September 12
So I wrote an entire entry and then I had to re-login into google and lost
everything I wrote. Way to go Jules. Anyways, I¹m back in Maio and this past
week has been quite an experience.

Last weekend was the municipal festa in Vila bringing what seemed like half
of Praia to Maio and preventing me from getting a boat ticket until last
Thursday. It was a little intimidating with all these extra people but I had
a great time with Claudia, Manuela, and Dirce dancing to Ferra Gaita, eating
ice cream, and seeing old friends.

My new life in Calheta is taking a little getting used to and the ³fora²
lifestyle is definitely different from living in ³the big city.² I¹ve had my
friend/embregada and the 11-year old daughter of another friend at my house
about 6 or more hours a day and have felt a little like a babysitter at
times. I feel the need to entertain them which means we¹ve been playing a
lot of Uno, drawing pictures, taking walks, and going to the beach. This is
all great but having extra people in my house all the time is a bit much and
while I enjoy their company, I also need some privacy. I¹m still without a
fridge and stove, thanks Peace Corps, so I¹ve been eating a lot of toast and
salad this week. With extra people in my house during mealtime, it is
culturally appropriate to offer them food so I¹m essentially making food for
three which is okay but I rather not have to spend my money to provide them
dinner and snack everyday. I¹ve got to find a balance and something I am
comfortable with and as of now I have not yet reached it.

Another new thing in my life is getting a talking to because I¹m not sitting
in the road with everyone at night. I wasn¹t aware that sitting out with
everyone was the norm here so my 9:30 bedtime is getting dragged out until
closer to midnight each night.

Despite these challenges, I really am enjoying my life here. I¹ve been
invited to multiple people¹s houses for meals, gone to the beach with
friends and people I hadn¹t known well, sat and chatted with different
community members and overall feel like part of the community. Its nice to
have people invite you to a little festa at their house, to play football in
the ocean with 20 kids, and to go planting with my neighbors.

I talked to one of the women who weaves and am going to try to work with her
to do a workshop relating to business skills and helping sell her and other
women¹s products. I¹m also working with Djoi, who teaches music, to start a
small music school and get recorders for students to play. The CEJ has now
been converted into a radio station, firefighter headquarters and remains
only with the secretarial office and the computer lab. This should be
interesting. I think I¹m going to focus on working in Calheta as much as
possible. Tomorrow we have a meeting to discuss future classes and
activities and I am really looking forward to it.

This evening we there was live music and a dance put on by a local group in
Calheta called Os Tavares to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Its about
12:30 right now and I¹m exhausted so I am skipping the dancing part but the
music was great and it was really cool to see people I know up on stage
singing and playing guitar.

Sunday was fantastic. Ja and Dinora came over and we taught Ja how to play
Uno. He then proceeded to kick my butt with his new found Uno skills.
Elizabet and her brother Pascal came by to check out my broken toilet (the
knob broke and water won¹t enter which means I¹m doing manual flushing
jobs). While they were here Pascal fixed my stanchion so that my clothes
won¹t fall off. After lunch Dinora and I went over to Neusa¹s house (Nona)
to see her new baby, Bruna. She is really beautiful. We sat and chatted for
a bit and then Dinora, Ja and I went in the ocean before the community
meeting. Ja had one of those big innertubes like they have at water parks
and the three of us were flipping each other out of it. I showed up to the
community center a few minutes late for our meeting and no one showed up.
Great. So I rescheduled the meeting for Monday. I spent a few more hours
wandering around town with Dinora to visit other friends. Alice was at her
mom¹s house making pastels, which I have learned is her new profession. In
the evening I went to Claudia¹s for a grilhada and had my first grilled
buzio (conch). When I was over at the house earlier, we were making
Manuela¹s 2 yr old daughter Stella dance batuk and laughing hysterically.
She¹s too young to know that this making her dance business is for our own
entertainment but that¹s pretty much what it comes down to. At the grilhada,
I was the main spectacle as I kept getting put in front of the spotlight to
show off my terrible dancing skills. It was a lot of fun but I felt really
silly. There¹s this song whose lyrics are ³Tra tra, tra rabu tra² pretty
much over and over again for a long time which pretty much means ³bring your
tail² or ³shake your ass.² That was what we were singing and dancing to
pretty much all night. Once the grilhada ended we headed to the dance in my
neighborhood for an hour and I got some more awful pick up lines. Besides
the normal ³you are pretty,² I have gotten ³You are my Jesus, my savior,²
³You are the prettiest white girl who has ever come to Cape Verde,² and ³You
need to kiss/date/sleep with a Cape Verdian/fill in blank of person¹s name
and your boyfriend in America will never have to know.² Thank you men of
Cape Verde.

