Ok, back to writing about Cape Verde, I promise. Oh wait, first though: damn it all, the Mets lost. I didn't get to see the game, which makes it worse, but apparently a crappy reliever by the name of Wainwright struck out Beltran with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Maybe next year. In the mean time, we can only hope that Detroit will take out the Cards. Bleah.

Last week was interesting, especially the second half of the week and the weekend. I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the whole Peace Corps staff came here last Thursday for a staff retreat. I didn't get to spend too much time with the staff unfortunately, other than the director, assistant directors, and medical officer. I spent a lot of time with my immediate technical boss, who runs the community develpment part. He obviously had to meet with me, check up on my progress, remind me of some things I had neglected, talk to my counterpart here, etc etc. The country director also took us out to dinner one night. He is really cool, and I'll be sad to see him go in January, when his service is up and he will return to the US. We ended up going to a restaurant that we had never tried before, which turned out to be a mistake, as it is also apparently the most expensive restaurant on the island, if not in Cape Verde. Some Portuguese architect/macrobiotic chef runs it. Cool guy, good food, too much money. So where was I? Ah yes, we also had dinner with the medical officer last night, who is also really nice, and like everyone in Peace Corps, has interesting stories about all the places she's lived. Saturday, we had dinner with the whole PC Cape Verde staff, 17 people in all. I met the regional training director (for West Africa, I assume), and of course she graduated from Wesleyan, class of '86. We're everywhere. Overall, it was really good to see familiar faces, not to mention speak in English to a whole table full of people. It's the most I've spoken my own language since leaving my fellow volunteers after training. Some people had ideas about things I can do here, other people just had some feedback on what I've already done. I feel a bit reenergized about my work here, after hearing some positive things, and also realizing that I've done a bit more than I thought I had.

Friday night was one of the most fun nights I've had on Boa Vista. Unfortunately, Nadia missed out on it because she was sick. The CEJ had a little event to celebrate Cape Verdean culture: music, art, crafts, people, etc. We had some random carvings, instruments, hats, clothes and whatnot hanging around the entryway, but the main even was a sort of homage to a local woman for her contributions to culture through music. The woman, Valda Vieira, is an older lady from Vila Sal Rei, with kids and grandkids. She has an amazing voice and has sang a lot over the last few decades. A friend had taken videos of interviews with Valda, her family, and neighborhood friends, and my part in this whole thing was to piece it all together into one video. So I made a 22 minute video of everything, and Vilma made a 42 slide powerpoint of photos of Valda's life. So during the event, I hunched over in the front and manned the projector and laptop, changing between photos and videos as the whole thing progressed. The meat of the whole thing was the music. A morna (more on that in a sec) band came and played instruments, while various people sang. It's eerie that all 15 or so people who sang had amazing voices. In a room of 100 people in the US, I don't think you'd find 15 people who could sing like this. Valda sang a few, as well as her family, and all of her friends. The whole event went on past midnight, and I was exhausted by the time I made it home.

Some notes on music here. There are three distinct styles of Cape Verdean music. The type that has its roots on Boa Vista is called morna. Morna is very slow, acoustic music, usually a couple guitars, drums, and mayba a bass, accompanied by very emotional, heartfelt singing. It's mostly love songs, or songs about life on Boa Vista. It's not exactly dancing music, but it's really nice to listen to. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is funana, which I think I've mentioned before. Funana usually has an electric guitar, bass, accordion, a kind of percussion thing I can't really explain, synthesizer, and a drum machine. It consists of a loud repetitive beat, accompanied by frenzied accordion, guitar, and organ. It is unbelievable annoying to listen to, especially in a packed and crowded hiace with a massive woofer under your seat. But it is really fun to dance to, plus the beat is simple, so it's easy for pure honkeys like myself to grasp the rhythm and not look retarded. The third type of music is zuke (spelling?), which is basically Cape Verdean pop music. It's much like standard pop music around the world. It's a little R&B sounding sometimes, maybe some reggae and hip hop influences, depending on the song, along with some generic pop influences. I dunno, I can't really make many comparisons, since my background in pop music is weak at best. It's entertaining enough in bars and clubs, but (like most pop music) a lot of it sounds exactly the same. The most famous CV musicians are probably Cesaria Evora and Tito Paris, but there are some younger ones getting more famous in the world at large, like Gil Semedo and Mayra Andrade, whom I actually kind of like. And she's really hot. Horrendously, American rap culture is invading here in a huge way, and has yet to do a single positive thing for this society. People here are dangerously obsessed with 50 Cent, and for some reason they love Akon, who fails to be relevant almost anywhere else in the world. So kids here dress like they think big rap stars in the US would. You see a lot of NBA jerseys around, even though games aren't broadcast here and most people don't know the teams, baggy jeans with huge logos, bandanas, chains... I dunno, I find it to be pretty irritating that their own culture is getting drowned out by rap drivel, musically and socially. Not that I have anything against some quality hiphop - I love some good Mos Def as much as the next guy. I'm talking about the really lame, corporate gangsta rap that is as much marketing machine for a fake lifestyle as it is anything close to music. So it's sad.

Ok, time to try to figure out how to teach beginning English.