Well, I had a great weekend, how about you? Really though, after a long string of satisfyingly relaxing but dull weekends, this one was pretty non-stop and fun. To start with, on Friday night, we were invited to dinner at a friend's house, though we were very late, because I had to teach until 8:30. So after arriving late, we ate a bit, had a drink, and went to the praça in town for live music. For the first time since arriving in Sal Rei, there was a crowd in the center of town, drinking and listening to music. I'm not sure if it's just because it is starting to be tourist season and they want to put on a good show for the cash cows, I mean, visitors, but it was a good time. We got pretty tired pretty early, because it was such a long and exhausting week, so we were back home by midnight, and I was asleep by 12:05.

We had invited a lot of people over for dinner on Saturday, promising Mexican food, so we spent a lot of Saturday preparing for that. I spent all morning walking around town, buying a few things for dinner, but mostly trying to organize picking up some of our stuff from the port. Peace Corps sent us our beds, tables, and chairs from Praia by boat, so we had to get them. Unfortunately, this involves finding someone with a truck we can use while both the port and the future apartment are both open at the same time. Harder than it sounds. Turns out that neither were open Saturday morning. So hopefully that will happen early this afternoon. Anyway. I relaxed a bit in the early afternoon, and then we tackled making dinner. We made enchiladas, refried beans, and spanish rice. To those of you in the US, this is not terribly exciting. To anyone who has lived overseas, this is earth-shattering. Nadia's mom sent her some spices you can't get here, like chili powder, so that is what made a large part of it possible. In any event, 6 or 7 friends came over and ate with us, and the dinner was a huge success. The enchiladas were awesome, and the rice was also very good. The beans were good, but I think I need to work on that one a bit. Not that it really mattered to our guests, considering that I don't think any of them had really had any of these things before. So everyone stuck around until eleven or so, and took off. One guy promised to return in an hour to pick us up to go out to Mazurka, the one and only real discoteca around here, but three things prevented that: we passed out in the living room of sheer exhaustion; the power went out at midnight, as always, thus ensuring that we would not wake up again; and Paolo never showed anyway. He just told me this morning that he fell asleep at home. And a bird just smacked headfirst into the window of the CEJ. Lovely.

Which brings us to Sunday. We had planned on not doing a damn thing all day. At least, that's what I planned. Reading, running, swimming, napping were the only agenda items. But Helena, a Portuguese teacher at the high school, called at 10 asking if we wanted to go on a little trip with her and her family. So obviously we said yes. Helena and her boyfriend Tony came with the two kids and we drove to the opposite shore, in the northeast corner of the island. After picking up two more kids in João Galego, we went to a place called Baia das Gatas, where the water is calm, shallow and warm. So I spent about two hours floating in two foot deep bathtub-warm water, sipping cold beer and eating watermelon. I can think of at least 7 million worse ways to spend a Sunday. We went to a little fisherman's shack nearby, where we bought some fresh fish and eel. We then returned to João Galego, where Tony is from and where most of his family lives. The whole family was absolutely amazingly nice, and it also turns out that at least two other people I know in Sal Rei are immediately related to them. That's just what it's like here. One big family. My counterpart also has family there, so she was there with a coworker, and we chatted with them briefly. We hung out with Tony's family until about 8 pm, drinking beer, chatting, eating, and just hanging out. I got to witness my first goat killing, followed by my first goat skinning, gutting, and dismembering. My only observation is really just that there was a lot less blood than I thought there would be. I guess the goat was pretty small, but still. We deep fried the moray after it got dark, which was delicious, as always, though the little spine bones are a pain in the ass. Tony's uncle and their neighbor, who also works at the high school here, were particularly drunk and were desperate to practice their English. I obligingly had many long, drunkenly repetitive conversations with them about various and sundry topics, but mostly we just reiterated many times over how Boa Vista is the best island in the country, and how they also think it is the best place in the world to live. Anyway, other than the conversations in English, one of the best parts of the day was realizing that I had almost zero trouble with Creole all weekend. I managed to carry on conversations with a minimum of pausing and repeating, and overall had a damn fine time of it. Go me.

So that's all for now. Back to putting together an English course.

I'm going to try a somewhat more thoughtful post today. People always say that Peace Corps service is a lot of ups and downs, and that's very true. But not quite in the way I was expecting. I guess I was expecting some loneliness, challenges with language, difficulties with food, water, electricity, etc. But none of those things have bothered me: I haven't felt alone since the first week or two, my language needs work but is progressing nicely, and food, water, and electricity are blessedly stable and adequate here (mostly). No, the thing that has been bothering me the most has been me.

When you are put somewhere alone to do a self-motivated, self-designed job, you quickly learn the most difficult part, which is the "self." It's not that I'm lazy. I hope. It's more that, because I am young and only a year out of college, I am pretty used to having someone prescribe my work for me. When I was manager of the helpdesk at Wes along with Justin, I had the most say in my job that I've ever had, and I liked it a lot. I'd like to think I did a good job. But even then, I had a director who worked really hard to keep us afloat and we received a lot of direction from her. The most guidance we receive from Peace Corps is some information on how to get ideas for what to do, or how to plan a conceived project (ok training in that area was less than adequate, but that is another story). Not to say that PC doesn't support us; they do, fully. But they aren't there to give us a job description. Also, my counterpart here, though she has ideas, isn't pushing any one job on me, other than the English classes. My computer classes are going well, but they are mainly designed by the training coordinator here.

Now, as far as what to do, I have no shortage of ideas. I've got about a dozen ideas for projects, both major and minor to do in the next couple years. I've been mostly thinking about the major ones, but I haven't yet started them because I keep thinking it's too early for them, and I don't want to get involved in something huge now while I'm still such a newbie at planning and teaching classes. But there are also minor projects I could be tackling.

So what is bothering me about me? That fact that I have yet to tackle one of these projects. Now, the Peace Corps, along with most sensible people, would say "Oh come on, you've been there a few weeks, take your time." And in fact, PC recommends that community development people take about 3 months to just kind of watch the community, build contacts, find out what people need, etc. So I'm only about halfway through that period. And every PC volunteer I've spoken to has said not to set high expectations and not to push yourself too hard, because the end result is disappointment: one person can only do so much in such a short period of time. But nonetheless, I can't shake the feeling that I expect a lot more from myself. I don't expect to change this place in 2 months, let alone two years. But I do expect myself to do lots of small things, and so far I haven't even dented my list.

So what am I going to do? Organize a road race for World AIDS Day. It's short notice (5 weeks away), but I think I might be able to pull it off. Most of the burden of organizing falls on me and Nadia, but if I can do a lot next week, I bet we could have a successful event. The idea is that, in conjunction with this global event, we have something to promote health and bodily care in general, with additional focus on AIDS.

Anyway. It's not that I'm disappointed with what I am doing. I just kind of feel like after spending so much time in the youth center here, I should have more to show for it. But starting on Monday, I have resolved to spend less time on the internet here (it's incredible how addictive it is), and more time getting around and doing things.

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.

Wrote this last night...

Ok, in today’s blog entry, I’m not going to comment much on Cape Verde. Instead, I am going to vent on America. American politics in particular. But first I’d like to mention that I just reshaved my head and it is fuzzy and pleasant. Also, there is a dog in our neighborhood who has decided to start barking all night, inspiring the whole local gang to join in. Would I be a bad person to big rocks at somebody else’s pet? Anyway. Since coming here to Boa Vista, I’ve taken up the habit of spending some time every day reading the newspaper. No no, I’m not having the New York Times delivered here, though if any wealthy readers of my blog would like to arrange to have it sent to me, I will love you/marry you/give sexual favors. But I read the Times and the Washington Post online for a while. Partly it is because I am a hopeless politics nerd (among my other nerdisms), but also because if I didn’t do so, I would probably not even notice World War 3 happening. We’re that isolated. But enough on that.

So this may sound cheesy, but one of the things that is so important to America and the developed world at large is democracy. We don’t really think about it much, and a depressing number of people don’t even vote (note: I have not missed a single election since turning 18. Not even state and local ones. Yeah, I care that much. Ok, fine so I may have missed a school board election or two. Shut up.) But the point is that we have the luxury to pick and choose candidates based on our infinitely picky standards and personal opinions. We have the choice to choose between multiple people representing different ideologies. Want tax cuts? You’ve got your man. Against the war in Iraq? So is this guy. What I never thought about until recently is that a lot of places don’t have these choices. This may seem obvious, and perhaps people more aware than I made this realization before the age of 23. And I don’t mean just knowing it, because it is an obvious fact, but I mean really thinking closely about it. But a lot of other countries (my current residence being a fortunate exception) either do not have the choice, because they do not have a democracy, or they have the choice between someone corrupt and someone who is not, or at least is acceptably so, which isn’t really a choice at all. You don’t get to pick ideologies. You just get to pick someone who won’t starve you, kill you, or squander your money.

So here is where current American politics comes in. For the first time in my admittedly short life, many districts are facing a different choice than usual. I’m going to go ahead and target Republicans here, because they have made it so damned easy lately. The corruption rampant in the GOP has surfaced in so many places recently as to be unbelievable. It is something that I have always been aware of, and that most well-read people have probably also been aware of. But it until recently has not been something criminal, provable, and public. I won’t pick on Foley here; he’s fucked. Everyone left and right of the aisle can write him off as a creepy pedophile. But the House leadership that cared more about damage control than his behavior is blameworthy. Bob Ney admitted to selling influence to lobbyists as part of the Abramoff scandal; who knows how many more will be implicated, or worse, escape unharmed or unnoticed. Then this new lobbying scandal investigation involving this other guy (can’t remember his name right now – Wolder?), who is accused of heavily helping out a sketchy Russian oil and gas company who was on his daughter’s firm’s payroll. I can’t say whether he is guilty of anything illegal or not, but it still makes him an asshole in my book.