Monday was a little ridiculous. I went to Vila in the morning to run some
errands, came home at 11 and called my boss to see if my stove was coming.
It turns out they sent it Saturday and apparently he had left a message on
my phone which magically disappeared because when I checked my messages
there were none there. Anyways, I go back to Vila around 12, go to the
Camara to get a car to help me and am told there are no cars that can carry
a stove and fridge. Luckily this guy from Calheta works at the Camara and I
ask him if he knows anyone with a car and he hooks me up with a guy named
Pal, no joke, Pal, who comes to my rescue. I then get a ride down to the
pier from the Camara and am told that my stuff was sent ³to the Camara² and
not to my name and that the Camara must come down the pier and sign off and
pay the taxes on it before I can pick it up. By the time we get back to the
Camara its almost one o¹clock when the pier closes for lunch and the guy
from the Camara who has to go sign off is also on his way to lunch and tells
me to come back at 2. So I go to Stephanie¹s and eat cheeseburgers for lunch
(the one good thing that came out of this day) and go back to the Camara
around 2:30 because lets face it, they aren¹t really going to be back at 2.
And in reality, he didn¹t get back until 2:45 and when he actually got to
the pier at 2:55 it was closing for the day and they couldn¹t sign off. So
I¹m told to come back on Tuesday. I get home in a bad mood and clean up a
little while I wait for people to come to my make up meeting for the day
before. Two people show up, better than none, and I have them sign up for
class. We look through pictures, take pictures and they also get to learn
Uno. I¹m determined to teach everyone in Calheta how to play Uno. So far
we¹re up to 5 people. Anyways, they leave and Claudia and Manuela come to
sign up and sign up their friends and we look through photos and videos.
After they leave, Djoi and Jacinta come over to borrow DVDs and offer to
bring me coffee for breakfast. I love them. My landlord made dinner again
for me. She is so sweet and I feel like I owe her a month¹s worth of meals.
Everyone here has been so great to me in helping me get used to my life here
and solving my lack of stove and fridge problems.

Today the stove and fridge saga continued. I went to the Camara around 8:45
to speak with the guy who has to sign off for me and waited until 9:15 when
I had to leave for another meeting. This guy from the Red Cross was supposed
to meet me at 9:30 to write a letter to the Camara asking for use of the
Polivalente and speakers for an activity but he never showed. I gave up on
waiting at 10:30 and headed back to the Camara. The guy I needed to see was
right there when I arrived and he said everything was ready to go. So I
called up Pal and he met me at the pier where we loaded the stove and fridge
into his truck! He said he had some work to do in Vila and agreed to giving
me a call when he was heading back to Calheta. In the meantime, I met up
with Stephanie, checked Internet and had lunch at the Italian restaurant. I
got a ride back with another driver and am still waiting to hear from him.
At least I know that my stuff is on his truck and will be delivered today.
So I¹m now trying to plan out my first cooked meal in Calheta- lasagna or
chili or mashed potatoes. HmmŠ

Still in Praia...

I wish I could write and say I'm back in Maio but no dice. I'm still in Praia after a few days of Peace Corps running back and forth to the ticket office and trying to work their magic to get me a ticket. I now have a ticket for tomorrow morning but its been a rough week trying to get tickets to Maio. Our big festa is on Saturday and they just now added an extra two boats. So, this should be interesting.

I've spent the past few days visiting my host family. Michel and I played UNO about a dozen times a day, Fefeu really likes his toy dinosaurs that grow when you place them in water but was sad to hear that it may take up to 10 days to get really big. In other news, Ice, the roof dog, passed away but Fefeu has accumulated a new cat with my host mom sort of hates.

Since arriving in Praia on Sunday I've been hanging out with the other volunteers in town, spending way too much money on good food, watching movies, and this afternoon went swimming in the embassy pool. It was really nice but I'm a little stir crazy and am ready to back on my island.

Almost Home

It's Saturday of Week 8 and this week has been the most relaxing since I've been here for training. Week 8 was designated as project implementation week which means that all the CD (community development) groups were confirming speakers, materials, etc for their projects and are implementing them this weekend, and all the ED (Education) groups were implementing Model School. I'm very impressed by this year's group and I think their projects are going to go really well.

