Mangies Galore

Today I went mango picking with my sisters, Matt, Gil, Pedro P and Pedro P’s mama and brother. Originally I thought it was just going to be a little hike down into the valley to find Pedro P’s grandma’s mango trees. However, the trees turned out to be in the next valley over, so we descended into the valley below Achada Liton, climbed up the next mountain and then slid about half-way down the other side of that mountain to a little grove of mango trees. It was an exhausting, rocky and hot-as-hell hike, but the view was terrific! We could see all the way from Achada Igreja to our houses in Achada Liton Baixo. To get the mangos off the tree, we had to climb up the tree, jump on the branches and then let the mangos roll down the hill to where we could collect them. The mangos were delicious!! You could taste the freshness. It was a good reward after a long hike. At the top of the second hill there was a house that we stopped to rest at. It was incredibly hard to get to and I can’t even imagine how or who built it. It was an older woman living there and her son who was “dodu na cabeza” (crazy). He had been yelling at us as we were picking mangos and while we were resting he kept walking over toward us with rocks in his hand like he was going to throw them at us. Luckily, all of our little siblings are fearless and they all picked up sticks and were waving them at him and yelling for him to get away. He yelled back, threw a few harmless rocks and proceeded to pull down his pants. It was a very interesting situation. We continued back to our village – this time carrying about 30 lbs of mangos. My sister, Nuka and Pedro P’s mom carried them on their heads. It was the most impressive thing I have ever seen. Here we are slipping and sliding down this mountain in our hiking shoes and then Nuka is following us with 15 lbs of mangos on her head while wearing flip flops.

Arana Feu

Had our first Center Day today in Assomada. It was a nice little reunion of everyone from our group and it was fun to hear how other people’s homes/living situations are turning out. Everyone is really having their own unique experience. We spent the day going over health and safety training and some technical training on community development. I also got vaccinated for yellow fever and typhoid (resulting, in very sore shoulders/arms). It was a looooong day of sitting around so after classes I went on a little walk around my town with 2 of the other volunteers that live near me. Picos (the town I live in) is in a pretty mountainous part of the island, my zone/county, Achada Liton runs along the top ridge of one of the mountains. You can actually see the drop off into the valley on the sides of the road and beyond the houses, its really cool – I am dying to go hiking here!! So today I walked past Matt’s house, away from the main city and further into the mountains. The road overlooked the valley and was gorgeous. It was a nice way to relax and unwinde. Everyday here is absolutely exhausting. All day my brain is going non-stop trying to translate and remember things. By the evening I feel like I can’t even think anymore. Even writing this blog is difficult. So to make it easier I’m going to move to bullet format:

-this morning I woke up to find a big ass spider on the ceiling right over my bed. It was by far the largest spider I have ever seen – like baby tarantula size. Really really really gross. I lay in bed under the cover of my mosquito net for awhile watching it scurry back and forth across the ceiling and wall. Finally I got the courage to leave the safety of my net and ran into the kitchen to get my mom. I brought her to my room and pointed to the spider and asked “kual ke palavra pa la?” (what is the word for that?) – this was my way of indirectly telling her, Please kill that thing now. She was like, “Ahh! Arana feu!!” (ugly spider) and then proceeded to kill it by using a towel whip. It was a wonderful way to start the day.

-as the days have gone by I’ve slowly been breaking out the different things I brought with me to CV. First it was scatch, then Uno and then on Monday I pumped up my volleyball!! (thanks, Karah!! – How is sand 4’s going by the way?). At first it just started with just tossing the ball back and forth with my younger sister. Then I tried to teach my sisters (older and younger) how to bump the ball – they were pretty good. Since Monday, every night after dinner we have been playing vball – and by vball I really mean just standing in a circle passing/swatting the ball at each other. Its usually me, my sisters, Matt and his brother and couple neighbors playing in the street in front of our house. However, as I said before, we live on the top of a mountain ridge so a lot of time is spent chasing the ball down the hill. In the dark. But the little kids love it. If a ball gets hit out of the circle all the kids go sprinting and screaming after the ball into the pitch black. I’m surprised nobody has gotten hurt yet considering all the rocks, stumps, random aloe plants, metal rods and donkeys that are scattered all over the place. Unfortunately, after day 3 of playing I’m pretty certain the ball already has a hole. Its been in some rough conditions and was slowly deflating over the course of the evening. Hopefully a good pumping before playing will be enough to keep it going for awhile.

