02-06-2012 - 02-12-2012: A week in the life

Monday February 6th It’s 6pm and it’s time for my English class. Today I’m teaching the verb “to-be”. You’re beautiful, she’s nice, etc…..This is a little difficult because, “I’m American” and “I’m sad”. In English you use the same verb. In Portuguese you use two different verbs. The verb ser is used for conditions or characteristics that are permanent and the verb estar is used for transitory or not permanent conditions or characteristics.

Tuesday February 7thToday my boss had a doctor’s appointment, so it was the first day I worked by myself. I decided to take the time to experiment and try to figure out some things on the program that we attempt to do our accounting on. It’s an awful program and just thinking about it gives me a headache. That being said, I learned a lot and had a really successful day.

Cape Verde "wild-life"

My Cape Verde "wild-life"

In America I would slightly obsessively plan out my life. I kept everything in my planner. Like an old school, paper planner. I literally took this planner with me everywhere. I actually have a planner with me in CV, but you literally can’t plan things in CV. For many reasons, but mostly because things are just planned that morning, or decided that moment. As you can imagine this caused me a lot of stress my first few months. Like you would ask someone, “what are we doing today? When are we leaving? What should I bring?” and so on with no straight forward answer….. So now to calm my controlling personality….I “back-plan” I write down in my planner what I did yesterday, how I felt, what I ate, etc. I don’t write down anything in particular just my way of recording that I accomplished something on any given day. So since I can’t remember what I did only a few days ago, my planner say’s I woke up at 6am to do dishes…..we accumulate dishes at an amazing rate, and it doesn’t help that both my roommate and I don’t like doing chores, especially dishes… my planner also say’s I did an “insanity” workout. I’ve been working-out a lot lately. Next week in Carnival. And besides the fact that we are wearing costumes, I know I won’t have time or energy to work-out. All of this being said, Carnival should be a blast, and I’m super excited!Wednesday February 8thIt’s 12:30am, and my little Mogli is waking me up to go outside (at least it’s not 3 am, like most days). Part of the struggle of having a baby (anything) is that they generally don’t sleep completely through the night. We go back to bed and get up again at 6am, this time I decide to stay up and go for a jog. I haven’t gone jogging in the morning since before Christmas, but it felt good to get up before the sun even if I could hardly breathe. The bruma seca (haze) (“The natural forms of air pollution are still to be considered: aerosols (generally called "bruma seca"), proceeding from the Sahara desert. This form of pollution caused by dust proceeding from the Sahara has been increasing in intensity and duration in the last years. In the 80s, this phenomenon only happened during the months of December and January. However, since the 90s, there has been a gradual prolongation and aggravation of the “bruma seca” phenomenon, occurring up to mid March, with strong incidence on public health and the economy of the country (through airport traffic). This is the case of a natural environmental problem inherent to the geographic situation of the country and whose resolution exceeds human capacity. The corrective and preventive measures in reduction of air quality will have to deal with the causes due to the actions of man.(www.sia.cv.com.”) is really bad right now and it giving me dull headaches.

After my run I make a delicious breakfast of chopped onions with chorizo and egg, a little cumin, with cheese on wheat bread. Yum! Mi-Mi and I usually just make coffee in a pot, now that our coffee maker has been used too many times and we’re too cheap to buy a new one. But today I make my coffee using the mini French press I bought Mi-Mi and I in America (http://www.amazon.com/Bodum-Double-Wall-Stainless-Travel-Coffee/dp/B004AUDLRU/ref=dp_cp_ob_gro_title_0) I highly recommend buying one of these wherever you live. With only 5 minutes before my boss shows up at my home office, I jump in the freezing cold shower, screaming the entire time. That is one part of living here I never seem to get used too. My boss, Paula shows up to my living room/work office at 8:30am (unlike most Cape Verdeans she is almost always on time to work)….personally I struggle with getting to places on time, in all continents. My room-mate is excited because Paula say’s today we’re making Kachupa (the traditional food of all of Cape Verde) we’ve lived in Cape Verde for almost 7 months and have yet to learn (see recipe at end of post.) My roommate tells me to go get couve (kale) from Paula’s farm. I force Mogli to go with me and we set off. I get tomatoes, carrots and then look for the couve. I’ve learned a lot about farming in Cape Verde, but have yet to learn how to pick couve. I’m looking at what I think is couve and realizing that I have no idea how you know when couve is ready to be picked. I also think it’s interesting how it looks a lot like cabbage. Mogli grabs an old and completely dried out dead frog and we head back home. Paula and Mi-Mi laugh at me because I actually grabbed cabbage and not couve…..that just shows you how more I still need to learn about farming. Cape Verdean KachupaAfter work I cancel my Wednesday English class because Paula and I are going to “work-shop” (their words not mine.) We get there around 4pm; it starts about an hour late (like most things in CV). Vila

Most of the people there were about the age 40, which I found really interesting since most of the work-shops I’ve been too, the population has been in 20-30’s.The president of the camara (local governement) spoke for a significant portion on the work-shop. Then the most successful farmer spoke, after him a man that makes and sells cheese, a tourist agent, and two young men from a construction company. Work-shop

After each speaker there was a question and answer session. It was the first time I had been to one of these things where people actually asked questions, and expressed their thoughts about business in S.N. Now that my Portuguese comprehension has improved I actually understood about 60% of what was said. 5 months ago I was at about 10%.

P.S.-Mogli also peed all over me today…….Outside of the "work-shop" in Vila.Thursday February 9thFeeling unmotivated to work today. Even if I was in love with micro-credit my day-job would still be boring. It’s a lot of data-input, accounting, computer trouble-shooting, and tedious paperwork. I never thought I’d miss real estate paperwork, but I guess you never really appreciate what you have until it’s gone. So to try to motivate myself by conducting some PACA (AKA- talk to people in your community) Mogli tags along. First, I stop by Nelito’s school supplies store; he also fixes computers and provides space for student’s to get explicação (tutoring). He wants me to help him with his website, we talk a while and then I head over to the costureiro (tailor) Orlando. He is busily working on Carnival costumes. I remind him about the hat I want him to make me. I’ m sure he’ll do it in about 3 weeks (CV time). Then we stop by Manuel’s shop, he has this tiny room the size of a small closet where he fixes shoes, all he does is fix shoes….and he works 6 days a week. To put it plainly, shoes really suck here. I then go and talk to the loja (store) owners. Joao (store owner) and Armand (stoking boy), who as of late have really been trying to learn English. Although they never come to my class and don’t study when my roommate and I give them homework. That being said I’m not going to deny someone the opportunity. I give Mogli to my Cape Verdean avo (grandpa) he loves being called avo. He’s a crazy guy, but super sweet and funny. He’s always telling me jokes, and making sure my class is going well. I walk down to Donna Filomeno’s loja. Tanya is always working there. I tell her one day I’ m going to work for her, so she can relax. I convince her to sell me some Christmas directions. I realize its February and I won’t be here next Christmas, but I want to teach mogli how to ring a bell when she wants to go out. She won’t sell them because she doesn’t know how much they cost. This happens all the time in CV. I tell her that if she doesn’t sell things then she’ll never make any money….I’m half-joking. I also tell her that if the owner, Filo mena wants more, I’ll pay more. I get back to the office, I’ve been gone for an hour, but Paula doesn’t care. I finally get to work, creating a balance sheet of last month’s loan repayments on an excel spreadsheet.Patrick walking kids to school in Chacas.At around 12p, Paula and I catch a car to Chacas (where Patricki lives) we visit 2 clients and then hike to the information center for Mt. Gordo. I had never been there and didn’t even realize it existed! I bought my roommate and I Mt.Gordo t-shirts. Entrance to Mt.Gordo

We we’re looking for the woman that runs the program for mt. Gordo to see if she could help with a program to teach teenagers technical skills in the summer. The woman wasn’t there though.Paula walking to the info center for Mt.

That night Mogli and I walk to Cont. de Faja and met up with Marin to visit our Cape Verdeans friends and have dinner.Marin and Mogli in Cont de FajaFriday February 10thPaula and I drove to Vila to work, we we’re able to meet up with the travel agency (same people we saw speak on Wednesday.) I was able to get some data about my trip to Lisbon, Portugal that I’m trying to plan next month with my friend Sam. She’s getting her master’s in accounting in London currently. So we’re Meeting up half way. This trip is not cheap, but its way cheaper than it would be if we we’re in the US. And you only live once, so why not? The most interesting part of this day was my ride back from Vila. Paula and I caught an uncovered pickup truck that had 6 people, a full size freezer, and two goats in it. Then my friend’s niece, Patricia got in too. Patricia and I are buddies so she was snuggling with me. We then turned onto the road to Quemadas, which is a really curvy road with lots of hills and blind corners. Patricia was asleep at this point. So I pulled her onto my lap so that she wouldn’t be thrown around so much. So here I am, trying to keep a freezer from sliding around in the back of this truck and killing or dismembering us, holding a 3 year old sleeping child. With a goat’s full utter on my uncovered toes. Maybe this isn’t posh corps after all.

Patricia and I watching as they unload the freezer.Saturday February 11thIt’s Saturday but I’m awake at 6am. After having a little accident with our water filter which involved me flooding our kitchen and then spending a good amount of time trying to mop it up……I started hiking to Fragata around 10am.

View of Cont de Faja from the top of Fragata.I really wanted to get out and do something different this weekend. The hike to Fragata starts in Cont de Faja, it’s a pretty steady incline from Cont to Fragata, but after that it’s almost all downhill. It’s a beautiful hike and a really perfect weather day, not to hot or cold.