The youth development group is doing a fun day this afternoon using adolescents in the community to teach dance, songs, games, and art crafts to kids.

The environmental eduacation group is doing a trash pick up and as I've heard lately, is scheming to have people pick up trash in pairs, using only 2 arms between the two of them.

And the mobilizers are doing a school clean up, fixing broken chairs, windows, washing tables and floors, and then having music and food afterwards.

I'm relieved that mom's surgery is over with and she seems to be recovering well. She has been on my mind nonstop for the past few weeks.

One week left and I'm back in Maio. I'm really looking forward to moving in and getting my life settled.

Photos

Tina and Jonah's Despidida (going away party) with the super hero theme



Mel and Minga- Super Hiaku at Tina and Jonah's Despidida



Statue of women's rebellion in Ribera Manuel



Theater group in Assomada presenting a typical Cape Verdian lifestyle



Ledi, me, and Micha, who work with me at the CEJ



Stephanie's Birthday



These are the girls that we spend a lot of time with on Maio.

hings in Cape Verde are busy. I recently helped with an exchange program with music, art, dance, theater, etc teachers coming from American and teaching along with Cape Verdian teachers in the same subjects. Students from both CV and America will be attending this two week intensive program and my role was to help translate for the teachers so that they could make their class plans. Its a really cool program and the arts are something definitely lacking from Cape Verde. I also found out that the music teacher from Cape Verde was the teacher to the guy I´m teaching violin to and we made a connection. I think in the next few weeks we will get together and play music. He wants to put on a concert somewhere but I don´t know if I´m up to that since I haven´t played in awhile.

On top of that, I´ve been leading training sessions for the new Community Development Mobilzier trainees on finding their role, networking, teaching informal classes, tourism, etc. We're now on week 7 of 9 and they should find out their site placements on Friday. This PST is going a lot faster than last year. The new group is great and I'm enjoying getting to know them. Wednesday is a Saint's Day in Txan de Tanque and I'm planning on spending the next few nights there leading up to the big festa. I've heard there are lots of activities taking place: plays, batuque dancing, traditional music, etc.

In other news, all the flights to Maio have been cancelled for the next 3 months because there is something wrong with the runway. This means all travel will have to be done by boat which pretty much sucks really bad but at least I´ll get back there at some point. Good thing they are so eager to promote tourism...

This past weekend I went on a hike to the Big Tree with a bunch of the trainees and other PCVs. I was planning on visiting my host family yesterday but my digestive system prevented me from doing pretty much of anything.

But anyways, on to a new week. I don't have any sessions that I am directly leading so this will make for a more relaxing week in some ways.

some back logs

Here are a few things that I haven´t had a chance to post yet...

From July 12th
Thursday 4:50 pm
So it seems like things here are as confusing as ever. I get back from America for my mid-service medical stuff and am supposed to go back to Maio on Friday with some trainees who are coming to see what we do in Maio. Unfortunately, the medical people and the others that work in the office assumed that the other has booked my ticket. So, no ticket. I learn today that the flight is booked which means I may not be able to go back until Monday. In the meantime, I learn there is a new boat to Maio that only takes 45 minutes and suggest we look at that. The schedule says they have a boat on Fridays so that should work but when they called for me, the boat place says there's a problem with Maio's pier so we don't know if the boat is going or not. So tomorrow I find out if/when I am going to Maio. If I am staying, I also have to switch hotels because the hotel I am staying at now will be full because of a basketball tournament. (Maio's team arrived at the hotel yesterday). Anyways, thats the excitement for now...

So the saga continues... I'm going to the airport in a few minutes to see if I can get on the plane to Maio. I have an open ticket but not a ticket on the flight so we'll see what happens. I just got a call from our acting country director saying that they are still in Assomada which is over an hour away and I was told to be at the airport at 12:30 to see if I can get on the flight. (its currently 12:12). This means they probably wont get to the airport until 2 ish and the flight leaves at 2:20. This is really good...

On top of that, the hotel I was staying in was pretty awful. There are a bunch of basketball teams staying there which equals urine all over the bathroom, load talking and music all night, and no towel to take a shower. So I'm in a pretty annoyed mood right now.

Back to reality. I´m in Assomada now. Dymistification went well once I finally got to Maio on Monday and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the new trainees. Stephanie´s birthday was Tuesday and there was a big grilhada at her house with plenty of pinchu, wine and beer to satisfy everyone. It was a good time.

