Its December, why am I still sweating?

Its December and people are starting to get into the Christmas spirit! Store windows are decked out with lights and Christmas trees and they’ve put lights shaped like stars, bells, reindeer and bows on the street lights throughout town. Its all very festive. But there is something about sweating uncontrollably on a daily basis that makes it hard to believe that Christmas is only a few weeks away. Every morning I wake up and open our kitchen window to find the same thing: blinding sun (seriously the sun feels stronger here; and combined with all the light reflecting off white tiled buildings and sidewalks it sometimes feels like my corneas are being burned), clear sky, blue ocean, wind, dust and dryness. Then I step outside and immediately start sweating. Don’t get me wrong, I would gladly choose being hot over being cold and there is nothing like going to the beach in December, but hearing people from home talk about the changing colors of the leaves and wearing sweatshirts does make me miss the different seasons. But I can’t change the weather here so I am prepared for a hot, white (sand) Christmas.

With the turtle season over, I’ve picked up a couple English classes to keep myself busy. Three times a week I go to one of the youth centers in Espargos to teach English and help out with activities and then twice a week I teach English at a youth center for homeless kids and kids from less fortunate families in Santa Maria. The kids are all really excited and enthusiastic about learning English and its very rewarding to run into my students on the street and hear them say, “Sara! Good morning!” Even if his response to my asking, “How are you?” is, “My name is fine.” At least it’s a start.

Before coming to the youth center in Espargos, I had never met a group of kids more excited for Christmas. Everyday for the past 3 weeks they have been drawing pictures of Christmas trees, Santa Claus (Pai Natal), candles and wreaths and making decorations for their classroom. Today we made a Christmas countdown by making a paper chain with each link representing a day until Christmas. Each kid decorated a couple links and they are all excited for their day to cut their link. There was a small brawl over who would get to decorate the Dec, 25th link, but in the end all was resolved with the decision to have everyone draw a small picture on the link. They also taught me a Christmas song – its to the tune of Jingle Bells and roughly translates to:

On Christmas, On Christmas

Just toys made in China

Play with them today

Play with them tomorrow

And after tomorrow they are broken.

Kind of a sad Christmas song, but still incredibly catchy!

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Helping our neighbor's kids put up their Christmas tree!

The "road" to our house.

The main road in Espargos - almost all the buildings you see are either offices, Chinese lojas or mini-mercados that all sell the same exact things for the same exact prices. The Cape Verdean business strategy still puzzles me...
Santa Cruz - the poorest zone in Espargos. They have no water and electricity only after 5pm.