People always ask me to sum up my cape verdean experience in a couple sentences... normally, i can' t do that because there is just too much to say. but today, when i was wine tasting in Mendoza i got it. i can sum up my entire experience; the smell of fermenting wine. i know it sounds weird, but today i walked into a winery and that smell hit me. the yeast, the grapes, everything about cape verde came back to me in that smell . i miss it...

anywho, today laurie and i went to 4 different wineries in Mendoza. we got to them by bicycle with a couple of english friends we met in a hostel. Well i should clarify, we didn't just bike, we tandom biked....it was a site to see and don't let anyone tell you that riding tandom is an easy thing. we almost crashed a million times, the most deadly was due to a pile of trash sitting in our bike lane, but in the end, we made it safe and sound (and quite tipsy!) we have one more day in mednoza tomorrow, which i think will be spent visitin the local hot springs since our legs and bums (english friends favorite word) are quite sore. we don't really have a plan for the next week but we'll figure it out, we always due.

i'll put some pictures up soon, maybe on facebook so keep a look out!

HI friends, it's been awhile but i thought i'd catch you up. I spent the last 6 months in the Vail valley working at the hyatt and enjoying the beautiful snow. It is just an in between thing till i figure out what to do with my life after peace corps but it was definitely fun! but that is not what i really want you too eperience with this post.

My friend laurie and i are taking two weeks and traveling around argentina. We got to buenos aires yesterday. I spent 30 hours in the denver airport trying to get on a plane to atlanta to meet here for our trip but flying standbye on a day when i guess all of denver was trying to get out was not fun! i watched 10 planes leave without me before finally changing my travel plans and getting on a flight to minneapolis and connecting to atlanta. i made it to ATL with 3 hours to spare before out flight to Buenos Aires so i guess it was a good idea i gave myself 2 traveling days!

it has been really rainy here and neither laurie nor myself came prepared! We have just been walking around the city getting our bearings but we refuse to buy an umbrella cause we are sure the rain will let up sometime. we also refuse to take taxis cause we are just that cheap so we have been getting a little wet! here is a picture of us showing up to the museum of fine art looking aweful! i really can't believe we walked in looking the way we did but oh well!! the best thing we have founds so far has definately been the steak. for any of you that enjoy a nice piece of meet, argentina is definately the place for you! We got the biggest, juiciest steak last night and it only cost us 6 dollars! i have never tasted anything like it before!!!

At nine tonight, we get on our overnight bus for the 16 our ride to Mendoza, a.k.a. wine country!! i can't wait. we are going to spend at least 3 nights there exploring the best the region has so offer.

I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. Yesterday, after paperwork and meetings and medical appointments, the PC staff put a hole through my volunteer ID card and made me a RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer). It was really kinda weird. Back to real life, but first a little partying and rest (i don't know if those two words go together). Today i fly up to the island of Sao vicente to pass the biggest music festival in cape verde and then another volunteer and i go up to portugal for 4 days. So what have i learned from this: Well for one, it is harder than i thought to leave my community behind. i keep thinking i see people from Cha walking down the street. I broke down when i left; saying goodbye and walking out of the winery the last night was like stabbing myself in the heart. But everyone was so great and gave me lots of fun remeberances (canned tuna, jarred fruit, 3 liters of dried beans, and most importantly 7 bottles of Cha wine![not all of the wine will make it all the way to america!]). I wished i could tell everyone that i would be back soon, but in this world one never knows and maybe that was the last time i will see most of them. But the tears are drying and it is now time for the next phase. I kinda freaked out because the necklace i have not taken off in 4 years broke the night before i left and i took it as a bad omen. However, the cape verdeans look at it different. they always were bracelets and necklaces till they break and it is supposed to represent a new beginning. Sooooo. here is to that new beginning...

It's harvest time and Cha is buzzing with activity right now, and not just with scary mean bees! (haha ok, i am done being corny). The beginning of wine season has started and everyone is out in the fields picking grapes and bringing them to the winery to sell. I spent yesterday learning the ways of the small winery and seeing the total process. I followed the grapes from their trip from the field to the de-stemer, to the presser, to the barrels where the sedement seperates and finally to the fermentation barrels. they will sit in the barrels for about 3-7 days before being transfered again where they will remain until filtered and made into the delicious bottle i drink with dinner. The one major pitfall i see in winemaking is the attack of the bees. I got stung 3 times yesterday while throwing grapes into the de-steming machine...ouch

here are a few pics.

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August 3rd...that's the day my life changes again.

ok, so i am being a little dramatic. But seriously, on August 3rd I fly away from Fogo, my home for the last 2 years. It is so surreal. Since my arrival here in cape verde I have been counting down the months, but for some reason now that i have an actual date of departure, it has really hit home. I can't imagine leaving my peaceful life in my crater to return to the craziness of america (where i will be searching frantically for a job; if any of you know of any in the sacramento area let me know!!). I flip flop between being so excited to go home and get some normalcy in my life and thinking, why don't i just stay here forever. Oh well, it's time for the next phase of my life so i guess i gotta be moving on.

In other news:

*Me and my italian friend Carla organized a 'girls night out" for some of the women in Cha who never get to leave their houses. We went to our local "restaraunt" and ate a lot of pizza and the women actually got to relax and have a glass of wine (which most of them NEVER do) as we talked about the situation of women in Cape Verde. it really was awesome and soooo, much fun, especailly once the dancing started! We are now working with this group of women to start producing jewlery with local materials from Cha, ie, lava, seeds, coffee beans, etc. hopefully it will be a good small business opportunity for them. *My toenails are growing back nicely, i believe i will be able to wear open heals to BZ's wedding and my ugly feet won't make small children cry.

*We are entering the fruit season in Cha and it is AMAZING. Peaches, figs, grapes and soon pomegranates are all over and i can't eat them fast enough!

*This years wine production starts in about 3 weeks and i am so excited to go out picking grapes and follow the process from start to finish!