So the point is this: next month’s elections are no longer about whose politics you side with. For the first time since I have been politically aware, the vote is about driving out the corrupt, the disgusting, the bought-and-paid-for. It is something wholly incredible and inimical to the American spirit, or at least what I desperately hope/wish the American spirit is. It is something reminiscent of the third world. Of course they’re not killing people or holding indomitable military power. But the corrupt control more than most of us can imagine, and it’s killing the country. There is no choice right now in many parts of the country. It’s not about who supports gay marriage or medical marijuana. It’s only about a citizen’s attempt to drive out a culture of corruption and influence peddling that pervades the current government. We’re finally at the point where our democratic choice is only vaguely a choice.

I know, the Democrats aren’t wholly innocent. I understand that the same mentality pervades part of my party, too. And I know that a right winger would invoke Harry Reid’s name here, but if you go ahead and read the details of his story, you will notice that his infraction was quite minor, and actually rather silly. All he did is neglect to declare a change in property ownership from personal to a corporate half owned by a friend. He has apologized and agreed to enter his oversight into his financial declarations. Nonetheless, I am sure that there are some jerks out in the Democratic party as well. But in no way, shape, or form does it even begin to approach the awesome level of corruption in the Republican party. I could go on for pages about it here, but this blog is supposed to be about my experience in Africa, not my American political opinions. Nonetheless, I had to get it out there. But whatever I think, get out there and VOTE on the 7th. Please. I don’t give a damn who you vote for (well, I have a preference). Just do your part.

I should also note that times like this are probably the major reason why I have abandoned previous thoughts of a US political career. Those of you who knew me in high school might remember me telling you that I had every intention of running for Congress one day. Sorry, I’m reneging on that. I just can’t get myself involved in this system. So instead I’ll be wandering the globe, working for international organizations, and having a much better time.

Ok I’m done now.

Well, I'm sitting in my classroom, watching all my students take a test. It's weird. I've never been on this end of the spectrum before. Oh wait, except TAing Latin 102, but that hardly counts. In any event, they are taking a 2 part exam on what I've taught them lately. I think they should be able to do it. At least 75% will be able to with out a problem.

Also, I am immensely pleased that the Mets have tied it up with the Cards. Obviously, I wasn't able to watch any games, and I have in fact nearly missed out on an entire season, but I check online in the morning for 15 minutes of sports reading to catch up. Mondays are the most exciting, because I get to read up on weekend games. I was vaguely nervous going to espn.com today, seeing as how I was about to find out about 2 key games. So it looks like I missed a 13 or 14 inning hitting slump and then a hell of a come back. Go figure my team waits until I move to a country without cable to get this far. Now if they can whip the Cards twice more, we'll have... a Mets/Tigers WS?? Wow. If Delgado ends up pitching again by the Series (if we make it...), I think we

Anyway. I had a freaking great weekend. Guess what I did? ...Nothing. I relaxed, took walks around town, ran, swam, read, and just chilled the fuck out. Now, this isn't any different than any other weekend in Cape Verde, really, except that this time I did it with a different attitude. Before, I always kind of felt like if I was relaxing, I wasn't being a good volunteer. Like I should be improving my Creole, or meeting people, or trying to do something else volunteery. But I've pulled away from that. My Uncle John, who did PC in Nepal in the 60s or 70s, had one piece of advice for me, and that was to just take it slow and not have huge expectations. He said that as soon as he stopped trying so damned hard, great things started happening, and he ended up being a phenomenally successful volunteer (he worked with the Red Cross to set up the Himalayan Mountain rescue system that is still in place today). So after laying the pressure of myself, I am enjoying myself more, and actually meeting new people much more easily.

I also have continued my running a bit. After running, I'm usually so hot and sweaty that even 5 minutes of freezing shower can't cool me down and I start sweating again as soon as I get out. Any runners will know what I mean, and I hate that shit. So yesterday, I didn't even go straight home. I ran to the other side of the road, across the beach, stripped off my shoes, socks, and beater and dove right into the water. And let me tell you, it was probably one of the best ideas I've had in the last 10 to 15 years.

I wandered down a long beach to where the watersports guys have their little shacks set up and asked around about equipment for sale. No one sells it. One guy pointed me to a street in town where he said someone had a shop that sold snorkel gear. But I went there, and the shop didn't exist. It's a frequent problem here: people will be certain that something is there, or that you can buy something in town, but really it just does not exist. It's odd, like people don't really know their own town that well. Nonetheless, I got a nice long walk out of it and met a few people.

One unforseen blessing of teaching a class in Creole for an hour and a half every night is that I have improved my speaking a lot. My listening is still so-so, I often don't understand when people speak fast, but that's just how languages are for me. I find them easy to form, but difficult to comprehend. Kind of the opposite of most people I think. But practice will improve.

Ok, kind of worried, some students have asked me many questions about the test. Must tend to them.

Well, it's Friday and the end of my 5th week on Boa Vista. It's gone a lot faster than it did in São Domingos. I wonder why... In any event, all I've really done this week is teach classes and write a proposal for two English classes. Some thoughts on teaching here...

I had a really, really awful class on Tuesday. Now keep in mind that this class is just Windows Explorer: Make a folder, copy a file, make a shortcut, move this, cut that. I got up and went through a few miscellaneous things and handed out a sheet of exercises for them to practice with. It was basically making a series of folders and subfolders and copying some files into them. The mega problem came when people all of a sudden didn't seem to understand making a folder inside another one. I noticed that about half the class had just created about 15 folders all right next to one another, in clear defiance of the directions, which very clearly had the word "dentro" (inside) over and over again. So I tried explaining it, and received blank stares all around. Frustrating. So the next day, I went into the room before class and deleted all the extraneous and ridiculous extra files all sitting around on the computers, and re-explained everything to them. It seemed to work. I handed out the exercises again and they all got it. Whew. But one of the problems I have noticed is an all around difficult time following directions. Sometimes a student will get to, say, exercise 8 which asks them to copy a file into a folder. They can't find the folder. Ok, look at exercise 3, where it asks you to create the folder. Did you do that? No? A-ha, therein lies the problem. It's very strange to me, but seems to be pretty universal here. But it's not all bad. The class is pretty clearly divided into three groups: those who have a really hard time, those who get it after an explanation and some practice, and those who get it before I'm even done talking about it. I have one last class of miscellaneous stuff to do today, and then it will be followed by a test on Monday, which they have to do alone. Given the general difficulty with following guided, written exercised, I wonder how some of the students will fare. Many of them understand what they have to do perfectly well, but nearly always need verbal nudging to get it done. I have been told by PC volunteers the world over that this is a common issue. American and European school systems stress problem solving skills, but here it is generally rote memorization that is emphasized. As a result, people in some developing countries have difficulty applying a skill in an abstract way, i.e. any way that isn't exactly how it was originally explained.

Anyway. I am planning a pair of English courses now that will start in November. Both classes will be aimed at slightly older folks, because English is already required for 7th through 12th grades. The first will be an introductory course for those with little to no experience in English, and the second is a more advanced conversation course for those who just want to improve grammar and vocabulary. I finished up with the proposals the other day and am going to start planning out classes today. I was a bit disinterested in the idea for a while, but I'm starting to get excited about it. The beginner class will be fun to just teach the most basic aspects of our language. And for Leland the Language Nerd, it will be interesting to kind of dissect English in a way that I haven't ever had to before. For the advanced class, I've picked a list of real world topics to discuss, mainly shamelessly stolen from an advanced textbook I found in the library of the CEJ. So the goal will be to facilitate (bonus peace corps buzzword) discussions and use them to clarify grammar confusion and pick up new vocab. Not bad.

What else... Nothing really. I still live on the beach. Tomorrow, I'm going to wander down a stretch of beach on the other end of town to see if I can find some of the watersports guys. I want to ask them where I'd be able to buy a bodyboard and snorkel gear, and maybe get some connections for windsurfing lessons. They cost about $40 otherwise, and I clearly cannot afford that. So let's hope... Ok, time to plan some English lessons.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain copy and paste to 16 people who have only just learned how to use a mouse last week? Really hard. Really fucking hard.

Sound the trumpets, folks, because we finally have a home. Temporary, of course, but it's not a hotel room. So here's what happened last week: The country and regional safety and security coordinators were going to be visiting Boa Vista anyway, to check out the island, add to the notes that they already have. So PC basically enlisted their aid in helping us get a place to live. So Mike and Hilario showed up on Thursday and saw some places. Then we spent nearly all day Friday looking at potential houses and apartments. Nothing was really to perfect satisfaction, unfortunately. Everything was either too expensive, too old and crusty, too not-entirely-built-yet, or too one-bedroom-ish. As for that last one, you wouldn't think that this would be an issue. But on no less than half a dozen occasions, we have showed up to see an apartment that we have been ASSURED has two bedrooms, only to find that it has only one. It defies all sense and reality. If I were a scholar, I would make this my life's research: How does the number one, in passing through a single human beings eyes and brain, suddenly turn into two? It's spectacular. But that is neither here nor there. We did revisit an apartment we had seen before and were pleased to see that it only has a few weeks more work to be done on it. Obviously that is no good for now, but it is absolutel ideal for a permanent residence in size, price, location, everything. So in the mean time, we are shacked up in the only other two bedroom place we could find: an Italian tourist apartment just outside the main cluster of town. It kinda sucks that we are not as inside the community as we would like. It also kinda sucks to be associated with the tourism industry. It definitely sucks that it is costing way more than it should. But oh wow is it a nice place. It's nice enough that I feel guilty having it. As much as I like it, I definitely prefer the more humble place in town. Nonetheless, it is never bad to eat dinner on a balcony overlooking the ocean, or spend Sunday reading with a nice beach breeze blowing. It was also fully furnished, which was pretty necessary given our situation. It just wouldn't make sense to have to buy all our furniture and then move again a month later after barely settling in. So yeah, that's where I am now. I can finally relax and enjoy myself a bit.

