s so little and has these cute little fingers and toes.
In the afternoon I went to Calheta for my English class party. The girls all brought the usual party foods and we had a good time singing Christmas songs in English and learning words about the holidays in English. One of my students made me couscous, one of my favorite foods here (its not like your couscous in the states but more like a dry cake made of the couscous flour stuff, potato puree, and cooked over water so it absorbs the water).
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
A bunch of updates
Monday, November 20, 2006
I finally started classes last week and hopefully I can keep up a routine. I had computer classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and they went alright. By Thursday I had a chalk board which makes things a little easier. Thursday there was a large group of girls who came and who had little experience with computers so after discussing what each part is and what it does we turned on the computers and tried our hands at Microsoft Paint. We really take computers for granted in the United States. I know I’ve been using one since elementary school and these high school aged girls have never touched a computer. I keep telling myself to be patient and it takes time to use the mouse and drag something across the screen. I think I’ll give them a little more Paint practice this week before we move on to Wordpad and practice with the keyboard. That’s going to be fun. On Friday, only 2 girls showed which was okay because we only have 2 computers and I could focus attention on them and let them practice for longer. I decided that I’m going to devote most of the class time to actually using the computers and practicing and less time explaining. It’s easier to show and have them play around and figure it out then to give each person their 2 minutes on the computer.
I had the first English class Friday afternoon and it was a lot less nerve wrecking than I had imagined. For a long time I’ve had this fear of getting up in front of the classroom but this time I felt a little more comfortable because I at least knew one of my students and I was teaching beginner English. A lot of the women are really shy about talking but I went around and made everyone practice individually with me. Friday night I went out with the Americans for pizza and was introduced to a few British guys who are here putting up a satellite for the American’s project. These Brits travel around 3 weeks every month installing and fixing satellites. I would love to be able to travel for a future job but that much traveling is a little extreme.
Yesterday I read a little War and Peace in the morning and in the afternoon my roommate and I went to the beach with the English teacher from Guinea and the Math teacher from Guinea. We checked out Ponta Preta where lots of kids were playing soccer and walking on the beach and we attempted to swim in the 15 foot waves. I stayed back towards the shore while my roommate and the math teacher were braving it. At one point I was standing in the water, less than knee deep, talking with a friend, and a wave comes up and completely knocks me off my feet. Of course everyone else has good balance and manages to stay above the water. At the same time, the ocean came up high enough on shore to drench all of our clothes and towels and almost take them back out to sea.
After our beach fun, we went to this guy’s house to pick up our puppies!!!! My puppy is all black with a white spot on his chest and his name is Captain Fubar. My roommate’s puppy is tan with a darker tan nose and his name (for the time being) is Gatsby. According to the Americans and my roommate, Captain Fubar is retarded because he kept falling over when he walks (but its really because he was tripping over his weird collar which is too small for his chubby legs). But he’s a great puppy except for the times when he relieves himself all over the house. I see why my parents never let me get a puppy growing up. I think my dad would have killed it after a day. After the puppies, we went to the French restaurant for a goodbye dinner for one of the Americans who leaves today.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
I didn’t end up going to Calheta today because my counterpart’s father died and when someone dies, pretty much the entire town shuts down. I wasn’t sure if we had class or not since I hadn’t heard from anyone but when I started walking to Calheta I saw pretty much every car on Maio packed full and driving towards Vila to the cemetery. I took that as a sign of no class for the day.
I had a lot of fun this evening. My roommate and I were invited to watch my counterpart who works at the camera and his band practice. It was a lot of fun watching them and I really enjoy Cape Verdian music. After the practice we all went to a place near by to eat grilled fish and hang out. It was really relaxing and a perfect evening.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving! While I really missed being home, waking up and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, cooking in the kitchen with my mom all day, my first Cape Verdian Thanksgiving was pretty good. A car was supposed to come pick me up to take me to Borreiro for computer class but it never showed so I didn’t end up going since walking would have taken an hour and a half and the chance of getting a car would take between 5 and 90 minutes. So I feel really bad for not showing up for computer class and I need to have a little talk with my counterpart who arranged the transport.
So I spent the morning prepping food for dinner- chopping potatoes, toasting and chopping bread, etc and took the puppies outside for a walk. A ton of kids came by on their way home from school and got the puppies all riled up.
In the afternoon I went on a hunt for onions and apples and succeeded with the onions but no apples were to be found since the boat has not yet come. So I have an apple pie crust sitting in my fridge and other ingredients out on the table while I wait for apples to come. So this years feast consisted of: lemon herb chicken (compliments of chef Stephanie), peas (also another Stephanie creation), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream for dessert. Our ex-pat friend and one of the Americans came over to partake and we ate until we felt ill. Or at least I felt ill.
I talked to my family who is all in Atlanta for Thanksgiving and it was really great to hear their voices. Especially since I never get to talk to my brother. Pretty much all I got from him this time was that he has a new girlfriend. Way to go champ!
Friday, November 24, 2006
After pretty much doing during the day I got ready to go to night one of the Municipal Festa for Figuera. Every town has its own Saint’s Day and this weekend is Figuera’s. What this really translates into is a large party where the entire island shows up. Cape Verdians sure know how to party. So we went to the polivalenti in Figuera to watch our friends (my quazi-counterpart, the dude “mos” that keeps hitting on my roommate despite the fact that he’s had a girlfriend for eight years, and the “best friend”) play music for the festa. Their group name, “the friends”, is a little ridiculous but they play pretty well. And for the first time since I’ve been in Maio, get ready for this, I was COLD! That’s right folks. It’s starting to cool down in the evenings which has been great. Its really nice to finally wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt. You have no idea how much I missed that feeling.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Day 2 of the festa. We rested up all day to get ready for the biggest night of Figuera Fest. We borrowed some films from our Portuguese teacher friend and I finally watched the Godfather for the first time. And I actually understood some of the Italian in the film after interacting with all the Italians here. Around 11 we got the last American to give us a ride to the festa. This time we saw practically the entire island. We ran into a ton of teachers and hung out with them for most of the night. They pretty much closed down these two main streets and lined up along the streets were tents, tables, snack cars, and lots of grills with skewers of chicken and pork. And of course everywhere you turned were bars with lots of beer. We seriously could have gotten trashed and not paid a dime for it since everyone kept trying to buy us drinks. We walked around for awhile with various people and then hit up the disco. It was so crowded this time. You could barely move. It kind of reminded me of being in a club in DC.
I danced the first dance with a random dude while the roommate danced with one of the teachers. Later in the night this same dude I danced with came up to me slightly drunker and demanded me to kiss him. I told him no and he asked why. Why do people always have to ask why when you say no here? Anyways, I told him I didn’t want to and I didn’t know him. His response to this was “I danced with you and I live in Vila.” I didn’t realize that qualified in knowing someone. During this same time, Math teacher #2 who wants to bang the Roommate was feeling up the Roommate’s ass as he felt his way around her back pocket to discover my cell phone. I didn’t realize it was necessary to caress the hiney in order to greet someone. Apparently his touchy-feelyness goes a long way.
My reaction was to dance only with people I knew for the remainder of the evening and I ended up dancing with Best Friend for most of the night. Towards the end of the night Best Friend was a little drunk and a little excited. That creeped me out and it was then time to leave.
Another highlight of the night was when they played “Move Bitch, Get Out The Way” at the disco. I’m sure everyone understood what the words of the song actually meant...
At one point in the night, Portuguese teacher friend #2 was hammered and dancing very whitely in the street with a chicken skewer half in his mouth.
By the time we got home it was 4 am and my shoes were covered in beer from the ground and I was ready to pass out.
Cape Verdians tend to use certain phrases a lot. Here’s a list of what you’ll often hear in Maio and translations:
Mos: dude
E normal: its normal- this one they like to use to describe anything we think is completely ridiculous including having more than one girlfriend at the same time
E ka sim e- isn’t it true
Vida de pobre e kansado: the poor life is tiring
fixe: cool
sabe: good
Sunday, November 26, 2006
After being up until 4 last night, I spent this morning sleeping, walking the puppies, sleeping, watching movies, and sleeping. In the afternoon I took Captain Fubar for a walk to the ocean and pier to get him some exercise and introduce him to the ocean. Just as I expected, as soon as I put him in the ocean he started crying and immediately ran up on the beach. For being such a good sport, I took him up to the pier to watch the fishermen (and see if any of them would donate bait that they weren’t using to feed Fubar). I was also looking for someone who was headed on the boat to Praia and had the peephole that Peace Corps sent to be installed in our door. So we ended up on the pier for 2 hours making friends with a fisherboy and watching him catch an eel. Fubar was the cutest thing in the world trying to chase a dying fish that was flopping around. Every time it flopped he jumped back. It was really cute. While on the pier I got a call from my APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director- ie my boss) who said he will be arriving on Monday
Luckily I found someone I knew from the group for helping people with deficiencies who was from Calheta and he helped me locate the guy with my peephole who just happened to be my counterpart’s brother. After retrieving my peephole, Fubar and I ran into our Hiace driving friend and got a ride home.