*Along with most of the guides and business folks of Cha, i am taking a workshop in tourism, italian and spanish given by an italian NGO. it is four days a week and is actually really fun! It is great that i get to brush up on my spanish before i return to the states where i am sure i will need it!

Thats about it for now. I go to Praia next week for COS conference, which, in non-Peace Corps terms, means i learn how to leave the country withouth drowning in all the paperwork i have to do. But it is the last time my group will be together so i am sure we'll have a good time! Adios!

Oi, Nhos, tudo dreto???

Things have been pretty calm lately and with only about 4 months left to go i am just living life and trying to enjoy everything!!!!! Here are a few more things that have been happening.

We had the 2nd annual women's day event in march. Again, the turnout was great, over 200 women from the island. We had been having some issues raising money this year though so Sarah, Andrea and I were far from calm the weeks before the event. Everything turned out ok, except for a crappy microphone problem. Last year we held the event in a zone with no electricity and had to arrange a generator so we could have amplification. WEll that generator failed about 1/4 of the way through the programming. SOOOOOO, this year, we hold the event in a site with electricity so we don't have to deal with that crap and guess what happens....the night before we are getting things ready in the community center and someone informs us that on the following day, the day of our event, the day we need lights, the county is trimming trees and will be cutting the power so they can go about doing this safely. OF FREAKIN COURSE! So we rush around, secure a generator for the next day and think everything will be ok. what happens, the generator comes but with no gas. We have to delay the start of the event. Gas arrives. the microphone goes out during the opening statements of the first guest speaker. OF FREAKIN COURSE.

Both of the toenails are completely off now and look a lot better than when the nail was just flapping around. Only problem is that now i am a little worried that there is one more that will go before this ordeal is over. Word to the wise, don't hike in shoes that are too big.

It has been windy as hell on the volcano. When i first moved up there i asked someone why they don't grow the wine grapes like the vineyards in the states and they told me because the wind is too bad, it would ruin the plants. at that time i thought they were exagerating, but the month of march and even still, i feel like sometimes the wind will blow the house away (and it's made of solid cement!)

After 3 months i FINALLY finished WAR AND PEACE. Really a great book, but hard to stay with for 1, 389 pages. I had to take breaks and read books in between that had nothing to do with dead people in russia. So what did i read...the TWIGHLIGHT series. I know, i know it is terrible. the writing is terrible and the books are written for 13 year old girls, but i LOVED them (and may i say i am not the only Peace Corps Cape Verde volunteer addictied). As soon as i would get a new book i would finish it in about 6 hours. I know the movies are being made so i might be having to see those when i get back to the states! (don't worry, i am embarrassed for myself!)

That's about it for now, the municipal festa of Sao Filipe starts in about 2 weeks so that means lots of parties....people like to celebrate here and I have no problems joining in!!

I just wanted to give everyone a little heads up to not worry, I DO NOT have a toenail fungus. Wow, i don't think i have ever gotten so much response from a blog entry!! The reason they are falling off is that I did a hike to Mosteiros in shoes that were too big and my feet kept jamming against the shoe and the trauma has caused them to die. Bummer cause my feet are looking pretty ugly right now!! Hopefully they grow back by October or i will be wearing closed toed shoes in BZ's wedding!!!!!!!!!

Sorry sorry sorry, i know it has REALLY been a long time since the last one but what can i say? I don't have a lot of time now but i will give you all a run down of what has been going on:

- We are organizing the 2nd annual Women's Day for the women on our island. There should be about 2oo or more people at this event.

- I have been helping out in the winery when the need me to do something and i am getting really good at filling bottles and gluing on labels...i have a whole photo montage to show when i get the pics uploaded (who knows when that will be but stay tuned)

- We just had a big shin-dig for my birthday up in Cha; there were about 20 people there, 5 of them being my peace corps buddies from the island. We killed a pig that i would estimate weighed about 100 lbs, drank 30 liters of wine and then slept outside under the stars. it really was a birthday to remember!

- I have some strange ailments at the moment, like both of my big toenails are falling off and my lip has become chapped and split open from the dry wind that has arrived in Cha. they tell me now that i am really belong in Cha because apparently this happens in the winter to lots of people(the lip thing not the toenail).

So that is just a little sampling of what is happening here. Time is really flying now.

Wednesday 6:40 pm: Boston Logan International Airport

Waiting for the flight to Cape Verde is different this time around; I know what I am going back to. When the group of 29 of us traveled the first time, there was so much excitement and adventure in the unknown. There is no unknown this time. I know where I am going and I know what I am doing there. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited to go back, but after visiting I now know I am ready to come home and start with the future. As my returned Peace Corps friend tells me, “it’s a trap”, and I am sure once I am back America will wear on my nerves again, but right now America is the unknown adventure and I am itching to see where I end up. Plus, I have a little anxiety about returning to Fogo because I know I will miss my little Katxupa. For those of you who don’t know, my dog, Katxupa, was hit by a car and killed while I was in the US. It was no ones fault, just the life of a Cape Verdean dog, but when I land and she is not there, the realization of not having my bed buddy and constant friend is going to hit me hard.

Anyways, I am in the home stretch of this two year stint and am just excited to live and get some work done in Chã. It is so hard for me to believe that it is already Christmas and New Years again. The time really does fly.

The past three weeks in the US have been a whirl wind of different cities and visiting with different friends. For those of you I didn’t get to see this time around, don’t worry I’ll be back soon! For those of you I did see, it was so so so so so great to hang out. Thanks for arranging your schedules to see me; I had a blast!!!

Thursday 6:20 pm;Fogo

I made it!!! Got in around noon this time, a little jet lagged and a lot happy to be off the plane! Hope to hear from you all soon!