I also am halfway through teaching my first computer class. It's going pretty well as of now. I have to teach in Creole, which was a frightening though at first, but that has actually not been the hard part at all. The most difficult thing is forcing myself to go at a pace suitable for someone who has literally never touched a computer before. In the US, even people who don't have computers or despise them know how to move a mouse, know the difference between right and left clicks, know where the start button is, etc. Not so much here. And concepts that seem easy to me aren't. In giving instructions, I might say quickly "Ok, go to the Start menu, click on the Control Panel, find the user accounts icon." But it's not that easy. I usually have to specify which mouse button, and say exactly where to click on each screen. It was frustrating at first, but now I don't mind so much. The good part is that my class is interested, attentive, and nearly always on time. Because they are older, they are mature and don't give me shit ever. I like it. I have another class, in Microsoft Word, coming up at the end of the month. Also, my counterpart is pressuring me to start teaching an English class soon. I certainly don't have a problem with teaching it, and I would actually love to get it started, but I'm a little lost on it, to be perfectly honest. It's not exactly my element and I don't even know where to start. Nadia has been giving me ideas, and I think that the first class is going to be a very basic conversational class, with the material dictated by the needs and levels of the students. I can see that either going really well, or really badly. We'll see... For people who already know, I think I'm also going to try to organize an informal discussion hour with friends that we've made around town. They always want to speak English with us, so I figure why not get them all together at once and have a chat?

Also, North Korea just tested a nuclear weapon. Yikes.

Well, I just visited our potential "two bedroom" apartment. The reason for quotation marks? It doesn't have two bedrooms. I have no idea why we were told that it it does. But it doesn't. It has a futon, in the living room. And by living room, I mean kitchen. It would be a really really nice place, if you were a tourist couple looking to stay here for a summer. But not if you're a pair of Peace Corps volunteers. Who aren't married.

Well, now I have to call my asst director and tell him that we still don't have a house. Not only that, but we no longer even have any leads to find a house. According to Nadia's boss last week, this means we have to move to the other house, an hour away, in the interior of the island. Shit. Not that that makes any sense, moneywise, because the cost of transportation would actually come out to the price of an entire other apartment for the two of us. Fuck.

I still haven't taken any pictures of Boa Vista, but I did find this on the computer I'm using, so I decided to upload it. I have no idea where on the island this is, but this could basically be any beach anywhere, except Vila Sal-Rei. Beaches are beautiful, interior is heinous. See what I mean?

As I indicated in the last email, I've been struggling to get this apartment thing handled. But of course, we weren't able to see it last week. The landlord got back from Italy yesterday, so we are waiting for him to show it to us. We bumped into his wife last night, and she said that it is best if we wait until evening to call him and set it up. Clearly, this is not ideal, but I am slowly learning to deal with things like this. Hopefully (HOPEFULLY), we will be able to see the place by tomorrow morning and we can tell our director to jump on a contract. Holy shit, do I ever want this apartment. It's located in another section of town that I very badly want to live in...

Ok, to explain that: I've sort of figured out how this town is divided up. Nadia and I always just thought that this was a quiet and less social town than São Domingos. Not so. On weekends, there is never anybody in the praça (town square), and the whole end of town that we are on just seems deserted. But a walk around on Saturday with Nadia, and then a separate solo journey of my own on Sunday proved otherwise. The other, older part of town is buzzing with life. Every Cape Verdean is sitting on the stoop, drinking at a bar, lounging by the boats, playing soccer, swimming, or one of any number of other random weekend-y kinda things. So yeah. It was very uplifting to see that this town has more than meets the eye. With some luck, we'll get to live there and then we'll have a balcony to relax on and make friends with our neighbors. Ohhh, the balcony... It overlooks some rocks and then the bright blue harbor filled with fishing boats, with Ilheu de Sal-Rei just past it. The ilheu (a long island that protects the harbor from the ocean) is almost totally barren, except an abandoned 16th century Portuguese fort and a lone church. Anyway, the point is that every evening, the sun sets over this nice little vista right in front of my potential future balcony. Oh god, I will cry tears of blood if I don't get this apartment.

So last week was kind of a downer. I think other volunteers are having similarly rough experiences. Natawnee and I (obviously) keep in constant contact, and she had a bad one as well. I was feeling pretty down all week about the housing thing. I can't possibly express often enough or strongly enough how much I despise living in a hotel room. Ugh. So I ended up downloading a bunch of cheap games to my laptop and hiding in my room for like 4 hours on Sunday. Not the most constructive way to deal with the situation, but sometimes it can't be helped. Afterwards, I decided to get up and go for a walk. That's when I wandered through the cool section of town and my spirits were much uplifted. Saturday, we just kinda floated in the bay for a while in the sunshine, and did a little shopping. I also bought a backpack for work, which is significant because it is the only concrete purchase I have made in over 3 months. Wooha.

Also, I miss my girlfriend a lot. A lot a lot.

Ok, off to do some work for a while, because I teach my first computer class tonight. Introduction to computers, 17 students, 7 pm to 8:30, Monday through Friday, for two weeks. Fun.

I'm sitting in the fully functional cyber café in the CEJ now, with a bunch of teenage boys all gathered around one computer to my right. Every time I get up and walk past them, they quickly close all the windows on the computer. Gee, I wonder what's keeping their attention... The CyberCaféPro software arrived on Monday morning and I installed it along with Vilma, the CEJ technician and computer teacher. We set up the server and a couple client machines to test it and make sure it was all satisfactory. I spent last week learning the software with a demo copy, and I taught her all I had figured out. She's pretty smart (getting a comp sci degree in São Paulo, Brasil), so she picked it all up quickly, and was teaching it to the other employees not twenty minutes later. I spent the afternoon installing the client software on all the computers here while Vilma finished ironing out the rest of the server configuration, and by the time I left at 5:30 or so, there were half a dozen customers and the girl who works nights was handling it fine on her own. So there you have it, first project is done. Go me.

I've felt a bit aimless since finishing up this project, so I just ducked into my counterpart's office, and talked with her a bit about where to go next. Apparently, she wants me to start teaching computer classes on Monday. This is tricky, considering I've only ever taught two computer classes ever, and I have no lesson plans. So I guess I will have to cobble something together in the very near future. Of course, I am not sure what topics I will be covering, or what skill levels my students will have. So basically, it's exactly what I thought Peace Corps would be like. And the solution is, as always, to just roll with it. I'll start working with Vilma today to put together a course. I've got sample lesson plans from a book from the PC resource library, as well as lesson plans given to me by Brent, a 2nd year volunteer on São Nicolau.

We may have found an apartment the other day, so I am going to visit it this morning. If it is satisfactory, hopefully we can move in soon. One of my coworkers lives in the building, so I've seen what it looks like. Apparently one of the bedrooms is pretty small, but I really don't care. Clearly, I came here with not that much stuff, and I definitely don't need a desk and chairs and shit. So I told Nadia that I will take the small room, just so long as we have a place to live, and soon. The building is about 50 feet from the water and is in an older section of town. The location is prime, so hopefully the apartment is as nice as I hope it is.

Ok, Paulo (guy who works at the camara, and our apartment-savvy hookup) is here, and it's time to visit what is hopefully my future home.

This is my little brother Maniyky, in my room wearing all my stuff. It's just a good picture.
Me and Natawnee. I am including this partly because I just think it's a good picture, and partly because I think she will be at least mildly embarrassed when she notices that I have posted a picture of us on the internet.
This is the greatest goat of all time. Full credit must go to Jean-Claude Lebec for both the photo and noting that this is the sort of goat that probably did blow with David Bowie back in the day.
This picture is just a god damned great photograph. Darrell, Kyle, Jean-Claude, and me at the youth center where J-C now works in Praia. Oh right, that's me with a shaved head.
This was just about a month ago, at a party for Jacob, a volunteer who was finishing his two year service. The theme of the photo was intense concentration. Anyway, I am at work right now, so I need to not post any more pictures and get back to working. I helped put together a cybercafé yesterday, which appears to be running smoothly around me. Nice.

Here is São Domingos towards the end of the dry season. This is where all the training went down. We all lived in separate houses around town. Note the funky brown color. That is the color of Cape Verde 9 months out of the year. It is also why I thought the Portuguese were lying through their teeth when they named this place.
But no, they weren't. They just arrived in the rainy season. This is a picture taken not far from the other, but at a different angle. My home stay house is just above that square walled-in area (a cemetary). The entire island changes to this amazing electric green color. The brown patches in the hills are just cultivated areas with crops.
And this is our first weekend of training. This is at Bar Estudante, where we stopped going after two weeks because they stupidly decided to start overcharging us for beer. Everyone else was paying 100 escudos, and they asked us to pay 120. So we started going to other places. Two people of particular note here. My girlfriend, Natawnee, is the very tan girl right above my head. And the other dark girl to the right of me is Nadia, my current roommate on Boa Vista.