In the evening we walked around and ran into Math teacher #2 who felt up the roommate’s butt. This time he wrapped his arms around the Roommate like an octopus. Once I said that she “looked uncomfortable” he released his death grip and we went home.
Monday, November 27, 2006
I definitely am losing my mind. I woke up this morning early thinking I had computer class in Borreiro and I would have to prepare a lesson before 8:30 since using the Camara to drive me seemed like a bad idea since the past week was unreliable. So I ended up in a mild scurry to remember that it was Monday and I did not actually have a computer class today. Earlier in the weekend I ran into my tutoring student, Vespa, and found out that he was going to Praia so tutoring was out this week. So I spent the morning at the Casa de Juventude working on creating a typing lesson for my computer class.
I was on my way to Calheta for English class when I ran into the coordinator of the CEJ and was informed that another person from Calheta died and the class would again have to be postponed. On the way home I saw the funeral procession pass by my house. My boss’s plane got in late so we made plans to meet for tomorrow.
Since I had more free time I took Captain Fubar to the beach for a walk. I ran into the French guy and my friend’s brother and ended up chatting with them and playing with the puppy on the beach. I was also introduced to another Cape Verdian and a few Italians who actually spoke English and the 5 of us hung out for awhile. Once the sun was going down the Italians left and the Cape Verdians and I walked Fubar to the pier only to find it closed. But anyways, it was really nice to meet more new people and hang out with people my age.
Later the Roommate and I went to visit the English teacher/the teacher from Senegal/Math teacher #2 at their house and watch their tv. English teacher asked me if we are friends. I found that a bizarre question and said yes. I don’t know why he wouldn’t think we are friends. I also was told that they missed me and the roommate was jealous of my stellar looks and their longing to see me.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
This was probably one of the busiest days since I’ve been here. I woke up, mopped up the puppies’ messes while the Roommate walked them and typed up an activity for my computer class. I went to the CEJ around 8:30 to print it out only to learn that they are out of ink. So they told me to go to the Camara and print it there. The guy at the Camara was really nice and immediately let me take over his computer. But it took about half an hour to get the computer to recognize my pin drive. Once I finally opened the document the computer crashed and every time following proceeded to crash for the next 20 minutes. Eventually I got everything to print and I apologized profusely for my bad luck with the computer.
While I was at the Camara I ran into my friend who is president of the sports for people with deficiencies group and also has family in North Carolina and talked with her about the big event coming up. Every president of the Camara from every island is coming on Friday to Maio for some sort of meeting. She has the privledge, if you want to call it that, of organizing everything. So our English lesson tomorrow is probably out since she’s extremely busy. After our little soire, I found the guy at the Camara who arranges cars and talked to him about their lack of coming to get me last week. He put check marks on the piece of paper I had given him next to the times that they never showed. I guess these check marks mean that the cars will magically appear when I need them. Hmmm...
So my boss shows up with a Hiace and we head over to Borreiro for computer class. Three students showed up today and we practiced typing correctly and not hunting for keys with our pointer fingers. The first part of the activity that was supposed to take 5 minutes lasted the entire class. I really don’t know how to estimate how much time lesson plans will actually take. The ones that I think will be long, I breeze through, and others that should take a short period of time last forever. But its cool and I had fun moving fingers around when the pressed the keys with the wrong finger.
After Borreiro we went to the CEJ where my boss extensively interviewed the coordinator who told him I speak good Kriolu (I think she was just being nice) and talked about the drug and alcohol problem in Maio and upcoming projects. Apparently I am helping with something that just got approved but I have no idea what it is. Then we went to the Ministry of Education and met someone who works with the micro finance group that I still had been unable to get hold of. It turns out the president of the group is in Praia getting computers fixed because the bad electricity in Maio knocked out their computers and they lost all their programs. So once he gets back we’ll be having a meeting to make a plan. I’m really excited to finally be working with them.
As the usual part of the site visits, we were treated to lunch and today the French place actually had pork caramel which is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten, besides the tuna skewers.
After lunch we headed to Calheta to meet with my counterpart. When we got there, we visited her at her mother’s house where they are in mourning. It’s kind of like sitting shiva (a Jewish custom when someone dies). We went to the community center afterwards where some of my students were waiting for their English class. I wasn’t planning on having class but did a spur of the moment 30 minute review session of “How are you?” “What is your name?” “Where are you from?” etc. I also ran into the music teacher and made arrangements for our violin lesson on Sunday.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I just got out of a meeting with the president of the Camara and my APCD. He (APCD) is checking in on his flight plan for today since the chance of it being delayed is about 120%. Anyways, we had a little chat before I left and I’m going to be helping the micro-finance group sort of get themselves together. A lot of associations use them to save their money and they have money from different groups to give out as loans but its not being used, probably because people either don’t know it exists or are afraid they won’t be able to pay the place back. Anyways, the head of the place is also a passive person and he’ll be back shortly and I really look forward to getting things rolling. On top of that, I was informed that there may be some small business development work that I do later on which makes me kind of excited despite the fact that I know nothing about business. At least maybe this will help me decide if I want to go to business school when I get back.
In other good news, once my APCD took a look at my roommate’s and my beds, he said he could help us get newer, bigger ones. This makes me happy, especially since our mattresses are disgusting and probably have not been changed in the past 10 years. Plus, it will be nice for my sheets to finally fit on a regular sized bed instead of my twin bed.
Its funny how your mood can change really quickly here. So I got a ride from the Camara to Borreiro for my computer class but on the way back the driver never showed. I started walking back and was almost to the main road when a group of high school boys were dropped off and decided to make conversation with me. One of them started talking in French, the others in English. I explained to them that I am not a “sir” and the term “sir” is used only for men. They asked me for food and said they were hungry and I kind of snapped since I was a little upset that my driver didn’t show. I told them I was hungry too and I was in the same boat as them but I had to walk further. I was then asked for money to which I responded, “do I look like a bank?” I then went on to say that I am a volunteer here to help their and other people’s communities and asking for money is inappropriate. I was pretty upset after that incident.
s
So on my walk back, a different driver from the Camara drove by and said that my driver from earlier had gone to the airport and therefore hadn’t come to get me. It would have been nice if someone had called my cell phone or called someone in Borreiro to tell me this. Anyways, I was not happy when I got home.
Only 4 girls came to girl’s group today so we cancelled it for this week since the activity we had planned (about speaking up for yourself) involved role playing and people weren’t there so I went home and took Fubar for a walk. We went to the beach and he was conveniently placed in the ocean where he immediately became terrified and cold. The Cape Verdian solution was to rub sand all over him to dry him off. I think this idea is crap because now I have to deal with a sandy puppy.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
I can’t believe its already December. These weeks fly by. I guess the days sort of drag on at times but I’m now sort of feeling like I’m at home. I’m trying not to get too bothered by annoying things here like last Thursday when I waited for 30 at the Camara for them to give me a ride to Borreiro, which they said they would, and the car never came. It made me so mad. And I tried to get materials from the Camara for World AIDS Day which was last Friday but they never procured them. So, I had to improvise. I spent my own money on poster board and red crepe paper (I originally wanted a sheet and red paint) and cut out handprints for people to sign and put up on the poster in the shape of an AIDS ribbon. I also made little posters that were put up all around the CEJ with facts about HIV and AIDS or VIH and SIDA as they are called here. All of the presidents of Camaras in Cape Verde happened to be in Maio on Friday for a meeting and held it in a room above the CEJ so they told the coordinator, my counterpart, that the signs were really great. That made me happy. In the afternoon there was a big parade around all of Vila. All the students in primary school and at the liceo (high school) participated and carried signs and wore stickers. At the end of the parade they ended up in the Polivalenti with a speaker (the Maio doctor). I found out later that Calheta had their own parade that same afternoon.