So i am back in the good ol' USofA. My three week vacation is full of great things to do and visits with the people i love, but man, i cannot get behind the pace of the country!! I have finally gotten some rest and relaxation the past two days after a weekend of "installment 1" of Bethzaida's bachelorette party! It is not as strange as I would have thought to be back here, but there are some things that I am having a hard time adjusting to.

1. The amount of meat and strange spices i am eating is doing crazy things to my intestinal tract (sorry for being so forthcoming!). I am having more "problems" here than when i first went to africa! I think my body misses plain rice and beans!

2. Wow we use a lot of water and electricity! I had the hardest time taking my first shower here. The faucet made it impossible to turn the water off and on between shampooing and rinsing and I couldn't handle it.

I am so excited to be seeing everyone and have love, love, loved watching college football and basketball. Next on the agenda is my big bro's wedding on saturday (yay!!!) and then sacramento for Thanksgiving. I am so happy to be home for my favorite holiday!!

For now, i am just enjoying drinking some good beer and bloody marys and enjoying the company of mom and dad and good friends!!! I hope that i get to see all of you, but if not, know that i am in the home stretch... a little more than half a year and I'll be back in the country for good (well, we'll see about that, but at least for a little while!!).

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all and you'll be hearing from me soon, back in africa and happy about my lack of water and electricity!!!

Well, a lot has happened since the last update. The island is once again filled with volunteers…we are now 10. School has started so the education volunteers basically had a trial by fire, arriving Sunday and starting school on Monday. On Sunday, all of us “old ones” gathered at the airport to greet the new 5 with smiling faces…at least that was the plan. My face was more or less contorted in a look of pain from a massive hangover, which was not the best first impression I could have given, but hey, the night before was worth it so we’ll all just have to get over it!! By about three hours in (and a little of the hair of the dog that bit me) I was feeling much better and ready to be the responsible second year wealth of knowledge! We dropped everyone off at their new sites, including yours truly, as the move to Cha das Caldeiras is official!! I am now living in the crater of the volcano that formed the island. It is really such a trip to wake up every morning and come out to see the sun rising behind the volcano and all of the lava, I call it “camping in a cement house” because now I am without electricity or running water and live in a cement box. It is FREEZING right now, and I am a little under prepared coming from the heat that was in São Filipe, but I’ll get there! Katxupa loves it up there. She had her “big girl” operation last month, so now she is free to run around as she pleases. I leave her out and about when I go down to shop in Bila for the day and when the hiace shows up in Cha at 3 pm she is right there to greet me. I have actually heard that she jumps in any hiace that stops, looks around, doesn’t see me and gets out!! How great is that! When I am just walking around Cha, she always tags along and everyone knows her and lets her in their houses, restaurants or stores.

Right now I am getting ready to go a training in Praia, feeling a little bad as I basically just dumped Katxupa on the new volunteer in Cha. He had only been there two days when I said, oh by the way can you please take her for a week? Luckily he agreed, and as I talk to him more, it seems like they are getting along just fine…she really can be a good tool for integrating into the community.

On the work front, Andrea and I just completed a project where we brought youth from the fora into the city to the Employment Center and they got a basic orientation about how to go about using the resources they have to find a job or job training. Then they went to 5 actual places of work and got to ask questions, etc. It went over fairly well, nevermind that we were about 2 hours late and I got yelled at (ok maybe not yelled at, but strongly talked to) by the employment center man. Things are always late in Cape Verde, yes, we should not have been late, but when cars are late, and then the first presentation is late, there is nothing we can do. Anyways, next on the plate is an income generating project for the single women head of households in Cha. We are hoping to open a bakery since the residents of Cha have no access to bread. There are others as well, but I’ll let you know as they get going.

I have found a holiday i like better than christmas...well i don't like christmas too much so i guess it's not hard to do! I have properly named this new holiday "A COS christmas" (COS=close of service). Don't get me wrong, i really do miss the volunteers who left, but getting first crack at their stuff is awesome,especially since i am more or less the same size as two of the girls who left. My wardrobe has been replenished, i got new pots and pans and great leftover american food products. The one downfall to my new holiday is that with the influx of new clothes, i neglected washing my old ones; i mean why wash clothes when there are clean ones around. So now i am getting a little low and fear that it will now take more than 1 or 2 days to wash everything...is it wasteful just to throw all dirty clothes away and buy new ones???

The rainy season has officially begun. I forgot how beautiful this island is when it turns green. It is hard for me to believe it is the same place and not some exotic hawaiian rain forest island. I took a drive around the island saturday (no i was not the one driving) and tried to remember what it looked like just two months before; brown and dry. The rain seems to be constant this year and everyone thinks this will be a good agricultural year. Good news in a world where the price of grains has skyrocketed and another hit to Cape Verdean corn could be disaster. The one downfall to rain (well this may just be me talking) is that now instead of just being hot, it is humid. I think everyone knows how i feel about heat...we are not friends.

In other news, I think festa season is finally over. After the two dispididas and last weekends municipal festival in Mosteiros, I haven't spent too much time in my own town and i think i am just about danced out. I look forward to spending the next few weekends relaxing.

By the way, they never shut down the airport...the new news is there is no exact date for closure so it might be just in time for the newbies, who swear in mid-September, to get to take the boat. but who knows, maybe it will never close!

So Mel and Sam have gone, but not before they had one awesome going away party! We got there at 8pm and went home at 3:30 a.m.! Things that made the party great:

1)Katxupa (the food, not my dog)

2)Katxupa de Texas (Mel made chili and this is the only way to explain what it is to cape verdeans)

3)Free wine!!!

4) The 7 times we heard the song "poi mao na txan".

5) Madonna

6) Tuka's poem for Mel and Sam

7) Cutting a rug

8) Watching Franki dance.

Here are some pics from the night of fun! They are a little out of order but you should be able to tell where in the night things belong...the later it is, the bigger my smile is (this might have something to do with the wine) and the redder Mel's eyes get (not from the wine, but instead from crying...)

I am pretty sure that Madona is playing right now!