Here is Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. It's a big city by standards here, but is only a bit over 100,000 people. There are no tall buildings as you can see. Not much else to say about Praia... We only spent a little time there, but this is where the Embassy and Peace Corps offices are.
Somewhat out of order, but here is a view of Dakar, Senegal from the balcony of my hotel room. We only stayed there one night as a layover, but the beach was just really pretty, so here it is. This is the edge of the city, on the north side of the peninsula. Downtown Dakar is much larger and less picturesque.

Ok, gonna post this now and try for some other pictures in a sec.

Time for another post, I guess... We may have a temporary house now, which we will hopefully move into tomorrow. It's kind of a tourist apartment, which is bad because I would rather not be associated with anything touristy here, but good because, well, it's fully furnished and right by the beach. So I guess no complaints really. The fully furnished thing is the most key, because I don't really want to spend a bunch of money on buying stuff and moving it into a house if we're going to leave a month later. So if we can actually get a hold of the landlord, we will visit it today and move in tomorrow. Finally.

Oh, and I have a mailing address now (just a PO box), so if you are feeling beneficent and want to mail me things, shoot me an email and I'll send it to you.

So my major observation about Boa Vista thus far is that the tourist aspect of it sucks more than I imagined. In Sao Domingos, it was so easy to make friends. Just by virtue of my skin color, I stood out, and people were curious. So I was constantly talking to people, and everyone just wanted to know all about me, why I was there, etc etc. But here, you can't spit without hitting an Italian (note: I have not yet actually spit on an Italian), and most people here are rightfully sick of tourists. So there is no overt friendliness. Once I speak Creole, it's usually not a problem. Then they realize that I am not a tourist, and the Cape Verdean hospitality comes right out. But it's unfortunate.

Ok, gotta run some errands now, but I've more anti-tourist venting for later.

Well I'm here on my new home island of Boa Vista. Note that I didn't just say "home." That's because, oh yeah, I DON'T HAVE A HOUSE YET. But, hey, no big deal. So here's what's been happening...

Upon arrival, we spent a night in a hotel in Vila Sal-Rei, which is where Nadia and I work (Nadia is my future roommate). The original plan was for the two of us to spend a month living in an apartment in Rabil, a nearby town, until a more permanent house is completed. Well, on Monday we went to visit this apartment and found... well, a few things. One, it is tiny, certainly not big enough for two people. Two, there is no bed or refridgerator, and the table and chairs look like they were pulled from a trash pile. Three, speaking of trash piles, someone's (presumeably the landlord's) stuff, including a motorcycle, is filling up one of the rooms of the apartment. Given the size of the place, this is about 25% of the total room space. Fourth, there is an apartment above that seems to have physical access to the one I am meant to live in, i.e. someone's stuff was in the bathroom. Fifth, Rabil is far enough away that it actually costs more money to get to Vila from there and back than PC actually gives us to live on. Not to mention the fact that I would clearly prefer to live in the town that I work in, so as to really home in on the community part of community development. So, I told the vareador of the camara (basically a head of department in local government... important guy) that I couldn't live there. Here's the kicker: due to some kind of miscommunication, they have already entered into a year contract on the apartment. Needless to say, he wasn't too pleased, for which I don't blame him. The camara has invested this money in getting a volunteer, and look what happens... So, we went back to the hotel for another night, and informed our respective Peace Corps bosses of the situation. We ended up visiting the apartment that is under construction, and found that it is perfect, but we still have to wait a while for it to be done. What followed is several days of calls back and forth between me, Nadia, our directors, the camara, and the owners of several apartments and pensions in Vila, all trying to sort this mess out. As of yesterday, we have been told to relax, stay in the hotel, do our thing, and all will be sorted out by the guys in charge. So ok. Doesn't change the fact that it's a huge headache.

But otherwise.... I'm trying to think of what has happened since my last post over a month ago. Both a lot and a little, I guess. My Creole is very good now. I scored Advanced on the Language Proficiency Interview, which is a standardized language testing process developed by the Foreign Service. My Portuguese is shockingly not bad (Intermediate High), considering I only had two weeks of it, but I can barely hold a conversation. I became thoroughly sick of training shortly after that last post of mine. If it weren't for the other trainees, it would have been pretty hard to slog through it all. Computer model school was a disaster, as was the IT community project. It's hard to pin the blame as to why they went so badly, but it was just really really disorganized. We did the best we could with what we had, and I can at least say that I learned something from both experiences. The rest of training was just a blur of hanging out with other PC trainees and Cape Verdean locals.

Natawnee and I have ended up getting very close, certainly closer than I had anticipated. In the week or two before training we decided to stick it out and give a real relationship a try. Unfortunately, she is in Paul on the island of Santo Antao, which is at the total opposite end of the northern archipelago. To get there from here, I have to fly from here to Sal, then to Sao Vicente, where I take a ferry boat from Mindelo to Porto Novo on Santo Antao, and from there I have to take two hiace rides across the island and down the coast. Yeah, it's pretty remote. Yeah, I know what y'all are thinking... Jackass Leland got himself into another impossible relationship. Fortunately for us, our situation makes it a lot easier (at least in my opinion) to make it work. I don't think I could adequately explain here, but just trust me when I say I'm pretty pleased with how it's going. Though I would be more pleased if she were here.

So my CEJ (Centro de Juventude - Youth Center) here is nicer than I could possibly have imagined. It is brand new, with about 30 computers in various rooms. The main room is a cybercafe that they use to make money and keep the whole thing more or less self-sustaining. There is a computer classroom that I will be teaching in, probably starting in a few weeks. The cybercafe oddly enough doesn't have any cybercafe software running, so that is my first side project here. I found some relatively inexpensive software that I am going to download and install on a couple computers to test out. I'll run it through some tests next week and see if I can procure the $70 it will cost to license it for all the computers here. I don't know a damn thing about cybercafes, but I guess now is as good a time to start as any.

As far as other projects go, I've got more than a few in mind. Peace Corps has linked up with Cisco to get all IT volunteers certified to teach Cisco Networking Academies in developing countries. For anybody who knows me well enough, they may realize that I was studying for this very certification in the US before coming here. So I am going to start up an academy here to train people in networking, software, and hardware. It's an unbelievable program, and I can't wait to get it in full swing. It also ties a bit into another project: There is an organization in the CV government called NOSI (Nucleio Operacional do Sociedade de Informatica... I think) that runs all the government's networks and software for them. They started out with just the Ministry of Finance, but now they work with multiple ministries and have physical connections with all 9 inhabited islands. They host government websites and run web-based software to streamline government applications. We toured their facilities and talked with one of the guys there for about 3 hours last month and it was really unbelievable. Anyway, their goal is to link every camara municipal to their system. My goal is, of course, to get the ball rolling on that for the camara of Boa Vista (the whole island is one conselho... it's that small). That ties into my Cisco project, because they need people on the islands who can handle the ongoing maintenance on this end, i.e. maintaining the Cisco router and other equipment, not to mention someone who knows the software well enough to be able to troubleshoot. Other than those two big ones, I've got some other ideas floating around in my head to keep me busy when I'm not teaching classes.

Now the island itself... Well, it is the classic desert island in nearly every sense of the term. Yesterday, Nadia and I went with the CEJ to the opposite shore (to play with sea turtles! Boa Vista is one of the top spots in the world for sea turtle nesting), and we drove through the interior ...wow. It is nothing but miles of sand dunes, fields of brown, red, and black volcanic rock, and the occasional low mountain. There are a few oases scattered around that are beautiful clumps of grass and palm trees, plus the odd town, but mainly there is nothing whatsoever. I've never seen anything like it. Fortunately, the coastline makes up for it. The whole island is a nearly uninterrupted circular beach. The water is crystal clear and it's that perfect temperature: just cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough that you can stay in all day. The bay of Sal-Rei is protected by a long islet that makes it calm and easy to float around in, not to mention windsurf. But other coast areas get pretty respectable waves, and I am currently in the market for a bodyboard. I can body surf the smaller waves, but the bigger ones are a bit intimidating, and near the rocks. The clarity of the water also makes for phenomenal snorkeling, so I'm going to try to find a mask tomorrow, too.

The town of Vila Sal-Rei is small, quiet, and beautiful. There is a large square in the middle of town, where people hang out at night. All the houses are brightly painted, and the streets are clean and well-maintained. It has one problem... tourists. This is really only a problem for me, because I am always mistaken for one, until I open my mouth and they realize that I speak Creole, which no tourists know. But I get a lot of "ciao" and "bon soir" when I walk around, since most of the tourists are European; I have yet to meet another American, which is fine with me. Nadia is very dark-skinned, so more often than not, we are assumed to be Italian. The tourism is also a problem (again, only for us) because it has inflated the economy to the point that it is going to be difficult to live in the Peace Corps living allowance. If we keep detailed track of our expenses, we may be able to wheadle some more money out of them, assuming that it stacks up as much as I think it will. But perhaps if we continue to shop at the Cape Verdean markets and drink at the Cape Verdean bars, we will be able to live on what we get. We'll see. For the Cape Verdeans, the tourism is all they've got, seeing as Boa Vista is virtually totally lacking in natural resources. They have salt. Which they no longer produce. And fish. Which they no longer export commercially (there used to be a tuna canning plant here). So tourism it is.

So in sum, I guess I basically love it here. My job is great, my town is amazing, the island is gorgeous. If I could only get my girlfriend here, life would be perfect. Oh, and a house would be nice, too. I've got regular internet access now, so expect somewhat more regular blog postings. And y'all should write me some emails. I like to get love, too.