Sunday I had my first violin lesson with the music teacher from Calheta. I thought it went really well. It was his first time playing a violin and he has a pretty good bow arm for a first timer and was able to draw the bow across the string and make a continuous note (note that I said note and not sound- most people kind of screech for awhile when they first start out- he played a genuine note). So after playing open strings and rhythms for an hour it was time for the women’s meeting. My counterpart laid down the line that she is not going to the forefront of the group and one of the younger girls is to become the leader. So we chose a new leader and all was good.
Yesterday our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and the Regional PCMO for all of West Africa came to Maio for a visit. It’s been fun showing them around and getting a few nice dinners.
Today has been interesting. This morning we got in the car to go to Borreiro and there was a dog sitting in front of the car. Apparently the driver didn’t see it because he proceeded to drive forward despite my yelling out “katxor, katxor” (dog, dog). Fortunately the dog did not die but I think he’s now a pirate dog now and has only one eye. His eye was all bleeding and gross and he kept crying really loud. It was really sad and I thought I would throw up.
Computer class went well. Today we learned how to type “e and I” with the correct fingers and then learned the functions of the keyboard and for those who have used computers, learned what the formatting bars do in Microsoft Word.
Lunch today was a farewell lunch with our Italian friend who made the most incredible food ever. He had these tomatoes stuffed with egg and some sort of sauce and tuna that was battered in breadcrumbs and cooked with tomato sauce and olives. For dessert he brought out orange cake and tangerines.
The ride to Calheta today was fun. There was a pig in a USAID food bag in the back of the truck with me and a bunch of men. I didn’t realize it was there until I saw something squirming. I guess the foul smell wasn’t just from people not using deoderant. When I got there, I found my counterpart sick with “gripe” (a cold) so she stayed away from class today. Today’s class went really well. We went over the present simple negative of “to be” which translates to “I am not, you are not, etc.” I checked everyone’s homework from last night and only one person had one question wrong. The entire class either cheated or is learning more than they show in class. It made me really proud. On the ride back I was sitting next to a lady with a 3 month old baby and a bucket of eel. When she got off in Morro she kind of just put the baby in my lap and for a minute I thought she was going to take off and leave me with a baby. It was kind of weird and I felt a little awkward with a baby thrown at me but I guess that’s the norm here. (Hey roommate- eh normal?)
December 8, 2006
Aah, the weekend is finally here. I got a ride to Borreiro and Calheta from the Camara which is a feat within itself. English class is going really well. After going around and telling people that what they wrote is correct, they were less timid in coming up to the board. On the ride back I met another woman who works with the Ministry of Education to help people in Calheta learn how to read. So we’re going to get our groups to work together on future projects.
Fubar is getting bigger. I want him to stay tiny. I gave him a bath last night and he hated me for it. But at least he’s clean and smells like green apples.
There’s been a few weird things happening here. A week ago or so the French restaurant closed because someone who either worked there or has some relation to the place tried to stab herself. Or at least that’s what we were told. And a few days ago my neighbor had to be taken away because “the ghost of someone who died got inside her and turned her into the devil.” What happened was she went to Praia without telling her husband or anyone and when she came back she went crazy and started yelling at everyone and breaking everything in the house including glass dishes and their television. So pretty much half of Vila was over in the neighborhood restraining her and getting her into a car to go to the hospital. When I got home today there was a crowd of women hanging out and lots of yelling. I bet the saga continues.
There is supposed to be live violin and a DJ tomorrow in Figuera and I really want to go. I’m excited to see some Cape Verdian violin playing.
I finally started classes last week and hopefully I can keep up a routine. I had computer classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and they went alright. By Thursday I had a chalk board which makes things a little easier. Thursday there was a large group of girls who came and who had little experience with computers so after discussing what each part is and what it does we turned on the computers and tried our hands at Microsoft Paint. We really take computers for granted in the United States. I know I’ve been using one since elementary school and these high school aged girls have never touched a computer. I keep telling myself to be patient and it takes time to use the mouse and drag something across the screen. I think I’ll give them a little more Paint practice this week before we move on to Wordpad and practice with the keyboard. That’s going to be fun. On Friday, only 2 girls showed which was okay because we only have 2 computers and I could focus attention on them and let them practice for longer. I decided that I’m going to devote most of the class time to actually using the computers and practicing and less time explaining. It’s easier to show and have them play around and figure it out then to give each person their 2 minutes on the computer.
I had the first English class Friday afternoon and it was a lot less nerve wrecking than I had imagined. For a long time I’ve had this fear of getting up in front of the classroom but this time I felt a little more comfortable because I at least knew one of my students and I was teaching beginner English. A lot of the women are really shy about talking but I went around and made everyone practice individually with me. Friday night I went out with the Americans for pizza and was introduced to a few British guys who are here putting up a satellite for the American’s project. These Brits travel around 3 weeks every month installing and fixing satellites. I would love to be able to travel for a future job but that much traveling is a little extreme.
Yesterday I read a little War and Peace in the morning and in the afternoon my roommate and I went to the beach with the English teacher from Guinea and the Math teacher from Guinea. We checked out Ponta Preta where lots of kids were playing soccer and walking on the beach and we attempted to swim in the 15 foot waves. I stayed back towards the shore while my roommate and the math teacher were braving it. At one point I was standing in the water, less than knee deep, talking with a friend, and a wave comes up and completely knocks me off my feet. Of course everyone else has good balance and manages to stay above the water. At the same time, the ocean came up high enough on shore to drench all of our clothes and towels and almost take them back out to sea.
After our beach fun, we went to this guy’s house to pick up our puppies!!!! My puppy is all black with a white spot on his chest and his name is Captain Fubar. My roommate’s puppy is tan with a darker tan nose and his name (for the time being) is Gatsby. According to the Americans and my roommate, Captain Fubar is retarded because he kept falling over when he walks (but its really because he was tripping over his weird collar which is too small for his chubby legs). But he’s a great puppy except for the times when he relieves himself all over the house. I see why my parents never let me get a puppy growing up. I think my dad would have killed it after a day. After the puppies, we went to the French restaurant for a goodbye dinner for one of the Americans who leaves today.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
I didn’t end up going to Calheta today because my counterpart’s father died and when someone dies, pretty much the entire town shuts down. I wasn’t sure if we had class or not since I hadn’t heard from anyone but when I started walking to Calheta I saw pretty much every car on Maio packed full and driving towards Vila to the cemetery. I took that as a sign of no class for the day.
I had a lot of fun this evening. My roommate and I were invited to watch my counterpart who works at the camera and his band practice. It was a lot of fun watching them and I really enjoy Cape Verdian music. After the practice we all went to a place near by to eat grilled fish and hang out. It was really relaxing and a perfect evening.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving! While I really missed being home, waking up and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, cooking in the kitchen with my mom all day, my first Cape Verdian Thanksgiving was pretty good. A car was supposed to come pick me up to take me to Borreiro for computer class but it never showed so I didn’t end up going since walking would have taken an hour and a half and the chance of getting a car would take between 5 and 90 minutes. So I feel really bad for not showing up for computer class and I need to have a little talk with my counterpart who arranged the transport.
So I spent the morning prepping food for dinner- chopping potatoes, toasting and chopping bread, etc and took the puppies outside for a walk. A ton of kids came by on their way home from school and got the puppies all riled up.
In the afternoon I went on a hunt for onions and apples and succeeded with the onions but no apples were to be found since the boat has not yet come. So I have an apple pie crust sitting in my fridge and other ingredients out on the table while I wait for apples to come. So this years feast consisted of: lemon herb chicken (compliments of chef Stephanie), peas (also another Stephanie creation), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream for dessert. Our ex-pat friend and one of the Americans came over to partake and we ate until we felt ill. Or at least I felt ill.
I talked to my family who is all in Atlanta for Thanksgiving and it was really great to hear their voices. Especially since I never get to talk to my brother. Pretty much all I got from him this time was that he has a new girlfriend. Way to go champ!
