Chinese?!

Its been almost a full week in Sal and life is good. We’ve finally gotten our house cleaned and in order and its feeling quite home-y! The past few days have been spent walking around the city trying to get the lay of the land and talking to everyone that we see. People here are super friendly and are always entertained by us trying to speak kriolu. I think it will be a couple weeks before most people realize that we’re not tourists (although not many tourists venture up to this side of the island). Espargos is a great little place – definitely a city by Cape Verde standards, it has a lot of amenities (restaurants, stores, laundromat, markets, internet cafes, etc.), but is still pretty quiet and has a very relaxed feel to it.

My one complaint is that I wish I had a little bit more to do work-wise. While PC has drilled it into our heads that our primary jobs for the first 3 months is to “integrate” into the community, it would be nice to have a little structure. Currently, my days consist of walking up to the praca to check for internet (which usually isn’t working) and then cruising the streets of Espargos. Its starting to get a little boring. As I’ve mentioned before, I probably won’t be starting work on my official assignment for a couple months since they haven’t even found a local coordinator for the park start-up team. I’ve contacted the DGA (Env. Ministry) rep and met with her. She’s pretty much responsible for everything/anything environmental protection-related on this island – but she doesn’t even have an office, internet or a car so its hard for her to get things done. The main thing I got out of our meeting is that she feels overworked soooo hopefully I can help her out with some projects. She’s headed to Maio for a conference or something for 2 weeks, so I’ve still got some time to kill. I also have been in touch with S.O.S. Tartarugas (a turtle conservation NGO in Santa Maria – check out their website, www.sostartarugas.org and adopt a baby turtle!!) and I think I will try to get more involved with them during these first few months. (Keep reading to find out about my first turtle nest excavation!) Anyways, I’m a little jealous of Holly (my PCV roomie). She is working with the Camara (local gov) in Sal so she’s got a counterpart and an office to go to and a sort-of-job, even though she says she just sits and watches what’s happening around her. I think that the first few months of having a volunteer are very hard for an organization. We don’t speak the language very well, we meet so many new people everyday its impossible to keep them all straight, basically, we have no idea what the heck is going on most of the time, and as a result, people don’t know what to do with us. Oh well, can’t say that all of this was completely unexpected.

Anywhooo, even with a lack of work, there’s been plenty of things happening here in Sal. So here’s a rundown of some of the things that have been going on in my life:

-I don’t know if I’ve written about this before or not, but there is actually a good number of Chinese people here. The Chinese have a monopoly on all of the small shops. There are about 6 Chinese lojas (small stores) that I know of here in Espargos alone. All the stores are pretty much the same, they sell shoes, clothes, sheets, fans, radios, toiletries, kitchenware – really just a hodgepodge of cheap stuff. All are run by Chinese people (that are contracted to come over by the Chinese government). They don’t really interact with the CVans, the only kriolu they know are numbers and I hardly ever see Chinese people outside of the lojas – which makes no sense to me because they obviously live here and need to buy groceries at least. Anyways, the Chinese people in the store get very excited whenever I walk in because I’m the new Asian in town. As soon as I enter, I hear whispers of “oi, xines! Zhongguoren!” its very funny. I usually try to humor them a little bit with my very basic/the 2 phrases of Chinese that I remember from school. And then the conversation usually deteriorates and then they end up just following me around the store giggling. I feel like I need to learn Chinese so that I can stop letting down the loja owners.

-Our apartment has a window in the kitchen right above the sink that looks out to the front stoop of the store. We usually keep it open because it lets in a really nice (and sometimes violently strong) breeze. Also, its perfect for seeing what’s going on outside and trying to make friends with everyone that comes to the store. It has proven to be a very good tool for integration. Last night, I was cooking chicken and the guy who runs the store in the evening was giving me cooking lessons through the window. Given my limited kriolu, the conversation when something like this: "Are you making dinner?" "Trying to make chicken. Do you know how to make chicken? Can you help me make chicken?" "Ok. as;dlkfhaskldfasfashdfaslfhla;sgj;ajfaf." "What?" "al;skdfja;lshgoiewasfsafowen" "Uhhhh, you talk fast. I don't understand." Then accompanied with lots of pointing, "Cut that. Put that in that. Now cut that. Turn that on. Water. Boil. Do you have chicken bouillon cubes??" "No." "What!? Stop. Wait." He runs into the store and comes back with a cube. Dinner was the quite the event. I kind of felt like I was working in a drive-thru. (And dinner turned out pretty good!)

