Happy Birthday to MEEEE! (well, almost...)

Sooo...Friday is my 30th birthday. Just thought I would remind everyone, which might prompt some of you to actually send us an email or comment on the blog (*cough* hint hint *cough*). Just sayin...

Also, I've had a couple of you lovely readers ask me what stuff we need on our little island. We're pretty set here, thanks to the bi-weekly spice-and-snack contributions of my mother, who apparently has nothing better to do with her money than spend it on me (of which I am eternally grateful). However, it's always fun getting "stuff" from folks, so here is a super short list:

1. Kool-Aid packets! Just plain ol' Kool-Aid, those $.20 packets, in most flavors except maybe apple and grape. Oh and Purplesaures Rex. Never did like that one. Nothing with sweetener, we add it here. I'm not a big fan of the uber sweet stuff we have here, plus you can make a mean cocktail with some Kool-Aid and sweetener.

2. Flax seed meal. As some of you have followed my expanding and then shrinking waistline (btw I'm down almost 25lbs now), I've started using flax seed meal a lot. I think Wegmans sells it in the Nature's Market for $5.

4. OH! Adding another! Unsweetened gelatin. So much you can make with that.

That's it, I think we have everything else we could possibly want.

A "for real" blog update coming your way soon...

Making progress (Josh)

The old soccer stadium

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of seeing a couple construction projects actually see an inauguration. Oh and how they love their inauguration parties. Especially when it's a soccer stadium. Nothing brings people together here like a game of soccer. So when the new beautiful stadium with artificial turf opened it was a big deal to say the least, and we were curious what it would be like. We were told to show up at 10 am and there would be a tour of the new stadium and so we did. Sure enough a fair number of people wandering around and checking out the new shiny stadium, but no real festa. We waited around in the heat for about 5 hours with nothing really going on but a steady growing buzz of activity. Then there was an announcement that everyone had to go outside for the ribbon cutting. We thought, great this is it! As everyone was piled around the flag poles that held oversized soccer flags trumping even the country flag, the ribbon was cut and we asked, "Ok, now what?" A youth soccer game of course, to come before the official game. Oh ... well since arriving, we've decided that soccer really isn't our thing, and to sit through two games, let alone one was a bit too much. So we decided to call it a day, a little disappointed that there wasn't more a party but glad to see a major construction project come to completion where so many languish. Oh and we came to find out later that we left at a good time, as we also missed a lengthy speech in between the soccer games that "officially" inaugurated the stadium; they like their speeches too. I guess some things are universal!
The new stadium

That brings me to our second construction project that was completed and inaugurated just two weeks later: The first paved road on our island. After our lengthy day of wandering the stadium and being underwhelmed by the activities, we decided to sit the actual inauguration of this one out, thinking the cool festa portion would take place later. This time the choice was not so well advised. It turned out that there was the mother of all parties at the end opposite end of the road, and by the time we decided to go, everyone was already there partying so getting there was out of the question. Ah well, that's life.


The new road

We've enjoyed the road since then. Just this past weekend I went with my counterpart and a group of others from the Camara to a "beach" (a place where the ocean meets land that isn't a cliff side). We had a cookout and just relaxed for the afternoon. Who knew that squid was such a grilling delicacy? Who knew I'd get so harassed about not having a "picania?" (ie a girlfriend on the side)

As far as my work goes at the Camara, that's making progress too. They have actually started to do some serious data entry in the program that I created for them after I gave them an update and opened their eyes to what the application could do. I love to see the excitement build as they roll ideas around in their head about what else it could. I've even taken the opportunity to publish some of the internationalization objects I've created for dealing with different currency formatting. (http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/1525/) It feels pretty good to be doing what I'm actually GOOD at while I'm here.

Anyone have a spare webcam?

So we have discovered the wonders of using Skype with webcam, talking with my mom today. We'd love to be able to chat with her and anyone else using video, but before we purchase a new webcam, does anyone have one that they're not using anymore? If so, we'd love to borrow it for a while!!!

Hiatus Recap

In case it's been so long you forgot what we look like!