Me and the boys, Tuka, Teo and Madueno. Look at sam in the background!!!!haha

Mel, Tuka and Madueno. No more crying Mel!

Teodor having a good time.

Mel and Sam are in the middle of this little circle!

Getting a little sad...Madueno, Mel and Sam

This guy was a trip! I have never seen anyone keep up dancing energy like he did.

Mel and Sam, what a party!

N'sta triste, nha amigos dja bai...ma, festa foi divirti!

Me and the ladies! Matilde, Sylvia

Mel trying to get Neves to dance (neves is the wine king in Cha)

Madueno and me...it doesn't look like it, but we are quite sad to see mel and sam go.

It took me 3 hours to get Leni to dance with me without covering her face!

Cordola (German tour guide) and her BF's mom!!

Franki and me! Franki was sam's landlord!

DJ doin' his job mixin' it up (or just playing the same 4 songs over and over)

Leni and me at the festa

Yay, Mama made it!! Straight from work at the Winery.

The girls posing in front of the grapes

These little girls were adorable. They came first to buy rice and this time they are passing to go take a bath!

Me and Endira in front of Mel's

The two on the left are my upstairs neighbors Rafa and Junior

Their sister, Karen

These three pics are from the one and only shin-dig that ALL 9 of us Fogo-ians had.

Me and Dina

Ahhhhh, the joys of long hot years without airconditioning....there are less than two weeks to go in July. The new group of trainees is here and I assume learning the great lessons of being in the Peace Corps from their new homestay families...these lessons include, but are not limited to 1) learning how to take a cold bucket bath and wash your clothes by hand, 2) "older" people who are missing a few teeth are REALLY hard to understand (no matter how advanced your language skills are) but they will just keep talking at you till you nod even though you still don't understand and 3) Cape Verdean families will make you eat till you pop! Thinking about all those newbies brings back so many of my own homestay memories (and the fact that my host mom might kill me because i have not visited since february, yes i am ingrato). That the new group is here doesn't just mean that I have now arrived as a coveted "2nd year" volunteer, but it means that the volunteers that came the group before me are finishing up and leaving....well maybe.

Have I ever told y'all that it is oh so much fun being a volunteer in an island nation. My good friends Sam and Mel are leaving Fogo next Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, to COS (close of service) in Praia and then fly home. However all this excitement for them comes wrapped in rumors of the airport here in Fogo closing so they can make the runway longer. We have already been downgraded to only being able to fly inter-island on 19 seat jumpers. Now, the airline has been putting it out there that the airport will be closed during the month of August. They don't have an exact time frame, ie. the whole month, the beginning of the month, the end of the month...but they keep telling everyone making reservations to stand-bye for more information. It looks like Mel and Sam will get out of here, but there are two more volunteers COS-ing mid-august and Sarah (who is extending for a 3rd year) and Sean and Dave (from my group) are supposed to be traveling between islands this month. We'll see if eveyone makes it or not! On top of all this, even if the small planes are flying when eveyone goes they can only take 15 kilos of luggage. So the COS-ing volunteers have to ship their stuff to Praia by boat and then collect it when they get there...and y'all read that blog about the quality of boat service here! I'll keep you all posted!

As for me personally, nothing much is new. I am finishing up an English class and trying to get some HIV/AIDS projects funded and running. You know, same ol' same ol'. This weekend, Katxupa and I will be traveling up to Cha to attend the dispidida (going away party) for Sam and Mel. Katuxupa loves it up there cause she can run around all day and night and I don't have to worry about her too much; only that one day she might actually get one of those chickens she likes to chase. We were up there two weeks ago and the day we got home, Katxupa slept for the ENTIRE day.

Sorry for the long delay everyone!

So, one year in country has come and past! I only have 13 months of service left! Wow, how the time has flown by. Really, it seems like 3 months ago that i left, not 12. I am still extremely happy that i chose to join the peace corps and am learning so much about myself and the world by being here. Sometimes, however, I do wish that i could just push the pause button on the rest of the world so i don't miss all the important things happening in your lives. This blog might be a little boring for those of you not in the Blas family, but maybe it will inspire you to go out and hug your family!

To the Blas Family-

You know, growing up, I don't think it dawned on the cousins of my generation just why it was so important we continue to get together. The first generation cousins had basically grown up together, but for us who only saw each other once a year, it was my thought that the Blas family was just the sea of people I had to sift through every christmas to get my presents from "santa". But through our reunions, especially the last one, all of that changed. I realized why we do it; i realized why we all gather every Christams Eve and every 5 years at the reunions... we do it because although our family is large, loud and even a little crazy, it is such a special thing that we are able reconnect with everyone; to be there to meet new husbands/wives and new babies and to be there for each other through the losses and the hard times. I hope we all realize how unique our family is. Being here in Cape Verde has shown me that. Most Americans think of their family as Grandma, Grandpa, aunts and uncles, but i am blessed to know my great aunts and uncles, first, second and third cousins and how the rest of us are related i can't even say correctly! I know that when it is time for the Blas family to get together, there are over 100 people that I can't wait to see! So, to wrap up my sappy homage to you all, my wonderful family, who will be together without me in less than one week, i have only one more thing to say...be crazy, be loud, be family. I love you and will be thinking of you all!

To my second family-

Keeping on the family note, I have to say welcome to the world to Chance Michael Chishom who was born July 10th, 2008! Katie and Matt, i am so happy that you two have a beautiful healthy baby boy! I wish I could be there to give you all a big hug and kiss. I can't believe I won't meet him for another year. Tell Chance to expect a lot of love from his auntie dottie when she gets home!