-I ate eel. Eels have a million teeny tiny bones. That’s all I have to say. Mom and Dad you were right, Stephen is definitely better at eating weird foods.

-Everyone in this part of town has their own little livestock farm going on in their backyard. There are goats, pigs, chickens, roosters, ducks and donkeys everywhere. My family owns all those except a donkey. The pigs are kept in pens in the backs of the houses and most of the donkeys are tied to trees, the rest are allowed to roam free, but I guess they know where they belong because they all seem to stay in the same spots. Anyways, the door to our house is usually kept open to let our neighbors know that we are home and to come over to visit and chat. However, our two goats also enjoy coming in the house to visit. Several times now I’ve been sitting in my room when I see two goats go walking down the hallways. This is followed by my mom yelling, “Catalina!! Cabras!!!” and then my sister, Catalina, herds them out of the house. It is quite entertaining. There is also a donkey tied to the tree right outside my window. It is very loud and brays almost every morning at exactly 4am. It sounds like a pterodactyl is landing outside my window.

Festa!

So much has been happening these past couple days that I can’t believe its only been 1 week! Today was my first day off from class to just hang out in Picos. After a nice breakfast of coffee and fidjos (not to be confused with fidjus, which means children), fidjos are basically fried balls of dough kind of like donut holes, I bata ropa ku mi irma, Sonia. Bucket, soap and a washboard – it was harder than I thought it was going to be and I will definitely be rethinking my clothes-wearing approach to minimize dirty clothes. The washboard is definitely hard on the hands and I am pretty sure that all my clothes got one size bigger. I was washing on the front patio and by the time I was halfway through there was a large crowd of neighbors watching me through the gate and chuckling about the “merkana bata ropa.” At least I’m providing good entertainment, I guess…

After washing clothes we went to a festa! One of the women in town was turning 96!!! and she definitely looked like she had a couple more years in her – very impressive. The whole town turned up and there were 5 GIGANTIC pots of food cooking on fires in the backyard of the house. The food was delicious: rice, potatoes and beef (it had been slowly cooking all day and it was incredibly tender and flavorful. Dad, it made me think of you, you would have enjoyed it), manioc and pork, chicken, some sort of couscous made of corn and a bean and kale dish. Just reminiscing about it I feel full. It was a good time to meet and talk with neighbors and I played several games of Uno and dominos with the neighborhood kids.

After eating, me, my sister, Nuka, Matt and his brother, Gil, and Peter (another PCer in the town) and his sister, Sofia, decided to go to Assomada to use the internet café. We hopped on a Hilux (side note about the Hilux: its similar to a taxi system. Its a flat bed truck with benches and a cover. People just flag it down and then you yell to the driver when you want him to stop so you can get off. The driver will stop for as many people as he can so he can make more money. Imagine 10 people crammed into the back of a flatbed pick up truck bumbling down a dirt path. Its really crazy) Anyways, we got to Assomada (~10 minute ride) and we all called home. I think I talked a mile a minute, there’s just so much to say and talk about! We walked around Assomada and boy is it different from Picos! Assomada is a pretty big city (relatively speaking) with big buildings and street markets and restaurants. We walked down a street of vendors – I have never seen bigger piles of flip flops and bras for sale. I have no idea where all this stuff came from because it was definitely not all made in CV. It was neat to see a different side of CV. Between crazy hilux drivers, shouting vendors and people walking around there was a lot going on and after 4 days of safety/security talks in Praia I was definitely on my guard. I didn’t realize how tense I was until I got on the Hilux back to Picos. I am definitely glad to be living where I am. Even though there aren’t as many amenities available (internet would be nice) Picos moves at a relaxing pace and its nice knowing my neighbors and having the community feeling.

Other random things that have happened:

- CVians use lots of sugar and milk in their coffee and when I tell them I don’t want any sugar they are shocked. Its been 3 breakfasts already and they still just stare at me as I take my first sip of coffee. I have to be sure to say that the coffee is good; otherwise, they start pushing the sugar container my way.