Cruisinha & Fragotonha in Fragata.

Although the trail was mostly washed out in the rains of 2009, so you have to watch your step.

The cutest baby Burro/Oz (donkey) I've ever seen!

Beautiful little swamp.

A woman doing laundry in a tanki. I wish my laundry set-up was like this.Grogu making area.

Random beautiful white horse.

In Fragata they also make Grogo. I had to stop for some. It was the best Grogo I've had yet. When it's fresh, it's not as strong. I hiked from Fragata to Ribiera Prata and then caught a construction truck back to Tarrafal. Didn’t make it home until 8pm. Today was the best day I've had in Cape Verde. Hand's down!Sunday February 12thPretty sore from my hike yesterday but still spent the day doing more laundry and dishes, even though I did laundry for 2 hours on Friday…..cleaning consumes my life here. I also did my taxes tonight. Thanks god for my old bosses who emailed my W-2, turbo tax and direct deposit. I couldn’t imagine trying to do my taxes while living in a foreign country 10 years ago! Got to love technology.

"Climate Changes." SIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <www.sia.cv/index.php/en/sia/environmental-profile/68>.

CACHUPA - CAPE VERDE ’S NATIONAL DISH

Peace Corps Cape Verde Cookbook

3 C dried white corn

1½ C white beans

½ C red beans water

1–2 kg meat: dried pork AND/OR fish

salt & other spices to taste

¼ C tomato paste

3 cloves garlic, chopped

⅛ C olive oil

3–4 crushed malageta

2medium manioc

2 C cubed squash

2C cubed potatoes

1 medium cabbage

any veggies you want (carrots, couve, sweet potatoes)

2 bouillon cubes

3 med onions, diced

Soak corn and beans in a large pot of water overnight. Marinate the meat, salt, and any other spices. Refrigerate or leave aside for a few hours. (If using dried pork, do not marinate. Rinse well and add to cachupa when adding the rest of meat.)

Fill a large pot half full of water. Add corn, tomato paste, and garlic, crushed. Bring to a boil. Add oil and malageta. The corn needs to boil for about 2 hours or until it begins to get soft. (Try to squeeze a kernel between your fingertips.) As the water boils off, add more to keep the corn covered. After the corn has cooked for about 2 hours, add beans. A bit later, add manioc. A bit later add the other vegetables, except the onion. 10 minutes later, add meat and bouillon cubes.

In a separate frying pan, heat olive oil and sauté the onions, adding a bit of tomato paste for color. Add the onion and tomato paste mixture to the pot of cachupa. Once the fish or meat is cooked, the cachupa will be ready to serve.

01-28-2012: Life is full of surprisesSo now that we’re all caught up on blog posts. I can share with you guys what I’m actually feeling right now! Today! Not 3 months ago in training but RIGHT NOW! Ahhh! It feels good to finally say that. The idea of keeping a blog is a lot easier than actually doing it. Wednesday night (4 days ago) I was teaching my English class when I got a call from a fellow volunteer on my cell phone on my island. This act is not exactly normal. Calling someone is costly, and talking via email is our generally preferred method of island communication. Curious and having a free moment I give her a call back. “So did you get Jarrod text message? About what we’re doing tomorrow?” She asks. “Yea, I think so, he said something about going to the beach or hiking, right? It all sounds good to me.” I say. “No, not that! About the code orange?” She exclaims. “Code-orange?” I ask, I might have been day-dreaming about Ivars Fish’n Chips during that PC presentation. “What is code-orange again?” I ask. She say’s she can’t remember what it means either (double-fail.) I go home after my English class and my roommate and I guess that maybe a volunteer or PC staff in CV or in Africa died or was raped (as terrible as those things are…they happen) or that it was just a drill. We didn't think much more about it. The next day (as instructed) we go to our designated meeting place. But before we go to the meeting we decide to pick up our new puppy. I have been asking my roommate if we can get a dog since before we got to site. She finally agreed and now we have a beautiful baby girl, named Mogli (from the Jungle book). Just as soon as I have the little dirty African puppy in my arms. We get the call that we need to hurry up and get to Jarrod’s house for the “drill”. So puppy in hand Mi-Mi and I speed walk across town….getting a sweat going in the process (it’s all up hill). We literally walk in the door of Jarrod and Alex’s apartment and everyone is sitting around the kitchen table waiting for us. Seconds later we get the call. Speaker phone, silence. It is Krista, a second year volunteer who lives on the main island. A sweet girl from Texas that everyone likes and confides in (she is part of a volunteer support group). She shares the news…..no, this is not a drill…..no, nobody has died. PC in Washington D.C. has made the executive administration decision to “Graduate” PC Cape Verde. Meaning no more PC in the island I’m serving in. I start crying…..then bawling. I start crying so loudly I have to excuse myself from the room. I’m not really a person to cry in front of people and in general I can have inappropriate emotional reactions to things (laughing at sad things). But this was a blow like no other. We are told a big reason Cape Verde is being “graduated” is because of finances. The cost of living for volunteers in higher in Cape Verde than other countries, and in the past years Cape Verde has been developing at an amazing rate. That’s not to say we’ve done a bad job, or that they still don’t need external assistance, but the decision has been made and is final. We are also informed that (unlike what we signed on for) our service will end in Cape Verde September 2012 (a seemingly short 8 months from now). Meaning that my total time in PC Cape Verde will be 13 months, not 27 like most volunteers around the world. Why didn’t they decide to finish our group with the 27 month commitment you might ask? Well, due to (opposite of good) government planning, this program is financing planned annually. But, it is what it is.

Forcing a smile for a (unique) group photo on the day we received the bad news.Being someone who literally doesn’t quit things, I immediately felt like leaving Cape Verde sooner than I had told all my Cape Verdean friends and family was like quitting them. Even though I’ve only been in Cape Verde for a few months, I have fallen in love with it. The music, the people, the morabeza (welcome-feeling/hospitality), the dancing, the food, the animals, hiking, the amazing beaches and views! Not to mention I’ve been looking forward to this experience for about 5 years. A large motivation for me to finish my BA was so that I would be a better applicant for the PC. Not to mention my application process for the PC took a total of 16 months. The thought of my application process being longer than my actual service made me even sadder. The whole concept of the PC is biased on the idea that you go about your projects slowly and thoroughly so that they’re sustainable. So now all of a sudden we’re on tighter time constraint. Also a lot of projects are carried on by successive volunteers. For example on my island every year we’ve put on a summer camp for children. Now it’s our goal to try to encourage cape Verdeans to micro-manage this project so themselves. The other depressing part of this bad news was the stark realization that Cape Verdeans were now going to have very little if not any personal connections with Americans. Peace Corps is probably the largest population of Americans in Cape Verde and we only have 48 volunteers. Once we’re gone many cape Verdeans will never know an American personally.

Oh and did I mention I also went through a grueling 2 month training expecting to be here for 2 years? OK, I’m done complaining……

So what does this mean? Peace Corps Cape Verde has about 15 full time employees in the capital. And about 30 part time employees. Peace Corps has been operating in Cape Verde for the past 24 years, with over 500 volunteers having served here. Currently there are 48 volunteers serving in all of Cape Verde. 25 of those volunteers are first year volunteers. After September 2012 all of these operations will be shut down.

As hurt and numb as I feel, every day since we’ve gotten the news has gotten easier. My future has taken an unknown turn.

Here are my options (as I see them today):1. Try to get into another PC program in Mozambique as an English teacher (or other role). We have been given this country as a possible option to do that for another year. We would finish service in November 2013. I would also have to go through 1o week training.2. Do PC in another country for another 27 months. Again, would have to go through training again.3. Finish PC Cape Verde in September 2012, travel the islands of CV, or elsewhere and go home.4. Try to get a job with PC response. Could work anywhere for 3-12 months.5. Continue working in Cape Verde. Get a job with the organization I currently work for, or with another organization.6. Finish PC Cape Verde, go back home to Washington state. Start my career; start applying to MBA programs for the following school year.

This has been a shocking experience to say the least, but I strongly believe everything happens for a reason. I know there is light at the end of the tunnel, if only I could find my glasses to see it.

Oh, and I’m keeping the dog.Jew showing Mogli the picture she had drawn for Mogli.

01-21-2012Alex and Jarrod's Brodas (friends) seasoning 44lbs of raw chicken.Today I am six months from turning 24, and it’s also been about 6 months in Cape Verde. The first two months spent in Santiago the last 4 spent on Sao Nicolau. Thursday night we celebrated a fellow volunteer’s birthday in Vila. An interesting experience to say the least. We had 20 kilos of chicken and a keg……the charcoal to bbq the chicken didn’t arrive until about 9pm and with the extreme winds we've been having getting the tiny grill we had borrowed to light was close to impossible (not to mention the fact that cape Verdeans melt plastic to start grills, and we obviously don’t want to eat food that’s been cooked on melted plastic). The leftover chicken skin....what to do with it?We found a willing outdated volunteers resource handbooks that asked to be donated to the committee for getting dinner started. lol. In typical CV style dinner was ready around 12pm. Overall it was a great night, we ended up going to this amazing nightclub downtown. Nobody was there so we didn't hang around for long, but I was so shocked because this night club was underground and every part of the wall and ceiling hand rocks cemented to them so it was like being in a cave. It was one of the coolest places I've been to in CV. Marin & I on the hike!The next day Marin, Alexandra and I decided we were going to walk from Ribiera Brava to Chacas, it’s a pretty easy hike (although almost entirely up-hill). Most of the hike is through the city and suburbs if you will. We stopped at Aqua D’spata, which is where they make grogu (Sugarcane rum). Alexandra and Marin got to put sugarcane in the machine that then squeezes all the sugar cane juice out. We tried some fresh grougu too, it was still hot! Aqua DispataGrogu is really strong and hiking in itself is kind of dangerous so for our own well being we only had a few sips. Overall it was a great weekend with wonderful friends both American and Cape Verdean!