-Sal is one of the Cape Verde islands that is lucky enough to have turtle nesting on several of its beaches and the main NGO that works with turtle protection here is SOS Tartarugas. Seeing as I have a plethora of free time, I figured I would try to get involved with them and see what projects they’ve got going on. Currently, it’s the end of turtle season and the last of the eggs will be hatching between now and Nov/Dec. So the primary duty of the SOS volunteers is to monitor the turtle hatchery and excavate nests. They moved all the nests that were laid in areas that were unsuitable for baby turtle survival (i.e. near construction sites, too close to the water, etc) to a fenced off beach area near the Riu Resort (one of the big all-inclusive resorts in Santa Maria). Each nest is relocated and marked with the number of eggs inside. The volunteers or “rangers” as they are called, check the hatchery every 2 hours. Once a nest has 50%+ natural hatches, the rangers will excavate the nest to pull out shell fragments and unhatched eggs and help any last turtles that are stuck in the bottom of the nest. Lucky for me, the first day I called SOS I was told that they were going to excavate a nest later that afternoon and that I should join. The nest had a total of 80 eggs, 55 of which had hatched the night before. After about 30 minutes of careful digging we pulled out 14 more baby turtles. It was absolutely amazing to hold the little guys and watch them flap their flippers wildly as they scooted around in the sand. SOS also does a lot with environmental outreach and since the hatchery is located right near the resort, they take the opportunity to give a little talk about turtles and allow tourists to watch the nests get excavated. Everyone was oogling over the turtles (and rightfully so!), adopting turtles and nests and taking tons of pictures. It was really exciting to see.

-We finally found the cat that the previous volunteer left for us! He’s a tiny little gray and white cat, very friendly and loves attention. His name is Gizodu (a CV food dish), we’ve dubbed him Little Jizzy for short. We heard a cat meowing outside the building so we chased him down and brought him into our apt. After finally seeing Jizzy we then realized that our previous attempts to attract a gray and white cat were unsuccessful because we had been calling to the wrong cat. There are apparently several gray and white cats in this neighborhood. Anyways, the previous volunteer convinced us that he is a cockroach killing machine and so we were happy to take him in. And its nice to have someone to keep me company as I sit here in my house trying to think of something to do.

Hot showers, Chinese food, my new home and other happenings since my last post.

Sorry its been awhile since my last post; between my final project, PST wrapping up, moving out of homestay and getting ready to move to site things have been a little bit hectic. But, here I am and I have lots to update you all on! I am going to try and cover all the highlights of the past 2½ weeks, so here it goes:

-The other EEs and I led our nature hike thru Tabugal and I think it was pretty successful! There were about 20 kids ages 16-20. It was a beautiful (and very long) hike from just outside Assomada all the way to the beach. It took almost all day, but was definitely worth it – we basically walked half the width of the island. That ought to give you a pretty good idea of how small this place actually is. Along the hike we each led a short discussion about an environmental topic; I talked about water management. I think it went pretty well. It was raining during my presentation and it was a little bit hard to hear, but it seemed like the kids were paying attention and they were answering my questions, so that was encouraging.

-The 18^th was my last day of homestay! We had our Swearing-In Ceremony and I officially became a PC volunteer! Woop woop! Everyone’s families came to the ceremony to see us off and pose for pictures. My mom was very sad and she looked really unhappy the whole day. She did a pretty good job of holding it together until the very last minute. I gave her a hug and kiss goodbye and she started crying. But not just crying, it was more like wailing. And that set off Matt’s mom who also started sobbing. It was all very sad and touching and I had to try really hard to keep it together. I am really going to miss my family. They have no idea how much they helped me learn the language and how much they made me feel like I was actually part of their family. It was truly a great experience living with them.

-After swearing in all the SEDs stayed in Assomada for 4 days for our Counterpart Conference. A counterpart is basically a CVean who is your co-worker and is supposed to kind of be like your advisor. Anyways, PC put us up in a hotel with hot showers and air conditioning! It was heavenly. It was the first time in awhile that I had a chance to sit around and do nothing and worry about nothing.