Friday, November 24, 2006
After pretty much doing during the day I got ready to go to night one of the Municipal Festa for Figuera. Every town has its own Saint’s Day and this weekend is Figuera’s. What this really translates into is a large party where the entire island shows up. Cape Verdians sure know how to party. So we went to the polivalenti in Figuera to watch our friends (my quazi-counterpart, the dude “mos” that keeps hitting on my roommate despite the fact that he’s had a girlfriend for eight years, and the “best friend”) play music for the festa. Their group name, “the friends”, is a little ridiculous but they play pretty well. And for the first time since I’ve been in Maio, get ready for this, I was COLD! That’s right folks. It’s starting to cool down in the evenings which has been great. Its really nice to finally wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt. You have no idea how much I missed that feeling.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Day 2 of the festa. We rested up all day to get ready for the biggest night of Figuera Fest. We borrowed some films from our Portuguese teacher friend and I finally watched the Godfather for the first time. And I actually understood some of the Italian in the film after interacting with all the Italians here. Around 11 we got the last American to give us a ride to the festa. This time we saw practically the entire island. We ran into a ton of teachers and hung out with them for most of the night. They pretty much closed down these two main streets and lined up along the streets were tents, tables, snack cars, and lots of grills with skewers of chicken and pork. And of course everywhere you turned were bars with lots of beer. We seriously could have gotten trashed and not paid a dime for it since everyone kept trying to buy us drinks. We walked around for awhile with various people and then hit up the disco. It was so crowded this time. You could barely move. It kind of reminded me of being in a club in DC.
I danced the first dance with a random dude while the roommate danced with one of the teachers. Later in the night this same dude I danced with came up to me slightly drunker and demanded me to kiss him. I told him no and he asked why. Why do people always have to ask why when you say no here? Anyways, I told him I didn’t want to and I didn’t know him. His response to this was “I danced with you and I live in Vila.” I didn’t realize that qualified in knowing someone. During this same time, Math teacher #2 who wants to bang the Roommate was feeling up the Roommate’s ass as he felt his way around her back pocket to discover my cell phone. I didn’t realize it was necessary to caress the hiney in order to greet someone. Apparently his touchy-feelyness goes a long way.
My reaction was to dance only with people I knew for the remainder of the evening and I ended up dancing with Best Friend for most of the night. Towards the end of the night Best Friend was a little drunk and a little excited. That creeped me out and it was then time to leave.
Another highlight of the night was when they played “Move Bitch, Get Out The Way” at the disco. I’m sure everyone understood what the words of the song actually meant...
At one point in the night, Portuguese teacher friend #2 was hammered and dancing very whitely in the street with a chicken skewer half in his mouth.
By the time we got home it was 4 am and my shoes were covered in beer from the ground and I was ready to pass out.
Cape Verdians tend to use certain phrases a lot. Here’s a list of what you’ll often hear in Maio and translations:
Mos: dude
E normal: its normal- this one they like to use to describe anything we think is completely ridiculous including having more than one girlfriend at the same time
E ka sim e- isn’t it true
Vida de pobre e kansado: the poor life is tiring
fixe: cool
sabe: good
Sunday, November 26, 2006
After being up until 4 last night, I spent this morning sleeping, walking the puppies, sleeping, watching movies, and sleeping. In the afternoon I took Captain Fubar for a walk to the ocean and pier to get him some exercise and introduce him to the ocean. Just as I expected, as soon as I put him in the ocean he started crying and immediately ran up on the beach. For being such a good sport, I took him up to the pier to watch the fishermen (and see if any of them would donate bait that they weren’t using to feed Fubar). I was also looking for someone who was headed on the boat to Praia and had the peephole that Peace Corps sent to be installed in our door. So we ended up on the pier for 2 hours making friends with a fisherboy and watching him catch an eel. Fubar was the cutest thing in the world trying to chase a dying fish that was flopping around. Every time it flopped he jumped back. It was really cute. While on the pier I got a call from my APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director- ie my boss) who said he will be arriving on Monday
Luckily I found someone I knew from the group for helping people with deficiencies who was from Calheta and he helped me locate the guy with my peephole who just happened to be my counterpart’s brother. After retrieving my peephole, Fubar and I ran into our Hiace driving friend and got a ride home.
In the evening we walked around and ran into Math teacher #2 who felt up the roommate’s butt. This time he wrapped his arms around the Roommate like an octopus. Once I said that she “looked uncomfortable” he released his death grip and we went home.
Monday, November 27, 2006
I definitely am losing my mind. I woke up this morning early thinking I had computer class in Borreiro and I would have to prepare a lesson before 8:30 since using the Camara to drive me seemed like a bad idea since the past week was unreliable. So I ended up in a mild scurry to remember that it was Monday and I did not actually have a computer class today. Earlier in the weekend I ran into my tutoring student, Vespa, and found out that he was going to Praia so tutoring was out this week. So I spent the morning at the Casa de Juventude working on creating a typing lesson for my computer class.
I was on my way to Calheta for English class when I ran into the coordinator of the CEJ and was informed that another person from Calheta died and the class would again have to be postponed. On the way home I saw the funeral procession pass by my house. My boss’s plane got in late so we made plans to meet for tomorrow.
Since I had more free time I took Captain Fubar to the beach for a walk. I ran into the French guy and my friend’s brother and ended up chatting with them and playing with the puppy on the beach. I was also introduced to another Cape Verdian and a few Italians who actually spoke English and the 5 of us hung out for awhile. Once the sun was going down the Italians left and the Cape Verdians and I walked Fubar to the pier only to find it closed. But anyways, it was really nice to meet more new people and hang out with people my age.
Later the Roommate and I went to visit the English teacher/the teacher from Senegal/Math teacher #2 at their house and watch their tv. English teacher asked me if we are friends. I found that a bizarre question and said yes. I don’t know why he wouldn’t think we are friends. I also was told that they missed me and the roommate was jealous of my stellar looks and their longing to see me.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
This was probably one of the busiest days since I’ve been here. I woke up, mopped up the puppies’ messes while the Roommate walked them and typed up an activity for my computer class. I went to the CEJ around 8:30 to print it out only to learn that they are out of ink. So they told me to go to the Camara and print it there. The guy at the Camara was really nice and immediately let me take over his computer. But it took about half an hour to get the computer to recognize my pin drive. Once I finally opened the document the computer crashed and every time following proceeded to crash for the next 20 minutes. Eventually I got everything to print and I apologized profusely for my bad luck with the computer.
While I was at the Camara I ran into my friend who is president of the sports for people with deficiencies group and also has family in North Carolina and talked with her about the big event coming up. Every president of the Camara from every island is coming on Friday to Maio for some sort of meeting. She has the privledge, if you want to call it that, of organizing everything. So our English lesson tomorrow is probably out since she’s extremely busy. After our little soire, I found the guy at the Camara who arranges cars and talked to him about their lack of coming to get me last week. He put check marks on the piece of paper I had given him next to the times that they never showed. I guess these check marks mean that the cars will magically appear when I need them. Hmmm...
So my boss shows up with a Hiace and we head over to Borreiro for computer class. Three students showed up today and we practiced typing correctly and not hunting for keys with our pointer fingers. The first part of the activity that was supposed to take 5 minutes lasted the entire class. I really don’t know how to estimate how much time lesson plans will actually take. The ones that I think will be long, I breeze through, and others that should take a short period of time last forever. But its cool and I had fun moving fingers around when the pressed the keys with the wrong finger.
After Borreiro we went to the CEJ where my boss extensively interviewed the coordinator who told him I speak good Kriolu (I think she was just being nice) and talked about the drug and alcohol problem in Maio and upcoming projects. Apparently I am helping with something that just got approved but I have no idea what it is. Then we went to the Ministry of Education and met someone who works with the micro finance group that I still had been unable to get hold of. It turns out the president of the group is in Praia getting computers fixed because the bad electricity in Maio knocked out their computers and they lost all their programs. So once he gets back we’ll be having a meeting to make a plan. I’m really excited to finally be working with them.
As the usual part of the site visits, we were treated to lunch and today the French place actually had pork caramel which is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten, besides the tuna skewers.
After lunch we headed to Calheta to meet with my counterpart. When we got there, we visited her at her mother’s house where they are in mourning. It’s kind of like sitting shiva (a Jewish custom when someone dies). We went to the community center afterwards where some of my students were waiting for their English class. I wasn’t planning on having class but did a spur of the moment 30 minute review session of “How are you?” “What is your name?” “Where are you from?” etc. I also ran into the music teacher and made arrangements for our violin lesson on Sunday.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I just got out of a meeting with the president of the Camara and my APCD. He (APCD) is checking in on his flight plan for today since the chance of it being delayed is about 120%. Anyways, we had a little chat before I left and I’m going to be helping the micro-finance group sort of get themselves together. A lot of associations use them to save their money and they have money from different groups to give out as loans but its not being used, probably because people either don’t know it exists or are afraid they won’t be able to pay the place back. Anyways, the head of the place is also a passive person and he’ll be back shortly and I really look forward to getting things rolling. On top of that, I was informed that there may be some small business development work that I do later on which makes me kind of excited despite the fact that I know nothing about business. At least maybe this will help me decide if I want to go to business school when I get back.