Yesterday we had the first technical training session and I am really excited to be working with the new mobilizers. I went on a hike today with part of the group from one Ribeira to another, basically from a high up point to the beach where we ate grilled fish for lunch, swam in the ocean and hung out. So that´s life in ´ssomada for now. Ti logo...

America and back

Wow, its been awhile since I've written and I'm going to be better. I just got back from a great vacation in America. It was too short and packed full but I had a great time and it was so nice to see everyone.

Mike picked me up from the airport in Boston and it was so so so good to see him. We drove out to Connecticut to visit my grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousins, mom and dad. We spent a lot of time shopping, indulging in steak and Starbucks and visiting.

Next on the trip was a stop in PA to visit Mike's dad and puppy and his friends. We spent one night in the woods by an abandoned railroad track where we drank Mike-aritas and made smores over a bonfire.

We spent the 3rd driving down to NC to my parent's house and spent the next few days with them and my friends, potlucking, watching fireworks, touring a vineyard and having a good time. It was so good to see Ler and Betsy and Becky. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings on kareokee night where Mike and Betsy sang some Journey. Mike also did his best Whitney Houston impersonation trying to outdo some guy who sang Macy Gray. It was hilarious.

My brother arrived on Friday and we all went to temple. It was nice getting to go to services after being away from anything Jewish in a year. Afterwards, Mike and Daniel proceeded to drink a lot of beer during our "movie night."

On the way back to Boston we stopped off in DC and had dinner with Lindsay and Grace at Loriel Plaza- yum! Before heading back to the hotel we stopped by Mechum's and Lindsay's.

When we finally made it to Boston we went and saw Anne and Justin and then went over to Kathryn's for the night. We spent the next day relaxing and wandering around Boston. We took a swan boat around a pond and enjoyed the beautiful view. Before I had to go, we made dinner at Kat's (salad with portobello mushrooms, avocado, red bell peppers; chicken parmasean, and cornbread) and sat on the roof of her apartment while we watched the sunset.

So now I'm back in Praia for another day and then off to Maio with some of the new trainees. It should be an interesting summer living in Assomada but I'm looking forward to it. Keep me posted on life back in the states.

Happy Environment week in Cape Verde. Well Tuesday was the actual Dia de Ambiente but my activities revolving around the environment have continued through the week. I just got out of a friend´s class (he teaches 5th grade) where I led an art project making butterflies out of plastic water bottles. I got the idea from an awesome person at TOT (training of trainers) who is one of the LCFs (language and culture facilitator) for this year.

Tuesday we had a parade with a 6th grade and 7th grade class and then a few speakers including a nurse who talked about sanitation and washing your hands, etc and the guy from the water place who talked about water and apparently bored some of the kids because they ended up getting antsy and talkative at the end of his speech.

Tomorrow I am going to a lunch for the environment cabinet of the Camara and the guards for the turtles during their information session on guarding turtles. That´s right, its turtle season which means time to protect the turtles and make sure their babies hatch and get to the sea without fisherman taking the turtles or their eggs for their own benefit (ie to eat and sell). I´m really excited to finally see the turtles and a friend of mine promised to take me to see the baby turtles which hatch about 10-15 days after they are laid.

The big project\ day that I am working on (since it seems like I´m involved in planning most of the International Day of "fill in the blank") is for the day against drugs. I´m planning on showing a Brazilian film called "Bicho de Sete Cabeças" or Bicho of seven heads and having a discussion and then in the afternoon taking students to see the new Tenda which is Cape Verde´s version of a treatment facility based on healing from God which if you couldn´t figure it out, is a lot of prayer and spiritual healing. I don´t know how effective it is but its at least an effort.

Any ways, thats about it for now. Less than 3 weeks and I´ll be on vacation in the states!

Peace Corps Cape Verde Blogs

Here's a list of blogs from my fellow volunteers:

Fogo
Callie's Blog
Brittnay's Blog
Jende's Blog

Boa Vista
Leland's Blog
Nadia's Blog

Sao Nicolau
Brady's Blog
Brent's Blog

Santiago
Emily's Blog
Courtney's Blog
Jessica's Blog

Sao Vicente
Casey"s blog
David's Blog

Santo Antao
Steve's Blog

Two weeks ago a car carrying 4 people drove into a pole in Morrinho killing the driver. I have been informed that he had been drinking and I’m going to assume that no one was wearing seatbelts. The driver who died was a young guy, probably about my age, and his road rage mixed with alcohol was a deadly combination. It’s really sad to hear that there are accidents like this in Maio, where we have one road that goes in a circle around the island and people have the urge to drive drunk and fast.