-The house doesn’t have running water so I have been taking bucket baths. Not going to lie, I love taking long hot showers at home, but bucket baths aren’t half bad! And its amazing how little water you really need to take a bath. Also, thank god for short hair. It makes washing 148x easier.

-I know I already talked about this, but I can’t even do justice to describing how dusty the road is. Between my house, the festa and Peter’s house there was a lot of walking today. By the time I got home and took off my chacos, I could still see the outline of the straps in the dirt on my feet and Peter’s bare feet looked like he was still wearing socks because of the color differences. It was pretty gross. We’ve decided to change our title of SED (small enterprise development) to DFD (dirty feet development). It seems fitting enough. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen once it starts raining – I hope there’s still a road so I can get to class.

-All of the CV host families are incredibly generous. They get really angry when we buy things for ourselves and its impossible to get out of any house without being fed first. Today we were all at the festa playing Uno waiting for the food to be ready when my sister asked if I was hungry. I said “Yes, I am hungry! I am excited to eat!” and so she immediately got up and offered to take me back to our house to cook me lunch. I have to constantly make sure that whatever I say doesn’t cause them to feed me even more food. Another example, which has come to be known as the “Malta Effect” happened yesterday night when I was eating dinner #1 at Matt’s house and he asked if I had had Malta, a really tasty malt drink. Matt had bought one from the store on his way back from class; his mom saw him drinking it; got angry that he had spent his own money and then offered to buy him more Malta from the market in Assomada. Then at dinner #2 Nuka mentioned to my mom that I was interested in trying Malta so my mom gave Nuka money and she went to the store and came back with 2 Maltas. And when I say went to the store, I mean she walked about 10 min there and back in the dark. Then today we found out that word had gotten to Peter’s mom that we liked Malta and she went to buy him a pack too. Hence, the “Malta Effect.”

-just took my malaria pill for the week, lets hope for no hallucinations or psychedelic texture dreams!

Language Class with Rob, Matt and our profesor Luis.

Festa with Pedro, Nuka (my sis), Matt's mom, Matt and a neighbor

There were about 10 of these giant pots filled with food for the festa. nom nom nom

Txiga! Txiga!

“Txiga” – “come over!” all the neighbors yell this when you walk by. And its polite to go over and talk for a bit. There’s been a lot of txiga-ing these past few days.

The transition to my new home is going really smoothly! The house is really nice – living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, 3 bedrooms (I’m not quite sure where everyone sleeps because there are a lot of people and not very many beds). They have a nice gated patio where I spend most of my time (well, the little time I have off from class) talking and playing with my sisters and neighbors. Cruising the block is the thing to do and there are ALWAYS visitors at our house – partially the reason as to why I had such a hard time the first night trying to figure out who was actually in my family. Neighbors just walk right in the house and often times end up staying for dinner. There is quite a lot of hustle and bustle about. The weather is fantastic – not too sunny and it can’t be more than 80 degrees during the day. It’s the beginning of the rainy season so things will probably start to get very humid. A volunteer that I met in Praia warned me that humidity is so high that everything and anything will start to mold if its not hung to dry immediately…

I’ve got my own room, which is pretty basic, but still nice. It gives me a little getaway from all the activity in the house. Its decked out with mosquito net, very comfy bed, purple flower sheets and a large wall hanging of Jesus at the Last Supper – its quite lovely.

I figured out that the older woman who is always here is not related to us, just a neighbor that they’ve kind of adopted as a grandmother. She is a riot – keeps talking to me really fast and really loud even though I’ve asked her several times to just speak slower. And the whole time she will either be hugging me or hanging on to my arm. I have quickly learned that personal space bubbles do not exist and it is not uncommon for two people to be shaking hands for the entirety of a conversation. My sisters are great and have been helping me practice my kriolu. The oldest sister, Nuka, wants to learn English, so we’ve been helping each other out. It worked out really well because I have 2 sisters that are around my age, but there are still 2 younger kids in the house. It’s a nice balance. And of course, my incredibly patient mai! I feel so bad sometimes because I can’t understand what she is saying. If I can’t understand her after the 5^thtime I usually just smile and laugh and say my catch-all phrase, “sim, sta bon” (yes, that’s good). Its been working pretty well so far. But I definitely think my kriolu is getting better! I have language class from 8-12:30, go home for lunch, and am back at class from 2-4/5ish. But even when I’m not in class I’m still speaking (or at least trying to speak) the language. Its amazing to think that its only been 1 week!