In other good news, once my APCD took a look at my roommate’s and my beds, he said he could help us get newer, bigger ones. This makes me happy, especially since our mattresses are disgusting and probably have not been changed in the past 10 years. Plus, it will be nice for my sheets to finally fit on a regular sized bed instead of my twin bed.
Its funny how your mood can change really quickly here. So I got a ride from the Camara to Borreiro for my computer class but on the way back the driver never showed. I started walking back and was almost to the main road when a group of high school boys were dropped off and decided to make conversation with me. One of them started talking in French, the others in English. I explained to them that I am not a “sir” and the term “sir” is used only for men. They asked me for food and said they were hungry and I kind of snapped since I was a little upset that my driver didn’t show. I told them I was hungry too and I was in the same boat as them but I had to walk further. I was then asked for money to which I responded, “do I look like a bank?” I then went on to say that I am a volunteer here to help their and other people’s communities and asking for money is inappropriate. I was pretty upset after that incident.
s
So on my walk back, a different driver from the Camara drove by and said that my driver from earlier had gone to the airport and therefore hadn’t come to get me. It would have been nice if someone had called my cell phone or called someone in Borreiro to tell me this. Anyways, I was not happy when I got home.
Only 4 girls came to girl’s group today so we cancelled it for this week since the activity we had planned (about speaking up for yourself) involved role playing and people weren’t there so I went home and took Fubar for a walk. We went to the beach and he was conveniently placed in the ocean where he immediately became terrified and cold. The Cape Verdian solution was to rub sand all over him to dry him off. I think this idea is crap because now I have to deal with a sandy puppy.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
I can’t believe its already December. These weeks fly by. I guess the days sort of drag on at times but I’m now sort of feeling like I’m at home. I’m trying not to get too bothered by annoying things here like last Thursday when I waited for 30 at the Camara for them to give me a ride to Borreiro, which they said they would, and the car never came. It made me so mad. And I tried to get materials from the Camara for World AIDS Day which was last Friday but they never procured them. So, I had to improvise. I spent my own money on poster board and red crepe paper (I originally wanted a sheet and red paint) and cut out handprints for people to sign and put up on the poster in the shape of an AIDS ribbon. I also made little posters that were put up all around the CEJ with facts about HIV and AIDS or VIH and SIDA as they are called here. All of the presidents of Camaras in Cape Verde happened to be in Maio on Friday for a meeting and held it in a room above the CEJ so they told the coordinator, my counterpart, that the signs were really great. That made me happy. In the afternoon there was a big parade around all of Vila. All the students in primary school and at the liceo (high school) participated and carried signs and wore stickers. At the end of the parade they ended up in the Polivalenti with a speaker (the Maio doctor). I found out later that Calheta had their own parade that same afternoon.
Sunday I had my first violin lesson with the music teacher from Calheta. I thought it went really well. It was his first time playing a violin and he has a pretty good bow arm for a first timer and was able to draw the bow across the string and make a continuous note (note that I said note and not sound- most people kind of screech for awhile when they first start out- he played a genuine note). So after playing open strings and rhythms for an hour it was time for the women’s meeting. My counterpart laid down the line that she is not going to the forefront of the group and one of the younger girls is to become the leader. So we chose a new leader and all was good.
Yesterday our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and the Regional PCMO for all of West Africa came to Maio for a visit. It’s been fun showing them around and getting a few nice dinners.
Today has been interesting. This morning we got in the car to go to Borreiro and there was a dog sitting in front of the car. Apparently the driver didn’t see it because he proceeded to drive forward despite my yelling out “katxor, katxor” (dog, dog). Fortunately the dog did not die but I think he’s now a pirate dog now and has only one eye. His eye was all bleeding and gross and he kept crying really loud. It was really sad and I thought I would throw up.
Computer class went well. Today we learned how to type “e and I” with the correct fingers and then learned the functions of the keyboard and for those who have used computers, learned what the formatting bars do in Microsoft Word.
Lunch today was a farewell lunch with our Italian friend who made the most incredible food ever. He had these tomatoes stuffed with egg and some sort of sauce and tuna that was battered in breadcrumbs and cooked with tomato sauce and olives. For dessert he brought out orange cake and tangerines.
The ride to Calheta today was fun. There was a pig in a USAID food bag in the back of the truck with me and a bunch of men. I didn’t realize it was there until I saw something squirming. I guess the foul smell wasn’t just from people not using deoderant. When I got there, I found my counterpart sick with “gripe” (a cold) so she stayed away from class today. Today’s class went really well. We went over the present simple negative of “to be” which translates to “I am not, you are not, etc.” I checked everyone’s homework from last night and only one person had one question wrong. The entire class either cheated or is learning more than they show in class. It made me really proud. On the ride back I was sitting next to a lady with a 3 month old baby and a bucket of eel. When she got off in Morro she kind of just put the baby in my lap and for a minute I thought she was going to take off and leave me with a baby. It was kind of weird and I felt a little awkward with a baby thrown at me but I guess that’s the norm here. (Hey roommate- eh normal?)
December 8, 2006
Aah, the weekend is finally here. I got a ride to Borreiro and Calheta from the Camara which is a feat within itself. English class is going really well. After going around and telling people that what they wrote is correct, they were less timid in coming up to the board. On the ride back I met another woman who works with the Ministry of Education to help people in Calheta learn how to read. So we’re going to get our groups to work together on future projects.
Fubar is getting bigger. I want him to stay tiny. I gave him a bath last night and he hated me for it. But at least he’s clean and smells like green apples.
There’s been a few weird things happening here. A week ago or so the French restaurant closed because someone who either worked there or has some relation to the place tried to stab herself. Or at least that’s what we were told. And a few days ago my neighbor had to be taken away because “the ghost of someone who died got inside her and turned her into the devil.” What happened was she went to Praia without telling her husband or anyone and when she came back she went crazy and started yelling at everyone and breaking everything in the house including glass dishes and their television. So pretty much half of Vila was over in the neighborhood restraining her and getting her into a car to go to the hospital. When I got home today there was a crowd of women hanging out and lots of yelling. I bet the saga continues.
There is supposed to be live violin and a DJ tomorrow in Figuera and I really want to go. I’m excited to see some Cape Verdian violin playing.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Right now I’m sitting in a sweltering hot room with an air condition that appears to not be functioning. I’m also sun burnt from our full day of activities as part of the training session we’ve had for the past four days. Today’s portion of the “sports for people with deficiencies” consisted of our group of 18 wearing bright red t-shirts (given to us by the man leading the formacao) and doing activities on the beach. We learned how to be resourceful and make a medicine ball out of a busted ball, water, sand, newspaper, plastic bags and tape. We also made stress balls out of sand and balloons and learned the secret to juggling. These were all things to use to help train people for sports. Also included in the day were those dreaded trust games where you have one person in the middle of a circle of people who is supposed to fall around and the people in the circle have to keep them up. I learned how to throw a javelin and a shot put and watched others try their skill at the discus. After snack time we played sitting volleyball and did activities in the ocean. It was pretty exhausting but I can’t complain after having spent the day playing on the beach.
So back to the sweltering room...After pretty much any sort of information session, class, etc, there is always a party with food and certificates passed out to honor your completion. After the electricity went out in the restaurant above the CEJ, we moved to our current location which is about 20 feet away from the CEJ and managed to keep electricity. We’ve been listening to the guy talk about paper work needed to make a project and have begun to form the association on Maio and decide who is in charge of what. They’re serving paella for dinner and then passing out certificates. So I am now officially certified as going through the class which pretty much means that I have a pretty piece of paper to decorate my room with.
Remember the blurb I wrote on the man asking why only women could come to the English class? Well today I was talking with a different man in Villa and explaining what I do, etc and he asked me why focus on women. This time I stood up for the women here and explained to him about the lack of opportunity for women in school, etc. Apparently all the men are now getting jealous that its the women who have banded together and are taking a stand for themselves. I don’t have any expectations on how things will change between men and women in Maio while I am here but I think this women’s group is getting more well known, at least in Calheta, and all of the women are getting really excited to do projects and have opportunities to learn things that they felt they didn’t have before. Even if I don’t accomplish anything really big while I’m here (which it seems a lot of people expect from me), I’m really proud to be working with a group of people who seem to really care about their community and their future and have taken the initiative to work for what they want.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Americans are back! Well, two of them anyway and its so great to see them again. Today was definitely a food day... We went to the Italian’s for lunch to celebrate the arrival of her husband. Later in the day we walked over to the soccer tournament across from the CEJ. A few of my roommate’s students were playing and its always fun to be out when the rest of the town is crowded around the “soccer field.”