If you didn't look at the title, I will say it one more time; Emily is here!!!!! She got in last wednesday on the direct flight from Praia and we have been nonstop vacationing ever since! She is here for three weeks so i took some time off so we could travel to different islands. The day after she got here we met Mel at the airport and flew out to Boa Vista. Boa Vista is gorgeous and hasn't gotten too bruised and battered from the tourist industry. We stayed with Leland, the volunteer there, and got to watch him do a little windsurfing while we girls hung out in hammocks and drank beer at the wind club. We were supposed to only be there for three nights, but good 'ol TACV moved our flight up an hour and a half so we missed it. The next day, on time and checked in, we took off for Sal. If you have done any research for Cape Verde, Sal is probably what comes up most for building and tourism. Beuatiful white sand beaches are being overtaken by foreign compainies building hotels, condos, restaurants and golf courses. There is no doubt it is beautiful here but I hope the industry can keep the integrity of this island as they expand to build more. Some cool things we have done though include: visiting the salt mines here in Sal (Sal=Salt) and we floated around in the water!! It was so neat...you completely float but word to the wise, cuts hurt in ultra-salty water as well as eye balls if your head gets wet!

We leave for Praia tomorrow before making the final jump to Fogo. Sal and Boa Vista have been a great time but i keep trying to warn Em that Praia and Fogo are a different world. Here we they have Indian restaurants, Tapas Bars and Italian Pizzarias... that lifestyle all comes to an end when we get one the plane tonight!! More later!

Youth group event...look at all the Peace Corps support! The "use protection" crew

What's left of the youth group...at least we got one event organized!

Pre- festa This is night One

This is night Two

Cool T-shirts for the festa of course sponsored by the beer!

Yesterday the boat connecting Fogo, Brava and Praia sank. It was the second such incident in about as many months. That’s right, a different boat sank a little more than a month ago when it ran up on some rocks leaving Fogo. This most recent sinking was of the boat named “Mosteiros”. It was the boat that Mel, Sarah and I just took to and from Brava. And what is really scary is there was a Peace Corps volunteer on board on her way here to visit. Her account of the incident goes as follows: The boat left Praia around midnight on its way to pick up and drop off people in Brava (this includes Sam, who is currently vacationing on Brava), before coming here to Fogo. Well she says that about 3 a.m. the boat is leaning to one side and they turn around and head back to Praia. They don’t quite make it…at about 6 am the reach a little fishing cove close to Praia and by this time the boat is leaning so far to the side that people are starting to jump off the boat into the water. Luckily, the fishermen had been alerted and were out in their row boats rescuing the passengers. By 10 am the boat was completely underwater. I guess that is why Peace Corps gives us life vests (and I guess that is why I really will start taking mine with me when I travel by boat). Anyways, all the passengers were rescued but everything else is at the bottom of the ocean; ncluding 3 large trucks full of the food and supplies to be delivered to Brava and Fogo and all the passengers’ belongings. We’ll see how this affects our food shortages here on the island. So to sum up the experience, the PCV is not coming to visit, Sam is stuck in Brava until further notice (there is no airport there and after the sinking(s) there is only one other boat that services these islands and there schedule is shifty) and Emily and I are now officially flying between islands when she comes to visit!!

In other news, last week was the festival of São Filipe. Man-o-man my body was not ready for 5 nights of partying. Basically, Monday thru Friday there were festivities starting in the afternoon after work and going through the night into the next morning. Every night, starting at around 11pm, there were big name Cape Verdean groups. Music ended around 3 or 4 in the morning with the party then moving to whichever bar was less crowded. I don’t know how people here do it. They party hard all night then are up bright and early for work the next day. I was dragging by the second night, but continued to muster up the strength to party until Wendnesday because that was the big night. Calypso came and played in Cape Verde!!!!!!!!!!! Ricardo, I really hope that as a Brazilian you know who Calypso is, if not you are letting me down. For those of you who are not into popular Brazilian music, Calypso is the famous equivalent to someone like Madonna or Michael Jackson in the states. People go crazy for them and that has rubbed off on the Cape Verdeans. Everyone here was soooooooooooo excited, dressed to the nines (including ourselves) and ready watch the lead singer dance her booty off and flip her hair around like a champion (that is literally all she does). Anyways, we had a blast all 4 nights that we were there and it was the first time we have all the volunteers on the island in the same place at the same time. All I know for sure though, is that I will have to practice ahead of time because my body just can’t take it. I was sick by the end and slept for the entire weekend!!

First of all, just wanted to say sorry…I went back through and read all my old blogs and realized I don’t proofread. Ooops. There are lots of mistakes but one other sorry, I’m not really going to start proofreading now, I just wanted to acknowledge that I am a bad writer!

Mel, Sarah and I took a vacation to the island of Brava last week. It is called the island of flowers and it definitely deserves its name. In contrast to the stark brown of Fogo this time of year, Brava is full of color. There were hibiscus and gorgeous Bougainvilea everywhere. The island of Brava is tiny and only accessible by boat from Fogo but if you are looking for tranquility and like hiking, it is definitely the place to be. We were there for 5 days (there is really no way to stay for less time because of the boat situation) and getting back to Fogo I was rested and ready to go again.

I met with the girls who are helping me organize a youth group here in Bila. We made an invitation to our first meeting of the Centro de Juventude’s “Grupo de Apoio”. The meeting was planned for Saturday and in my mind was a success. On that Saturday, with the great youth who showed up, we brainstormed ideas for the group and discussed the reasons we were all there and wanting this group to become a reality. We already have some events in mind (there is a huge festival in Bila in two weeks so we are planning an event for then) and our next meeting is Thursday to firm up the plans. I really hope the group survives, since this is a project I have had in my mind since my arrival on Fogo. This is where I think the youth of Fogo can show their strength and ability to make an impact in their communities.

While I sit and ponder the development of this new project, I am also at the stage of realizing, as I said last blog, that it is really April. One year ago, at the end of this month, I received a package in the mail telling me I was going to be spending two years of my life in some little country I had never heard of called Cape Verde. Wow, what a difference a year makes. Now we here are in the process of filling out applications to help with the training of the new group coming in, and I realize that maybe right now in some state in the US there is someone opening that same package that came to me and set me on this course. Head-trip.