Over a month has gone by and again we have slacked at our blogging efforts. Part of this is because we've been busy, part of it is because we've been lazy, but most of this has been because the longer you are a part of a culture, the less..."interesting" it seems to you, the less you feel you need to tell people about. Life starts to become like life anywhere, you have a flow to your day and things just don't seem that exciting. But I know some of you have been asking what's up, so I'll try and fairly quickly sum up the last weeks here :)

Return to Santiago - In Service Training - March 13 to 20

Wow, that was a while ago! Going back to Mancholy to visit our family was really great. We love them so much, and we had a blast. They cooked up a storm for us and on Saturday we had a little festa where we made a ton of American food - bean salad, quiche, squash pie, mashed potatoes, spanish rice...super good, super fun. The biggest challenge for me was remembering how to speak Badiu, the southern Kriolu.

Training itself was good. It was nice to see everyone and to hang out in the big city of Praia. While I felt it could have been spaced out better (ie more focus on project design management and less on behavior change; longer session on life skills and less "fluffy" stuff the first two days), we learned a lot. The most interesting aspect was our counterparts came with us for two days. You've all heard brief musings about my counterpart - the frequent blow-offs, the goofball attitude - and unbelievably, his behavior at training was no different. I was happy though that he acted this way so that Peace Corps could see what I was dealing with. Example: at dinner the last night, one of the second year volunteer was standing too close to a candle and caught her hair on fire. My counterpart was in the middle of his part of the talent show (a magic act) and as soon as the fire was out he kept trying to redirect all attention to him. He's sort of like a 6 year old with ADHD. Ah well. At least he's fun, right?

Sal - March 21 to 24

After IST we headed off with Jacky and Leah to visit the island of Sal. It was BEAUTIFUL! We fell in love, but mostly because we've been on an island that isn't very touristy, and to go to an island that is was fun. They had all the things we'd been missing: Amazing italian food, a wine and martini bar, 2 for 1 happy hour, an Irish pub or two, pina coladas, margaritas, tiramisu, and a gorgeous beach. For our anniversary (March 23rd) we started the day early and hit the salt pans, old salt mines about 20 minutes from Espargos where we stayed. We swam in the salt pools and after went to the ocean to snorkel, then had lunch. After we went to town and had an amazing dinner of beef caprecio, serra ravioli and gnocci with a tomato cream sauce. OMG. And tiramisu for dessert. We also hit this really cool spot where there is a natural pool, sort of like a giant tide pool, that you can swim in at certain times of the day. There's an awesome cave there as well you can climb into and swim, but the tide wasn't' right and it wasn't safe so we passed. All in all, Sal was great. Totally reminded me of the Caribbean and we can't wait to go back.

Boa Visa - March 25 to 29

Boa Vista is one big island of beach. Much less developed than Sal, it has a budding tourist industry which provided just enough variety of bars and restaurants to keep us busy. More homemade gnocci, awesome grilled octopus and squid, a fantastic pizza or two...mmmm. BV has amazing beaches, some of which are totally secluded and no one goes to. Most days we just hung out near the wind surfers and sunned ourselves, but one day at breakfast we met this really awesome German couple (Hi M and J!) and rented a car with them (PCV's can't drive, so we really wanted to see the island and were glad to find folks that were happy to split the cost and take us along!). We saw everything - the wreck of the Santa Maria, Baia das Gatas, the desert dunes and the 18 km long beach of Santa Monica. We were the only people there on the entire beach...it was paradise. No development just us.

On our third day there, we went to visit Guest House Orquedea, a spectacular place to stay if you are ever in BV. The PCV who used to live on BV had friends there, and we asked him to take us snorkeling in the bay. There is a small islet right off of the main town in BV, so close you can swim there (it's very shallow to get there as well) so he took us out, we snorkeled around and then swam to the island itself. A few hours later he picked us up, after exploring the old military fort and the beach. It was pretty awesome - we were literally stranded on a desert island for about 3 hours lol. Okay not stranded, but we had our camera so we didn't really want to swim back.

All in all our vacation was spectacular. We've decided we don't really want to go to any other islands anymore, we just want to revisit Sal and Boa Vista. They are just so totally different than either Santiago or Santo Antao. That's the beauty of Cape Verde. Don't forget all the pics are on our flickr page!

