We went on a Safari, something I never thought I would do, and Tanzania is definitely shaping up to be my favorite country so far on the continent. Not only did we see SO MANY animals in the wild, but we spent the last few days in Moshi which was a really nice beautiful town [...]
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Why? Because tomorrow we (Linds, Dacia and 3 other girls we’ve met whilst staying at the Arusha Backpackers Hostel – Lizze, Julia, plus 1) are setting out for a 4 day Safari in the Serengeti and 2 other national parks, the Norongoro Crater and Tangirine National Park (?) camping and all that (and it’s costing [...]
We headed out of Mole Nat. Park to the capital, Accra, Ghana. Internet speed like you couldn’t believe. Vodaphone I LOVE YOU. Did an overnight flight to Nairobi (does that count when you spend 3 hours in a country?) and it was SO COLD. I don’t know if I’m prepared for Michigan winters. Then we [...]
That’s right folks, we saw an elephant. Woohoo! I was particularly lucky because, being the old lady that I am, I went to bed around 10pm while staying at the Mole Motel in Mole National Park in north western Ghana, but my trusty travel companions woke me up around midnight when, as they were relaxing [...]
Well I guess cuz they’re better. But they love the USA no less, I’ve seen a few Obama and Michelle billboards around the country and both members are looking a bit photo shopped, though nonetheless inspirational. So far we’ve hit us the capital, Accra, and stayed at Crystal Hostel which was a bit outta town [...]
Well, we have been here in Senegal for 2 weeks now and today we are heading to Ghana (flying through Cote d’Ivoire, does that count as another country on the list?) Why are we ballin’ you may ask? Because, through our great luck of connections and friendly Americans abroad, we got hooked up with an [...]
is difficult. We (Dacia, Lindsay and I) got into Dakar, Senegal on Friday afternoon and thankfully Justin, a PCV here, met us at the airport. We avoided getting immediate yellow fever shots and somehow got through passport control. I accidentally walked into lost baggage offices while thinking I was being directed to the bathroom, but [...]
I can’t believe I am almost finished, who thought 2 years would go by so quickly! Honestly there were days when I wondered why I was doing all this, sweating, missing family and friends and eating lots of rice and beans only to be a mildly effective development worker… but I guess, like all former [...]
We did a big push for Environmental Education in the end of March to celebrate World Water Day, World Tree Day and World Meteorological Day. A team of us split up and visited every school on the island and every 7th grade classroom, talking about environmental issues and having students respond with ideas and solutions. [...]
Last Monday we celebrated World Women’s Day, a day to reflect on the role of women, the history of women’s rights and continue to fight for equal pay, equal job opportunities, and, well, equality.
Here in CV, the common move was to present flowers to older women, poor, or in my case, 3 female inmates [...]
The past weekend we had a birthday party for one of my co-workers (it was a “surprise” party that she asked/commanded to be organized for her). We played minisoccer, and the girls lost 6-2 but our mens team whoomped the military team. Yippeee.
My favorite/most scarring moment, was watching these ladies from work [...]
So if you think I only dance in a mask and cook all day in Cape Verde, you are only partly right. Heres a plan I elaborated after a meeting for our environmental programs at the high school for the rest of the year:
Programa de Educação Ambiental 2010 –
Uma parceria entre ESOM, Salimpa e a [...]
I´ve helping out at the ludoteca, trying to dinamize the space, and so here are some photos of our kids’ parade for Carnaval. We had everyone made recycled materials outfits, cardboard “shirts”, newspaper skirts, paper plate masks and plant crowns. It went really well except for the what? the rain? rain in Cape Verde? ugh… [...]
The last few days have been sleepless, okay I won’t exaggerate, but at least sleeplittle. I have been working on the Carnival commission, so our duties were too run around trying to organize 3 groups of over 100 people as they got in line, dressed in a terrifying quantity of satin, sequins and feathers, and [...]
Happy Chinese New Years!
I almost forgot until my mom called and told me Happy New Years, I thought she had gone senile and meant to say Happy Valentines Day, but no, she was right and still savy.
I have officially entered a PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Project) for funding! Please check it out and if you like it, DONATE!!!
Click here to check it out!
Sal Solidário is a campaign that was started while I was on vacation with the rents, but somehow I still managed to gain quite a lot of responsibility in it throughout the last few weeks…
This was the music show we had on Saturday, there were some awesome groups. An african drumming and dance group, traditional [...]