Old Carnaval wreckage

01-18-2012Catching the fish truckLast night and almost every Tuesday night, I visit Tarrafal. Tarrafal is one of the two only big cities on Sao Nic. Tarrafal has a little gym right across from Marin and Alexandra’s apartment. They have an aerobic class every morning at 6am and every night at 7:30pm. I’ve come to really love this class, and here are the reasons why:1. If I don’t exercise regularly I get really bitchy, my back hurts, and I’m generally kind of depressed.2. My clothes don’t fit as well.3. It helps me release negative energy.4. I get to leave my house!5. I get to hang out with Cape Verdean women6. I get to see Vanusa! (our good CV female friend)7. Get a sweat going8. Do ridiculous work out moves that I would never do in any other situation.9. Dance10. It’s only an hour long.11. Practice and reinforce the “feeling comfortable without personal space” concept12. I have something to talk about when I see the people again outside of the class.13. It’s fun!14. The teacher is upbeat and male, and not trying to ranja everyone in the class.15. It keeps me motivated to work out more.16. It’s encouraging to see cape Verdean women who understand the concept of exercise and living a healthy lifestyle.I could name a lot more reasons but in general this is one of my favorite activities on Sao Nic. Sometimes I’m able to organize my schedule so that the days I go to the aerobic class I also work in Tarrafal. But today I needed to get back to my office in Faja. Catching a car out of Tarrafal is always in interesting experience. And this morning was particularly interesting. After waiting for about 30 minutes I caught the fish truck. I didn’t know that Sao Nic had a fish truck, but then again I don’t get up early anymore. Their wasn’t really room for me in the back of the truck but eventually the women squished together so I could sit on the bench (sitting on the tailgate of the back of a pickup truck going 40 or 50mph on a winding road is really dangerous).This was a beautifully clear and sunny morning, but the air was still cold(we’re in winter here too).Goodmorning sunshine!We we’re squished together because there were 9 of us in the back of the truck but also because we were sharing the space with 5 big buckets of raw fish, mostly txitaru and Kovala. As we all snuggled together to keep warm from the cold wind the women discussed the local gossip, and gave advice to the youngest pexera (fish seller). As we entered the first community the car stopped, and the women started shouting, “Fish! Come get your fresh fish.” When pexera shout there is a certain sing-songy aspect to it, it’s almost like a wailing cry. Very distinctive and hard to understand exactly what they’re saying. People come running out of their houses and we drive off. As we pass through more communities, the car doesn’t even stop just slows slightly as we pass people waiting on the side of the road for the fish truck. The pexeras just pass the fish off, sometimes they throw a few extras on the road. I never saw any money exchanged throughout this process…..how do they track how much they give and who needs to pay them? A kilo of fish is only about $2.50, not much of a profit margin there. The business part of me always come out eventually. PexerasAt one point one of the women lights up a tobacco pipe (which I found amazing since we’re in the back of uncovered pick-up truck and it’s really windy. I had already accepted that I was probably going to smell like raw fish for the rest of the work day, but now I was also going to smell like tobacco. Oh well. Smelling good is more of a privilege rather than necessity. When I get to my destination I don’t have a plastic bag on me so I don’t buy any fish, I hear the ladies mumble about that, and I feel bad. But then again on an island of about 10,000....I will definitely have another opportunity to buy fish the next time I catch the fish truck.

Fajã de Baixo, São Nicolau, Cape Verde

The above link is my needs report and analysis for the community I live in. This report was created after living in Fajã for 3 months. Most of this information is biased on my observations and conversations with people in community, so take it with a grain of salt. The only reason I'm posting this on my blog is so that it can be accessible for anyone interested in working in this area in the future.

Averie Garman

Peace Corps Cabe Verde

2011-2012

The Dragon Tree (My favorite tree!)

Info about The Dragon Tree

Alexandra and I during the tour.

12-03-2011: The CruiseAlexandra and I teaching the "English for tourism class."

It all started about 2 months ago when I was talking with my counterparts brother, Nadi. He was telling me that from then on we only needed to speak in English to each other, this being a pretty non cape Verdean thing to say, I asked him why. And to my surprise and delight he said it’s because a cruise ship is coming December 3rd! Not just any cruise ship but the first ever to come to sao nicolau. Sao Nicolau doesn’t have a lot in the way of an economy but there is definitely potential for tourism. One day I ran randomly ran into the woman leading a training for the guides I gave her my contact info, and a few weeks later she came back for a second training. At that point we met up and she requested I give anEnglish for tour guides class. So the Saturday before the boat was scheduled to come, Alexandra Bracken and I taught a class to seven guides. Our class focused on a reading from a practice script, practicing dates (1985, etc), demonstratives (this, that, those, these), commonly asked tourists questions, and we went over general tips for leading a good tour. Alexandra and I were lucky enough to be invited along the tour December 3rd. The boat “Island Sky” brought about 100 tourists. All senior ctitizens from England.All the guides in front of the "Island Sky"

The tour guides worked really hard and did an excellent job, entertaining the tourists and doing it in English. Overall I was really impressed with the English of the guides and their general interactions with the tourists. For many of the guides it was their first experience in this sort of role. We also went to a famous church I had never been inside before, that was the first ever church built in Cape Verde. We also found out that due to the success of the tour, more boats will be coming again in April and a year from now. Gold star of approval!Nadi in explaining something to the tourists.

Aquilino in Vila with tourists. Alexandra on the right.

Having a snack at a local cafe, with Live Cape Verdean music.

Tradtional dance performance at Church in Quemadas.

Ze' and I before the tour.

What a lucky day, 11-11-2011 and it’s Veterans Day. Had a very PACA day as we call it in Peace Corps Lingo. Today was a Friday, woke up before my 5:45am alarm…..can you believe it! I couldn’t go back to sleep either.Today I spent almost all day in my house. My office is in my house, and we don’t get American holidays off. So here I am working on this monthly accounting tool called “Pagamentos”. Like any other day in Cape Verde I spend at least an hour trying to get the computer and printer to work. After a lot of effort. My colleague and I finally succeeded. We worked well past 3pm, which is when our day ends normally. We had the traditional Kachupa for lunchi which is like a snack around 11:30am (large contributor to my physical “investment” in CV). After work I had my English class, which today was supposed to be just for conversation and to practice, but I ended up teaching most of my lesson I had planned for Monday. We’re still working on responses for, “How are you?” So I thought for sure today I would less people than my Wednesday class. Because I told everyone it was optional and two because I didn’t put it up on my poster, but sure enough I had 50 people show up, a lot of youngsters, but some teens and adults too. A lot of Mi-mi’s students which is good too. I don’t have enough chairs for everyone….or enough space for that matter! I think we will have to set up those big desks as work areas too. Afterwards we walked down to Bar Holland, because our friend Toonecki has a dance group he organizes and they have practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (same days as my class). A lot of the girls from my soccer team were there. Even though we were at least thirty minutes late they hadn’t even started yet. They eventually started….dancing traditional cape Verdeans dances. Morna, Koladera, Zouk, Rhabeka….I learned a few steps, but Toonecki said he would teach us more on Monday. It’s now 10pm and I’m exhausted. Waking up before 6am everyday, working all day, teaching English, going out. Today was one of the busiest days I’ve had yet! I feel so out of touch with what’s going on in the world. We don’t have a television and I don’t listen to the radio anymore, I even though we have computers I mostly just use them for work and preparing for my lessons. So today I checked CNN, didn’t really see anything too interesting although I hear quite a bit is going on in America from the other volunteers.Our Thanksgiving feast celebrated on Nov.26th.

11-05-2011.......Compromises: Learning to work togetherJew-lee with a watermelonSometimes I have to make compromises. With myself, Cape Verdeans, my stomach, other volunteers and cockroaches. Living in Cape Verde to me is like someone handed you an entire movie reel but cut up all the frames into puzzle pieces and you have to figure out what order they need to go in. Forgot the metaphor….. I think I see the big picture and realize that this experience is a series of investigative adventures. At times I feel lost, in the literal sense and in the sense that I’ve lost sight of my mission both personal and work related. One of the biggest comprises I’ve had to make in Cape Verde is letting go of the fact that generally I don’t know what’s going on. Cape Verdeans seem to know the (daily/weekly) schedule vaguely, and my language skills are greatly improved than three months ago, but there is a disconnect. My way of coping with this is just to go-with-the-flow. At any given moment I’m prepared to throw on my soccer shorts to play with the (almost non-existent) girls futbol team, share a shot of punch with the local loja owner, teach English to almost anyone and everyone, go pee in a bucket and walk through two feet of rain (and God knows what else) wearing cheap flip-flops.The week of rain we had in Sao Nic! Yes, my Seattle friends....only one week.