We had heard a rumor that the Americans were coming back so we walked down to wear they are staying and alas, there they were! It was such a nice reunion. We went over to the British guy’s restaurant and celebrated with his new chocolate ice cream recipe which is the best one by far.
In a few minutes we are about to head over to one of my counterpart’s house for goat. I think I may be sick tomorrow after eating so much today.
Over the past two weeks 2 volunteers decided to ET or early terminate. Its really sad to see them go but I know they need to do what makes them happy. I’ve also heard that another volunteer is being medically separated which is also really depressing. I guess I always assumed some of our group would eventually ET but I wasn’t really sure when it would happen. Being the eternal optimist, I kind of hoped that everyone in our group would make it and show Peace Corps up but its not for everyone and I don’t want anyone to be where they don’t feel they should be. Leaving early is something that is on every volunteer’s mind at some point throughout their service. It is really hard being away from your friends, family, and your familiar surroundings and we definitely have our up and down days. Being in Cape Verde is a mixed blessing. We have certain elements of what we see back home- lights, faucets, refrigerators, Internet, sometimes even washing machines, but the electricity and water are inconsistent and it makes for an interesting time. The work part can also be frustrating because we are here to help and work at a job but a lot of the time it seems like the people here have everything covered and we question why they want us here to help. I understand how people would want to leave when they feel like they have nothing to do or could be doing the exact same thing back at home.
For the most part I’m happy here. I feel like I’m beginning to make friends, and once I start on my regular schedule next week, it will be nice to have a regular routine. One of the biggest frustrations for me as a “community mobilizer” volunteer is that I did not come in with a regular schedule. I need to have structure and I went about making it for myself. It’s taken a little while but I think the people and groups that I’m going to work with are ones that I really want to work with and will be happy helping with projects and classes. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve seen a need to work with the women and girls in this community and help them get access to more opportunities.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Saturday night was a lot of fun. Besides having food and drink thrown at us for hours, our friends also played guitar and sang Cape Verdian music. After our dinner we headed out to Figuera because “the discoteque in Figuera is better than the one in Vila.” In reality this meant, the are less people/ people that our friends that took us know well enough to tell their significant others that they took the American girls to a Disco. It was no where near as crowded as the one in Vila which was good because if all the men at the one in Vila were as drunk as the ones in Figuera, we would have had to fight off 5 times as many people who wanted to dance with us. It was nice to be there with people we know who could keep the staggering drunks away and it was a really nice time.
Yesterday evening was the women’s group meeting. I invited someone from the girls group in Borreiro to come talk about doing a joint project for the women to teach the girls to do weavings. We somehow got into conversation about the information sessions of people with deficiencies and that got a lot of people really wound up. These women were very opinionated on the topic and were pretty much all yelling at the same time for about 15 minutes.
When I got back we went to the Italian lady’s hotel to take a shower because we are all out of water and I think I’m the cleanest I’ve been in a long time. My hair is actually soft today. Yeah, I know, it a great feat...
This afternoon I was supposed to start my English classes in Calheta but apparently people have it stuck in their minds that class begins on Tuesday. I rode my bike most of the way to Calheta and then hitched a ride for the last few km with an Italian guy who was driving a friend home to Calheta. After learning that I would not actually be teaching today, I ended up going to a meeting at the primary school with my counterpart to meet a music teacher who wants to play violin with me. I think she gave him the impression that I am able to teach him how to play classical music and that I am available to help teach his students. It’s going to be interesting how this plays out because as I learned from the other night, Cape Verdians learn music notes as “do, re, mi...” and not as “a, b, c...” I also do not have any sheet music or music formed well enough in my memory to actually teach it to someone. Anyone know of any music organizations that would be willing to donate sheet music to teach with or maybe even a cheap violin so they/I can practice?
About 2 km into my ride home, my back tire sprung a leak, thank goodness for cobblestone roads...., and I ended up walking with the bike for a bit. Eventually a car came by and luckily I knew someone in it so they gave me a ride back to town.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Today was another crazy experience. Now that I’m really excited and ready to start my classes, they keep getting changed around on me. I woke up and walked to Borreiro (since the bikes out of commission) to teach computer classes and when I got there the center was empty. I figured that the kids were just late since that is not unusual here and turned on the computers to upload a typing program. Apparently my pin drive is too new for the Windows 98 computers and I was unable to even access the files on the drive. I tested my luck with the second computer which is even older and couldn’t even get the computer to boot up. This is going to be one heck of a computer class. Eventually one girl showed up and asked me if we had class today since the leader of their group failed to tell anyone I was starting this week. She said she would tell the others that we are starting this week so cross your fingers that tomorrow I will have a class. I ended up talking a bit with a woman who lives next to the center and an older woman who said that the girl I had spoken with about the class “belonged to her” so I’m going to assume it was her mom. I found a car back to Vila and met up with my roommate and another teacher who was hanging out at our house.
Since it was still early (early meaning before all the stores close for lunch) I went to the back to check on my bank card which has still not arrived. I ran into my counterpart from Calheta and was informed that she does not think that I should ride my bike to Borreiro because there are not many cars on that road and if something happened to me she would worry. I kind of felt like she was playing the mom role but it was nice of her to worry about me. Since my bike is out of commission for now, I guess I will ask the camara if they can hook me up with a car to Borreiro or I’ll try to hitch a ride like I did today. She also informed me that she had a meeting in Vila today right around the time we were supposed to start our English class so she wants to wait until the next class (scheduled on Friday) so she can be there and tell the people to be respectful and speak slowly since its sometimes difficult for me to understand Maio’s rapid fire Kriolu.
So between that and some drama going down at the Italians affecting our English tutoring sessions, I’m still waiting to actually start some of my classes.
Since I have a free afternoon today and lesson plans already made, I just started and finished reading John Edwards, “Four Trials.” I actually teared up for part of it which is probably what he wanted. But seriously, I really respect him as a person and in the back of my mind, I still want to see him run for President. Now that I’ve finished his book, I really want to read Elizabeth Edwards book, “Saving Graces.” If anyone wants to help me realize this goal, I will be indebted to you forever (or at least until I come back from Africa). My roommate just finished War and Peace and now its getting passed on to me. I feel like everyone in the Peace Corps plans on reading or brings War and Peace with them since we all know that we’ll have a lot of time on our hands.
Right now I’m sitting in a sweltering hot room with an air condition that appears to not be functioning. I’m also sun burnt from our full day of activities as part of the training session we’ve had for the past four days. Today’s portion of the “sports for people with deficiencies” consisted of our group of 18 wearing bright red t-shirts (given to us by the man leading the formacao) and doing activities on the beach. We learned how to be resourceful and make a medicine ball out of a busted ball, water, sand, newspaper, plastic bags and tape. We also made stress balls out of sand and balloons and learned the secret to juggling. These were all things to use to help train people for sports. Also included in the day were those dreaded trust games where you have one person in the middle of a circle of people who is supposed to fall around and the people in the circle have to keep them up. I learned how to throw a javelin and a shot put and watched others try their skill at the discus. After snack time we played sitting volleyball and did activities in the ocean. It was pretty exhausting but I can’t complain after having spent the day playing on the beach.
So back to the sweltering room...After pretty much any sort of information session, class, etc, there is always a party with food and certificates passed out to honor your completion. After the electricity went out in the restaurant above the CEJ, we moved to our current location which is about 20 feet away from the CEJ and managed to keep electricity. We’ve been listening to the guy talk about paper work needed to make a project and have begun to form the association on Maio and decide who is in charge of what. They’re serving paella for dinner and then passing out certificates. So I am now officially certified as going through the class which pretty much means that I have a pretty piece of paper to decorate my room with.