In other news, Katxupa is huge and happy and will be 6 months old at the end of this month. We in the process of trying to figure out where to go for her “I’m a big girl and my owner doesn’t want me popping out pups” operation. She comes with me to work most of the time and when I don’t bring her everyone asks where she is. Today, I was sitting in a different zone than my own without her, and this man I did not know started asking me about where I was from and where I lived. I told him my zone and his reply went as follows: Oh, you’re Katxupa’s owner! She is definitely better known then me! She had a great time staying with Uncle Sam in Cha while I was in Brava. She really loves it up there because we let her wander like a true Cape Verdean street dog. She goes off to play and comes back when she wants something or is tired of chasing the chickens and the goats.

p.s. Just so the world knows what those of us living amongst wild animals or on farms already knows. I was watching a movie the other day and there was this picture perfect scene where a rooster is crowing at the crack of dawn to awaken the peacefully sleeping family. Well you should all know that in the real world this is not what happens. Those damn animals crow at all hours of the day and night. Ok, that’s all, just wanted to set the record straight.

Ok, not in Brava, but another perk from the festival in Cha...pictures on the donkey.

This is my favorite sign of all time. It is telling you not to throw up on the floor of the boat.

We got a little lost with me as the trail navigator..

Our "camp" at the "beach" in Brava. I got to use my new tent!

How many people does it take to start a fire??

A Cape Verdean's first s'more.

Ok, not on Brava, but there is a new puppy on the block. Look at what a beast Katxupa is!

Our new friends from Dakar

The Fogo girls

Imagine playing on a field of lava

Last Wednesday, April 2nd, was an important date to the Mel and Sam's town of Cha das Caldeiras. It was the anniversary of the eruption in 1995!! Of course you know what that means in this culture...PARTY! All the volunteers, minus Sean, were able to make it up for the celebration. We also had some additions to our group of 8 peace corps; Brittany's mom was here from america visiting, Sarah and Alex from Santiago were here as well as 4 american students studying abroad in Dakar that they met on the boat coming over. In all we were a dinner and party group of 16! The 4 kids from Dakar made an excellent addition to our party group but i think they may have gotten a little more than they bargained for in the way of tour guides...they were always with one of us volunteers! But they definately returned the favor of free tour guides by sharing their Duty Free store bottle of Bombay Saphire with us!The festival included dances, bicycle races, donkey races, soccer games, really good BBQ meat because of course they kill lots of animals for festas and there were supposed to be goat and chicken fighting but only one of each species showed up for the match! I guess the others got a bit scared and backed out. Everyone went their seperate ways on Thursday, which for me included going home to pack for my vacation in Brava!!

Sorry, wrote this a couple days ago and never got it up so it's a bit dated:

Well, it’s the end of March, the end of month 9. It’s crazy that April 1 will be the beginning of my 10th month here. You know, I went back and visited my host family for the first time since leaving them after training. I had left this place, my first family in Cape Verde, 7 months ago and going back was like worlds colliding. My town of Ribeira da Barca looked the exact same. All the people were still there, but something had changed. When I left there in September, I don’t think I fully appreciated, or even realized, everything that my first family gave to me. I was frustrated that I still had no idea what Mama Julia was saying AT me and I was ready to be living on my own again. When I left, I still couldn’t communicate. But going back was unbelievably uplifting. I was greeted by a group of kids running at me screaming “Laura, Laura, Laura!” and the beautiful smiles of my family and neighbors, who have taught me about accepting a stranger, no questions asked, and making them part of your family forever. I could see how far my language had progressed first hand as I sat with the women who had looked after me for those two months and I told them what I was doing and they told me all that I had missed and we all understood each other!

My worlds collided again 2 days after seeing my host family, when I picked up my biological parents at the Praia airport!! God, what a head trip that was, to see part of my American life here as part of my Cape Verde life. It was great to see them, of course, but again, it just seems crazy to me, that I have been in this country long enough to warrant visitors. Alan and Ellie had a great time here (or so they tell me!) but I think it took them some time to get used to some of my everyday things like walking all over (and always walking uphill), no electricity in Cha, my stove that has no temperature control (it is just always on high, simmer isn’t an option!), the fact that the noise that comes from my upstairs neighbors sounds like they are in the next room with a megaphone and how to bucket flush a toilet! At the same time, they can finally picture where I am, they can picture my wonderful neighbors who protect little single and alone me; they can picture the woman in the market where I buy my vegetables and they can picture my wonderful friends on this island (who thank God helped me play tour guide cause I was getting a little tired and stressed towards the end of the week). Next up on my visitor list….my bestest friend, Miss Emily Marie Dodds, in May/June!

(sorry i know that was a bit melodramatic, but true non-the-less!)

The end of March also signifies the end of my (and Sarah’s) stressful Cape Verde Women’s Day project. Since I have been lazy and not blogged about this project before, I will tell you quickly what we planned. The 27th was Cape Verdean Women’s day. Sarah got it in her head (and I helped to push it along) to make this giant exchange of women on the island to talk about issues concerning all women on Fogo, domestic violence, education for girls and micro-credit. We took our idea to the local women’s organization for advice and from there, it just took off . We had thought of only using women from zones where Peace Corps was represented, but we ended up inviting 2 women from every zone on the island…in all about 180 women invited with a budget planned for attendance of 150. Well after a few stressful weeks leading up to the event, Thursday the 27th finally comes and Sarah and I are just hoping that some women actually show up. I won’t have an exact count till tomorrow, but it’s in the range of 130-140 women of Fogo!!! In all a great success even though we started 2 hours late and changed the entire program for the day the morning of the event. You see the night before there was an extremely tragic murder; a 20 yr old, mother of two, was killed in an act of domestic violence. She was the cousin of one of our speakers and so in light of that event, we put a little more emphasis on domestic violence. The day lasted until 4:30 and in all the women gave us incredibly positive feedback. Hopefully this can be an annual event as the women really felt empowered and like someone was listening to what they were saying.