Ok, getting tired so I’m just going to make a quick of list of things I wanted to share with everyone:

-the school I go to for language class is a couple towns away, I was supposed to walk or take public transportation, but it turns out they are installing a new sewage system in the town so the roads are a disaster!! I’m talking massive ditches along the side of the one-lane road, and the potholes are the size of manholes. Its all dust so its impossible to see and there are lots of people/animals/trucks still using the road. Luckily, PC has assigned me a driver, Estabo! So I get to ride in the PC LandRover to and from class and practice my kriolu with Estabo. Mutu bon!

-all CV houses have really nice floors. My house has a nice white tiled floor that is patterned to look like marble. I’ve visited a couple other neighbors and PC trainees that live near me and they’ve also got nice tile and wood floors. And they are all very proud of their floors and make sure to point it out to us as we’re getting the house tour

-CVians like Jean-Claude Van Damme. My sisters and about 5 other neighborhood kids watched some Van Damme movie that they had gotten at the market. I think it started halfway into the movie and it was in Engilsh so none of them could understand what was going on. It was by far the cheesiest movie I have ever seen, but everyone seemed to be into it. My sister said that Van Damme is very popular here and they have seen many of his movies.

-Funana is a national obsession. Funana is a type of music and dance in CV, very upbeat, mariachi, carnival, island sounding music. Everywhere I go I hear funana. Even when we’re sitting in our classroom we can hear it being played in the house next door. I took a hilux (the equivalent of a taxi) the other day and they were playing funana. It is everywhere. I like it right now, but I’m sure that by the end of my 2 years I will never want to hear funana again.

-my mai feeds me every meal like its my last. So much delicious food all the time. Even when I tell her I’m full she’ll try to sneak more servings on to my plate when I’m not looking. Also, even though my family and Matt’s family are “um familia grande”, there are still 2 houses, which means I eat 2 dinners. One with Matt’s family and one with mine. I definitely will not be going hungry over here.

My sisters and neighbor gettin her hair did

My sister, Nuka, me and Matt's brother Gil walking home from church. The mountain behind us is the landmarker of Picos. It will be climbed eventually.

Nha familia di Kabo Verde

Now I feel like I’m in Africa! Left Praia and Madre Teresa and moved inland to the town of Picos this evening. It was about an hour drive even though Picos is only ~13 miles away from Praia. The island is surprisingly mountainous and we were snaking up and down the mountains and valleys. It was amazing. Mostly brown landscape, but the closer we got to Picos we started to see more vegetation. Picos is at a higher elevation than Praia and is much cooler and gets more rain. All the volunteers are spread out among the county-like area of Santa Catarina. SEDs (that’s me) are in Picos and all the TEFL/ED are in Assomada. I am staying in the village Achada Liton. My new homestay family consists of my mai, Narcisa, 3 irmas: Nuka (24), Sonia (21), Catalina (6) and Sonia’s daughter, Jennifer (5). There is also an older woman here, although I can’t remember her name and have not yet figured out who she is/how she is related to the family. Narcisa’s husband, Pedro, is working in Providence, RI. It was a weird, yet very exciting experience meeting my family and spending our first evening together. They speak no English, and I have been studying kriolu for 4 days, needless to say there were a number of silent, awkward lulls in the evening’s conversation. Just asking what to do with my dirty cup was a 15 minute ordeal. But its fun listening to the family speak and trying to figure out what they are saying. And I’m pretty sure that when I get back to the states I’m going to be awesome at charades.

And don’t worry mom, another PC trainee, Matt, lives 2 houses down the street from me. Since arriving earlier this afternoon we have already been going back and forth between houses and I get the picture that the two families are very close. My mai told Matt and I that his family and my family are actually um familia grande, at least I think that’s what she said. (I’m pretty sure the families are not actually related.) And then she asked if Matt and I were dating. People here are very forward.

I brought scatch (the Velcro plates and tennis ball game) and it’s a hit! I played with Catalina while she was teaching me how to count in kirolu. We got to 100, twice. Although I’m pretty sure we skipped the 30s both times. But still, that’s a lot of scatch.

