Where have I been, why haven't I been online at all, and what have I been doing? In short: Santiago, too busy, training. The more lengthy answer would be...
Having agreed to help out with training the new IT volunteers, I left Boa Vista last month and went straight to Santiago and got right to work. No, not really. I went on a little vacation first. I flew over to Santo Antao and visited Natawnee in Paul for a week. Alli's despidida (going away party) was on the Sunday that I arrived, so I got straight off the boat, met up with a guy also going, and got a ride there. They were late. I could go into lots of details about the fun that we had, but it was like a month ago now, and well... I just don't feel like it. To sum up a few things, we had a party on basically a farm in the middle of nowhere, and then afterwards ended up in a really nice hotel in Ribeira Grande, where we actually got to swim in a real swimming pool, which was almost the best thing to happen to me all month. And then I spent a week basically just hanging around Paul, relaxing and enjoying friendly company.
I didn't really want to leave there, but I got to Santiago 3 weeks ago, and I have been up in Assomada helping out with training. There are 5 new IT volunteers, all of whom are pretty solid. They've all been assigned a site as of yesterday, and I think all of them are pretty happy with their situation. The rough part about training has been that this is the first IT specific training PC/CV has done. We developed the training material from scratch starting months and months ago, but it still is kind of tough to teach something that you have never seen taught. I think I'm managing to do a decent job, but more importantly, I'm trying to lay groundwork for more successful training in the future. Also, I'm not going to harp on anymore about training, because it just makes for boring blog material, and if you haven't stopped reading already, you must really like me.
Assomada had been fun, because I get to hang out with other volunteers whom I otherwise rarely see. But I miss Boa Vista. I miss my ocean and my friends. So next Saturday, I get to go back. And on that note, it is time for a cold shower upstairs (the downstairs shower, with wonderful wonderful hot water, has starting backing up nasty pipe crud that smells like sewage), and then we are apparently going to a discoteca somewhere.