This is a huge change from my obsessively scheduled American life. Learning to let go has been healthy comprise and has definitely helped me relax; take it down a notch so to speak. Making comprises with the food I eat has also been a struggle for me as I’m sure it is with most volunteers. Before I came to Cape Verde I hadn’t eaten pork, beef, or goat for 11 years. I stuck to this diet in Santiago (except for one time at a Festa when I accidently drank a bunch of cow blood!) When I arrived to Soa Nicolau on September 23rd I decided I was going to be more open minded and change my no-red-meat diet. Really embracing the experience, culture, community and food. To my surprise, I’ve become accustomed to eating these red meats easily and actual like the taste too! One of my favorite Cape Verdean meals is Modje (traditional Sao Nicolau dish) with goat! Traditional ModgeI’ve also had to make comprises with my roommate. Our house is about 1200 square feet, two bedrooms, 1 bath but a good portion of the space is used for the micro-credit business I work for. Oh, did I mention our landlord also lives in semi-disconnected portion of our house? Our small space means only one person can cook or do dishes at a time, she showers at night, I in the morning, going on run is a good escape (no pun intended). We’ve also made a few deals with each other. She cooks, I do dishes. I kill the coach roaches, she kills the giant spiders.The giant spiders that don't faze me now.

We each can only use internet for one hour a day, to prevent running out at the end of the month. Knowing when to give each other space and when to work together has been a difficult, but rewarding process for us both. Internet time with MogliOne of my biggest challenges at work so far has been deciding when to speak up and when to wait and watch. At times it’s easy, like when my co-worker plays a Cape Verdean remix of a George Michael song, claiming it’s an original Cape Verde production. Other times it’s not so easy. I remember getting my placement and having that instant feeling of panic, oh shit! Do I know anything about micro-credit? Uh, hello? My background is not in banking, it’s not even in finance! I have a degree in business management, with a minor in psychology. My work experience is in real estate. After working with my amazing colleagues for over a month now, I’m starting to get it….but I still have a lot to learn. My coworker say’s, “Everi (Ave-ey, Emilie, or Mi-Mi; my name has many variations) come make this spreadsheet for me, you type so much faster, etc. In general, I say, “no, let me show you.” But you can only use so many developmental tools, before you start talking and teaching in obscure psychiatric code, “What do you think about this?” “How do you think this process should be changed?” etc. I’m still learning when to give the answer and empowering my coworkers to finding the solution on their own. All of that being said we have made a few sustainable changes already! With the cooperation of my coworkers we have continued our weekly meetings. These meeting consist of planning the schedule for the next week, making short and long term goals, logistics of who is going where and why, etc. We have also recently received and installed a second computer for our office, until this point we've only had one computer for the three of us. This week we also received new financial software, which is something the volunteer before me pushed for years….his work is paying off for me. I hope my work pays off for the next volunteer too!Sadly, we recently ate this pig.

What have I accomplished at site so far?

Here are my community integration activities from the past four months:· 2 community meetingso Local community projects, options for financing. (September 29th,2011)§ Lead by (1 female & 1 male) community leaders. § 7 participants (20% women, 80% men)o Information on resources for farmers by government. (October 7th, 2011)§ Lead by (1 female) local government funded organization§ 30 participants (10% women, 90% men)· 2 all-day community work-shopso Gender equality(September 23rd, 2011)§ Lead by (1 female) community leader.§ 20 participants (50% women, 50% men)§ I only went to 1-day of this 3 day work-shop.§ Excellently run and organized. Many well thought out activities.§ Transportation and food provided.o Variety of topics including; open debate on what poverty means, celebration for a new road, and a play.(October 15th, 2011)§ Lead by (3 females & 2 males) presidents and workers of umbrella organization.§ 30 participants (40% women, 60% men)§ 1 day event: 10am-7pm§ Representatives from 25 different community organizations.§ Well run and organized. Needed more activities encouraging participation.§ Transportation, DJ, theatre, and food provided. We also got a t-shirt.Me, Carlos, Mi-Mi & Aquilino at the Poverty conference

o Entrepreneurship (November 16th, 2011)§ Lead by the male law teacher of the High School in Tarrafal.§ 30 participants all under 30 years old (50% men, 50% women)§ 1 day event: 9am-5pm§ Mostly a power-point presentation but had some guest speakers including one of our ASDIS clients.§ Transportation was not provided, snack and lunch was provided.o “How to start your own Business” (November 21st- November 25th)§ Lead by various people from OE! Oficina de empreendedorismo de Cabo Verde.§ Had about 150 participants ranging from 18-50 years old (48% men, 52% women)§ 5 day event: 3:30pm-6:30pm§ Split into 4 groups, and taught with a work-book and facilitator from OE!§ The best part of this formation was the third day when people brought in items to sell to each other. Basically a practice runs for your small business idea.§ Transportation and a snack were provided.Txilite & Muchim won a prize for most unique business idea; selling herbs.

Brainstorm activity for new business ideas.

· 1 funeral (October 10th , 2011)o Visited house of the dead, day after she died. Also one-week later.o Attended funeral and went to burial· 2 catholic holidays/partieso October 1sto October 8th· Island Holidayso Corn day (Nov.1st)o Municip of Ribiera Brava (Dec.6th)o Sao Nicolau Day (Dec.6th)· I go running 3 times a week and greet everyone I see (usually about 30 people).· I also play soccer 3 times a week. I’m on the women’s soccer team.· I’ve also put up a bulletin for a night English class for adults (this was a suggestions of my counter-part/boss). Started November 7th, this class is free, occurs 2-3 nights a week for one hour.

The class is Free. After 3 months of having the class, I only teach twice a week now (3 times was to much for me). I have about 15-20 students who come on a regular basis. Ages range from 7-40. It is about 65% female, and the remaining 35% male but most of the younger children are female.

· My room-mate and I also going on a community walk at least once a week, trying to meet new people. We also make cakes, cookies, and omelets for our neighbors and community members, “American food”.Community walk· English for tourism class. Actual tour with guides. One 4 hour class with about 7 cape veardeans.5 males, 2 females. Worked with Alexandra on this project. (Dec.3,2011)Alexandra and I teaching the "English for tourism" weekend class.

Nov.26th, 2011

Us on the day of the tour! Dec.3rd, 2011.

The nervous guides before the first tour!

Part of the tour included a traditional dance performance.

· Climbed Mt.Gordo, and learned about the location plants of our island with Host country nationals.(October 9th,2011)View from top of Mt.Gordo (highest peak on Sao Nic).· Started a veggie garden due to the suggestion of follow volunteer Alex and the generous seed donations from Marin's care package. Alex's idea was to encourage cape verdeans to start a seed bank. To encourage diversification of crops. I hope to gift these "unique" crops to CV's in the idea that they consider growing different types of crops.Front yard garden: Lettuce, green pepper, thyme....

Back yard "Sharing" garden: All types of spices...and a puppy!Estabelecimentos na Sao Nicolau!

Juncalinho

Ribeira Boca

Port D'LapaArea below Cachaco...name?

Covada

Covada

Praia Frances (photo thanks to Alexandra)

Queimada

Ribeira Brava

Tarrafal

Tarrafal

TodgeD'Baixo RochaFajã de Baixo

Baixo de RochaBelém (Haven't visited yet)Barril (Haven't visited yet)CabeçalinhoCachaçoCaleijão (Haven't visited yet)Calhaus (Haven't visited yet)Campo (Haven't visited yet)CarriçalCarvoeiro (Haven't visited yet)Castilhano (Haven't visited yet)CovadaEstância de BrásFajã de BaixoFajã de CimaFontainhasHortelão (Haven't visited yet)Jalunga (Haven't visited yet)JuncalinhoMorro BrásPraia BrancaPreguiçaQueimadaRibeira Funda (Haven't visited yet)Ribeira da Ponta (Haven't visited yet)Ribeira BravaTarrafal

10-16-2011Morning sunrise view from Kitchen window.

