Posting again this week. Not too much to say though. I've settled into a pretty comfortable routine here that I am enjoying. The good thing is that I shop at the same stores often enough now that I know all the people who work there. João the baker is a particular favorite of mine. His breads are pretty damn good, and I have told my father that I will try to buddy up to him and get his recipe for coconut rolls. They are damned delicious. I think I will be modifying my routine somewhat, because I'd like to fit in some more activities. Mainly once I get some watersports gear, I'm going to have to fit in some surfing/bodyboarding time in the afternoons, meaning that I won't be able to run then. So I'll have to wake up early to run. Ugh. I HATE waking up early, especially to expend that much energy. The shipment of stuff from PC included a bike for me, so I also may start biking around for exercise. Running, surfing, biking, swimming... I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

The first person of our training group has officially ETed. For those of you not in the loop, ET stands for Early Termination. It's the PC lingo for leaving service before your 24 months are up. There can be many reasons for it. Some people are administratively separated, which is I guess sort of like being fired... You fuck up and they send you home. There is also medical separation, which happens if you need lengthy medical care out of the country, get pregnant, something like that. But then there is just plain deciding to go home. Some people can't deal with the stress, some people want to return for a boyfriend/girlfriend/job, and for some others, PC just isn't right. This is the case for my buddy Jean-Claude. His work at site is just not going well and they barely have any thing for him to do, and the idea of staying for two full years and having to fight to have something to do just doesn't sound so good. I don't blame him. It's wild how two people in the same country can have such different experiences at their work. In any event, I bring it up because it sucks that he's leaving. I hung out with him a lot during training, so it's shitty that he won't be around for more gatherings of volunteers. Fortunately, he's from NYC, so it's not like I won't be in his neighborhood in the future. Also, kind of a wake up call that PC service can some times just not work out, even for really committed and competent people.

What else? Oh yeah, Halloween was a bust. People here know of it and call it "Noiti de bruxa," translated more or less as Witch Night. But no one here does anything. Apparently in São Vicente, there are all night parties. Even in João Galego, there is no party on the 31st, but starting at midnight on Nov 1st, people go wild and party all night. But nope, not here in Vila. Fortunately, the 1st was All Saints Day, so it's a national holiday. Nadia and I got to stay home from work. Since nothing is open (at all), there was basically no reason to go anywhere or do anything. I relaxed, read, and went for a swim. The waves were absolutely ridiculous, most of them towering over me. A few times I got good positioning and managed to body surf them a good distance. After a while though, I started getting tired and the waves kept pulling me further out away from the beach. I got worried and swam back in and went back to relax.

Ok, I'm going to finish making my action plan for next year. I'm going to try to make a calendar of all my classes and when I want to work on certain projects. I've gotta get all this organized in my head.

Also, I have noticed a pattern here. Whenever I write an email to someone, I generally get one really enthusiastic reply ("Leland! Oh man, how have you been?! How's Africa?!"), to which I then also reply, but then the next exchange... just stops. Some people have broken this pattern, such as the one and only Jess Paga, and more recently, Miss Grace Chu. So thanks. The rest of you, get on your shit or we're gonna have an awful lot to catch up on when I get state side.