Next up…youth group in Bila, camping trip to Brava (another island) and the anniversary of the ’95 eruption in Cha!

Here are some pictures taken when the jump drive was out of commission. They finally make it on!

Cha and the Volcano:

This is what we do to pass the time...YATSY

These pictures are not of me, but they show perfectly how you really get down the volcano!

Katxupa and the neighbors:

This is Alia...she is the cutest most spoiled kid i know, and when katxupa was little she would not put her down!

Simara lives across the street, she is such a tomboy and that is why i love her!

Thanksgiving:

Mel really likes Sean´s pouring ability!

Mel and Sam being silly...i guess with no electricity in Cha, they spend time perfecting their weirdo faces.

Dave makes some really good sweet potatoe soup, as you can tell by Sean´s perfectly natural reaction!

Is someone trying to be a big shot? I think i see a smile almost breaking through!!

This is how we eat in Peace Corps..you only get 4 chairs! But oh that Turkey pot pie is delicious no matter where you are sitting!

Dancing Sam...doesn´t happen very often so it is great that he was caught in the moment!

Katinka and Me...I miss my german friend; Katinka come back!

Mel always finds time for arts-n-crafts, even if it´s in the middle of a party!

Aren´t we cute, this was the last picture in a series, which i spared you all, where we took 5 pictures like this and this was the only one that had both of our faces!! Apparently we need to practice the self-picture taking.

Oh Minga...unfortunately Minga the cat is no longer with us, but she sure did bring entertainment to our night!

So I have been getting crap from my mother about having not posted a blog in so long so here we go. What have i been up too?? Well I have been at war with ants. The little sons of bitches are invading my house. It doesn´t matter how well I clean up or how much poison i spray in their little holes; if there is no speck of food to be found they attack the sponge that i wash the dishes with or the spoon i used to stir the broth with, that has been thoughroughly cleaned, but i guess still has the residue of leftovers. They got into all of my dried food a while back and I had to throw out my milk and flour. What else...we had a massive flour shortage last month...you couldn´t find flour in any market for three weeks, unless you were willing to participate in what seemed like a drug deal. You had to ask the assistant at one of the markets for flour. He would repeat that there was no flour to be found...but if you gave him the wink he would tell you to ask the cashier. The cashier would also tell you, no we doñ´t have any, but if you gave him the wink, he would look at the assistant you had already spoken too, who would give the cashier the head nod and then finally the cashier would quietly ring you up some flour. But that wasn´t the end of it, once you had paid for everything and had your bags in hand, you had to give them to the assistant who would take them in a back room and secretly put in your kilo of flour. It was crazy!!! Humm...more about what I have been doing. Does anyone know the record for how many of solitaire you can play without winning?? I am at 25 and i must have played at least 10 games before i started counting. I of course, have been reading a lot when i am not losing at solitaire. I am reading MobY Dick right now. It is fantasic, i recommend you all go out and pick up a copy! I don´t know why they have high school kids read it, i definately was not ready for it then and it is way to long to be a required reading, but when it is read for fun and in your own time, it is genius! Sticking with the classics, i also just finished Madame Bovary and hated it!! If classics aren´t your thing and you liked the movie MOmento...go get the book Dermophoria by Craig Clevenger. It is the most entertaining novel i have read. Other news. Thanksgiving was excellent. The volunteers of Fogo got together and made dinner. We had a blast and i have pictures to prove it! Our thanksgiving dinner coincided with a huge Saint Day festival in the town where we were so there was basically three days of non-stop partying. You know those Catholics and their saints (well and their drinking too!). I think we will get together for Christmas in Cha (the volcano) and maybe do new years here.

Ok, ok, i know none of that has anything to do with actual work; and since i get the question "do you actually do anything over there" I guess i can tell you a little about that too. I have started english classes 4 times a week. They are with the high school kids and it is more like english tutoring because i am definately not cut out to stand at the chalkboard and teach! I also am helping out with an NGO based out of the states that deals with domestic violence in Fogo. They have me translating documents from Portuguese to English which is quite amusing since I haven´t learned Portuguese!! All of us first year volunteers are meeting on the main island for some more training next week, so most of my stuff will be put on hold until after the new year. I also hope to get a youth group going once i get back. All things in the works....see i do do things!!

Ok, you all satisfied now!! Oh by the way...I am getting a puppy!!! One of the volunteers from Fogo just took a vacation on Mayo (another island) and somehow asked for a puppy and was given two, so she is bringing both of them back and they should get here saturday!! Oh god, what am i getting myself into!! You think I can train her to eat ants??? Anyways, if anyone has a good name for a girl puppy let me know!! I tend to like names that deal with alcholic beverages!!

I have spent all of this past week trying to remember what I learned in Anatomy 201 in college. Why you ask…because every muscle in my body hurts; even the teeny tiny ones in my toes!!! Last weekend was jam-packed full of hiking, which means that when Monday came, I couldn’t move my legs. Friday, I caught a ride up to Cha das Calderas (the town on the volcano) and stayed with the two volunteers up there, Mel and Sam. Saturday, the three of us got up early and hiked up the volcano. It took us 3 ½ hours to get to the top (mainly because of me…I am a slow mover!). Sam, who I like to call Turbo Man, and who Mel has decided is pure ADD rolled up into a functioning human form, can hike to the top in 2 hours (it’s a change in elevation of more than 1,500 Meters). Once at the top though, it is outstanding. It literally feels like you are on top of the world because you are above the clouds looking down on the little town of Cha and the big blue Atlantic Ocean (don’t worry; I know I am a cornball!!!). However, what really makes the trip up worth the pain is the trip down. You don’t go down the same way you go up, something I did not know when we started because Sam likes it to be a surprise. While the hike up is pretty traditional in the way of hiking, ie. some switchbacking and rock climbing, etc., the way down is straight down. You basically run down the side of the volcano in knee deep volcanic rock. As the other Lauren told me before I came here, “it’s like running on black cheerios.” It is definitely pretty close, but I might even say more like powder skiing in black cheerios! It took us only an 1 ½ hours to get down as opposed to the 3 ½ to get up and it really felt like we were the only people on earth who had ever been on this volcano (I know, cornball again!). So, it was a much faster trip down and way more fun!!