It’s Sunday, after waking up at 6am for no particular reason I’m sitting in my kitchen wearing my lime-green Hello Kitty apron (thank you Chinese Loja/store).I just read the entire monthly "Txiga” a monthly newsletter written by the director of the peace corps program in Cape Verde. I’m not alone sitting here, there is a fly resting on my shoulder, probably enjoying the gorgeous view of the mountains of S.Nic and the Atlantic ocean as well. As I sit I reflective on my first month in S.Nic and at my site. Almost everyday I am blown away by the beauty and tranquility of this island. After a roller-coaster of emotions and stressors on Santiago in my 10-week Pre-service Training (or PST) I am relived the finally be here. I feel like all the work and energy I put into the last three years of my life are paying off right now. Not just with finally (6 years later!) finishing my BA in management and pshycology, but with my challenging day-job. Who would’ve thought that my job in the real estate industry would be so helpful on a tiny island in Africa, but it is! The first few weeks in S.Nic, I’ve been trying to learn people’s names, not just our 190 clients at the (non-profit) micro-credit firm I work for but people in our community to. My room-mate and I compare notes of names since we’re in different social circles (she teacher s English at the local middle school). So far my list has 153 people on it and I add to everyday. Learning names is difficult not just because there is one of me and 10,000 of them but because everyone has a completely foreign sounding name. For example Arishet Nelitu Oladmir Fransete, usually after I ask someone their name I ask them to repeat it, and then I try my best to say it. Then I ask them if they have a “Nomino” or “Nome de Kaza” which is like your nickname. For the most party people go by their nicknames, and their usually easier to say, although their nickname is completely different from their real name. I experienced this at my home-stay (one of my sister’s was named Caita, her nome di kaza was Ivania). And then the other challenge is when people have the same name, just like in the US certain names are really popular. For men it’s Domingosh, Manual, Antionio, Jose, Joao and Francisco. For women it’s Maria, Fernanda and Valentina (these are popular S.Nic names, it’s differs on other islands.)Recently a PC director from another African country visited my work and asked me my opinion on the effectiveness of the education sector as well as my own job in the business sector. Since being here for only a month I feel like I don’t know enough to make any statements on the success of PC in education or business. So far I feel like the biggest improvement I’ve personally contributed to in my job is encouraging our (3-person) team to have weekly meetings. Luckily my team leads the conversation during these weekly meeting. I’ve been blown away at how immediately helpful these meeting have been. We just had our second weekly meeting two days ago. We talked about clients who are late on paying their loans, brainstorm ways to get late clients to pay and talk about our schedule for the next week. We encourage each other to share our thoughts and try to stay positive even though we are struggling right now with a lot of clients who are late on paying their loans(It hasn’t rained in a long time and a lot of our clients are farmers). I’m starting to integrate the concepts of short-term, long-term planning, marketing, office and computer organization and competitive advantage. In the future I hope to suggest more long-term tracking activities, and change the incentive pay for my co-workers (I’m not paid). Since I don’t have any past experience in the micro-credit loan or banking industry I’ve been using my strengths in organization and technology to improve our office. Some days I feel completely useless, but other days I’ll teach my coworkers how to scan five pages into one single PDF, or suggest writing the clients name next to the number so that their file is easier to locate in the computer. But every day I also try to learn more creole, by asking questions and looking through my creole and Portuguese dictionary. I also am teaching my co-workers English. I tend to learn about 5 words a day. Learning a language is exhausting, and in reflection of my last month here has definitely been my greatest challenge. Sometimes you can have a successful conversation with a Cape Verdean and then you try to talk to someone else and you don’t understand a single word they say! It can be beyond frustrating. I’ve also started teaching myself Portuguese, a little every day. Since creole isn’t a written language all of our work documents are written in Portuguese, not to mention our work computer is in Portuguese and the microsooft programs, etc.

View of the sunrise and ocean from the road where I go running.

Averie, Marin, Alex, Jarrod, Mi-Mi & Alexandra on a hiking adventure!

10-2-2011

Bem-vindo ao São Nicolau ! I’m finally here at my site! Last night was a follow volunteer’s going away party. This volunteer has been here for over 3 years(volunteer service is normal 2 years plus a 2-3 month training) and everyone jokes that he's more Cape Verdean than American now. He seems to know everyone on this island and is well-liked. He is an excellent example of a successful volunteer, I’m sad he’s leaving, I really think I could have learned a lot from him. That being said he’s going away party was a blast. All of the volunteers on S.N. were there; 8 of us in total. Here is a little info about the volunteers of S.N. Alex (23) teaching english in a main city. Jarrod (goes by Ja, here) lives with Alex(25) also teaches English. Me(23) working in a micro-credit agency, giving out small business loans. I have two co-workers. We work together Monday-Friday 8am-3pm, very structured work place as far as Africa goes. My room-mate, Mi-Mi(22) works as a English teacher. Patrick (goes by Patriki here) (49) lives in a tiny village alone. Works in community development (similar to me) runs a community center, he helps children learn how to use computers, has more of a loosely biased role. Tend to work afternoon-nights. Marin (goes by Marina)(22). English teacher in the other main city. Her roommate Alexandra (22), also an English teacher, also teach night English classes to adults at a community center. All of us are first year volunteers except Alex and Jarrod who have already been here for a year. All in all, there is only 7 of us on this island now.

More about S.N. : http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilha_de_S%C3%A3o_NicolauVideo about S.N. : http://youtu.be/A9E1Csj42mA Moving from Assomada, Santiago to Faja de Baixo, Sao Nicolau.Living on the interior of Sao Nicolau

Muchim, Jose, Averie, Alexandra, Marin, little boy, and Patrick hiking Mt.Gordo on Sao Nic.The new house!

Graduating from Trainee to Volunteer!

Fast forward to pc graduation September 17th, 2011. I’m graduated from training. I was the only volunteer to not go directly to their site a few days after graduation. Stayed a week in a lovely waterfront bungalow in Calheta. Accidently ate a piece of ceramic tile while I was sleeping, spent the next 24 hours trying to swallow and digest it. Got attacked by black burn beetles…had burn marks for a month afterwards. After a sadly pointless “training” there and one rainy very stressful tearful morning. In my broken creole I managed to get a driver to pick up my forgotten mosquito net at the graduation site an hour away, drive to Calheta, pick me up and drive me two hours in the monsoon rain to the PC office so I could try to get my bank card disaster taken care of. Thanks to the amazing assistance of our safety and security officer, I didn't completely break down during this week. The reason I’m not going into to depth on everything is because I’m soooo far behind on my blog….Email me for the longer version .lol.View from Posh Corps hotel I stayed in during my job training.

I should also mention that graduation was a special moment for me. The batuka(traditional African drumming) group I played with in my village came to our graduation and performed. They had written special songs particularly for me and another volunteer (whose host mom was also in the group). My host-sister and I at my graduation. Had this dress made for me for graduation....lol. No mirrors in my home-stay so I didn't realize the pattern attracted a lot of attention to my errrr, chest.

A follow volunteer and our training director dancing Batuka with the group from my home-stay!

The Veggie Market on a rainy day

08-17-2011We’re in the kitchen of my first language and culture facilitator; Hulda. I’m sitting at the table drinking an excellent cup of coffee. I watch the other volunteers busily cooking in the kitchen. Hulda is running the ship here, ordering everyone around, but we don’t mind we’re used to it. Jenn and Adam (one of the two married couples in our group) are helping chop potatoes, carrots, and mandioka (potato like vegetable, which no American will ever like). Rory, Patricki and I are shredding carrots for a carrot cake. The kitchen smells amazing and unlike my host-family house in Fonte Lima there are no flies in this kitchen. We learned yesterday that teachers in Cape Verde make a ton of money (as it should be everywhere!). Hulda is married so they have a dual income, but so far this is the nicest house I’ve been. The house is comparable to a nice house in America. Most of the floors and walls are covered in beautiful ceramic tile, the stairs which go up three stories are a combination of marble and ceramic tile. My day instantly get’s better when I see Hulda has a tiny dog (named Lika). It’s funny how the smallest reminders of home can turn your day completely around. We get a tour of the house and everyone is completely blown away by how nice it is (especially in comparison to our home-stay houses). She has three bathrooms in her house! Anyway, the reason we are here in the first place instead of our various class locations is because today is a “culture day” meaning we’re cooking cape Verdean food. We are also making some American food for fun. As always there is Funana and Butaka music playing in the background. Hulda’s kitchen is bigger and nicer than my American mom’s kitchen in Bellevue, WA. Hulda has granite counters, wood cabinets and a large fridge (even a pantry!). This is not our first culture day; yesterday we went to the Sukupira or Open-air market. We practiced our bargaining skills. This activity probably caused a lot of people anxiety. At first I struggled understanding the unforgiving Creole the vendors were telling me. But once I learn the saying for, “can you lower the price” I was for the most part set. My grandma used to take me to garage sales as a child, and if I ever wanted to buy something she would always buy it for me, but only if we were able to talk down the seller by ourselves. As a shy child this was a terribly frightening experience but taught me how to bargain which has been a valuable life skill. The vendors here are pretty open to bargaining. I was on the search for a skirt and a regular t-shirt. I found a guy making bracelets which have letters that spell your name. I ask him to make me one, but decide to use my Cape Verdean spelling of my name “EVERI”. I’m hoping that when I get to Sao Nicolau this will help people learn my name easier, visuals usually help. As we walk around the Sukupira with my current teacher, Vanda and Adam (another volunteer) we practice our bargaining skills. Normally Anwar would be with us but he’s sick today. Most of the vendors sell the same items; clothes, shoes, jewelry, clubbing clothes, Bob Marley stuff, and pencil skirts. It always amazes me how most of the people in Cape Verde are impeccably dressed, no matter what their doing. The other day I saw a 13 year old girl going to go weed in the fields, she was wearing a tube top and a mini skirt. The prices of things are in Cape Verde are different than in the states. In general food is really expensive in America. You can get a full meal at a restaurant here for about $3, but shoes are $25-$40. The cost of one pair of shoes could feed you for a month. In Assomada (where we do our training) the sukupira is separated for the food market. My host-mom sells fish on the street at the food market, but since she moves around I never can find her. We practice our language skills in the open air market, how much for sinora, pimento, pipinu, aros, tomato, pixi, etc. I buy a carrot and a big mango. I try to wash the mango, but end up using my teeth to peel off the skin…..because that will save me from getting sick, right? Another volunteer asks if I want to go back to the Sukupira to buy some flip-flops, and off we go.

Main road in Assomada

"Culture Day" with host-familiesToday we had a “Culture Day” with our host families. It was pot-luck style with American and Cape Verdean food. This is the most American food I’ve had since arriving in Cape Verde almost a month ago.