I’m finally at a point where I feel like people know to come to me for help on projects. I’m feeling really good about my work, when it goes through, and I have a lot on my plate at the moment.

During training all the CD volunteers visited a place in Santiago called Tenda El Shadai. This is a place for drug addicts and alcoholism to go and recover through spiritual healing. Why I mention this is because a few people in Maio, inspired by the Tenda in Santiago, have began their own Tenda in Maio. I spoke with one of the founders in Maio and I am sincerely impressed with what they are doing. He asked for my help and some time this week I’m going to see the new Tenda. There are about 4 people that are living there which is a good start and they are working on the paperwork to make it official. I am thrilled that people on Maio are taking the initiative to start this place that addresses some of the most serious problems in their country. As far as I know, this is only the second rehabilitation places in all of Cape Verde so maybe the word will spread and people who are unable to get into the one in Santiago will be able to come to Maio. Anyways, I’m looking forward to helping out however I can.

The workshop on youth violence and STIs has been moved again because of the speaker’s availability. Maybe the third times a charm will come true in this case. When it does happen, I hope that I am in Maio to help out and lead the activity section like originally scheduled but it might be moved to when I’m in America.

I’m working with the environment portion of the Camara to plan out Environment Day which they told me is not April 24 or whenever the rest of the world celebrates earth day but on June 5. So we are planning on having some speakers, a parade around town, activities with associations and groups and follow up the day with a weekend beach clean up. I’m also making a coloring/activity book on the environment to give to the primary schools.

The president of the Camara told someone to talk to me to help them with their project and it makes me feel really good that the president of the Camara knows to have people ask me for assistance. That is partially why I’m here and its good to know that I am wanted here. Sometimes you really don’t know if you are needed but when people approach you to ask for something besides English lessons, it feels really good. Anyways, this project is working with primary school students (so far only girls) and they’ll be learning traditional songs and dances and will be performing around the island on the weekends during halftime of soccer games, special activities, and other locations. We met last night to see who wanted to dance and who wanted to sing and while only 2 people want to sing, I’ve been told that more people will come tonight. We’ll see what happens. This is sort of like the singing idea that Ney and I came up with a few months ago so I’m really happy to be doing it. Maybe I’ll even break out the violin for some of the songs.

Friday and Saturday we are supposed to have this huge music festival “to increase tourism” but I don’t know if I can go now. I’m scheduled to fly out on Friday for TOT (training of trainers) to help with PST and I don’t know if I can change my flight. The week of TOT is also when International Children’s Day falls and I don’t want to miss the activities from it either but I have a feeling I will have to. Oh well, at least the schools organize most of children’s day but I’ll have to let them know that I won’t be able to help like I had originally told them. The sacrifices for Peace Corps….

That’s all the complaining I’m doing for now. I am really happy with how things are going right now with work and that makes it all worth it.

This past week has really thrown me off time wise. Tuesday was International Workers Day which means a day off of work in Cape Verde and then yesterday was Dia de Santa Cruz. So work has pretty much been on a day, off a day and I keep thinking its Monday, but its really Friday.

Last weekend I went to a meeting for high school students at the Red Cross to talk to them about the Red Cross and start up a student volunteer group. I thought it went really well and the man in charge is a great contact to have. He’s lived in the states for awhile and is now here in charge of the youth program for all of Cape Verde. After the session, I sat down with him and a friend from Morro who helps with activities and we sketched out a plan including a beach clean up, activities for Red Cross Day (May 8th), and for the next few weeks.

Monday the women’s group had our monthly birthday party where we also planned out activities for the month of May. We’ll be doing a beach cleanup this Sunday and for even more incentive, one of the teachers at the high school who lives in Calheta is making pizza for snack. In a few weeks, we’re going to have a HIV+ speaker come speak in Calheta to the group and general community. I’m also going to lead a session on project design and management. Part of my computer class will add to this but we haven’t started Microsoft Word yet so it may be a little while before we get to letter writing.

