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.