An endangered sea turtle that nests in Cape Verde. I have been doing night patrols during the summer, watching hatchlings go to sea and doing environmental ed. stuff at the schools with some rangers and Silvia!
In response to an email from my friend Becky, who is embarking on a CD volunteer adventure in Guatemala, I wrote these jumbled words of 1/2 advice, 1/2 musings.
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Dear Becky,
Some thoughts on coming into an undefined role as a volunteer in community development. It´s hard in the beginning, because you feel a bit useless and [...]
Success! My idea for a big municipal volunteer day finally worked out (after some intense preparation and tons of letters asking for donations). The day went really well, we painted a house, installed electricity in another woman’s house, planted trees, did a neightborhood clean-up and distributed food and clothes.
I’ve been waiting to put up the [...]
Slag fatch. Snag Flatch. Flag Snatch.
At the end of Hillary’s famous trip to Africa, unbeknownst to some of ya’ll, she stopped at a small yet important and stifling hot island in the Atlantic. Yes, Hillary stopped on our island, Sal, before returning to the land of french fries and 24h open supermarkets.
Jacky and I [...]
Island fever was about to hit me when I jumped on a plane (after 1 canceled flight and a 7 hour wait) and headed to Santiago – the big island – to help the new volunteers with their Pre Service Training!
Things accomplished in Praia (ahem, I mean Santiago):
1. Watched one american film all the way [...]
We had a fun festival (the first!) in Sal the other weekend. Rachelle came in town to help and we had 2 stalls, one filled with info about American history, diversity, statistics, etc. and the other with American food! Yes, yours truly was deep frying (a restauranteer actually lent us a deep fryer) onion rings [...]
This week has been pretty crazy, and the extreme heat (I estimate I sweat 2.5 Liters per day) does help to make one want to dig into the work! Still, it´s fun that things are getting going.
Monday I had my lifeskills session at the Community Center and Nelson (volunteer from Sao Nicolau) was in town [...]
This weekend was wild! With Rachelle visiting from Maio, and Nelson visiting from Sao Nicolau, we had to get out and about. Friday we went for Pizza and caught the end of the T-KLA 2 concert, a electronic, dance, hip-hop music duo who was playing in the newly remodeled outdoor theater. We danced to a [...]
Jacky, Rachelle and I went turtle patroling last night! I actually didn´t see a Loggerhead, but I got to move a nest of eggs to a hatchery where they would be safe (the light pollution on the beaches confuses the little guys, and they can die walking towards artificial lights and not towards the sea).
This [...]
Today Jacky and I are heading to Santa Maria to do our twice weekly Kriolu lessons with SOS Tartarugas. Check out their blog! This year their have been record numbers of turtles on the beach, as well as record numbers of turtles being killed (a few men were on trial today after being caught selling [...]
So I recommend, even when it is hot and sweaty all day long, not to sleep on the beach without a blanket. And a thin shawl (or alternatively headwrap if you are in Africa) does not count as a blanket, though satisfies as protection from the sand.
Jacky and I went on a ‘passeo’ – aka [...]
1) Didn´t sleep enough due to early morning soccer games and commemorative flag raisings in the patriotic spirit of Cape Verde.
2) Getting robbed. Window left cracked open during dinner out Saturday night = goodbye money, jacky´s laptop and ipod
3) my laptop looks like frankenstein
It´s almost the 4th of July, I´m getting all nostalgic for Northern Michigan, both Burt and Lake Michigan, fireworks, cool nights with grasshoppers making all that slightly annoying slightly soothing barulho. If only I had a sparkler.
But never to fear, because Cape Verdean Independance Day is July 5th! (stranger coincidences have happened, but still…). There [...]
really? wow.
I mean really? cool. cul. (kriolu version). now that I have confirmation that at least two people read the ramblings I post on my online journal of life, I think I need to spruce up my page. I may even have to learn HTML (gosh forbid). I at least need to figure out how [...]
This past weekend we had the National Track Champtionships here in SAL! That was pretty fun, Sal island won overall and there were some really impressive performances. My friend Merico ran a 1500m under 4 minutes, and Lela won the 5000m race (uh, on the track) by a long shot. I ran in the womens [...]
I’ve fallen into a bit of a routine here, get up, eat my yogurt, walk slowly to work running errands along the way and daydreaming (or still night-dreaming, apparently sometimes it appears I have yet to wake up). I’m worried about this routine business, it’s nice and calming, and maybe I am more efficient, but [...]