Menta Choc

Tomorrow is the last day of training in Praia! We have one more full day of language/culture classes in the Madre Teresa before boarding a bus to meet our host families! I am going to be staying in a village outside the town of Picos.

So some things that I wanted to mention before, but forgot as I was frantically trying to type my last post/figure out how to use the keyboard.

-They have ice cream! Well, there’s an ice cream shop in Praia, can’t speak for wherever I’ll be next. I’ve been taking full advantage and have been there twice in the last 3 days and got to practice some kriolu – N kre menta choc, pur favor. (I want mint chocolate, please!)

-There are stray dogs everywhere. They are so skinny and so sad looking. I want to adopt them all. Think the Sarah McLachlan commercial but 10x more depressing.

-Woke up bright and early for a 6am beach swim today and it was the PERFECT way to start off the day. The water was not as warm as I expected it to be, but still very comfortable (it was probably at least double the temp of the last beach I was at…no offense, Rachel). It was extremely salty so it was really easy to just float and relax. Fingers crossed for a permanent site at which I can make this a daily habit

-The majority of the cities in CV were started by slaves who were trying to escape from their European slave traders. Remote, spread out and hard to get to places are very effective hiding spots. So, while as the crow flies the cities are close together, movement between them is difficult.

-I saw another Asian.

My access to internet is probably going to be pretty spotty so, even though it sucks, just know that at this point, no news is probably good news

View from my window at the Madre Teresa of Praia.

Group photo in Boston airport before our flight

Africa!!!

Bon dia!! After an anxious couple of days in Boston I finally arrived in Praia on Saturday morning after taking a jam-packed red eye over the Atlantic! We were greeted by PC staff and current volunteers and taken to Madre Teresa residence hall where we are staying until Wednesday. We really hit the ground running and have been having full (and exhausting) days of medical/safety/ general info presentations and creole language lessons. There are 24 people in my group from all over the country and all ages - its a really great group and everyone is really excited to be here! Since we don´t really know the language and don´t know our way around the city we haven´t been allowed to really leave the dorm so it still hasn´t really sunk in yet that I´m in Africa.

Its really not as hot as I was expecting, but the rainy season is starting soon and its beginning to get a bit humid. Food is good - lots of rice, potatoes and chicken.

I´m running out of time on the computer (I´m at an internet cafe and there is a really long line of other PCers waiting to use the internet) so sorry if this post is a little scatter-brained. Just wanted to let people know I arrived! I leave for my host familys house on wed and am not sure what the internet situation will be over there, but i´ll try to post some pictures next time.

Also, if I didn´t talk to you on gchat I wasn´t trying to ignore you, but I had limited time on the computer and everything is in portuguese so its taking me a while to figure out what´s going on/where all the keys are on the keyboard.

Love and miss you all!!

Ola!

T-minus 3 days! After a year of applications, doctors appointments, shopping trips to L.L. Bean, sad goodbyes and 2 final days of frantic packing and alternating between being worried about having too much and not enough stuff, I am finally headed out to Cape Verde! I’ll be starting my trip tomorrow with a flight up to Boston to spend some time with my cousin and indulge in my last few chances for American living. On Thursday afternoon I head over to Cambridge where I will be meeting up with all the other Peace Corps volunteers that will be serving in Cape Verde. We have a day long orientation where we all freak out together before boarding our direct (!) flight to Praia, Cape Verde Friday evening. Once I arrive in CV, I (along with all the other newbies) will be staying in Praia for 4 days for an orientation to pre-service training (PST). Then, on July 21 we will move to the city of Assomada for 9 weeks of PST. During that time I will live with a host family and participate in training activities, which consist of language, technical, cross-cultural, health and safety and security lessons.

I will try my best to update this blog on a somewhat regular basis (fingers crossed for decent internet connection!) so check back every once in awhile or whenever you are bored at work! Much love and thanks to all my family and friends for their support (especially those crazy kids who drove all the way down from NY to help me pack!) you are the best and I’m going to miss you all!

Send me emails! Leave me comments! Come and visit! You all best keep in touch!

Hopefully under the 80 lb limit!