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.