L

Ok kiddies, a real post! Here are the 14 pages, single spaced, that I have been writing on and off for the last month. It starts out while traveling and ends... this morning. Enjoy!


Friday, July 7, sometime after midnight – Dakar, Senegal

We just arrived in Africa a few hours ago, and my group of travelers got stuck with a night over in Dakar. I say stuck, but I’m really not complaining. I’ve always wanted to see Senegal, and now I’ve got the whole morning to do it. Our hotel is right on the beach, north of Dakar on the opposite edge of the peninsula. This is the westernmost point of continental Africa, apparently. The PC director for Senegal has informed us that the beach is amazingly beautiful, but it’s dark already, so I’ll have to wait until morning to find out.

Travel so far has been pretty hellish. Our original flights through Amsterdam were cancelled sometime last week and everything has been reorganized at the last minute, and it’s all been chaotic. We were routed through Paris, but everyone left DC at different times. After all taking the same flight to Dakar, half the crew has continued on to Praia, while the other half is staying here. My hotel room is really nice and has a spectacular view of the ocean and what looks like it might be a port, though I can’t really tell. Gotta wrap this up, cuz I think I just fried my voltage converter and I’m out of battery…


Monday, July 10, 2006, just before 9 pm – Sao Domingos, Cabo Verde
Ok, well I finally got an adapter, thanks to the genius of one of my little brothers (more on that in a bit). So I am sitting in my living room (mine for the next 2 months at least), while the rest of my host family watches Brazilian soap operas. Now, to start where I left off…

My morning in Dakar was pretty nice. I woke up around 10, and went to lounge by the pool for a bit. There was a mismatch with boy/girl ratios, so I ended up rooming with Catalina, a volunteer in her mid twenties from Arizona, I think. Some other PC folks were already by the pool, and the rest wandered down as time went on. I left our private beach (our hotel was pretty nice…) to walk down the public beach for a bit. Yeah, we didn’t get stared at. It was me, Kyle, and Mike; 3 white kids on a beach that probably doesn’t get too many. But the beach was colorful and loud, if really really dirty. Guys rake piles of garbage out of the water and neatly organize them all day. The result is large piles of trash every twenty feet; not pretty. But the water was blue and warm, though I wouldn’t have gone for a swim. That’s what the pool was for. We had a huge lunch, and then headed for the airport, where we soon discovered that TACV (Cabo Verde’s airline) doesn’t really have its own check in section, or employees that I could see for that matter. One other kid and I had enough French between the two of us to work out a solution. Even with pretty decent listening comprehension, the African accent makes Senegalese French REALLY hard to understand. But I buddied up with an Air Senegal guy named Mike (probably not his real name?) who knew as much English as I know French, and we managed to check in all 16 of us, AND recover all the baggage for the other 16. Did I mention that? Didn’t think so. Yeah, TACV totally forgot to send on everyone’s bags to Praia. And of course we found out that our flight was delayed 2 hours and change. So we hung out in the airport from 2 to 8:30-ish. I made friends at the airport bar with a Danish guy named Per, which was apparently funny… Someone decided he was gay and hitting on me, plus he was some form of international sheep trader, which didn’t help. Anyway, I learned a fair amount about West Africa from him, plus his beer and the others I bought combined forces with my malaria prophylaxis to get me way drunker than I should have been. Anyway.

Arrival in Praia was chaotic, since we had to not only find all of our own bags, but all the rest as well. Then when we went through customs (no, they didn’t mind that we each had about 8 bags… thank you 3rd world countries), only to find… no one. No PC representative to be found. Finally, some guy walks up and says “Peace Corps?” As if the 16 kids piled with 2 years worth of luggage wasn’t obvious. So we loaded all our crap into a huge truck, hopped into a few vans and trucks, and headed into Praia. We stayed the first couple nights at a student residence, kind of a dormitory-esque situation. Obviously this involved lugging all our shit up to the 4th floor (or maybe 5th… it felt like a lot more), for the billionth time. In any event, I walked up a lot of stairs with a lot of luggage, not all of it my own.

The next couple days were spent at a local high school, sitting in a classroom getting basic training stuff. Most of it was what I expected: what places to avoid, how to act, medical procedures, rules, etc. One rule turns out to be that we are not allowed to start romantic relationships during training. A current volunteer revealed to us the night before that practically everyone in her training class dated someone during the first nine weeks, most of which ended in disaster, seeing as at the end you basically move to a different island, unless of course you are placed in Praia or Sao Domingos. But I won’t be. Nonetheless, there are several pretty girls in the group, all of whom are chill and likeable. And we’re spending a full 9 weeks intensely together. I can’t see how people won’t end up dating, no matter what. But I guess we’ll see.

Not much interesting to say about training… got some shots, played lots of ice-breakers, got a rudimentary lesson in Kriolu… But the country of Cape Verde (also known as Cabo Verde in Portuguese, or Kabu Verdi in Kriolu) is… well, here’s the bad: It is dry and dusty, not particularly green where I am, though I understand that other islands and even other parts of Santiago are much more lush. It is poor, and many buildings are crumbling, or frequently unfinished, with rebar sticking out of the upper floors. There is garbage all over the place, and people generally toss trash wherever they feel like it. There is no such thing as a hot shower; there is only one knob and it is for cold. Really cold. The sewer system is not very robust, and it can’t handle anything except #1 and #2. That includes toilet paper. Which goes in the garbage bin by the toilet. Still getting used to that one. But the good things about this country…

It is warm and breezy all the time. I mean it. The day can get up into the upper 80s, and with the sun, it’s pretty hot. But it’s not sticky humid heat like CT or SD. It’s pretty pleasant, as long as you’re not lugging a girl’s 75 lb suitcase up a few flights of stairs. And the heat lasts only from about 10 am to 5 pm. Other than that it is in the 70s with a perpetual breeze. The ocean is beautiful, though I actually haven’t spent too much time there, since I have been busy pretty much 18 hours a day since arrival. The staff here is great, and they make everything really easy, but it is still a lot of work to do, and it takes a lot of adjusting. I left my life to live in Africa, what the fuck did I expect?? Nothing less.

So I’ve been getting a better idea lately about what I may end up doing. I had an interview with the assistant director, who leads the Community Development program here. He asked about my managerial skills, and when I told him I managed a helpdesk for a year and a half, he was overjoyed: “THAT’s what I want to hear!!” So apparently we are looking to send a couple people to an island that does not currently have volunteers, to start new projects in IT and TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language). I don’t have any more details, but apparently I am a good candidate. I also wrote in my pre-training survey that I am interested in starting a project from scratch. It doesn’t hurt that the island in question has the most beautiful beaches in the country and is a European tourism hotspot. OK. I’m in.

Sunday afternoon, we left Praia just before noon to drive in an hiace to Sao Domingos, a small municipality about a half hour outside Praia, inland. There is no internet here at all, which is why I am writing all this on my laptop, to post at a later date. I am staying with a host family here, to improve my Kriolu and adjust to the culture. I thought it would be really hard, but they have made it very easy. My host mom is really sweet and feeds me well. We live right next to the school where our training HQ is set up, so my walk in the morning and afternoon is about 200 feet down a hill, which I don’t mind. Means more sleep. It also turns out that they own a little restaurant/bar in the front of the house that only serves fried chicken, French fries, and rice. Best god damn fried chicken I’ve ever had. Wow. So I eat well, though my nickname will probably be Fatty by the time I leave here. Her husband is a truck driver, so he is gone most of the day, and I have had little chance to get to know him. But hey, only 1.5 days have gone by, and I’ve got 9 full weeks ahead of me. My little brothers on the other hand… I have gotten to know them well.

The younger, Maniyky, is 8, and the older, Yanyky, is 12, almost 13. Both are little troublemakers, and are so much fun. They are the little brothers I never had. The first afternoon, I took a nap, and after waking up, Maniyky was ready to start leading me around. We went to investigate some loud music from down the street, and found a funana band warming up. I have no idea if I spelled that right. Afterward, we played soccer using one of his shoes, because we had no ball. Oh well. After returning home, I sat down with a Kriolu dictionary and tried my best for a few hours with my host mom. She is very patient with my shitty speaking, and said that I speak more and better than the volunteer she hosted before, whom I met last week.

Interlude: Kriolu. Strange language. It is not as close to Portuguese as I thought. It is not a written language, but is only used as a day to day conversation language. Verbs are not conjugated, and the whole structure is simple simple simple. I am picking it up fast, but my vocabulary sucks. Then again, I’ve only had 3 lessons. It’s a struggle to get by every day with my family here, but I’m pretty optimistic about learning this quickly. Some other trainees are having a much harder time. It sounds like a strange mixture of Portuguese and every African language you’ve ever heard. Take for instance this easy phrase: N ka gosta galinha – I don’t like chicken. Say it out loud. It’s really cool – half African, half European in sound. I can’t wait to come back to the States and be the only kid fluent in Kriolu. Ha. Just kidding, I have no desire to be in the US right now. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back.

So, back to what I’m doing. I was in class all day today, getting Kriolu lessons, medical info (water purifier, medical kit, more shots, etc). At lunch I showed my little brothers all my cool shit from the US: laptop, iPod, camera, hackysack, poi set, etc. They were pretty entertained, mainly by the hackysack. (Note to the Nesselhufs: two little kids in Cape Verde know all about “VOTE BEN”) After training, Maniyky convinced me to go for a little hike in the mountains… This turned out to involve hiking up a steep slope of slippery dust and jagged rocks, bramble bushes, and steep rocky faces plunging off cliffs. By the top, I was beat, sweaty, and covered in dirt (that’s kind of a way of life here… above all, it is DUSTY). But ohhhh the view. I had an amazing shot of the whole valley of Sao Domingos, plus the road leading away on the other side, not to mention the rest of the mountains in the distance. Clearly, I forgot my camera. So I’m gonna take some other trainees up there soon to take in the view.