My host-mom and I on Culture DayI made a chocolate cake (from a mix) with coconut. This seemingly unassuming task created some drama within my host-family. From what I could translate and non-verbally pick up my youngest host-sister was upset because she was not going to get to go to “Culture Day” and more importantly she was not going to get any of the cake I was going to make. Long story short, my host-mom told me we would make a second cake later that day so she could have some. Some time before dinner my host-mom told me we would have to make the second cake today because we don’t have a fridge and the milk we bought for the first cake will go bad quickly. The closest “large” super-market is a 45-minute walk to Somada, but we have 3 little stores in our community that sell about 50 items. Things like cookies, soda, juice, laundry soap, toilet paper, etc. I needed eggs for the second cake so I headed to the loja I know best. Eggs are expensive here which is strange because there are chickens everywhere.

The path to my home-stay.On the walk to the store I see one of my neighbors. She is Kotxi, which is pounding corn into meal with a big sanded down stick. I usually see two people doing this task. Since she is doing it alone I ask her if I can help (my first time!). She stares at me… most likely thinking how strange it is that I’m asking to do this “boring” task. After a while of pounding this corn I thank her for her time and continue on with my mission to get some eggs. Some little boys are playing on the dirt road. They are playing this game where they try to race a car tire down the hill, controlling the tire with a stick. Seems like a fun game, but where did they get the tires? Hmmmm, one of the little boys asked me, “Modi ke bu sta?” which means “How are you?” Usually children just stare at me in shock, because I’m some random white girl in some random tiny African community where tourists would never visit. I reply “sta fixi” pronounced like the English word, “Fish”. I continue my walk passing by the dead frog for the sixth time. Its head has now been replaced with flies. I finally make it to the loja. It’s located just past one of the other volunteer’s host-family house. I finally make it to the little loja; it’s about the size of my old bedroom in America. The owner’s name is Luniya, she is a women in her early 30’s. Sweet and has a pretty smile. I ask her for tres ovu, or eggs. I walk home saying hello to everyone I pass. When I’m almost home I come across 3 older women. I ask the first woman to “Da-m bensu” or to give me her blessing. This is a traditional custom which basically is asking women (and men) older than 55 to bless you in life and help you find a husband and have children. I enjoy this custom, except sometimes it’s hard to guess how old someone is and you don’t by asking someone your basically saying that their older than 55 years old….and sometimes people look older than they are. You get the point. One of the women asks me if I’m going to the party in another town called Txon Di Tanki on Monday (who has parties on Monday?) Almost all parties here are because of some catholic holiday. We say our goodbyes, and I’m almost home 20 minutes later. When I’m just about home I see a girl I know, she speaks a little English. She is busy braiding another girl’s hair. She asks me about the party in Txon De Tanki too, and about my culture day today. I rarely have to tell people in my community what I did that day. They usually already know….everyone talks to each other, and our host-moms talk to other moms. I finally get home and make the cake. I wonder a little about how many flies got into the un-covered, un-refrigerated, artificial milk…..My little host-sister get’s home soon after me holding an infant which she has been dragging all around town with her other 12 year olds friends.

Raquel-me. My favorite baby in Fonte Lima.

This actually does not worry me at all. The children here take care of each other. Feeding, cleaning, playing, etc. Sometimes the care is sub-par, but it’s to be expected. I tell her that I’m making her a cake, she gives me a look like, and “that’s nice”. She’s over-it now.lol. She is going through that faze were she is not a child anymore, but also not quite a teenager yet. So sometimes she’ll cry at the dinner table when her sister eats the last cookie (which by the way tastes like eating a piece of flour mixed with a tablespoon of water and baking powder). And other times she’ll try to act like her older sisters, dancing Funana, not listening to her mom, etc. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed living with 4 women. Before I came here I was living with 2 men, to dynamic is different to say the least. Since it’s just us women….privacy doesn’t really exist. My mom will change in the kitchen. Or if I’m taking my daily bucket bath (see other blog for better description of what a bucket bath is) and I yell “Oye” after seeing a spider the size of my fist (one of my most traumatic experiences of home-stay), or a mouse. (For my buddies back home, the spiders at Luke’s parents house have nothing on this spiders here for perspective) ….after yelling my host-mom is not going to hesitate letting herself in the bathroom to ask “what’s up? Why did you yell?” Regardless of the fact that I’m sitting in a bucket completely naked, etc. To balance the fact that I have almost no time to myself, I have been escaping to my room to read. In fact I’ve never read so much in my entire life. I’ve already read, “The Ugly American” which is a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. I highly recommend this book to anyone curious about going into international civil service, PC, or just want an idea of the challenges of working in another culture. Currently I’m reading “Motherless Brooklyn” by Jonathan Lethem. This is a murder-mystery. The narrative is from the main character who has turrets. This is a difficult read, which I wouldn’t recommend unless you’re curious about turrets. My host-mom yell’s from the kitchen. “Everi (my cape Verdean name) pronounced “Eh-Ver-Ree” with three syllables instead of two. She yells “Djanta” which is the word for dinner. I respond “sin”, tonight for dinner were having rice, with peas, spaghetti noodles and fish. This is a pretty normal meal, I have stuck too my no pork or beef diet, although it’s been difficult….vegetarians don’t exist here, and neither does the concept. Fish here is usually fried whole, tail, eyes, skin, everything except fins. My host-mom helps get the fish meat off the bone, I feel like I’m 5 years old again….but this is a common feeling during training. The fish is very salty, as is all Cape Verdean food. I eat everything on my plate, I’m stuffed! We also drink a ridicouls amount of soda and juice. After dinner my mom tells me there is party in our town tonight. Which took me a while to figure out what the heck she was telling me. I wish I would’ve know this before I ate a huge amount of food! I’m not too tired, so this new news isn’t too alarming. Normally I head to bed right after dinner around 8:30; I usually have hit the wall at this point. You try learning language ALL DAY and you’ll go to bed at 8:30 too, not to mention I wake up at 6:30 every day for school. I also have had trouble sleeping. It’s very loud in our community, dogs barking, drunk people yelling, crickets, roaches in my room, the bugs trying to get past my mosquito net, not to mention the roosters waking up around 5am here….I have finally gotten earplugs which help a lot! I’ve also become pretty flexible here, things change at last minute. The schedule is just a suggestion. It’s hard to make plans when everything is contingent on people who have no conception of time. Island time as some people call it. Not to mention even if someone told me the schedule I wouldn’t understand because they’re talking to me in another language. After some time we went to Festa (party) which turned out to be a graduation party for three people in our community (Graduating high school and University is a big accomplishment).

My host-sister Tanya after getting her hair done for a party.

This picture was taken in our kitchen/dining area.The party had a cover charge which covered beer and dinner. Surprisingly all the Cape Verdeans were apprehensive to dance at first, but after a few drinks the Funana started. I have yet to drink during training, we are strongly encouraged not too (which in generally agree with). I got to dance some Funana too. Google “Ze Espanhol funana” if you want an idea of what this looks like. After much dancing the other volunteers and I went home around 3am. Just another day in Cape Verde.

Fisherman salting and drying fish on the dock in Tarrafal, Sao Nicolau

This blog post is dedicated to trying to staying healthy in a third world country. These are general tips for someone coming into a new environment. After 2 months, in general your body becomes more accustomed to the bacteria and you don’t have to use as much caution.

1. Don’t eat a lot of fruit

2. Drink water all day

3. Don’t touch your face, ever!

4. Wash your hands after shaking hands with anyone, before eating, and before preparing food.

5. Wash your hands before and after using the bathroom

6. If there is no water, soap, try to use hand sanitizer before eating

7. Don’t eat a lot of meat

8. Try to see if meat is cooked before eating

9. If something doesn’t taste good, don’t eat it….it’s possible it went bad.

10. Don’t eat the skin of fruit

11. Peel everything! Apples, mangos, oranges.

12. Be careful when peeling fruit that you don’t get any of the bacteria from the peel on the inside of the fruit.

13. Try not to share food, utensils or water bottles with others

14. Add a little bleach to your drinking water, or water filter. Let it sit for an hour before drinking.

15. Use filtered water to brush your teeth

16. Use a little bleach when you wash your dishes

17. Before using a cup for drinking water check to see if it’s clean

18. Wash cutting boards after cutting raw meat

19. Iron underwear; soak sheets to avoid bed bugs, etc. Do a visual check of all clothing after taking off the line and before putting on your body (roaches on your body is a really gross feeling.)

20. Be careful how you re-use plastic bags. Wash and line dry if you’re going to re-use.

21. When eating at other’s people’s house, try to eat freshly cooked food

22. Keep things refrigerated

23. When the power goes out, throw away food that has de-thawed more than once.

24. Don’t re-heat rice more than 3 times

25. Home-made jam is only good for about a month. Do the smell check.

26. Investigate the look at smell of eggs after cracking

27. Wash feet before going to bed

28. Keep fingernails short

29. Clean and care for cuts, abrasions, and blisters as for help from a HCN. Wear tennis shoes if you have an open infected area on your feet.

Blister treated by my neighbor. Pink goo is some mysterious syrup remedy....

30. Try to limit your bread and rice intake to a normal daily serving

31. Try to limit your salt and sugar intake to a normal serving

32. Exercise 3 times a week

33. Don’t work out in flip flop!

34. Check your water tank. Our water tank is a little moldy, so we add bleach to our drinking water before we filter.

35. Be careful drinking juice at other people's house. They may not filter their water.

36. To prevent getting pink-eye, don't do the kiss-kiss. Do the fist-pump instead of shaking hands. Avoid people wearing sunglasses at night.

37. Don't go to the parties when everyone has pink-eye, or a cold, etc....

38. Always wash your hands after playing with children.

Children playing with a pigeon they caught.