Remember the blurb I wrote on the man asking why only women could come to the English class? Well today I was talking with a different man in Villa and explaining what I do, etc and he asked me why focus on women. This time I stood up for the women here and explained to him about the lack of opportunity for women in school, etc. Apparently all the men are now getting jealous that its the women who have banded together and are taking a stand for themselves. I don’t have any expectations on how things will change between men and women in Maio while I am here but I think this women’s group is getting more well known, at least in Calheta, and all of the women are getting really excited to do projects and have opportunities to learn things that they felt they didn’t have before. Even if I don’t accomplish anything really big while I’m here (which it seems a lot of people expect from me), I’m really proud to be working with a group of people who seem to really care about their community and their future and have taken the initiative to work for what they want.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Americans are back! Well, two of them anyway and its so great to see them again. Today was definitely a food day... We went to the Italian’s for lunch to celebrate the arrival of her husband. Later in the day we walked over to the soccer tournament across from the CEJ. A few of my roommate’s students were playing and its always fun to be out when the rest of the town is crowded around the “soccer field.”
We had heard a rumor that the Americans were coming back so we walked down to wear they are staying and alas, there they were! It was such a nice reunion. We went over to the British guy’s restaurant and celebrated with his new chocolate ice cream recipe which is the best one by far.
In a few minutes we are about to head over to one of my counterpart’s house for goat. I think I may be sick tomorrow after eating so much today.
Over the past two weeks 2 volunteers decided to ET or early terminate. Its really sad to see them go but I know they need to do what makes them happy. I’ve also heard that another volunteer is being medically separated which is also really depressing. I guess I always assumed some of our group would eventually ET but I wasn’t really sure when it would happen. Being the eternal optimist, I kind of hoped that everyone in our group would make it and show Peace Corps up but its not for everyone and I don’t want anyone to be where they don’t feel they should be. Leaving early is something that is on every volunteer’s mind at some point throughout their service. It is really hard being away from your friends, family, and your familiar surroundings and we definitely have our up and down days. Being in Cape Verde is a mixed blessing. We have certain elements of what we see back home- lights, faucets, refrigerators, Internet, sometimes even washing machines, but the electricity and water are inconsistent and it makes for an interesting time. The work part can also be frustrating because we are here to help and work at a job but a lot of the time it seems like the people here have everything covered and we question why they want us here to help. I understand how people would want to leave when they feel like they have nothing to do or could be doing the exact same thing back at home.
For the most part I’m happy here. I feel like I’m beginning to make friends, and once I start on my regular schedule next week, it will be nice to have a regular routine. One of the biggest frustrations for me as a “community mobilizer” volunteer is that I did not come in with a regular schedule. I need to have structure and I went about making it for myself. It’s taken a little while but I think the people and groups that I’m going to work with are ones that I really want to work with and will be happy helping with projects and classes. The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve seen a need to work with the women and girls in this community and help them get access to more opportunities.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Saturday night was a lot of fun. Besides having food and drink thrown at us for hours, our friends also played guitar and sang Cape Verdian music. After our dinner we headed out to Figuera because “the discoteque in Figuera is better than the one in Vila.” In reality this meant, the are less people/ people that our friends that took us know well enough to tell their significant others that they took the American girls to a Disco. It was no where near as crowded as the one in Vila which was good because if all the men at the one in Vila were as drunk as the ones in Figuera, we would have had to fight off 5 times as many people who wanted to dance with us. It was nice to be there with people we know who could keep the staggering drunks away and it was a really nice time.
Yesterday evening was the women’s group meeting. I invited someone from the girls group in Borreiro to come talk about doing a joint project for the women to teach the girls to do weavings. We somehow got into conversation about the information sessions of people with deficiencies and that got a lot of people really wound up. These women were very opinionated on the topic and were pretty much all yelling at the same time for about 15 minutes.
When I got back we went to the Italian lady’s hotel to take a shower because we are all out of water and I think I’m the cleanest I’ve been in a long time. My hair is actually soft today. Yeah, I know, it a great feat...
This afternoon I was supposed to start my English classes in Calheta but apparently people have it stuck in their minds that class begins on Tuesday. I rode my bike most of the way to Calheta and then hitched a ride for the last few km with an Italian guy who was driving a friend home to Calheta. After learning that I would not actually be teaching today, I ended up going to a meeting at the primary school with my counterpart to meet a music teacher who wants to play violin with me. I think she gave him the impression that I am able to teach him how to play classical music and that I am available to help teach his students. It’s going to be interesting how this plays out because as I learned from the other night, Cape Verdians learn music notes as “do, re, mi...” and not as “a, b, c...” I also do not have any sheet music or music formed well enough in my memory to actually teach it to someone. Anyone know of any music organizations that would be willing to donate sheet music to teach with or maybe even a cheap violin so they/I can practice?
About 2 km into my ride home, my back tire sprung a leak, thank goodness for cobblestone roads...., and I ended up walking with the bike for a bit. Eventually a car came by and luckily I knew someone in it so they gave me a ride back to town.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Today was another crazy experience. Now that I’m really excited and ready to start my classes, they keep getting changed around on me. I woke up and walked to Borreiro (since the bikes out of commission) to teach computer classes and when I got there the center was empty. I figured that the kids were just late since that is not unusual here and turned on the computers to upload a typing program. Apparently my pin drive is too new for the Windows 98 computers and I was unable to even access the files on the drive. I tested my luck with the second computer which is even older and couldn’t even get the computer to boot up. This is going to be one heck of a computer class. Eventually one girl showed up and asked me if we had class today since the leader of their group failed to tell anyone I was starting this week. She said she would tell the others that we are starting this week so cross your fingers that tomorrow I will have a class. I ended up talking a bit with a woman who lives next to the center and an older woman who said that the girl I had spoken with about the class “belonged to her” so I’m going to assume it was her mom. I found a car back to Vila and met up with my roommate and another teacher who was hanging out at our house.
Since it was still early (early meaning before all the stores close for lunch) I went to the back to check on my bank card which has still not arrived. I ran into my counterpart from Calheta and was informed that she does not think that I should ride my bike to Borreiro because there are not many cars on that road and if something happened to me she would worry. I kind of felt like she was playing the mom role but it was nice of her to worry about me. Since my bike is out of commission for now, I guess I will ask the camara if they can hook me up with a car to Borreiro or I’ll try to hitch a ride like I did today. She also informed me that she had a meeting in Vila today right around the time we were supposed to start our English class so she wants to wait until the next class (scheduled on Friday) so she can be there and tell the people to be respectful and speak slowly since its sometimes difficult for me to understand Maio’s rapid fire Kriolu.
So between that and some drama going down at the Italians affecting our English tutoring sessions, I’m still waiting to actually start some of my classes.
Since I have a free afternoon today and lesson plans already made, I just started and finished reading John Edwards, “Four Trials.” I actually teared up for part of it which is probably what he wanted. But seriously, I really respect him as a person and in the back of my mind, I still want to see him run for President. Now that I’ve finished his book, I really want to read Elizabeth Edwards book, “Saving Graces.” If anyone wants to help me realize this goal, I will be indebted to you forever (or at least until I come back from Africa). My roommate just finished War and Peace and now its getting passed on to me. I feel like everyone in the Peace Corps plans on reading or brings War and Peace with them since we all know that we’ll have a lot of time on our hands.
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
So it was day three of the information sessions and today we learned
definitions of terms (deficiency, integration into the community, handicap,
etc). We made mock project proposals and went over what you do to make a
project. Tomorrow we¹re going to practice something on the beach. Im not
sure what, but we were told to bring a broken ball, a volleyball, volleyball
net, empty water bottles, rope, and a few other random things. Let¹s see
what happens.
My counterpart from Calheta told me some exciting news today. She wasn¹t
able to get hold of the girl who was going to tell the womens group that Im
not teaching this week so people ended up showing up. The exciting part is
that more than the initial 22 women showed up, just for the English class.
Word must be spreading about the group and it makes me happy. In addition to
that, a man from the town asked my counterpart why the class was just for
women and said it was unfair that men could not take part in the class. She
then stood up for the women and basically told him its not fair that men
have more opportunities, etc. I was really proud of her after hearing her
retell the story and I¹m getting more and more excited to work with these
women.
This afternoon we had our girls group meeting at the CEJ and it went really
well. Today¹s topic was Sex and Gender Roles. We did an activity where we
put the words ³masculine² and ³feminine² on the board and they had to tape
cards with phrases like ³clean the house,² ³gets good grades in school,²
and ³raises the family² under which one they thought does the action in Cape
Verde. Afterwards we discussed the cards and why they put them where.
Afterwards, we redid the activity but this time had them put the cards up by
what each sex is biologically capable of doing and then discussed. It was
really interesting to hear what the girls had to say: They put ³is able to
have more than one boyfriend/ girlfriend² under boys and it led to a
discussion about what would happen if there were an equal proportion of men
and women in the country and how to change the mentality of people. Next
week we discuss relationships with the opposite sex.