Today is a trainee’s (Jean-Claude) birthday, so we all went out to find a place to party, but somehow he never made it out… So a whole bunch of us went to a little bar, where a clearly drunk creepy old man serenaded all the girls on a beat up guitar. I had a beer and headed home, because my host mom wanted me back early. She appreciated my punctuality, and I guess I don’t mind. Sure, I’d rather have gotten smashed, but I didn’t come out here to do what I’ve been doing in the US for the last 5 years. So after writing 3 pages single spaced here, I’m more than ready to hit the sack. More thoughts on Cabo Verde to come.


Tuesday, July 11 – 1:30 pm
Back on a short lunch break, and I’ve run out of awkward conversation with my host family. They are always busy at lunch anyway, so it’s fine. It turns out that they are adept at making things other than fried chicken, but it’s still all fried. Last night I had what I thought was just fish, but moréâ turns out to be exactly what it sounds like: moray. Fried, of course. And it was pretty damn good, although there are lots and lots of pin bones to pick out, and the spine is pretty significant in size. Today lunch was some kind of unidentified white fish, fried up in big chunks. It’s all very salty and filling, and my cholesterol is probably already 10 points higher than it was 3 days ago, but you won’t find me complaining. And you all thought I’d get skinnier in Africa…

The family here has 3 pets. They have a kitten and a puppy, both about 4 months old, who fight with each other nearly constantly, but in a playful way, so I stay entertained. When I arrived, I had been told that my family has a makáku, monkey, but there was no monkey to be found. I eventually discovered through, broken Kriolu that the monkey was just on vacation at someone else’s house. However, he has just made an appearance. I believe his name is Xiki, and he’s not particularly friendly, but he doesn’t mind being petted, although the cat seems to hate him.

Learned a bit more about the culture of the islands today. Apparently the southern islands are more “African,” while the northern are more “European.” In retrospect, I can see how that is true of Santiago. The people I see here look more West African than what I had seen in pictures. I discussed the possibility of starting a project there again yesterday, and Aguido (Asst Director for development) still says to keep it in mind. I spoke with another PC worker, and she told me that life there is S L O W. Which is cool. I guess I could use a couple years of relaxation. Note to East Coasters: I might not fit in there anymore when I return. Have I mentioned that I may head off to France for 9 months when I come back? Yeah, I’ll fill you in on that when I have time. Ok, back to the liseu for more development seminars and Kriolu class.


Wednesday July 12, 2006 – 8:40 pm

Ok, well the last day and change have been pretty good to me. I did some language classes yesterday afternoon, and afterwards I went to play soccer with some PC friends. There is a little sports complex in the center of town. And by “little sports complex” I mean that it is a concrete soccer field, with basketball hoops for good measure. It was pretty much exactly what I pictured Africa to be like. Crumbling walls, 150 kids playing various sports… I dunno, it just looked like a video from the travel channel or something. Anyway, everyone was really really really good at soccer, so I didn’t play at first, but when some more volunteers showed up, we went to another field nearby to play. It was pretty much a large patch of dirt with goal nets at either end. So I started playing, and had to good fortune to grab a free ball with no defenders between me and the goal. So I starting kicking and running when… I fall. Yeah. I’m wearing a pair of K Swiss skate shoes with no grip and I’m running on 3 inches of fine dust. So I fall, do a somersault, and land sitting, jump up and look for the ball, but my friend Darrel has already scored. Ah well. I’ve got some scrapes and minor embarrassment to show for it. So I guess I suck at soccer. Ha. I’ve got 2 years to get better, so no worries. After a nice shower and some antibiotic ointment, I had some dinner and settled down for the usual Brazilian soap operas with my host mom, when Nadia and Courtney, two volunteers, showed up. So we sat in the living room and chatted about random shit for a couple hours. And that was the end of my night.

Today was mostly more training: language, safety and security, roles in community development, and more health. And of course, more shots. Today I got the first in the rabies series, as well as typhoid. By the end of the month, I’ll be immune to nearly every disease known to man. And as far as the health seminar goes, apparently I have little to worry about in Cape Verde, except for diarrhea and a cold. I pretty much lucked out on countries as far as health goes. And people. And beaches. I love my life.

After school, I talked with a volunteer who has been here for a year and did her training in Sao Domingos. She told me that last year, the everyday hangout after training was… my house. Because I’m next to the school, and my host parents run a bar. So I got a dozen or so people to come over for a beer, and we chilled for a couple hours. And the monkey was there, of course.

Right now, my brothers are listening to my iPod, playing with my camera, and trying on my shoes. They really really like to play with my stuff. It doesn’t bother me at all for the time being. It’s kinda fun to be this popular. HA, Maniyki just put on my shoes, which are about twice as big as his feet are. Anyway, my family has fed me way too much beer, and it may be time to head out somewhere. Ate logo…


Thursday July 13 – 7:00 pm

Just got back from another attempt at playing soccer, which failed earlier than even the last try. Both fields near my house were full up and had whole teams waiting to play, so no go. Today was not so good. Not bad, per se, but not so good. The usual cool breeze wasn’t blowing as frequently, so it was much hotter than usual, especially in the school, where there is no a/c, obviously. There pretty much isn’t anywhere.

But what was really bad was the frustration with the community development class. The first 2 hours could have been summed up in about 15 minutes, and the whole day just felt horridly repetitive. Nearly everything we were told was common sense, and I could have figured it all out in a matter of hours if I were just dumped off on site. Of course, I understand that they want everyone on the same page, and that things will pick up as training goes on, but it’s frustrating as all hell when I’m trapped in a room, falling asleep from the heat, with no interest whatsoever in what’s going on.

But Kriolu classes continue to be excellent. My professor, Pedro, is really friendly and fun, and there are only 4 other people in my class anyway, all of whom I like. And that’s for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. I’m beginning to realize that Kriolu is the easiest language EVER. It’s completely intuitive. I’ve had 4 days of class and I can already hold a (somewhat disjointed) conversation. I just need more vocabulary. But it’s pretty encouraging, considering I’ve got 8.5 more weeks to practice.

I’ve acquired a new nickname. Well, nicknames. Leland is too hard for Cape Verdeans to say, so they tack on an i somewhere. I’m either Lelandi, Landi, or Leli. Oh well. I don’t have it as bad as Courtney or Natawnee, who are Corny and Natni, respectively. Anyway, I think it’s dinner time. So much more I could write.


Saturday, July 15 – 7:30 pm

Today: fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Welcome to Africa. Let the good times roll!

Seriously though, it’s been a rough one. I went out with a bunch of the other volunteers last night to basically the only other good size bar nearby. I didn’t really get too drunk, and I dunno if it was the alcohol that set it off or what, but I woke up this morning with a full on gastrointestinal riot in my body. I’m still feeling pretty crappy, but much better. I can actually walk around in relative comfort now. I’m not sure, but I think I got it from drinking untreated water. My family refilled my water filter, but I think they forgot to add the chlorine drops to kill bacteria. So I got some fresh, sediment-free, but apparently very much alive water. Which I drank all day yesterday. Ah well.

The TEFL kids came back today from shadowing other volunteers for a couple days. It’s just been us CD kids for 48+ hours. (for some reason WNBA is on the TV right now. No joke, I’m in a remote town in the mountains of an African island, and I’m watching the Connecticut Suns. Weird.) I’ve got my shadowing next week, back in Praia, where I will hopefully be able to post all this shit I’ve been writing in my spare time. Apparently, the youth center here has one computer with dial-up, which my director says I can use whenever I want, provided I am able to fix it. Maybe I’ll give that a shot during lunch on Monday.

So other than my internal difficulties, I’ve been having a fucking blast and a half. The things that I thought would bug me (dirty water, no infrastructure, unreliable electricity, etc) haven’t at all. The biggest challenge is just getting my Kriolu on point. Still, considering I didn’t know a damn bit of this language 7 days ago, I am doing really really well. Thus far, this has been the best experience of my life. And it’s only just beginning. Word is that the director has been talking about Boa Vista to another IT volunteer, so now I just have to impress the hell out of him for the next 4 weeks so I can get an edge.

Sometimes when I wake up and look around, it seems pretty bizarre that this finally happened for me. A year ago, I was starting work at ACS, and I really thought I would be there for a while. And now I couldn’t even imagine still being there. So when I am done here in 26.5 months, I gotta find something to do to make permanent my escape from the IT world. So here’s the France thing I mentioned: Apparently the French government will pay a stipend to Americans to come and run English language discussion sections with French students. As in, they give you a place to stay and food money, and you run 12 hours of English discussions per week. Wow. So this would start around October, the same month that I close service. So I could either just stay on this side of the pond and head to France, or I could drop by the States for a couple weeks just to see people.

Also, update: Pretty sure I will not be visiting the US in the next couple years. I kinda thought that was a normal thing to do, but I’ve been talking with volunteers, and it seems that most people don’t bother. Thinking about it, I guess all it would do is make me uncomfortable both there and here. I’d just as soon hike around Africa or hit up France with my folks, which is pretty likely.

