Time is accelerating. The last month has gone by unbelievably fast, and every week is over by the time I notice that it's even started. Every second year volunteer will tell you that this is the case, but it's a different thing entirely when it actually happens. Next month, I'm taking a little trip to Fogo to hike up the volcano and visit some friends, and then afterwards we have COS (close of service) conference. And then just three more months in Cape Verde.

I've already partly checked out mentally, I must say. But not entirely. I've still got to wrap up my work here as best I can. Two small tech support businesses have moved to Boa Vista in the last 6 months, so I feel reasonably good about that. Before, I was the only person who could fix a computer here, but now I think they'll be all right without me. But there are no trainers. Tech support is no good if the average person can't use a PC. So the one thing I would truly love to do here is to run a week long course to train some teachers. If the CEJ hires just one person part time to continue with the classes, I'll feel pretty confident leaving this place behind. It's not a done deal that a new volunteer will come to take over my position, so I feel more than a little pressure to make this happen. Plus, it will be nice to actually have a lasting effect here.

Beyond wrapping up here... The question of what the hell I'm going to do in the US is becoming more and more urgent. I actually applied for a job yesterday. My assistant director sent me an email tip for what basically amounts to the perfect job for me, so I immediately fired off an email with a resume and cover letter. So hopefully something happens there. If not, I'll be doing a fair amount of travelling in my first month back to try and find something to do. It's going to be really awkward to be staying with my parents in South Dakota while searching for jobs on the east coast. Oh well. At least the email from yesterday made me realize that there are indeed perfect jobs out there. Now if only I can get an employer to realize just how damn fantastic I am...

The CEJ director is in the US all month. Things have actually been going pretty smoothly, except that some minor things get completely overlooked. When an extension burned out, we just didn't use a printer for like 5 days. I suppose I could have gone and grabbed one, but I've taken an attitude lately of letting things just flow here. It's not laziness on my part, but more than I am curious to see what it takes to impart a sense of personal initiative here. Answer: 5 days or so. Overall though, people have stepped up and taken care of everything on their own. Unfortunately, Jonny is moving to São Vicente in a couple weeks, depriving us of a really solid guy, not to mention the closest thing to another technician we have here. I taught him how to fix up computers last year, and he's since built himself a PC with spare parts. Whenever people come in with really minor issues, he can pretty much take care of them on his own, and he enjoys it (whereas I get annoyed after someone comes in for the 10^th time with the same problem – I can't help it). Before he goes, I've been giving him little lessons on networks in the afternoon. Teaching binary-decimal conversion in a foreign, non-technical language to someone without higher math is tricky at best. He got it though.

I'm having a party tomorrow night. It was fairly spontaneous. I mentioned it in passing and my coworker Márcia latched on to the idea. So now I've got a dozen people coming by tomorrow night. Cool.