Today a group of exchange students from Portugal (descendants of Cape Verdean immigrants) came to the Associação Chã Matias for a catxupa lunch. The integration between the two student groups was minimal, which was a bit disappointing and contrary to the idea of the lunch, but they were also different age groups so it might [...]
Did you know June is the month of the child? That sounds weird in English, but anyhow, it is. Today we went to Santa Maria in the afternoon and set up activities with the schools and ICCA (a child rescue, social services center). Ana Rosa (this awesome Brazilian girl and works in the fiscal department at [...]
Long weekend. Relaxing.
Major accomplishments/points of embarrassment:
I picked up my laundry from the laundromat (yes, we have a laundromat here in Espargos, and this is the second time I have used it, because my knuckles get really raw from washing my jeans by hand and so I paid 700 escudos and dropped it off).
I ran a [...]
Woot! Woot! Encerramento e entrega de premios was a success! A few weeks ago I started working on a Design Contest for Environmental Art (a low cost activity that would hopefully get lots of kids and classrooms talking about environmental issues and thinking about solutions. More than 300 kids turned in designs, which I put [...]
tatter TOTs. tang, orange tang. Training Of Trainers. Yup, I was selected to train future volunteers! Who would of thought? A group of volunteers and Cape Verdeans met up in Praia this past weekend and got planning for the newbies. It was fun, and made me realize how quickly one year has already passed! I [...]
First off, news from the running world here in Cape Verde: Super Success for Runners from SAL! This past weekend, 4 teammates and myself flew to Praia along with our trainer, Julio, to compete in a 10k race. Our boys got 2nd, 3rd, and 5th place! It was a run funded by Caixa Economica (one [...]
So, as an Environmental Education Volunteer, I thought I would give a little update about some of the interesting environmental initiatives I’ve seen drifting around Sal recently.
The WATERCONE. This thing is SO cool. So in Assomada, Brian and fellow volunteers work with their tech school students on building solar ‘powered’ ovens and water distillors. No [...]
Tis the season of extreme winds here in Sal, or actually unseasonably strong gusts that are blowing crazy amounts of dust and dirt under our door and into our kitchen. Besides my cleanliness being pushed to the brink of annoyance, all is well.
At the Camara right now we have visiting NGOs from the Canary Islands [...]
After a endless vacation for blogging world (I attempted to set up an offline blogging program on my computer to facilitate higher blogging rates, to no avail, apparently I am not as technologically skilled as my Cape Verdean collegues seem to think I am). I am reading 4 books at once; still working on Zen [...]
I´ll just get to the point and fill ya´ll in on what´s up;
I´ve been working on World Water Day (March 22nd) activities, and maybe a short radio segment to celebrate World Meteorological Day. It´s all about celebrating the big international days. For earth day/week we are even thinking about getting a speaker to come from [...]
The past week has been nice, I´ve been having lots of wierd dreams (due perhaps to eating right before I go to sleep?) and I have been dreaming tons about chinese food, which led to me making habu´s time honored and amazing onion pancakes. (Obviously my version wasn´t nearly as good). Next I´m going to [...]
January 22nd. New President. 6am running exercise regimen. Motivation.
Of course this new era of President Obama has newly invigorated my blogging as well.
Saturday, I hiked along a beach where sea turtles nest (though not until April). Then I played some pool (billiards, snooker). Only to sleep a few hours in preparation for a ´cubri casa´party [...]
Well I don’t know teaching, but I do know the English language. Last week I started teaching English in the professional night school here in Sal. It is fun to be teaching, I have 4 different classes ranging in all levels of English. The students are mostly older (which is slightly intimidating), but it’s also [...]
I have now been in Sal exactly 1 week. It is a desert. It sort of looks like Mars (not that I know Mars, but I imagine they are similar:little water, dusty, rocky, flat, appears uninhabited at first glance).
What I´ve been up to my first week at my new home:
Sweating excessively because the sun shines [...]
Pre Service Training is ending and I´m getting ready to head to my post for the next 2 years!!! I am going to miss Assomada so much, my family here has taken me in like a daughter and I really love the community. My kriolu language skills have gotten pretty good, and so I was [...]
Life is ambling along amazingly here on our currently green (because it´s the rainy season) rock in the Atlantic! Katarina and Andre and I have been hanging out in our village and becoming masters of `the chiga´. `The chiga´is a little visit that you are continuously doing throughout your community. As we walk along [...]
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