My little brother are eating hard boiled eggs in the living room, and the smell is gonna make me boot again. I gotta go find some people in an hour or so and I have yet to choke down my first full meal of the day. Pretty sure I’m losing weight. Damn it!


Wednesday, July 19 – 8:00 pm

Hanging out in the living room, and writing for the first time in a while because we actually haven’t had very consistent electricity since the weekend. All the electricity in the islands is controlled by a Portuguese company that has been unable to fulfill its obligations lately. It’s becoming a hot topic. I don’t know the whole story, but I hear that the Cape Verdean government is pretty pissed about the whole thing, since the company can’t really fulfill its contract. Praia has barely had electricity this week, and it’s been spotty for about a month. Since no one can refrigerate things, people have been getting sick from bad food. A bunch of the TEFL people has some stomach problems last week after eating some questionable chicken at a restaurant in Praia. Fortunately for me, my family’s restaurant is still as delicious as ever, and I have been eating fine. The only problem so far has been the lack of a fan at night, so it’s been a lot hotter when I’m trying to get to sleep. It wouldn’t be a problem, except that I don’t have windows, so it gets stifling. But I’m usually exhausted at the end of the day, so sleep hasn’t been too hard to get.

My illness was brief, and I’m back to my usual chipper self. I got some more immunizations today (total count so far: 6; and that’s only because I got to skip the hepatitis series, which I already had years ago), and I’m pretty sure I’ve got some more next week, and more to follow. I don’t mind so much, since the PC nurse who does it here is pretty experienced. The MMR shot I got in DC made a huge bruise that is still yellow and purple, nearly 2 full weeks later. Good times.

Tomorrow I will hopefully be able to actually post this and write a few emails. For anyone who I don’t get to write to, don’t be offended; I don’t know how much time I’ll have on the internet. It turns out I am not shadowing in Praia, but in Pedra Badejo, which is a much smaller town. It’s coastal, and larger than Sao Domingos, but it’s not exactly a metropolis. I’ll be shadowing Jonah, the volunteer who actually lived in this house last year, so I’ve chilled with him a few times already. He’s a CD volunteer, which is a better match for what I’ll be doing, plus he teaches technology classes at the high school where he lives. And Pedra Badejo has a volcanic black sand beach. Nice.

Not much else to say really. I still love it here, and my Kriolu is progressing well. I ended up switching classes this week, because my previous professor started doing a slower class for those having a rougher time with the language. I don’t like my newer class as much, not because the professor or the other students are worse at all, but just because I was enjoying the vibe we had before. Still, I’m doing fine. I’ve developed a bit of schoolboy crush on another volunteer. Yikes. This can only complicate things.

Last post for god knows how long. I’ll try to keep writing, but I can only keep writing as long as the electricity holds out. I am way too tired at the end of the day to keep a pen and paper journal. Gotta wake up early tomorrow, because I promised the director I’d fix the computers at the youth center here and I can’t really make them wait another week. Plus, I did move here to help out, so I might as well get a head start on it.
I miss you all in the States. No joke. I also miss: Italian food, scotch, fluffy pillows, clean water, my lower intestinal tract, the English language, the internet, New York City, Typhoon, hot showers, flushing toilet paper, deciduous trees, washing machines, and hamburgers. I’ve got so much on my plate here that I barely have time to breathe, but sometimes I wonder what I’d be doing if I hadn’t come here. Oh yeah. I’d be working at ACS. Fuck that! My life is awesome.


Sunday, July 23 – 10:00 pm

Well I’ve had a busy few days. Shadowing was LOTS of fun. I woke up early on Thursday to head over to the CEJ (youth center) to try to fix their computers, because my director had said that they were having some problems with internet access. So Kyle (another trainee) and I worked on a PC for a while and pretty much determined that it was working fine, and that the problem is in fact that the phone line is dead. OK. So I guess my first unofficial project is going to be to figure out why and get this place on line.

I met up with Jonah (the volunteer I shadowed) and Catalina (fellow trainee) and left for Pedra Badejo at around 12. We spent most of Thursday just getting to know the town and wandering around. At night, we played about 5 million rounds of asshole with this French guy whom Jonah knew. I got to practice my French a bit, though it wasn’t so good after some grogue (sugar cane booze, if I haven’t mentioned it before… powerful shit) On Friday, we woke up early and grabbed some breakfast before heading down to the water to snorkel. In pictures, the water doesn’t look all that clear, but that’s only because the rock and sand underneath is volcanic and black. The water is actually really, really clear and blue. So I chased schools of fish and just kinda swam around this little cove for a few hours, earning myself a spectacular sunburn in the process. Cheers to Irish heritage.

We spent a few hours doing Peace Corps type stuff as well. I went to the CEJ that Jonah works at to see what it was like. He teaches computer classes there, which is something I will most likely do, even if it is not my primary project. It’s just that important. So far, I’ve actually been pretty impressed with the level of technology. I was expecting to see wretched old PCs, but they’ve been decent so far. I mean, not exactly sparkling and new, but very useable and in good working order. However, I have been told that I will see lots and lots of porn at the CEJs, which I guess isn’t that surprising. Apparently that is the internet’s gift to developing nations. I also took a little tour of the camara, which is the local government. It’s a very important phenomenon here. The president of the camara is like the local mayor, but it is over a pretty good size chunk of land. It’s more like a county than a city. In any event, when I am at my permanent site, I’ll be working with the camara more than anything else, so it’s all pretty relevant.

We laid low for a while afterwards and bought some unbelievably tasty grilled chicken from a street vendor to make sandwiches with. Jonah and I had a water fight with some local kids, which mainly consisted of them trying to tackle us while avoiding the water we were dumping on them. And it turns out that there was a huge music festival on the beach that night. What luck! So at around 11:30 we headed down to the beach (yep, the one with black sand… so pretty) to do some dancing, along with Max (the French kid) who vanished with a Cape Verdean woman shortly thereafter. There were probably 1500 people on the beach, with food vendors and beer for sale, as well as a stage at one end. The music got into full swing a bit after midnight and went until god knows how late. I learned a few good dances and did surprisingly well for a branku (white guy). We didn’t stay too late, because Catalina and I had to head home in the morning, so we were home by 3 or so.

In the morning, we visited the ocean again to take some pictures (I’ll post them when I get a chance) and then hopped on another hiace to head back to Sao Domingos. Reflection: I am SO excited to live near the ocean. Jonah has a little homemade spear gun that he uses to catch reef fish to cook himself for dinner. I will most definitely be doing exactly that when I get on site. I have also developed a newfound love for snorkeling, which I will be doing a lot. I also have read that while surfing is not as popular here as I thought, windsurfing is huge. And Boa Vista has amazing windsurfing. So that makes me pretty happy. Yet another thing to look forward to. Also, I can’t wait to move into my permanent community and make some real friends. For two years!

Saturday afternoon, I dropped by a Cape Verdean wedding that a friend invited me to, and got to see a true party. It was awesome. Lots of cake, dancing, general camaraderie. That night, I went out to meet up with the other trainees for some good old fashioned drinking. I got to the bar 15 minutes early and impressed myself by having a long conversation with the bartender, entirely in Kriolu. And I knew some of the other patrons there, which made me feel really comfortable and happy to be in this community. After getting pretty smashed, I headed home a bit too late and found my house all locked up (no, I don’t have a key), but my host mom was awake and opened the door for me. I thought she’d be annoyed or mad, but she just thought it was funny that I was drunk.

This morning, we headed off to another town (don’t remember the name) where a volunteer wanted us to see a meeting he had organized for a small women’s microfinance organization that he has been assisting lately. And it turned into a true test of cultural assimilation. One group was about 3 hours late. That’s just how shit happens here. Meeting is for 10 am, but hey 1 pm will do just as well, right? So we bided our time by… throwing a spontaneous dance party, of course. Someone threw in a CD of funana music and we all just kinda started getting down to it. And that went on for quite a while. Amazing. After lunch (had to wait for a long time for that, too) we headed to Courtney’s (another trainee) house and watched Anchorman, a.k.a. the best movie ever.

Since then, I’ve just been wandering around town and hanging out at the bar out front. My family is out there with some friends right now, but I am just too tired to deal with more Kriolu conversation right now. I’m getting better by the day. I rarely have to hesitate, other than to look up a work or paraphrase. So I’m pretty content. No, fuck that, I’m SO happy here. I can’t even tell you how great this country is. Sure, there are things I miss, and people I’d like to see back in the US, but I just can’t get over how great this place is. I couldn’t be more excited to call it my home for the next 2 years. And apologies to everyone on the east coast, but I’m not coming back. I mean, I’ll leave here, but I just can’t go back to CT. There’s too much more out there. If I can find this much in a small group of islands that I never would have thought to visit, imagine how much more there is to see.

I got the opportunity to use the internet and email a few of you this weekend and post something in the blog. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use my USB drive to post all this, so I will just continue to write here until I can. And by then, none of you will want to read 15+ pages of rambling. Anyway, I’m pretty beat now from drinking a few beers with the fam, plus being in the sun all day on a mountain. Time for bed.


Monday July 24 – 10:00 pm

The problems with electricity are getting worse. No power for several hours now for the ??th day in a row. The generator is out of juice and the fridges and freezers for the restaurant are no longer running. I walked home in total darkness tonight, but fortunately had a flashlight. Not mine, of course. On the positive side, the stars have never looked so pretty and bright, not even in SD where there usually aren’t many lights anyway. I’m a bit nervous right now, because I saw a huge wolf spider in my room this morning that has been suspiciously absent from sight since then. Not all that cool when you’re in the dark. Oh, and it’s hot as fuck in here without the fan running. And the lack of power has killed all water pressure, so we also don’t have any running water anymore. Hi, I live in a developing country.

