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.