Introducing...GUS! Arrival March 31



Josh and I have been contemplating getting a dog for a while now. Back in January we found out that a street dog that has a great personality was pregnant up in Ribera das Patas, so we talked to the owner and asked if we could have one of the puppies. I met our new friend about a week after he was born and totally fell in love and named him Gus Gus, like the little mouse from Cinderella. They don't really have breeds of dogs here, so we call him a Cape Verdean Street Mutt or an "Island Mix" but he's wonderful and sweet and we love him to death! You can see pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616988115864/ He's getting to be a big boy now, almost 8lbs!!! He shouldn't get too much above 15...we hope!

Easter - April 11th and 12th

Cape Verde is a Catholic country, so holidays like Easter are a pretty big deal...or at least a pretty good excuse for a pretty big party. For this Easter we skipped the baskets and headed to the big party Saturday night in Ribera das Patas. It was really fun, tons of music, we're finally getting this Zuke dancing thing down, we saw tons of people we know and it made us realize just how integrated we're becoming. I'm sure there were some religious activities going on as well...but we didn't see them!

Site Visit from our new APCD - April 23 to 24

Our new APCD (the person in charge of the Small Enterprise Development Program) came to visit us at the end of April. This was a great opportunity for me to 1) show her the three project proposals I'd been working on, 2) explain the difficulty I'd been having with my counterpart and getting him to work with me, and 3) get a free meal (woohoo!). I'm very proud of my project ideas and it seems that my counterpart is interested, but he is also very busy and doesn't seem to be able to help me move forward with them. Ana Lisa tried to help me out but from what I understood of the conversation, he wasn't entirely truthful about the work he was doing with me. That's neither here nor there I suppose, but it still was nice to be able to talk about the issues.

Festa da Santa Cruz - May 1 to 3



This past weekend we went up to visit the girls in Cocouli for their town's saint day festival. I mentioned how Easter seemed to be a pretty good excuse for a party...so are saint days. The whole tiny town converted into bars, shops and discos and the parties went all night. We had a wonderful time with the volunteers from the North - got to see some folks we haven't seen in a bit, ate some great meat on a stick, had a few drinks and danced til the wee hours of the morning. Saturday we grilled out and watched the horse races from the roof of their house, which was awesome. Sunday was the church service - and the church is right outside their back door so we got to watch all the goings on from our pj's on the balcony. The best part was the auction after church for things like giant bushels of bananas and 10lb squash lol. The other great part was that Gus Gus came with us and everyone fell in love with him. He was super well behaved and it was good to see all our training efforts have paid off!



The General Stuff

In other news...I had two meetings with my counterpart post APCD visit - he bailed on both. We were supposed to go visit Morabi clients ever since I got back from vacation; that still hasn't happened. Tired of sitting around for...um...7 months!?!? I went to my "official" counterpart and asked if I could work with someone else in addition to my partner. I ended up in the division of Youth, Culture and Sports and had a meeting about setting up some youth programs in conjunction with the Youth Center in town. Today we were supposed to have a meeting...but the director was in S. Vicent so who knows when THAT will actually take place. At least things are moving along with the girls summer camp we are planning, and I at least have more of a variety of potential partners to work with. I'm also hoping to go and talk with OMCV, the womens group, about implementing some of the projects I designed. They also work with micro credit, so I think we could adapt the ideas to fit their needs as well possibly.

I'd mentioned back in the winter that I had been gaining weight and was big and fat. Well, I was...but since January I've lost 19lbs and am back to my "pre road trip" weight (you guys remember that's when this whole Giant Dove thing started). I'm feeling awesome and hoping to maybe lose a little more...we'll see! I'll have to post a new pic on here so you can see my sexy little butt. Now the only problem is the clothes that were getting tight are now getting too loose...never ends.


(Much smaller bariga)

I think that's all for now. Sorry for the long intermission, hopefully I'll be better in the future. Maybe now. We'll see :o)

Ti logu,
Dove

We're baaaaack

Hey everyone, Josh and I are back from IST (In Service Training) in Praia, which included a visit to our host families. After that, we spent 4 days on the island of Sal and 5 days on Boa Vista. I'm still pretty busy catching up from out long time away, but I wanted to get some pictures up for you to enjoy. The corosponding blog will be up soon!

In Service Training:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616182927874/

Sal - Salinas:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616094297091/
On our anniversary we went to the salt pans of Sal and spent time walking around and floating in the small salt lakes.