39. Always bring a water bottle with you no matter what you’re doing.

40. Bring a handkerchief with you, especially when you’re going to walking in the heat or hiking. You can also use it to hold food if your hands are dirty.

41. Always have band-aids and Neosporin with you!

42. When hiking make sure you have a knife with you. You'll probably end up eating fruit, always good to peel first.

43. Be careful drinking out a plastic cups....it's probably been used more than once already.

For when you DO get sick:

1. Wet wash cloth on forehead for fever

2. Watch your temperature

3. Take Tylenol for fever every 4 hours

4. Mix rehydration salts with Refrescante or Gatorade (if you have it!)

5. Be careful with taking anti-diarrhea meds…sometimes it’s better to just wait it out

6. Eat bananas, bread, rice and apples

7. Don’t eat regular food for the next 2-4 days

8. If it doesn’t pass after 2-5 days get antibiotics

9. Sleep!

10. Avoid dairy products, alcohol, and fruit.

11. If you go out of your house, bring toilet paper, Tums, and your Refrescante drink.

12. Have cold medicine, cough drops, ibuprofen, and Tums on hand.

13. Oranges are an excellent hang over cure and are great for colds.

14. Make tea with lemon, great for sore throat.

15. Ask HCN what plants are good for tea. Most of the best remedy’s can be found just outside your door.

16. If you have a fever, taking a cold shower sometimes helps.

17. If you have a fever, have someone remind you to take your temperature every 4-6 hours.

My host –sister, host-mom and I went to Tarrafal for the first time today! I’m very sunburned and tired from Cidade Velha yesterday, but today was a day worth sharing! Many of the islands have “Tarrafals” and in general their port towns with beautiful, a warm constant 90 degrees and have awesome beaches for swimming.If I was to worry about anything here in CV it would have to be transportation. Almost everyone on this island travels by Helix (pick up truck with a roll cage) or by Van, very few people own cars. On this particular trip to Tarrafal we were going to be traveling by Van. I’ll never forget the moment my mom, sister and I go up to this van that is completely packed full or people and children, my mom looks at me like “get-in” and I look back at her with a look like “Where”? Somehow this van packed full of 21 bodies (my all time record was 24) made space for the three of us. I took my seat in the third row back; including the front seat these vans have five bench seats. Since their wasn’t an actual seat for me to sit in I took my place on a slightly padded 2 x4 that had been placed between two seats as if that wasn’t uncomfortable enough my 12 year old host sister had to sit on my lap. I always felt bad for the children in these situations. They just seem to get thrown in wherever, usually having to sit on someone lap. Don’t even think about seat belts, except for riding in PC vehicles I haven’t worn a seat belt since I arrived. All of this being said I wasn’t super worried yet. I was excited to visit Tarrafal. Everyone in my community said it was really beautiful. After squeezing in the van, the girl next to did the catholic “sign of the cross. “ Touch your forehead, chest, left, right……she is praying before we drive somewhere and she’s Cape Verdean! At this point I started to feel a bit worried. The drive to Tarrafal is beautiful but also a bit treacherous in some areas, especially where the road is slightly washed out. All of that being said I eventually feel asleep, it’s always been hard for me to stay awake when I’m packed in close to a bunch of bodies, if you forget how claustrophobic it feels it’s actually quite comforting. Once we got to Tarrafal we went swimming and I got to play volleyball, because they were having a tournament and the players needed people to warm up with. I started to get sun-burn even though I was regularly reapplying sunscreen and so I told my host-mom that after being there for at least 6 hours that I wanted to go but my host-sister was having so much fun that my host-mom didn’t want to pull her away. After an hour or so we finally dragged her out of the water, she was sad but luckily not too mad at me (since I was the only one that wanted to go! My skin was screaming at me. The ride home was much more relaxing, not sure if it was because there was slightly less people in the van, or if it was because I had already gotten used to the experience.Riding in a Hilux with friends.

7-23-2011I’ve had a ton of homework lately, I haven’t had much time to journal but I had to journal about today!Today was Saturday, which means we didn't have normal language class or workshops. Today we we got to be tourists for the day! We drove from the interior of the island for about an hour to Cidade Velha or the “Old City”. Everyone from our group got to go, which isn’t always the case since someone is usually sick with diarrhea on any given day. It didn’t realize it but the cities that are closer to the water (like Cidade Velha and the capital, Praia) are much warmer than where my home stay is. Long story short, even with sunscreen we all got a little sunburned. We walked around the old fort where the Portuguese defended the land from the French, English and pirates. Here is some more info about Cidade Velha from Wikipedia. “After the island was discovered, the city was named Ribeira Grande (Portuguese for large river) by António da Noli, in 1462. In 1466, the settlement became an important port for trading slaves from Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone to Brazil and the Caribbean. Transcontinental slavery made Cidade Velha the second richest city in the Portuguese realm. Cidade Velha's port was a stopping place for two great navigators: Vasco of Gamma, in 1497, on his way to India, and Christopher Columbus, in 1498, while on his third voyage to the Americas.Cidade Velha has the oldest colonial church in the world, constructed in 1495.[citation needed] The fort Real de São Filipe overlooks the town. It was constructed in 1590 to defend the Portuguese colony from the attacks of the Frenchmen and English. However, it was sacked by French pirates in 1712. The capital was moved to Praia in 1770.[1]The city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.[2] ("Cidade Velha." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Velha)

After that we walked to a Grogu distillery in the fields. Which was a little sketchy, just because the guys making the grogu were stairing at us like we were aliens.To make Grogu you heat up sugar cane, and then let it sit and carbonate for 8 days, if you only let it sit for 5-6 days then you have to add sugar. Sometimes you don’t want to wait for 8 days. The smoke off the fire from boiling sugar cane is quite toxic smelling, and it gave many volunteers headaches. The smell reminded me of apple sauce. Since we’re strongly discouraged to NOT drink during training. We all only smelled the Grogu. It smelled really strong similar to rubbing alcohol. I’ve heard that after two shots of grougu your pretty much done for. After visiting the fort and Grogu making area we had lunch on the waterfront. When then pilled into the PC cars and headed off to this completely deserted beach. It was the first time we had really got to relax since arriving on July 16th. The beach was covered in garbage, but it didn’t matter, we were swimming. We stayed for over two hours. Swam, played rugby, relaxed. The water was comfortably warm. This was one of my favorite days of training.

7-21-2011Today was a lot better than yesterday for many reasons that I don’t really want to go into…..today is also my twenty-third birthday! My language is slowly starting to come, a little bit at a time. When you think about it very few people learn a language by being fully amerced with a family that doesn’t know any of the language you speak. The change is intense. I went fromw orking all day, renting out apartments for my dad, playing sports, babysitting, spending time with my boyfriend, friends, family to a tiny island off the coast of Africa. Learning a language for 5 hours a day in structured school and then all the other hours of the day informally. Today was the first day I started to kind of understand what people we’re trying to say to me. It’s been days of just not knowing what’s going on…..ever. You can imagine my controlling side has been toned down significantly. Most of the time I just watch my little sister’s facial expressions to guess at what’s going on. If she is looking at someone questionably I know that it won’t be rude if I cut the conversation short, or if she looks interested or relaxed its ok to engage the person a little more. Without knowing what people are saying the non-verbal communication is the only thing you have to interpret the situation.

My 23rd birthday party at my home-stay!My host-family made my birthday dinner very special. My host-mom made me the best barbeque-ish friend chicken(I’ve had yet in CV), salad, rice, and beans on of course a cake. It was a great meal. I felt the love, my mom even found glitter candles. After dinner we had an impromptu dance party in our neighbor’s patio area. About 15 female neighbors, me and Anwar were all there. It was defintely one of the most unique birthdays i've ever had.

My Cape Verde Flag flip-flops! The tub at my home-stay. My day started at 6:45am today! Took my second (ever) bucket bath. We have a tub, sink and toilet, but no running water. A bucket bath is when you fill a bucket with water stand in it and use a cup or smaller bucket to wash your body. I only use about a liter and a half of water in my bucket baths. Washing my thick hair is quite a bit more difficult in the bucket than a shower. I honestly really miss showers, but I’m sure I’ll get used to bucket baths eventually. I have yet to take a warm-water bucket bath and freezing cold water in the morning is really shocking. Today after breakfast I walked to the little schoolhouse in my community with Anwar and Drew. In class our teacher Hulda had us go out into the community and introduce ourselves ( in Creole of course). As we walked around we saw someone slaughtering a cow in the street! This is a pretty intense process and is done with a huge machete. As you can imagine I was a bit shocked seeing all the meat and innards just out in the open with hundreds of flies landing on it and the dogs trying to eat it and people standing around some helping, some deciding what meat they’re going to purchase. Pretty different than going to the butcher at Safeway. Me posing after playing soccer.