I stayed Saturday night too in Cha, and then Sunday, Mel and I got in hiking mode one more time to make the 4 hour trip down to Mosteiros to see Sean and Dave, the volunteers there. After the hard cardiovascular hike up the volcano, I naively thought this trip down to the boys would be a cake walk…boy was I wrong. It is 4 hours of straight down; no breaks, no ups, nothing but down. There were points along the trail where Mel and I were literally running because our legs were no longer strong enough to stop our forward momentum. I was actually hoping that there would be a point where we would have to go uphill a little, but no such luck. By the time we got to the bottom, our legs were jell-o, our feet were torn up and on fire, and we had both taken one pretty nasty fall along the way in the wet mud. I think we must have looked pretty pathetic by the time we reached the boys, but it was nothing a cold beer couldn’t fix…which we drank Cape Verdean style, which is to say that we popped it open right after leaving the store and were finished by the time we reached the house.

The boys already had some activities planned for the evening, so we tagged along to the big soccer game that was happening in town. It was the finals of the girls’ league and it was amazing to see all of the people that were there cheering and really getting into the game. After the game, we went back to the house where Dave, the cook of the house (they have it worked out so that Dave cooks and Sean does the dishes…he might starve if not for Dave…we definitely have to get him cooking!!), made a yum dinner and we sat out on their fantastic roof and drank some beers and talked. I think they definitely have the best volunteer house on Fogo, their rooftop space is bigger than the inside of their house! Mel and I left on the early Hiace Monday morning, and were back in Bila before 8 am. I spent all day Monday trying not to move because my legs were not wanting to work. All is better now, but I think it will be awhile before I do that hike again!!

Sam eating some yummy cookiesNot the best pic, but this is MelMel and meI made it to the top!!Going down anyone??

I thought I would clarify for all my skeptics out there (Sara Martin…and probably anyone who has ever lived with me/known me), YES I have become quite well acquainted with my mop!! I may not have used it much before, or really maybe never before(!) but I am a good little cleaner now. I clean my house twice a week, can you believe that 2 times in one week! I know I know, I am making people fall off their chairs right now, what with liking onions and actually cleaning on a regular basis. Oh, and I would like to say that I have passed the month mark living here in Fogo, and you can still see the floor of my room. My clothes actually go in a dirty clothes bin, or yes, even get hung up. It is amazing what the threat of cockroaches, ants and dust will do to a person!

As for how my actual work is going here is a little update…I am still going every afternoon to a health “formação (=seminar/talk/discussion)” in different “fora(=rural)” zones of Fogo (sorry there are just some things that don’t translate right coming back into English, so you all get a little Kriolu/Portuguese lesson). I do absolutely nothing but sit there but it is great for me to be getting out there, seeing the different youth of the different zones that I might be working with, and for them to get comfortable seeing me! I am going to start next week at the youth center here in Bila doing something with English, maybe tutoring, maybe lessons, I don’t really know because I think something got lost in translation…my language is still horrific! But I have started really studying, another big shock, which is something up until now I haven’t done…so hopefully I will get over this hump. The peaks and valleys of learning a language are real mental challenges.

And for an update on the fun part of my Peace Corps experience (well it’s all fun but this is just silly), I was a judge at the Miss Fogo competition last Saturday night!! Hahaha, I really don’t know how this happened but it was definitely entertaining…but it was way past my bedtime because it started at midnight and ended at 3:30 am…talk about a culture difference! And then yesterday, I was asked if I wanted to “fazi ginàstica”, which literally translates into “make gymnastics” and my mind immediately goes to “oh my god, they want me to go to a class with a balance beam, vault and floor routine. The woman I have been going to the formação with, who speaks great English, said that no, it was an aerobics class, so then my mind goes to Jane Fonda in the 80’s or sweatin’ to the oldies with Richard Simons, and I think sure..let’s have a little fun. Well I get there and it turns out to be a high impact kick-boxing/Tae Bo class!! It was great! It is held outside on the patio of the primary school where you can see the sunset over the ocean…not to shabby if you ask me.

Well we have been in the “rainy season” for over a month and yesterday is the first day there has been rain here in São Felipe (now to be referred to as Bila because it’s easier for me to type and that is how all the locals refer to it). The rain has been hard and constant since before lunch yesterday which meant that every hour since the rain started, you can find me mop in hand, forcing water down drains so that my house doesn’t flood!! Most houses here are built with what is known as a “kintal”, which is an open space inside your house (it is where I do my laundry!), but also means that it basically rains inside your house. This first rain has also allowed me to see the flaws in my large home…there is a hole somewhere in the base of the wall that connects my bedroom to the kintal. So guess what?? When it rains hard and water backs up in my kintal, it seeps through the hole into my bedroom!! Thankfully, this was a wall I didn’t have anything up against so none of my stuff got water logged or damaged. The rain, however annoying for my drainage problems, has been great. Starting with the fact that because of the rain, for the first time it wasn’t excruciatingly hot today!! Also, it means that the crops get some much needed nourishment because right now, in most places the corn is little more than a sprout coming out of the ground, when it should be well past my knees. The rain makes me happy but it also makes me miss Arizona (surprise) and the awesome monsoons. I love rain, but there is nothing like some good thunder and lightning!

p.s. day after rain...what do you get when you combine two days of constant rain with the extreme heat that comes the day after the rain...IT´S HUMID AS HELL HERE!!!