Tuesday, for International Workers Day, practically everyone in Vila left to go on passeo to a beach somewhere else on the island. The Casa de Juventude arranged a group to go to a beach called Ponta Caixe which is at the northern tip of the island. It was an incredible day. We had to wake up unbelievably early to meet everyone at 6:30 and of course no one shows up for another hour. We packed the back of this huge truck and headed out armed with footballs, fishing poles, food, beverages and guitars. When we arrived we all laid out our stuff, pulled out the guitars and breakfast was prepared. The roommate and I spent a significant amount of time playing with my counterpart’s children and throwing around the football which in Cape Verde is called a “brute ball.” After hanging out a bit, my friend and I went on a walk to see the other beaches in the area and get some exercise. One beach was really rocky, covered in shells, trash washed up from the ocean and dolphin skeletons from when they beach themselves in the summer. It was strange seeing so many and I took a few bones as souvenirs. Ok, its really not that creepy. Then we hit this beautiful white sandy beach called Praia Real but it had these creepy sea creatures on it that kind of looked like slugs. Someone told us they are called agua vive which means live water but I don’t know what they are in English. They were pretty disgusting looking.

We got back just in time for lunch- xeren, kongo, and grilled pork and fish (freshly caught that morning) and basted ourselves in the sun that finely decided to come out. A while later we pulled out a soccer ball and started up a game in the sand which was awesome. There were a mixture of little kids, people my age, and a bunch of older guys. After the game I was chatting with someone when we saw a shark in the water. These crazy guys that we are with decide its a good idea to try to catch the shark so they go out towards it with a fishing pole and use fish heads as bait. Luckily the shark wasn’t lured by the fish head and no one was attacked by a shark. We got back around 6:30 singing happily in the car along the way. The whole experience was so much fun and I look forward to these weekend passeos that everyone does in the summer.

Wednesday, felt like Monday again and work was not productive since we all knew we’d have the next day off. May 3 was the day that Maio was discovered but a few years back the president of the Camara decided to change the festival to celebrate until September 8 but they still get May 3 as a holiday. There was some sort of mass by a cross near the salt pans but I skipped the activities and relaxed at home.

That’s been my week in a nutshell. Have a great weekend!

Last week an anchor from a ship landed on the DSL cable that provides internet to all of Cape Verde. With that being said, no one in Cape Verde had internet for about a week.

The program about violence and AIDS has been postponed for a few weeks because in typical fashion, the head of the CEJ and the guý who came up with the idea for the program got into a little fight with one of them saying that he would no longer do it because of the lack of respect. I finally calmed him down and got him to say he would still do it until they get in another fight and the person from the CEJ announces that it will not be a CEJ program and the other guy can do it on his own. So welcome to my world of grown men acting like 10 year olds. We´re still going to do it but now we´ve moved it back and hopefully their little tithy will be long forgotten by then. But its an important program and its ridiculous that the CEJ wouldn´t hold something like this when it lacks in programming and quality programming at that.

I started my computer class in Calheta last week but unfortunately we only have 2 working computers and 20 students. This is proving to be difficult. I split the group into two classes (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Friday) but everyone wants as much practice as possible so they have all been showing up every day. That sort of ruins the whole idea of why I split them up but at least they are showing interest so I´m happy. It´s great to be back working with them. They are an excellent bunch, if only we can get more computers that work...

I´ve started walking with a group of girls for exercise. We go every night around 6 and walk to Morro and back (8 km total). It´s been really nice having a group to walk with and they have really interesting conversations. Last night we were talking about men in Cape Verde and their disrespect for women. I guess there´s been a problem with men going after their wife´s sister or friends and they were ranting about the lack of respect towards the wife. I think I´ve become numb to the fact that having a child at a young age (17-21) is normal here. Three of my students in Calheta are pregnant and really happy about it. I don´t know about all of their cases but I´m pretty sure in at least two of them, they are not in committed relationships and the father of their baby has also fathered quite a few other girl´s children.

I think I´m going to America for vacation at the beginning of July so if anyone is around NC I´d love to see you. Happy Wednesday!

I guess its about time I write an update on the past few weeks. I was away for IST/AVC (In Service Training and All Volunteer Conference for those of you who have yet to figure out the Peace Corps Acronyms) for a week and then in Fogo. IST seemed more like a brainstorming to help with the future PST than actual training to benefit us at our sites. But it was really nice to see everyone and have a little break from site.