My home-stay town in the background. Everyone greets each other here; all day, every day. It takes some getting used to. In America it’s pretty common you don’t even know your neighbors and even if you do, you wouldn’t say good morning, good afternoon and good night to them on a daily basis, but here you do….and not just to your neighbors but pretty much everyone you encounter. Another common saying here is “txiga” which means come hang-out with me. Usually people offer some sort of fruit, juice or cookie when you txiga, but sometimes it’s just a chair, just depends on how well of they are. Since my language is minimal the txiga isn’t exactly exciting for the other person, but this is Cape Verde sometimes you just sit and do nothing. Txiga is more about being in the presence of other people than actually achieving anything or doing an activity. That’s Island culture for ya. In general Cape Verdeans are constantly offering food, usually I take a really small amount the first time, so the person thinks that I really like the food because then I’ll go for seconds. I try my best to help my family with day-to-day chores. Like washing dishes, washing clothes, sweeping, moping, fetching water from the tank under the house (it’s actually a hole in the floor right in the middle of the kitchen!) or the barrels, etc. Sometimes I fetch eggs or soap from the local store (called a loja) for my host-mom. But a lot of times I end up doing these chores “wrong”. In general Cape Verdeans have a well thought out method for chores and cooking, and their experts at it. For example today I tried to cut the skin off an apple. In the states we pretty much use cutting boards for everything. Here people always cut fruit and veggies in their hands. So after I de-skin half the apple my host-mom takes it from me and does the rest so that only the skin was being cut off so that none of the inside of the apple was wasted. This is not just a skill but an art. Without a peeler or even a sharp knife this particular task is going to take me a lot more practice. A woman carrying water and food the tradtional style. I’m also really starting to understand how scarce the water is here. We conserve water with everything we do, showers, dishes, flushing the toilet; all water is used at least two times. For example after you take a bucket bath you use the water to flush the toilet. After you wash fruit and veggies you use the water to do dishes. A lot of people here have to carry their water from a community tank (tanki) or buy their water from a government water distribution building (Xafaris). It really makes me wonder how much water we waste in America and how unaware I was of how much water I was using on a daily basis. 

07/18/2011Oh my gosh! I can hardly think right now. I’m feeling overwhelmed. So much has gone on in the past few days. Trying my best to be careful and not get sick in my home stay. The people here are so friendly and nice. I’ve never been the complete minority and it’s a bit shocking. I definitely stand out, I’m the only white skinned person in my home-stay town of about 300-400 people. This place is interesting, unique and beautiful. Anwar is my neighbor and lives very close to my home-stay. I’m not quite sure how PC classes work yet, if we have to drive to town or what. I seem to have difficulty following directions. Simply too much going on and I understand very little. My host family lives in “Toma Loti” in Assomada (Note- the area I lived is actually called Fonte Lima, but this is what I had wrote in my journal). My town has a beautiful view of mountains.  Fonte Lima, Santa Caterina, Assomada, Cape Verde "My home stay"

Today Anwar and I walked down to the Plague, which is a cement playground for soccer or Futbol as it is called here. I’m tired of having a bad eye, as if everyone wasn’t staring at me already. Lol. My home stay had a PC volunteer before me, so they are somewhat accustomed to Americans. Tonight for dinner we had spaghetti and canned tuna. This may sound disgusting, but I think it’s really good. So far all of the food has been good. Way too many carbs though. Lots of rice ,potatoes and white bread. I miss salad! We’re not allowed to eat any raw veggies that can’t be peeled yet because they are difficult to clean and we’re told our stomachs are not strong enough yet. Here is the Creole I know so far:Ami gosta- I likeModi ki bu txoma- What is your name?Ma- But

7/17/2011Quick Stats of Cape Verde:GDP average growth rate of aprox 6% from 2002 to 2009.4,033 km territory (approximately the same size as Rhode Island)Population of 490 million (Approximately 5 million living in other countries mainly Portugal (and other parts of Europe) and Mass, US).Per capita income $3100$00Literacy Rates: 79% for adults, 97% for youth (I think these are slightly inflated)Life expectancy 76.1 (women) 72.3 (Men)Growing exports: Coffee, Fish, Canned Tuna4 International airports9 ports, including 2 deep water ports8 commercial banks1 stock exchange12% unemployment.2 Seasons: Rainy Season (July-December) Dry Season (January-June)Average daily temperature: 80-85 degrees (Doesn’t get much hotter or colder than this, even when it rains)We’ve been staying in Praia since July 16th. We’re staying at a boarding house called, “Madre Teresa”. View from our room at Madre Teresa

Praia is the most populated city of Cape Verde. The population is about 250,000.Praia is about 10-15 degrees warmer than any other part of Cape Verde. It has increasing problems with petty crime, drugs, violence and alcohol. Cape Verdeans are very aware of this growing issue. While in Praia I’ve been scared and careful. The PC was very careful with us when we left Madre Teresa for meals. We were only allowed to walk in groups of about 8 people and if it was too far away we would drive. A large group of Americans walking around makes us a target for crime. One of the meals I had in Praia was chicken skewers. The chicken tasted like pure fat. Nobody could eat it. I also had thought I forgot to bring soap in my luggage, but I finally found it in my luggage. I have gone 3 days without showering with soap, which I recognize is disgusting. Since it’s currently the rainy season and the island we’re currently on (Santiago) has a history of Malaria. All the volunteers are on Malaria Phralaxis. They give you crazy intense dreams. I’m feeling very at home here. We’ve been told that it’s common for people to get bad diarrhea when they first come to Cape Verde, since most of the water and fruits and vegetables have some sort of bacteria. That being said, I’ve felt great (minus my bloody eye). No sickness for me. It’s very dry right now, which irritates my nose. Today we met our host-families. I’m in a village close to the training center (Skola technika). In my village there are two other volunteers Drew (not to be confused with another volunteer Andrew) and Anwar.

Drew, Averie & Anwar at Serra Malegeta National Park, Santiago, Cape VerdeBoth Drew and Anwar are also in the SED(small enterprise development) section of the Peace Corps and specially in business development (same as me) we have one other volunteer in our cohort in the business section, his name is Adam but since he’s married his host-family is located elsewhere (since there is two of them). The other section of the PC is Education (most teaching English). My host family consists of my host mom (Mai) her name is Emilia, but everyone calls her Lindinya, I have 3 host-sisters. Caita, everyone calls her Illvania (26 years old), Tina-Tanya, or just Tanya (22 years old) and Darlanie or just Dara (pronounced Darla, 12 years old).

Home Stay Family: Averie, Lindinya, Caita, and Dara (missing Tanya)

Our house is 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, we have a tiny kitchen and dining area, and a living room/formal dining room we never use. My bedroom has a nice view and is right next to the kitchen. I like all of the other volunteers in my group as well as the current and soon to be leaving volunteers I’ve meet so far. I wonder if anyone will ET (early termination) or be sent back. I hope my friends and family are all well and happy back home. I liked what Josh said to me the other day, he said, “people are going to be jealous and confused at why I’m doing something they don’t understand.” Been thinking about that a little bit today. This is all for today. Here is the little Creole I know so far:

Modi, ke bu sta? – How are you?Ami, n sta fixi- I’m good.

*I have chosen not to change the data in these back-dated journals to keep their originality. Typing them up now some of the information is wrong, because I didn’t know the correct word in Kriolu or I hadn’t figured it out yet.07/15/2011I’m on the plane to Cape Verde. Pronounced “Cabo Verd (CV)” I think. Everyone say’s it differently. I have a terrible problem in my right eye currently. From all the stress of preparing to leave I burst a blood vessel in my eye. "Pirate Eye" as Drew named it.

PCV waiting for our flight to Cape Verde at the Boston AirportLuckily it doesn’t hurt. It just looks awful. I’ve recovered from worse. So far I’ve met a lot of wonderful volunteers. I’m really tired right now and can’t think very clearly. This day started at 6:00am in Boston (including the jet-lag and time difference from my Seattle to Texas flight, and then my Texas to Boston flight) and it’s now 12pm. The flight to CV is supposed to be 6-7 hours and I haven’t slept yet. Today was an interesting day, started out by walking to a federal building in Boston, MA to get our Yellow Fever shots. If you get the actual yellow fever the chance of dying from it is 20-50%. This is a really large range. Later Alexandra (another volunteer from Switzerland) and I walked around the Boston waterfront together. Everyone here is very well-dressed and they walk like they have somewhere they need to be. After the shot, we went back to our hotel and had 5 hours of lessons with Peace Corps (PC). They went over expectations, safety, and team-building. We also had two guests from the Cabo Verde consulate speak. These women were originally from Cape Verde. They had differing opinions on assimilation. Which I found interesting, since they were publicly disagreeing with each other. I then volunteered to be a leader for the group. So I helped arrange the entire group of 25(including me) volunteers. Drew, Anwar and Mark (other volunteers) were also team leaders. Everyone got out of the hotel, onto the bus and through the airport, security with little trouble. Mind you we didn’t have anyone from Peace Corps helping us with this part of the journey and we all had at least 80lbs of luggage per person.

So far the Cape Verdeans on the plane have been very friendly. Not so much the plane staff though. Two little boys were very interested in why all these “Americans” were on the plane. They seemed happy we were visiting for such a long time. Currently, I’m listening to some sort of Cape Verdean- Portuguese (?) music on the plane’s radio. Looking forward to an adventure of a lifetime. Great time, great place, great experience. Going to miss my baby-bear (My dog). Hope everything goes well at home. I have $0 money right now, but no worries. I will try to write in this journal (blog) once a week. I feel like I need to write it down because I’ve never been successful at keeping a journal in the past. Here’s the Creole I know so far:Bon Dia- Good morningBo Tardi-Good AfternoonBo noiti-Good EveningSin-YesNau- NoModi ki bu nho- What’s your name?N’ txoma- My name is….

Praia, Cape Verde, Africa

My new life adventure will be taking place shortly. A lot needs to get done in a very short amount of time, but I'm thrilled to have this opportunity! I wish I could say more, but the Internet is a very public place. If you have any questions about my new life adventure, send me a message on face book or e-mail me.