I guess I should write something, huh.

I can't say I've been up to much lately. I finished up my English class (thank all that is holy), so I don't have anything to teach until April 2nd now, which is nice. It means I get to be home by 6 pm every day. So during the day, I've just been fixing computers and planning lessons for my beginner's English class. On that note...

I'm sick of fixing computers. I mean, I know I came here as an IT volunteer. And that's fine. But as of two weeks ago, I flat out refuse to hold a full time tech job, ever again, in my entire life. Why? Because all of a sudden, the few remaining people on Boa Vista with broken computers are now aware of my presence, and they just keep on piling through the door. It's unreal. I am constantly either fixing a computer, or being asked to fix one. In one sense, I don't mind, because I am the only one who can do it, so it's obviously at least mildly rewarding to help someone out. On the other hand, I hate fixing computers, particularly for people who don't understand anything about them (i.e. most, and that's not just here), and most particularly for people who don't understand that some computers are not fixable and are just broken forever.

I was in Praia this past weekend for a workshop on "Training Design and Evaluation." A training guy from Washington was there, as well as the West Africa regional training person, and they introduced what basically was a new way to approach training design. It was, as we say, mais ou menos. It could have been really good, and in some ways, it was pretty helpful. I honestly and nerdily find the whole topic of training to be pretty interesting, especially in light of the whole Peace Corps goal of sustainable development, which I will not bore you with here. What was not so good about the whole thing is that I can't see much of it coming to light in the near future. With the whole training model being changed this year, it's enough of an experiment that I don't imagine that they will also be trying to throw in another whole batch of new ideas. But I did get to hang out with a whole crew of volunteers and we had a pretty good time, even if it was for 2 short days.

Scary experience: I went windsurfing on Sunday, after getting home at the ass crack of dawn and sleeping for another couple hours. I decided to use a smaller board for the first time, since the winds were pretty high, and it's easier that way. So I grabbed a 119 liter board (contrast this with my previous 155 liter board - huge difference) and my usual sail and headed off. At first, no problems. I wobbled a bit, figured it out, and then crossed the bay 4 times. So far so good. Then I'm not sure what happened, but I fell off at one point on one edge of the bay and couldn't get back up. I kept getting on the board, hauling my sail, and then falling off right as I got a good grip on the boom. The balance on the smaller board was just completely different and I couldn't do it with high winds and rough water. So I fell and fell and fell and drifted the whole time further and further out. Eventually, I was exhausted, out of breath, banged up, and waterlogged. Even worse, I was too far away to swim back and further out than any of the other surfers. So after briefly freaking out, I ended up throwing my sail back across the back of the board and paddling to the nearest anchored yacht, where I tied my board up and flopped exhausted in the dinghy. There was no one on board, except a remarkably cute and friendly cat. So I ended up sitting on the this fucking boat for about 45 minutes until my friend Spela surfed over and waved over a friend on a motorboat to bring me in. So there it was, the first time I've had to be rescued on my board. Yeah, and it was scary as hell drifting out towards the open sea. And of course, everyone at the wind club has been making fun of me, asking me how Brazil was (Brazil being the next place you land if you drift out of the bay). So yeah, next time I am sticking to the shallows until I get a hang of the small board.

Ok that's it. That is honestly the most interesting thing that has happened to me lately. I'm reading Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls, which is surprisingly good. I am very, very relaxed.