Sal - Buracona:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616197279392/
A really cool lagoon type pool and a hidden cave - very sweet.

Sal - The Other Side:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616118613743/
A look at the poverty on Sal

Sal - Santa Maria:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616208156606/
Hanging out with Jacky and Leah, enjoying 2 for 1 happy hour, awesome homemade gnoccis and tiramisu, pedicures, Irish pubs, pina coladas, and a beach to die for...what more could you want?

Boa Vista - Sal Rei:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616208582332/
The main town on the island of Boa Vista

Boa Vista - Guest House Orquidea:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616120653545/
Leland, a RPCV from Boa Vista, told us to stop in and see Gerry. He was a great guy and his bird was a riot! A BEAUTIFUL place to stay if you are ever visiting Boa Vista.

Boa Vista - Beaches:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616121014435/
Estoil, Chave, Gatas and Santa Monica Beaches, plus some shots of the old brick/tile factory on Chave Beach and the towns up near Gatas

Boa Vista - Kite Surfing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616210709320/
I snapped some great shots of a couple of guys kite surfing, one of the main past times on Boa Vista.

Boa Vista - Desert of Viana:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616211976198/
No desert island would be complete without, well, a desert!

Stay tuned for some actual updates on how COOL our vacation was, and how we may never come home again...

Workin' 9 to 5...

From all my postings, it may appear that Josh and I do nothing but go to festas, sunbathe and play with our guinea pigs. In the midst of all this, believe it or not, we do manage to fit in time to do “real” work too. Bird, you asked us what we were doing, and if we thought what we were doing was really making a difference, so I thought I’d post a little “work plan” update.

Although I initially came to Cape Verde to do Youth Development, the most important skill to have with Peace Corps is flexibility. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m working at the local government office and, more specifically, with the NGO Morabi. Morabi is a women's organization in Cape Verde that also provides micro credit to women (and men, if they have a woman to cosign on their loan) to start micro businesses. This can range from animal husbandry to agriculture, to making and selling baked goods and jams, to running a bar or small market. In Porto Novo, we have approximately 40 micro credit clients, most of whom are concentrated in the city.

My job is broken into several related parts. First, I work with existing micro credit clients and offer them "additional" services and trainings; for example, an introduction to marketing concepts or help with writing budgets and teaching smart accounting practices. This can also include making connections between businesses. For example in Cirio, we have a client who is a shoe maker. When I asked him how he sells his shoes, he said it was by word of mouth. He receives orders and then makes the shoes, and then when someone is heading down to the city, or to where the customer lives, they will deliver the shoe. Some ideas I am discussing with this customer is marketing – how do people find out about his product? Would it be possible to make sample shoes and display them in stores in the city? Would he be able to handle the additional orders if he were to receive them? What is his current work capacity? Other things to consider is depreciation of big ticket items – if he has 3 sewing machines, has he factored the cost to replace these when they break into his monthly budget, or does he have a separate “savings” to buy a new one when necessary? If not, this is something I can help him to understand and hopefully to plan for.

The second part of my job involves "recruiting" new micro credit clients. There are several challenges to micro credit in Cape Verde, and one of the main ones is lack of information. So my other task is to educate more people about the benefits of micro credit and micro enterprise. I’m currently designing information sessions to give to different communities about these things. Another challenge is lack of the “entrepreneurial spirit.” In America, we are saturated with the idea that opening our own business is a perfectly viable career choice; in Cape Verde, this can be a foreign concept. Part of my training sessions focus on the WHY’s of opening a small business, the HOW’s, and the WHAT’s, as in what sort of businesses are viable options in Cape Verde and how you can choose one that will work best for you.

The third part of my job is an extension of the second; once we hold information sessions to introduce people to the possibilities of entrepreneurship and micro credit, I want to run small business training courses. This “work plan” continues on to include a small business mentoring program, a summer business camp for girls and finally an after school business club, where girls from the business camp will partner with American youth (possibly through Junior Achievement) and open and run their own small business, using a micro loan from the American partner.

In addition to this, we are now starting work on planning Camp Crioula, a girls summer leadership camp that has been run on our island the past two years. This year we are looking to reach 40 girls, including 10 from the neighboring island. This will hopefully take place the last week in July.