I spent the past week on vacation in Fogo and had an excellent time. Fogo is beautiful and I was so excited to finally see the volcano. I arrived on Wednesday and was met at the airport by one of my friends. We walked around Sao Filipe for a bit, grabbed some breakfast and I got in a car to head up to Cha das Caldeiras to visit my primo and climb the volcano. Another volunteer was up there visiting so the three of us hung out a bit, climbed the “active” volcano, which by the way is not the huge one you see in all the pictures and drank the infamous home made Manicon wine. Thursday we arose really early and set out to climb the big volcano, the highest point in West Africa. After not having been on a hill like area for the past 6 months, climbing the volcano was quite a challenge. But I made it to the top and I was dreading having to climb back down. But the way down was the best part. Once we got past the rockyness towards the top of the volcano you come to these small pebble like rocks that you basically walk down the entire rest of the way. I imagine its kind of like walking on the moon. Well, at least that’s what I was thinking while I descended the volcano. It was great. That afternoon my friend that came to the airport came up to Cha and we hung out, napped, and went to drink Manicon and listen to music.

Friday, we went down to Cova Figuera to see her site. We got a ride part way towards her house and then with the lack of transportation, walked about 2 hours to her town. We met her families who were so friendly and then picked up eggs to dye for Easter. To keep in the holiday spirit, we made Matzo Ball soup for dinner.

Saturday, we walked to Mosteiros to visit other volunteers. We walked pretty much the entire way which was another 3 ½ hour walk. As tired as my feet were, it was such an incredible view, there’s all this lava flow left over from previous volcanos and you can just see how it flowed. Its really neat to see how people just built over it. This probably makes no sense but I don’t really know how to explain it adequately. I was so excited to see that Mosteiros had sunflowers! I got a tour of the town from one of the volunteers that lives there and then we headed up the road to lunch with his roommate and a Nigerian friend of theirs.

We walked back in the afternoon, fearing the lack of transportation, and went on more house visits.

Sunday, I slept in and got a little work done while my friend went to church. In the afternoon we walked to a town close to hers to visit some of her colleagues.

I came back from Fogo with a bug bite that managed to make my entire hand swell up. So for the past few days I’ve been drugged up on Benadryl. My hand is finally back to normal and I can start back up to work.

International Women´s Day

For International Women’s Day, the Associacao das Mulheres da Calheta held a full day of activities. A few days before we took our normal class time to make posters for International Women’s Day and the Tuesday before women from the community came out to pound corn for xeren.

On March 8, the air was filled with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. Many of the women had told me that they had trouble sleeping the days leading up to March 8 and I shared my crazy dream about the food going bad and having to start over from scratch. They assured me that the food was fine and everything was going to go well.

We took our posters and marched around Calheta chanting “Nu kre nos direits, nu ka kre violencia” and made a scene parading through town. A lot of women gave us thumbs up as we passed by and we had passing cars honking along with our chants. The march ended in the Mercado where we hung up the posters on the wall to remain as decorations for the dances on Friday and Saturday.

In good fashioned Cape Verdian time, our 11 o’clock speaker arrived around 1 and spoke around 2. A woman from Morabi talked about violence against women and what to do if you or someone you know is being abused. Following her, the nurse from Calheta made her additions and then talked about birth control methods and what is available in Maio. She introduced everyone to the female condom, which apparently was something no one had heard of or had seen before.

The speakers were followed by a tribute to Donna Niza, a women in Calheta who has helped many women in need. From what I learned about her, she helps out single mothers, gets people to the hospital in emergencies and is an all around wonderful person. March 7, one of the women from the group showed up at my door and said that she wanted to get Donna Niza something really special from the group for the tribute, not a bed cover as was suggested by others. So the two of us went down to a store and bought her a television. None of the other women from the group knew about this surprise so it was really great to see everyone’s faces when we brought out this tv, especially Donna Niza’s who was smiling from ear to ear.

To add to the celebration, a batuk group with girls from the primary school perfomed and of course my students (some of the women from the group) pulled me up to dance. I think I got the biggest laugh of the day from my attempted dance skills. The girls also read a few poems that they had written about women and their importance in society.

And then of course, there was food. We killed a goat to put in all of the main dishes, and feasted on goat with potato, masa, beans, xeren, rice, goat with other stuff and of course all of the snacky foods- pastels, popcorn, cake. I made a large cake and decorated in honor of International Women’s Day and that too was quickly eaten.

The day was really successful and I think everyone had a good time. I was really proud of the women for organizing everything and hopefully this will keep them motivated to do more projects in the future.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Valentine´s Day

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

Happy Valentine´s Day

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

Happy Valentine´s Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.