-The Counterpart Conference was less exciting than I had hoped. Since the local park teams have not yet been formed, I still don’t have a counterpart. Instead, they sent a representative from the DGA (Environmental Ministry) to meet with all of the EEs and serve as our stand-in counterpart for the conference. It was informative in that I got some numbers of environmental people on Sal that I should contact; however, it also drove home the fact that these new parks are really in the very first stages. They have not determined the actual boundaries of the park and nobody can even tell me a general area of where the park might be. So I was a little jealous of everyone else who got to learn about what they would be doing for the next 2 years, but that’s ok. I have been trying to prepare myself for the fact that my first couple months at site will just be spent trying to integrate into the community and make friends with people.

-After meeting our counterparts all the SEDs staying on Santiago went to their sites and all of us leaving the island went to Praia, from which we would be flying out the following day. It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone. After spending 9 weeks together we all were pretty close and so while everyone was excited to get to site, it was sad to split up. It was very bittersweet.

-The stay in Praia was short but awesome. Another night of hot showers and air conditioning. And believe it or not, but I ate CHINESE FOOD!!!!!! There is 1 Chinese restaurant in Praia (and possibly the one one in CV) and I ate their twice in 24 hours. Fried dumplings and fried noodles. Nom nom nom.

-Thursday afternoon Holly and I hoped on our flight to Sal; life jackets (PC regulation) and water filter in tow – as if we didn’t stand out enough already. We looked absolutely ridiculous. And after a 25 minute flight we touched down on quite possibly the flattest, driest, tiniest piece of land I have ever seen. We could see the entire island in 4 plane windows. Once we arrived, Holly’s counterpart took us to our house, which is in Espargos – the main city in Sal located sort of in the middle of the island. Our house is kick-ass. I don’t know what either of us did in our past life to earn this, but we lucked out. We live on the first floor of a building and have got 2 big bedrooms, bathroom and big kitchen/living area. AND running water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our landlord found it hilarious how excited we were when we realized that the toilet flushed! And there is also a convenience store right next door. Convenient indeed.

-Sal is the tourism island of Cape Verde and the town of Santa Maria is the hot spot for it all. Everything about this place is the complete opposite of Picos and the CV I have known for the past 9 weeks. We met up with a PC volunteer who stayed in CV after his service and he showed us around Espargos and Santa Maria. At one point we were sitting on the patio of a bar drinking gin & tonics, listening to Jason Mraz and speaking English with an Ex-pat from England. It was so surreal and miles from what I had expected my PC experience to be like.

-Our first day here, Holly and I spent cleaning house and organizing all the stuff that has been building up over the years of the apartment being the home for PCVs in Sal. We had to buy some things for the apartment so we walked into town to run some errands and get an idea of the layout of Espargos. Because we went out around noon, most of the places we wanted to go to were closed for lunch so we ended up doing a lot walking back and forth between places waiting for them to reopen. Meanwhile, we were carrying groceries, water, mop, broom, bucket and bags of other random items. Needless to say, we looked very odd – 2 brankus sweating their asses off, carrying cleaning supplies and jugs of water walking back and forth along the main street. The next day we were talking to some people we were sharing a Hiace (taxi van) with and they were like, “Oh yeah, we saw you girls yesterday walking around Espargos carrying mops.”

-Yesterday Holly and I decided to scope out the beach scene and we found that we basically live in a giant sandbox and the entire coast is beach. The water is incredibly blue and everywhere (outside of Santa Maria) is empty! The first beach we went to was gorgeous and there were only about 5 other people there. Later the former PCV invited us to a beach party that his fiance’s family was throwing. We swam, ate freshly grilled pork and chicken, drank some beers and watched the sunset. It was an unbelievable day. I know that I will probably lose any and all street cred I may have earned for doing the PC.

Some Pics

Tabugal/Jurassic Park

White people monda-ing (weeding)

Tarrafal

Random Stories

Sorry for the lack of communication lately – while tearing up the road/laying sewage pipes, they accidentally cut the phone line so nobody in Achada Liton had phone or internet service for awhile. But its all fixed!