But all things aside, I had an excellent day. An unfortunate side effect is that my crush on my fellow volunteer, with whom I spent the entire evening (hence the excellence), is getting very distracting and insistent. I’m going to have to do something about it soon. I probably should have tonight, but chickened out, in full Leland form. Well it’s been a long Monday, so I guess it’s time to turn in and sweat myself to sleep. Unless the wolf spider gets me first, or the Lariam wakes me up with bizarre insomnia at 2 am. Which happened last night.


Tuesday July 25 – 8:30 pm

Well it looks like I’m psychic. The Lariam insomnia struck after about 2 hours of sleep. I was up from midnight until around 3:30. The wolf spider made an appearance around quarter after one, and quickly fell victim to my shoe. Crunchy. Still, I was half asleep all throughout the day, although I managed to be pretty on top of my game. The one exception was our classroom management session, which I was barely conscious for, because it was after lunch. Which was fried chicken. Sweet mother of fuck, I swear it is still the best fried chicken ever.

Power kicked back on around 5 pm today, so I’m back to having running water, lights, and a fan. And cold beer. We decided to frequent another bar after school today, because we had heard that other proprietors were annoyed that my bar was getting all the business. So we are sharing the wealth. The new ritual seems to be having a shot of grog with Rhett right after language gets out, then chill with a beer for a couple hours. I just signed up for a yoga class that starts on Thursday, led by a fellow volunteer. I haven’t done yoga in like 3 years, so this should be good.

The TEFL volunteers started model school today. They basically student teach English classes for local kids for the next month and a half. They are all nervous as shit about it, which I guess I can’t blame them for. My little brother is in a class taught by two of my friends.

OH. And more news on the living situation. It seems the TEFL director has been talking to two of the girls about living on Boa Vista. One of them will probably be there. With me, apparently. My director hasn’t said anything to me, so we’ll see how it pans out. But Nadia and Stephanie are going to be on Maio or Boa Vista, and they will paired with an IT person, of which there is only one female. So no matter, sexes will be mixed, and I kinda feel like I’d prefer to live with a girl at this point. Girls are clean. And both of them are good cooks, too. And I am told that Boa Vista has a large Italian community. Score.


Monday, August 07 – 9:30 pm

Ok, so it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything. And I’m not sure quite where to begin. A whole lot and very little has happened lately. My language has progressed to a very reasonable level and I am comfortable in the community now to the point where I feel at home. I can have fairly fluid conversations with little trouble, though my vocab still needs some work. Daily routine is more or less the same: class all morning, lunch at home, class all afternoon, beer with friends after, followed by family time and bed. It all feels pretty routine, but I’m happy. Much happier than I was driving from Rocky Hill to Cheshire every day.

We had a little field trip to Cidade Velha last weekend. It’s the oldest city in the archipelago, not to mention the first Portuguese colony in Africa. It’s pretty small, but it’s got a lot of history, with some old churches and a hilltop fortress (Sir Francis Drake attacked it twice). We had some beach time there as well, which I took full advantage of by body surfing every good size wave that came my way.

We’ve had interviews now with virtually every staff member in charge of anything: homestay directory, language director, training director, technical trainer, and assistant PC director for community development. For me at least, I can honestly say they all went well. Part of the purpose is for PC staff to get an idea of how things are going and how to make improvements, but another big part is also to see who is not doing very well. Obviously the goal is to help these people as much as possible, but we’re reaching a point where I think they want to let some people go. I am 100% positive that that will not be me, but it’s sad to think that 3 or 4 of us will be gone in the next couple weeks. But then again, this isn’t right for everyone, and I can see some people struggling. Cape Verde has the highest early termination rate in West Africa, and I guess they want to reduce that. Fortunately, my language is good and I think I’m one of the more active participants in day to day training, and all my interviewers told me that I seem to be doing well.

Once more, I have been told that Boa Vista is nearly definite. I’m so very, very pleased with this. I foresee two years of beautiful beaches and watersports mixed in with my work. Aguido (asst director) also told me today that I may end up living alone. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been thinking I’d live with Nadia or Stephanie, but apparently the president of the camara in Boa Vista found a very nice apartment that only has one bedroom. So this could change, but it may end up being just me. I guess that’s ok, but I’d just as soon live with someone. I’ve had roommates for so many years, I just think it’d be weird to be on my own. Not entirely alone of course, because one of the girls will be on the island, but in a different place. I’ll know more in a couple weeks. Site announcements are the weekend of week six (this is week five).

So this last weekend was amazing. Friday night, we all met up at the bar na praça, as we have come to call it, because it’s in a little square across from the camara in the center of town. The closest thing to the center of town as we have, at least. Anyway, we all got nice and drunk, and had a wild dance party all night, until after 1 am (which is late for us these days… I’m an early to bed kinda guy lately). We played soccer all afternoon on Saturday, CD vs TEFL. My whole body is still sore. I am in horrid shape. At night, we hit a few bars, trying to recreate the mood of the night before, but gave up when it just didn’t seem to be going the right way. We ended up at a birthday party for a kid in town, apparently a friend of my host cousin here, where the theme was all black. So we danced and drank again until almost 3 am. My host mom is really mellow about me coming home late these days. She is just so damn cool, I can’t believe it. She doesn’t care if I’m drunk, or late, or whatever. She’s just happy that I’m having a good time. What a country. Sunday was lazy and I did nothing of note. And I absolutely needed it. The insomnia has been really awful for the last couple weeks and I’ve had a hard time sleeping more than 5 hours a night. If it keeps up, I’m going to have to talk to the medical officer to try to switch to doxycycline instead of mefloquine.

The best development of the weekend was the return of affection by the object of my big schoolboy crush. Her name is Natawnee, if I haven’t mentioned that before. I spent most of both weekend nights with her and we’re hitting it off pretty well. It’s strange, because we’ll probably end up on different islands in a month, but I enjoy her company too much to just ignore it. Tomorrow is her birthday, so we’ve got an all night party to throw after school.

What else to say? I don’t think about the US as much as you might think. Sure, I think about my friends, but mostly in the context of how much fun it will be when they visit (you all are coming, right??). I feel more at home here than I ever did in South Dakota, and I was there for 2 years. I’ve been here for one month.

Ok, exhausted now. I’ve had a long ass day. More tomorrow if I can remember to do it.


Saturday, August 12 – 11 am

This morning I’m just lounging around the house, nursing the usual mild Saturday hangover. I’m thinking about heading in to Praia, because we have been told that we are now allowed to do this, just to use the internet and buy some stuff if we need it. But I can’t find anyone to do it with me, so I guess I’ll just see who shows up.

Also, I am somewhat resistant to walking around right now, since I managed to tear a muscle in my leg last night. I wish I had a good story to tell about it, but really it was just stupid. We were talking about skiing and I kind of mimed the motion of telemark skiing, and all of a sudden I felt something rip in my leg. Yeah, it hurt a lot. So I drank a few more beers and sat down for the whole evening. It sucks because we’re having another soccer game today and I really want to get in on it again. Ah well. My leg is wrapped now and it doesn’t hurt nearly as badly anymore.

The rainy season is in full swing now. It rains for a long stretches at a time, and the whole valley has bloomed. A month ago, this place was brown and dusty. It doesn’t even look like the same town. The mountains are blanketed in green and all the fields are tilled and planted. It actually looks like a place that someone might name Cape Verde, which looked like the biggest misnomer ever before.

Electricity has been consistent for a couple weeks now. Apparently Praia and some other bigger towns are still having problems, but we’re doing well here. We ran out of water last night for the second time, but it looks like we refilled the tank this morning, so I can flush my toilet again. Sweet.

I shaved my head. I don’t know why I forgot to mention that when I last wrote. Nothing crazy, just a #2 all around. It feels great, and doesn’t look half bad. Turns out my head is pretty symmetrical. Nice

Also, it is 99% positive that I will be moving to Sal Rei on Boa Vista with Nadia next month. The house that PC has found for us is about a half hour outside the town itself, which isn’t too cool. But they are very accommodating when it comes to moving, so Nadia and I have agreed to make finding a new house our top priority upon arrival. Boa Vista is pretty touristy and thus expensive, so we’ll see what it’s like for rent costs, because they usually cap us at about $300 a month. I think we can swing it. So everyone book your plane tickets to Boa Vista. There should be a pretty wild birthday party going down in early January, because there are a lot of birthdays in a short stretch: Sarah, Rhett, me, Mel, Nadia.

I’m still seeing Natawnee. By this, I mean that we don’t just make out when we’re out drinking. The whole moving to separate islands thing sucks pretty bad now, because I do like her a lot. Well, 4 more fun weeks with her, and we’ll see what happens. Is this where I’m supposed to write a short biography so all my friends know a little something about the girl? Umm, she’s 22, cute, from San Jose, went to Tufts, smart as hell… Yeah, I suck at this. Try me later.

I had my first little bout of depression the other day. After Tawnee’s party, I was hungover pretty much all of Wednesday, and then Thursday was just a downer. Nothing in particular made it bad, but I just felt restless and shitty all night. I ended up wandering over to Natawnee’s house and she did a good job of cheering me up, but it was a bit of a reality check. It’s still pretty strange to think that I won’t be setting foot in the States for another 2 full years. Not in a bad way, mind you. Anyway, it’s getting hot in my room now, so I’m gonna go outside on the porch and hang out with whoever is in the bar now.