So...yep, we do work around here, but things move slowly and the most important catalyst is language. This in particular is why my work has moved more slowly than others; not only did we move to the northern islands and have to learn a different “way” of speaking Kriolu, but I’m also in the business sector and in my work, if I can’t explain something or understand what someone is saying, it can have a real negative effect on someone else’s life. This is also the main reason that Josh and I want to stay here for an extra year; the later parts of my project, including the business camp and after school program, would be implemented next summer and school year (although there is a possibility of having a winter camp over the break).

I’m sure Josh can better explain what he is doing in his work, but in a nutshell, he’s working on several programming projects, including designing a database for storing tax information, one for helping to monitor water in our concelho, and working with me on a way to streamline the credit process for Morabi. We’re also looking at designing an island wide website with links to each concelho.

Now that we've talked about work, it's probably a good time to mention that we're leaving for training in Praia on Thursday, and then will be on VACATION visiting the islands of Sal and Boa Vista from the 21st to the 29th. Sorry, no blog updates during that period I'm afraid, but I know we'll have TONS of photos to post when we get back! The 23rd is our 2 year wedding anniversary (and Josh's mom's birthday - Happy Birthday!), and we thought what better way to celebrate than sitting on a beach doing NOTHING all day along!

Ti logu,

Dove

Carnivale!

Not even a week since we got back, and I've already got pictures! Wow!

So...not much to say specifically about Carnivale, except it was a TON of fun. Most of you know I went to school in New Orleans and so I've experienced a little bit of Fat Tuesday already. And some of you know how much I disliked Mardi Gras proper in New Orleans - too crowded too many tourists, too many people spilling beer on you etc. But the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras were awesome, just the locals celebrating their favorite holiday.

Carnivale in Cape Verde is like that, the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. The people that live here far out number the tourists, although quite a few Cape Verdeans who live abroad take this opportunity to come home and visit friends and family. We heard a bit more english than we are used to, but it wasn't overwhelming. Just like you'd expect there were dancers in the streets, music, drumming, and really awesome huge floats. But there weren't a zillion people, so you could move around, you could walk fairly easily to get some food or a drink, and people in general were pretty awesome.

We arrived late on Sunday, but in enough time to have dinner at this fabulous little Italian restaraunt - gnocci in 4 cheese sauce anyone? Plus sangria, which was delicious. Some folks made it out that night but me and Josh were zonked, so we made it an early night.

Monday was a blast - we dressed up in our Burner best and turned lots of heads (who wouldn't in a fluffy rainbow tutu?). Things were mostly happening at night, so we headed for schwarma and pizza and then to the praca to party. After the parades and dancing started to let up, we opted to hit a warehouse party out by the beach bar...and were we glad we did!! Many of you know how much Josh and I loved techno and electronic music at home, especially when we could dance our butts off til dawn, and since we've gotten here we haven't had much of an opportunity to do so (at the discos they mostly play zuke, which is repetative slow dancing and for me, not something I enjoy). So we coughed up the money, enjoyed the open bar (some of us more than others *cough* Josh *cough*) and danced til about 4am. The music was stellar, the vibe was awesome, I got down with a "naughty nun" (oh how I wish we'd had our camera) and it was just a great night over all. Then someone needed help getting home and good samaratin that I am, everyone arrived safely at their respective destinations.

Tuesday was the big day, and the parades started around 2. We were totally exhausted from the night before but made it in time. A big group of us from Santo Antao all dressed like cave people and had a fantastic time dancing in the streets (seriously, every time the drums started, we started dancing, and every time Josh started dancing, everyone stopped and watched us and joined in - it was really cool). The parades stopped around 6 or 7, and we headed home cause we were cold in our rags and loin cloths. We had planned on hitting the Hotel Mindelo for a later party, but instead we crashed. We needed it.

Wednesday was amazing. We hit the beach around 11 and spent the whole day getting fried there. The weather was awesome, there was a great breeze, the chicken at the beach bar was delicious...it completely felt like we were on vacation....that ended too soon :o(

The pics tell the story way better than I can, so without further adu...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157614760589554/

C took a bunch of video clips, so once I put all those together I'll get them on line. Enjoy!