It’s the homestretch of PST! 2 more weeks in Achada Liton, then its off to Sal! As much as I love my CV family and being around the other PCTs, I am definitely ready to move into my own place and start working! PST is really exhausting and I think its all starting to catch up with me. This is not to say that the days have not been memorable – they are still filled with absurd and entertaining events. Here are a few things that have been going on in my life:

-The culmination of the 9-week PST is that all PCTs are supposed to do a community project. I am working with the other EEs and we are organizing a nature hike to a place called Tabugal, an extremely green, agricultural and lush area located in a valley. The hike is next Sunday, but we decided it would be a good idea to scope out the trail ahead of time so the three of us and a local made the hike down to Tabugal yesterday. Tabugal is located in a deep valley so it was a very steep descent down the mountain. We were halfway down when it started pouring rain. It made the trail a bit slippy, but the cool rain was a welcome relief from the mugginess. Unfortunately, rain in CV does not mean that the humidity will end, in fact, it seems to be the opposite. Between hiking up and down this mountain and the humidity I’m pretty sure I sweat off any calories I may have consumed in the past 3 weeks. Before arriving in this country, I never thought I would sweat so much in my life – Bonnaroo has got nothing on Cape Verde. Sorry, I’m sure reading this is about as enjoyable as actually sweating. Anywhoo, Tabugal was absolutely amazing! It was like another world – one that was not far from Jurassic Park. At one point we were walking on a dike completely surrounded by plants and pushing sugarcane stalks out of our way. I felt like a jungle explorer. It was definitely not an easy hike and I was exhausted afterwards. I am a little bit nervous for next week when we have to lead the same hike, but with 30 youth (hopefully ages 16+) and I also have to give a presentation on water management in kriolu. I foresee being completely spent, both physically and mentally.

-There are different variations of kriolu spoken in CV based on what island you are on – the biggest difference is between Northern and Southern Creole. Since PST has been on Santiago (a southern island) I have been learning southern kriolu; however, Sal is in the north. So, along with some of the other volunteers going to northern islands, I have been attending Northern Kriolu classes. It is a little bit disheartening to see and hear how different this one language can be. I was just starting to feel like I was able to have a somewhat intelligent conversation in kriolu and now I have to prepare myself for going back to speaking like a 4 year-old for my first weeks/months on Sal. Words have different meanings, some words aren’t used, pronunciation is different, etc. Ave Maria!

-My mother told me I had a big butt today. I got up after dinner to bring the dishes into the kitchen and my mom says, “Sarah, bu kadeira sta rodondu!” I knew that kadeira meant butt, but I did not know the other word so I was like, “What? There’s something on my butt? Did I sit on something?” Meanwhile my mom and sisters are cracking up. Finally my sister says, “No, rondinu! Big!!” I told my mom it was because she was feeding me so much food and that I was eating at least 5 meals a day in CV. She got a kick out of that one. She is always telling me that she’s going to make me fat, so I think my big butt made her proud.

-To call somebody by their race or skin color is not offensive, just another way to get someone’s attention. I can’t even tell you how many times I have heard, “Oi! China!” It’s the best in Assomada because you’ve got all the street vendors yelling at you to buy their mangoes and Hiaces (taxis) circling trying to get people into their car. The Hiace drivers are very aggressive in general and they will pull up right next to me and yell, “Hey Chinese! Praia?! Praia?!” It is very entertaining. Another trainee was telling me about how she was sitting in a packed Hiace when the woman next to her says to the whole car, “Look everyone! Look at this branku (white person) sitting next to me!” Of course my friend understood what the lady said, so when everyone turned around she just waved and said “bon dia!” Oh hilarity. Can you imagine what would happen if someone said that to another person in the US? Lawsuit.

-Another ridiculous txiga story. The other day I was riding in a Hilux when the woman across from me starts yelling to her friend who was walking along the road. It is not uncommon for people riding in Hiluxes to yell to people they pass that are walking or sitting in front of their house. Its usually a short exchange – Hi! How are you? Where are you going? It rained today! Etc. So this lady yelled the usually things and then as we are pulling away, she yells, “Txiga! Txiga!” I could not help but burst out laughing. The lady was not even home yet and she was already yelling for people to txiga.

- I had this tune stuck in my head all day and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then later in the day I came to the horrifying realization that it was Justin Beiber. I almost cried. Beiber fever has hit CV. If I hear that “Baby, Baby” song one more time someone’s radio is going to get smashed.