So the elections were yesterday and I really want to find out the results.
The electricity was out during lunch so we didn¹t get to use the internet. I
can only imagine how crazy it was a GW yesterday. Its so politically charged
and I miss that elections in DC are like watching the Superbowl elsewhere. I
know probably a dozen or so of my friends back at home were probably working
on campaigns or campaigning themselves.
I received a wonderful package in the mail today from my mom, a
³Thanksgiving in a bag² if you will, complete with recipes, pie crust, and
spices to make pumpkin pie. I¹m guessing there¹s pumpkin and French¹s fried
onion rings on the way!
The lock guy just left and we now have all our keys. Now its just getting a
peephole installedŠ
--
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Maio updates
Friday, October 27, 2006
So this week has been interesting. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. My
roommate and I went out to lunch to celebrate and partook in some amazing
fresh tuna, French fries, and ice cream. At night, some of our friends that
work in the camara/high school came over with a cake and wine. It was a
unique little festa since the electricity was out and all we had was candle
light.
Tuesday I brought the left over cake to the Casa de Juventude where everyone
was thrilled to polish it off.
Wednesday, we went to the Italians house for lunch and English lessons only
there were no English lessons. However, we did partake in pasta, pizza,
shrimp, mussels, and salad.
After lunch, we had the first girl¹s group meeting and it went really well.
Six girls showed up and we went through introductions and objectives of the
group. They all seemed happy to be there. After the meeting I received a
call from Peace Corps that my bike had arrived on the boat and I was to
report to the pier to get it. Of course I had no idea how you go about
finding a bike on a huge cargo ship so I asked about 20 people what to do
and they all pointed me in the right direction. Eventually I got my bike
only to find out that one of the wheels was slightly off track. I brought it
to the Italians and they fixed it for me. When I got home it was dark and we
headed back to the Italian¹s place to celebrate their housekeeper¹s
birthday. She¹s a really sweet lady from Calheta and we had fun eating more
pizza, tuna, and cake. After dinner there was a little dancing and more
chatter.
Thursday I went to work at the Casa de Juventude and a woman from the camara
came in to tell us about an upcoming program. I agreed to help with
something but I¹m not sure if its teaching a computer class or just helping
with activities. Anyways, its for a few days in November to bring awareness
to and have activities for people with mental and physical disabilities.
Today I walked into the Casa de Juventude was asked for information on AIDS
for a project someone is doing. I spent my morning typing information out in
English to later translate into Portuguese so she can understand it. Another
crazy day as usual.
This weekend I¹m teaching a computer class in Borreiro and trying to change
the days of my computer classes so I have free time on the weekends. I think
we might go picnic on the beach on Sunday which should be fun.
Telecom is putting in a new phone tower by the post office, ie, right
outside our house, and has taken to working at 7 am on the dot. Its really
loud and obnoxious and I really hope that they finish soon so I can sleep.
Other than that, things here are going well.
Ti logoŠ.
Sunday, October 29
The electricity has been on again off again for the past few weeks. When we
first arrived, it was pretty good but lately its been off more than on which
can be quite frustrating, especially when I want to use the Internet.
Today I had my first computer class in Borreiro. I think the bike ride there
and back about killed me. Its been years since I¹ve really been on a bike
and even though it was only 9 km each way I am exhausted. It took about an
hour to get there and 40 minutes to get back thanks to the hills. A few
cars passed and gave me thumbs up as I struggled up the hills. When I
arrived in Borreiro, a group of school girls all laughed at me in my stylish
bike helmet that I¹m obligated to wear. I don¹t mind wearing the helmet.
Knowing my clumsiness I¹ll probably fall off a lot while I¹m here and I¹m
sure the helmet will come in handy. As for my lack of sense of direction,
there¹s only one main road on the island so it¹s hard to get lost. I made it
there in one piece and on time to start the class. But now I¹m a little
sore from my first bike riding experience. If I keep this up, I¹ll be in
great shape by the time I return to America.
The class was supposed to start at 4 and no one showed up until 4:30 except
for a few boys who were admiring my bike. One class commenced, we spent the
30 minutes that I had left doing introductions, defining the computer and
talking about its components, and figuring out a better time to have class
since I would like to be able to do other things on my weekends. That part
took the most time and I still don¹t think its resolved, but the leader of
the group is collecting names and times for classes and it looks like I¹ll
be going there 3 mornings and an afternoon each week for classes. About 10
or 12 girls came and they ranged from having zero computer experience to 2
years. It should be interesting to see how the classes progress. I¹m looking
forward to it but I¹m also still trying to get over my fear of being in
front of the classroom.
Last night my roommate and I ran into one of the teachers and were invited
to his house to look through movies to borrow, He has quite a collection,
all probably illegally downloaded and sent to him in the mail. We¹re going
to watch 40 Year Old Virgin tonight after partaking in mango ice cream at
the British guy¹s restaurant. Tomorrow, we are going on a picnic at the
beach and I¹m really looking forward to getting some sun and swimming. The
beach we are going to is supposed to be a lot calmer than the one closest to
our house.
Wednesday, November 1
Monday, my roommate¹s boss comes to visit and we¹re looking forward to a few
days of good meals paid for of course by Peace Corps. It should be a fun
visit. I got word that one of the guys from the Canary Islands is back for
a few days and has invited us to dinner on Tuesday. I don¹t know if we¹ll go
since the APCD will be here but I have a feeling someone will show up at our
house again and we¹ll relive the ³come eat goat² experience. Also, since the
APCD will be here, he¹ll get to see the new house and we can finally move! I
can¹t wait to move into a quieter neighborhood and not have the ceiling fall
on me at night.
So I¹m trying to figure out my schedule and get into a schedule and if I
counted right, I¹ll be biking 144 km a week getting to and from Calheta and
Borreiro. That¹s about 86 miles a week and 4472 miles a year. Wow.
Sunday, November 5
We are finally in our new house! We moved last Wednesday which was also a
holiday in all of Cape Verde- All Saints Day which meant no school or work.
The new house is wonderful and I like it so much better than the old one
already. The electricity has started to work better too, thanks to a new
piece of equipment that I guess came on the plane last week.
This weekend has been pretty exciting. Saturday a few teachers came to
visit. One of them brought over a cake after my roommate convinced him that
that¹s what you do in America when someone moves to a new house. Another
teacher brought over coffee from Fogo. That night we went out to the French
restaurant with other people and stayed out way past my bedtime.
Today I rode my bike to Calheta for the women¹s meeting. It went really
well, we decided on hours and days for an English class and talked about
their ideas for the group. I¹m really looking forward to working with the
group but sort of dreading biking so much every day since my legs are really
sore from the journey. When I got back, I was informed that the slightly
overweight Italian stopped by in a Speedo to invite us to eat goat for
dinner. I can only imagine this guy standing in the middle of the street
yelling my roommates name and saying ³come eat goat.²
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
So the girl¹s group is having slight problems right now. The group that is
supposed to come on Mondays still hasn¹t shown. I¹m going to make a poster
to put up at the CEJ on the days of meetings so maybe people will better
remember or just show up. Yesterday afternoon I went to a meeting that I was
informed I was to attend, not knowing what it was about or anything. When I
arrived, I learned that it was an information session about the Paralympics
and their committee in Cape Verde and trying to get regional associations on
each island. Since the 7th and 8th are officially ³Day to recognize people
with deficiencies,² they chose this particular week to have sessions. So
instead of starting my computer and English classes this week, I am sitting
in sessions all morning learning about sport opportunities for people with
physical and mental disabilities and I guess later on, how to train them or
generating project ideas to do on Maio. It¹s really that these people are
addressed because like most places in the world, there is a stigma placed on
people who are not ³normal.² I found out from my counterpart (who is also
attending the meetings) that her sister is deaf and people treat her really
badly because of her disability. She also said that she is really bright and
does way more things than any person without a disability. Its good to hear
that there are some people who are supportive, but for the majority of
people, it seems like they may need a wake up call. I don¹t know much about
how they are treated in the school system or if they are allowed to go to
school, etc, but hopefully once these sessions are done, the people
attending will take initiative to work with the handicapped in sports and
other skills that will make them feel more integrated into society.
This afternoon, our landlord proxy (the landlord lives in Praia), came over
to fix my roommate¹s light. She¹ll be happy when she comes home to find it
working. A carpenter is supposed to also come by to change our locks
because there¹s a problem with the main door- you can get locked out if you
don¹t turn the key the right way.
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